Introduction to Pro Tools

The following article provides an outline for Pro Tools Version. Pro Tools is a workstation that supports both digital and audio segments, which was initially developed and released by Avid Technology for MacOS and Microsoft Windows. It is mostly used for production, music creation, mostly for editing and modifying the sound with the good video quality. Pro tools have the ability to act both as standalone software with a range of analog to digital converters and PCIes cards with onboard digital signal processing (DSP). DSP is used to provide some processing power to the host computer to give a real-time environment for any execution.

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List of Pro Tools Version

Pro Tools version has a drastic change from its initial release till date with a lot of feature addition, variations and many improvisations with every release:

1. 1983-1985

Evan Brooks developed this period of the start of pro tools, and he coined this period of initial start as Digidrum, who was having degree majorly in electrical engineering with one of his companion Peter Gotcher. With this, he invented 5 releases of chips with the name and label of digidrum.

2. 1985-1989

Once the first release of Apple was made for its first machintosh computer in 1984, the duo thought of making and designing solution with the advantage of a good graphical user interface. Both invented and developed E-Mu, a Mac-based visual sample editing system named as Digidesign Sound Designer.

3. 1989-1990

This software release version was known as Digidesign Sound tools and sound designer II Software, which consists of a combination of both hardware and software called Sound tools. It was at that time called as “first tapeless studio.” This file version was initially supported and became a standard for digital audio exchange until the WAV file format.

4. 1990-1994

This version of the software release was named as Deck, Pro Tools, Sound Tools II and Pro-tools II. It comprises a core engine with a user interface for the first iteration tools based on Deck and was released in 1990. The first pro tools system was released on June 5 1991, based on an adapted version of Deck and Digidesign’s new editing system. In the next versions, improvisation is the key element.

5. 1994

This version of software release was made in 1994 and is known as Pro Tools II TDM: 16 tracks and real-time plug-ins released and developed at time-division multiplexing technology that allows multiple digital audio streams between DSP cards and NuBus cards.

6. 1995-1997

This version of the software was released in 1995 and is known as Pro Tools III, which comprises of 48 tracks, DSP Farm cards and switch to PCI cards. With a change of architecture allowed have Intel-based variations.

7. 1997- 2002

This version of the software was released as Pro Tools | 24 in 1997 with digidesign introducing a new 24-bit interface and a new PCI card which was totally relying on Motorola 56301 processors offering increased processing power for 24 tracks with 24-bit audio. Pro-tools 5 saw two incremental software releases with extended MIDI functionality.

8. 2002-2011

The versions released in this time frame have undergone major changes and feature implementation with integration which is as follows:

Once the launch of the Mac OS X operating system in 2001 was made then at that time digidesign took a decision to make a substantial redesigning of Pro Tools software and hardware.
Pro Tools HD was launched in 2002, replacing the Pro tools | 24 system, which rely on a range of DSP cards with the incorporation of new interfaces running upto 192 KHz.
Two HD connections can now be linked together for increased Input/Output proprietary connection.
Both the HD core and processor cards present were mounted on nine Motorola 56361 chips running at 100 MHz, providing 25% more processing power to the system.
When Apple changed the slot architecture and expanded from MAC G5 to PCI Express, Digidesign launched a line of PCIe DSP cards that adopt both the new card slot format and change in the combination of chips.
HD Process cards were replaced by HD Accel, having 56321 chips running at 200 MHz.
Pro Tools also offer a solid and reliable substitute for recording and mixing audio, which became a standard in professional studios after a decade.
Other software also got enhancement when background task processing with real-time insertion of TDM plu-ins during the playback and deployment of audio on top of it.
ADC (Automatic plu-in Delay compensation ) was part of it, and then real-time insertion of TDM also taken with plugins during the playback and procession of audio and video.
In 2006 Pro tools 7 got invented with VCA and volume trim to get introduced with support for ten track insertion, MIDI editor and MIDI score.
The above-mentioned tools were released in Pro Tools 8, released in 2009.

Pro Tools | HDX (2011–Present)

In 2011 a series of Pro Tools 10 got released by Avid and got introduced with DSP PCIe cards named as HDX.
Each card with 18 DSP processors manufactured by Texas instruments.
It allows an increased computational precision with a dynamic performance range.
A new second line of PCIe cards called HD Native for providing low latency with a single FCGA but didn’t mount to DSP.
To maintain performance and consistency, HDX products were released and specified with a fixed number of voices.
Each HDX card enabled 256 simultaneous voices with some ranges on it with some standard version of Pro tools for manufacturing and processing.
Some good features as part of Pro tools 10 having a new plugin for both types of Native and HDX system called AAX (an acronym for avid audio extension).
AAX native replaced RTAS plug-ins and AAX DSP with a specific format for running on the HDX system.

Conclusion

Pro tools have really helped make audio and video streaming, editing, and modification easier. Each release has added feature, and enhancement with improvisation has helped Pro tools evolve till date. Pro tools with each version release have made one or the other software work prominently.

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