Dan W's Experience Using Pro Tools 12.1

Dan Wincott has a Pro Tools 12.1 system running on Mac running OS X 10.10.4, Installation went without issue and was seamless.

The App consists of two screens, the Mixer and Tracks. The Mixer includes as you would expect; fader, meters, pan, mute, solo, input monitoring. record arm and automation selection. The Tracks window is an overview of the tracks in the entire session.

On the bottom of the screen there are 'Soft Keys' that offer a lot of the most used commands in Pro Tools literally "at the touch of a button", however they are quite small and fiddly to use. It may have been a better use of the app to make the Tracks Window a matrix of the soft keys on squares as big as those that the track currently represent.

Finally with the Soft Keys hidden there are the basic Transport Control so that you can run Pro Tools from the iPad App.

In a one screen set-up the app allows for the user to have the Edit Screen on their primary monitor and use the Pro Tools Control app for control of the mixer section. The faders have a nice fluidity to them, not always an easy thing to do on touch screen applications.

Areas Dan feels needed improving are:

• The meter ballistics seem to be out with what Pro Tools is showing on screen.
• Add sends, not having them is a miss.
• He feels the Tracks screen is a waste as it doesn't seem to offer anything that can't be done on the main screen and would have been better used to make bigger Soft Keys.

Overall his experience was very positive, in his words "I'm sat on my sofa mixing, it's free so who can complain?"

He also felt it was a step in the right direction and well worth trying.

Summary

A great little app for those using Pro Tools 12, it's free and seems to do what it says on the tin. If Avid commit to further updates based on user feedback, especially the use of what is currently the Tracks Window, then it could become a very useful part of the Pro Tools workflow.

Alan's Experience Using Pro Tools 11 (Unsupported)

Imagine my delight this morning when I found out that Avid have finally released the Pro Tools | Control iPad app!

So, I hurriedly installed it. Avid have moved the Eucon download to the “My Products” page in your Avid account, meaning that when you first install the app, you have to give your Avid account details, then go there to download it.

Installation

It seems that you only need a Eucon compatible DAW to run this, though you will need an Avid account, even if you don’t own any Avid software.

I’ve installed Eucon 3.3 on my Windows Pro Tools 11.3.1 HD system.

Installation was seamless.

However, when I tried to add the app to my Artist Control, I got the window shown above. Which is a bit of a shame. It’s understandable though, as the soft keys section looks like a direct port from the Artist Control touch screen.

However the rest is very smooth.

Pro Tools Control - The App

The app has two main pages – “Mixer” and “Tracks”

All good and clear so far. You can easily flick between the pages, and if you religiously colour code your tracks, navigation will be easy using the multi-coloured strip at the top.

First niggle though. The automation modes at the top of the faders are not labelled with the Pro Tools convention. It toggles between “Read” and “Read/Write”. Subsequent presses of this button toggle Pro Tools through the auto modes, but this is not fed back to the app.

The “Faders” are nicely responsive, though a tad on the small side for my liking.

Second niggle. Because iPads don’t multi-task with third party software, if you pop out of the app, to change setttings or check email etc, the “surface” drops off the Eucon list. I also accidentally double clicked on the iPad in Eucon, and Eucon started complaining about “Too many iPads”, and then wouldn’t see my single iPad any more. I had to reboot my iPad to get it back.

This affects all third party iPad apps, including Neyrinck, so isn’t very surprising, knowing how much Apple love Avid.

Third niggle. Surround panning doesn’t work. The panners on a channel routed to a 5.1 bus will only pan across the front, not front rear, or divergence. Maybe I’m missing something? I also can’t seem to get any plug-in control.

But now we come to the Fourth, and biggest niggle.

METERING IS BROKEN. Not just in the app, but on my Artist Control as well. Seems Eucon 3.3 is not sending metering info out to surfaces from PT11.3.1.

This is a total show stopper.

Are These Issues In All Versions Of Pro Tools?

I am wondering if all my niggles are down to the app being optimised for Pro Tools 12. I don’t have 12 yet so can’t test it. Maybe this will get fixed with the release of 11.3.2, which they accidentally announced a little while back.

However, if various features are 12 only, this is a real shame. It also marks in my opinion the “Avidification” of Eucon, as now you need an Avid account to download it, and the app itself is called the “Pro Tools Control” app, and clearly says it requires 12.1 or above.

I’m now off to uninstall 3.3 and put 3.2.2 back, so I can regain full functionality of my Artist Control.

If you’re trying this with anything but 12.1, good luck!