Los Angeles, Calif. — AES: Meet the new Pro Tools® 8 — the most advanced audio creation and production software, featuring a gorgeous new interface; dozens of new plug-ins; five new virtual instruments; exciting new scoring, MIDI, editing, and mixing capabilities; deeper controller integration; improved ease of installation and use; and enhanced performance. With Pro Tools 8, you get the most comprehensive music and sound creation features and functionality, and the proven, dedicated platform for world-class audio production — all in a single application. Pro Tools 8 is coming soon for Pro Tools|HD®, Pro Tools LE®, and Pro Tools M-Poweredâ„¢ systems, so get ready — you'll never work with audio the same way again.

“Pro Tools 8 benefits from the valuable feedback we received from our dedicated Pro Tools creative community, along with Avid's passion for creating great audio and video tools that move technology forward,” explains Dave Lebolt, Avid senior vice president and chief technology officer. “Our customers provide a comprehensive real-world knowledge base that we draw upon for inspiration and guidance. It's a synergy of size and scope unique to Pro Tools in the world of audio. We are very excited to deliver the latest results of this partnership back to our customers in the form of Pro Tools 8.”

At first glance, the most noticeable new feature in Pro Tools 8 is its striking user interface, which has been stylishly enhanced with a more modern color palette, as well as higher-contrast text and graphics. This redesigned user interface frames a dramatically expanded set of creative tools and a host of features for music creators, editors, mixers, and post production professionals. All the key Pro Tools functions that users rely on are still right where they should be, but enhancements, such as dockable Editor windows and a configurable Edit window toolbar, make it easier to navigate than ever before.

For composers and musicians, Pro Tools 8 provides powerful functionality for streamlining the creative process, as well as a robust bundle of over 70 plug-ins and virtual instruments, which deliver the most versatile sonic palette ever available out-of-the-box for Pro Tools. New music creation features include:

Fully integrated, dockable MIDI and Score Editor windows for greatly enhanced MIDI editing functionality and professional score editing and printing

A sizable collection of music creation and sound-processing plug-ins, including 20 all-new AIR effects and five new virtual instruments—Mini Grand piano, Boom drum machine, DB-33 tonewheel organ, Vacuum tube-modeled synthesizer, and Xpand!2™ sample player

High-quality amplifiers simulation thanks to Digidesign's acclaimed new guitar amp emulator Eleven™ Free as well as Tech21 SansAmp® amplifier emulator by Bomb Factory®

A large bundle of high-quality loops

For music and post production professionals, Pro Tools 8 offers:

Revolutionary new Elastic Pitch makes it easy to transpose music in real time right in the Edit window

10 inserts per channel

Enhanced controller integration with Digidesign® and M-Audio® control surfaces

ICON integration enhancements that dramatically increase speed and efficiency

HD QuickTime support on Mac OS X for dramatically increased versatility

Pro Tools|HD 8 enhances the extensive capabilities of Digidesign's flagship Pro Tools|HD audio hardware, with support for the new Satellite Link option, which allows users to control up to five Pro Tools|HD systems as one. For the ultimate in post production efficiency, the Media Composer®-based Video Satellite option brings Avid® HD/SD video playback into the Pro Tools|HD audio workflow, while the Video Satellite LE option brings QuickTime HD/SD or Avid SD video playback into the Pro Tools|HD audio workflow, all without sacrificing audio track counts or processing power.

For project studio owners, Pro Tools LE 8 and Pro Tools M-Powered 8 have been expanded to support up to 48 simultaneous audio tracks. Adding the new Music Production Toolkit 2 or DV Toolkitâ„¢ 2 (Pro Tools LE only), gives users access to up to 64 audio tracks. And for serious Pro Tools LE users, the new Complete Production Toolkit (Pro Tools LE only) combines the content of both toolkits above, and offers up to 128 simultaneous audio tracks AND 7.1 surround mixing.

Pro Tools 8 software is expected to be available in late 2008 for Windows Vista- (32-bit Business or Ultimate), Windows XP-, and Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)-based Pro Tools|HD, Pro Tools LE, and Pro Tools M-Powered systems.

More Great New Features
Pro Tools 8 is chock full of many other amazing new features that'll help you become more efficient, inspire your creativity, and provide more flexibility for your workflow needs.

Here's what you can experience when Pro Tools 8 hits the streets:

– Check for Updates feature keeps Pro Tools and your plug-ins up to date
– Windows Vista (32-bit Business or Ultimate) support on Pro Tools|HD
– QuickTime HD support on Mac OS X-based systems
– Enhanced session open and close times on Pro Tools|HD
– Supports files up to 4 GB in size, letting you work with longer files with higher sample rates.

[tags]Digidesign Pro Tools 8[/tags]