UPDATE: Development Partners and Pro Tools|HD

[Ask the Developer Guy]

To Those Interested in Third Party Products that work with Pro Tools|HD:

My name is Ed Gray and I'm the Director of Partnering Programs for Digidesign. Along with a team of engineering and marketing employees, I work to help developers to transition along with Digidesign as we deliver Pro Tools and other products on new platforms. I have just read what I believe are all of the DUC threads on this subject, and on behalf of Digidesign, I want to apologize for your obvious - and serious - confusion. If you read no further, just know that many new Plug-Ins and other compatible software have now been fully developed, demonstrated and announced for Pro Tools|HD and we are doing everything possible to cause third parties to make them available for you to purchase - fast. I also need to let you know - emphatically - that not all of the postings on these threads are accurate, and that our Development Partners will have their products available for you on Pro Tools|HD sooner than the totality of these comments suggests!

In our NAMM press releases and in the information that we've provided to dealers, we focused on what products would be demonstrated at the NAMM show concurrent with our introduction of Pro Tools|HD and planned for release quickly thereafter. Many products were demonstrated at NAMM on Pro Tools|HD including Plug-Ins from Waves, Bomb Factory, McDSP, DUY, Massenburg Design Works, Access Music, Sony, Sound Fuel, Focusrite, Line 6, Wave Mechanics, Native Instruments, IK Multimedia and others. Some companies were not with us at NAMM but will be delivering HD-compatible Plug-Ins soon as well. The fact that so many Development Partners showed these new products - with many more in the works - is significant. Remember, the new chip on each HD core card and HD "farm" (now called HD|Process) has a completely different architecture, and the Plug-Ins that were compatible with Pro Tools|24 MIX systems WILL NOT WORK with Pro Tools|HD. Development Partners worked with us on the challenging engineering project of getting their products working on a new hardware system. We believe that these companies are incented, as we are, to make their Plug-Ins available for Pro Tools|HD users as soon as possible, so that customers will consider their products as they pick and choose processors for their new Pro Tools systems.

The "Plug-In Finder" document on the web that shows which Plug-Ins are compatible with Pro Tools|HD was inaccurate and it has now been corrected. We will update it day-to-day as we continue to ask our Development Partners for accurate information on their manufacturing and marketing plans. You can read this document by going to the Pro Tools|HD Plug-In Finder located in the Products section of the Digidesign website. A list of current plug-in compatibility is also available at www.DigiDevelopers.com

So for now, let me apologize for the confusion this has caused many of you, and promise you that, on behalf of Digidesign, a complete Development Partners Platform is close to fruition. I also promise that we will do our best to speed this process along and give you the information as we get it. In the meantime, please feel free to e-mail me ([email protected]) or call me (650) 731-6490 if you have any questions - and I will continue to monitor this subject on the User Conference to look out for your questions.

Thanks,

Ed Gray