Protools 7 Features WishList

[hurdy gurdy]

Alrighty then, I'll confess,
I don't use many of the features in Pro Tools because I consider myself a musician first and then an engineer or technician second. I could do (and do) much of my work without utilizing all the functions currently availabe in Pro Tools. It's great to have the available functions though, when they are needed (or if they ever are needed). Have to think that if Digidesign did implement EVERY request that the code would get so bloated....Ah, heck those new G5's (and process cards) are gonna handle it though- are they not?
The other day I wrecked the home-made chicken soup 'cause I just threw too many ingredients and spices in it.
However, being a musician first- and "back in the day" in college with intructors (and teaching myself from time to time) always shoving notation down our throats- I'll stick by my request for scoring cababilities seeing it is music's written word- but I'm in no hurry- I'd rather have it done right if it's going to happen- and I'm not losing any money or sleep over it...hell I'll just pull out that invention called the ball point pen and some manuscript paper...so I guess it is a lot of wants instead of needs -but I have to hand it to some people, they have some great and needed requests.
LB.
"The composer is dead, therefore he is de-composing".

[davip]

Independent MIDI note editors. Piano roll at least.

PT already has this.

[Vaphoron]

Coming with the TrackPunch features. The "input" button effectively puts an individual track into "input only" mode, but it also works when a track is NOT record enabled as well.


Danny Caccavo
Product Manager
Digidesign

So Danny, any idea when the Trackpunch is going to make it into PT and what version it is going to be? This was announced when Accel came out and it was then slated for a first quarter 2004 release if I remember correctly. March is almost here and I am upgrading to Accel and I would love to see this feature very soon.

[jimlongo]

Then the answer is, the one terrribly broken thing that would seriously make one reconsider a ProTools purchase is the softsynth/sampler RTAS boondogle. Cause it is a step backwards.

Everything else is just personal requests for more icing.

imo of course.

[Venn]

-A "Process" button on all rtas plugins. That writes the effect to disk without needig to open the corresponding audiosuite plugin. A great timesaver

-A dedicated "Process" button on every audio track, that would write the whole string of plugins on its track. An even greater timesaver.

-This should be logged in the "track log/history" also accesible from the mixer.

-Last but not least: "track undo" button for each track. Along with "track log" this would make the perfect "undo manager" and make audiosuite more flexible and editing even less destructive.

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Venn

[roberts]

-A "Process" button on all rtas plugins. That writes the effect to disk without needig to open the corresponding audiosuite plugin. A great timesaver

-A dedicated "Process" button on every audio track, that would write the whole string of plugins on its track. An even greater timesaver.

-This should be logged in the "track log/history" also accesible from the mixer.

-Last but not least: "track undo" button for each track. Along with "track log" this would make the perfect "undo manager" and make audiosuite more flexible and editing even less destructive.

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Venn

Because of DAE design I think a real time bounce would be the only way for Protools to "Freeze a Track" like Logic does.
It's easy to bounce down the DSP on a track in Protools not a slick as Logic but it can be done.
You can have as many playlists as you want on a track so it's easy to edit on a track and go back to a different version or track playlist. AS Plug-ins can be done non destructive - again just use the playlist or use track duplicate / inactive / hide

[TLarvenz]

A couple of things on my list (aside from the normal ADC, improved MIDI - maybe a nice patchname utility and some basic notation printing, etc):

1. A volume playlist, meaning you could have different versions of the same mix in the same session.
2. A volume undo list.
3. Drag and drop files into region list.
4. Group regions.
5. Better tempo management.
6. Allow Click to click on various beats ( quarter note, eighths, half, etc.)
7. Force DSP resource reallocation (for when you can see you've got enough resources scattered among different chips, and it just won't reallocate)
8. A nice button to toggle between RTAS and TDM on a plug-in.
9. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, Latch the effin talkback button on the Control24

[El Goodo]

First, my two biggest requests are on the way - ADC and Input Mode on audio tracks. I'm as giddy as a schoolgirl...

-Multiple user preferences. I would like menu commands for Load, Save prefs that can be named and imported/exported.
-Multiple automation playlists.
-Faster than realtime BTD preference for people not using hardware inserts. Or better yet, a checkbox in the BTD dialog box.
-8 ch Expansion packs for Command 8. If I can't get all my drums on faders at the same time, I probably won't bother with a control surface. (I could live with a 16 or 24 ch limit so as not to compete with Icon).

[Chief Technician]

My wish list for Pro Tools 7 is.

1.Conforming built into Pro Tools. Conforming from tape sources, (Post Conform functionality) and conforming from disk (Linking a ProTools session to a Reel# in an EDL).

This is coming with MediaStationV10 software, included with AVOption|V10. Hopefully you can buy the software seperately from AVOption. I'd like to see it built in as well, but I doubt they will do that since they've made it a standalone app already.

5. Error Trapping - If ProTools crashes, some useful information as to why. Was it a file? (file name please), a corrupt playlist (what is the track name so I can import everything BUT that track into a new session).

That's what CrashReporter is for. If you know who to contact, Digi will look at your CrashLog. What would be sweet though is if Digi had a CrashReporting app, similar to what you get in Panther when Safari unexpectedly quits - "Do you want to submit a problem report to Apple?". Fill in some details, click submit, and its on its way. If Digi could do the same thing, that would be great. I think the software would only be more stable as a result.

In response to Froyo, I use this to make $, and these are not deal breakers. They are simply suggestions to make Pro Tools better.

[Howardk]

1> Get all the audio intregration sorted out with 3rd party vendors (SoftSamplers)
2> Better Midi event and multi-parameter viewing and editing (midi parameter selection show additional tracks below midi track. Can easily be expanded or retracted i.e. view / edit notes, volume & sustain pedal on piano at the same time) .
3> Same with Audio Automation - View and edit multiple parameters at the same time (ie. show automation of volume, and2 Aux send volumes at a glance or whatever) with ability to retract to just the one parameter like now, wih the click or an expand/retract parameteres button.
4> Drag and Drop copy / move of Aux Sends, just like the Plugins.
5> Add Consolidate Regions option to Auto-x-fade on region seems (Same with Audio Suite PIs that span more than one region)
6> More PI Insert Points (at least 8)
7> Autoload 3rd party applications and settings for things like softsamplers (so the session wakes it all up) which will give me time to make coffee and move mics around without having to man the system while calling up the next session.
8> Single track mixer popup window
9> Batch Processing functionality to automate time intensive real-time tasks so we can walk away for hours will it churns away (ie. bounce to Disk of a bunch of sessions or Save Session Copy to many sessions to breakdown Live recordings) .