Is PT8 backwords compatible?

[jimbojimbo]

Does anyone know yet if PT8 is backwards compatible?

So, if I saved a project with PT8, could I still open in with PT7?

[BradLyons]

With pretty much all software, you can't expect an older version to read the format of a newer version. However like nearly all software, there is a SAVE AS OLDER VERSION. So yes, it is backwards compatible. Obviously when you save to older versions, there will be things missing that the older version didn't support.

[lwilliam]

Originally Posted by jimbojimbo

Does anyone know yet if PT8 is backwards compatible?

So, if I saved a project with PT8, could I still open in with PT7?

I had an opportunity to try this myself since my PT8 stopped working (bad partition - whole other story) and I had to go back to PT7.4.2 until I re-install it.

7.4.2 opened the PT8 file but gave me an error message to the effect of "this file was created with a newer version of Protools and new features will not be available". Specifically what I lost was when I had used the comping feature in PT8 and had a final comped track. When I loaded the file in 7.4.2, the comped track was gone and only the first take was available.

I haven't tried the "save as older version". Maybe that would retain things like the comped tracks....

As Brad said, it's not common for an older version to be able to load a newer version's files. The fact that PT7.4.2 even recognized the file as a "newer" version was surprising to me.