Review of Pro Tools 12

            With such a digital revolution happening now in music, manufacturers are creating products that are affordable, easy to use, and yield great results quickly and efficiently. Companies are creating audio interfaces that are small, efficient, good quality, and the ability to carry to different locations for recording. This makes collaborating and writing music very easy because one can record ideas or even full recordings during the time of the writing process. Bands are working in this way because instead of waiting to go to the studio, they record ideas and build on them to create the final song.

            In the recording and producing world in recording studios, AVID has created something very similar in their industry standard software, Pro Tools. Pro Tools 12 is very different from previous versions. Although it looks and operates the same as previous versions, it has one key feature that makes writing and collaborating very easy. Pro Tools 12 has a feature that allows engineers to send Pro Tools files to other engineers and work on a session. For example, if a producer is composing a song in a New Jersey studio and his partner is in California, the engineer can record, and write parts in the session, and send the working file to his partner in California to continue collaborating.

            Many people reading this will question that this feature was available by simply sending the Pro Tools file and then opening it. Though this is the same, Pro Tools 12 makes it easier because it operated like the Cloud where you don’t have to keep sending and resending through dropbox or email. One other point to the new Pro Tools 12 is that you pay for this upgrade with a monthly subscription instead of the regular sell price of $699 for the full version, or $399 to upgrade from a later version. This also makes it very affordable to people who could not previously own Pro Tools systems.

            We are experiencing the age of the digital revolution to the point of now engineers can create songs together while being in different states! As a producer, and engineer, being able to collaborate with other musicians is a crucial part of my work, but now being able to collaborate from my studio to theirs, is invaluable to the growth and success of the industry.