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Avid Pro Tools 2020.11 Released With Dark Theme, Audio To MIDI And More

Mike Thornton

In addition to Pro Tools Carbon support in Pro Tools 2020.11, other new features include the introduction of Dark Theme, Audio To MIDI, Space Clips, a new Bounce Mix Window, Dolby Atmos ADM BWF Export in Pro Tools Ultimate and QuickTime Export and an increase of the number of Master Faders to 512. We have all the details…

New Features In Pro Tools 2020.11

Pro Tools Carbon Support

Avid has designed and created Pro Tools Carbon, to provide the smoothest recording experience all in one creative environment. With the Hybrid Engine, you can offload real-time AAX DSP plugin processing to Carbon at the touch of a button, while your CPU handles the rest of your mix. This means you can create effects chains for individual monitor mixes and hear yourself perfectly in time with the music, with near-zero latency, as you record.

For all the details on Pro Tools Carbon, check out our article Pro Tools Carbon - Everything You Need To Know.

Dark Theme New In Pro Tools 2020.11

Pro Tools 2020.11 brings a ‘Dark’ UI Theme, in addition to the previous lighter coloured look, which is now called ‘Classic’.

This means that you can now choose between light and darkness to suit your visual needs or preferences. With the new Dark theme, Avid say that “Pro Tools takes on a more dramatic, modern look and feel that’s easier on the eyes, especially in lower light conditions. It’s ideal for mood-lit studios and late-night sessions. Or for those simply looking for a sleek little change of scenery.”

The ‘Dark’ UI is now the default look for Pro Tools 2020.11, but if you prefer the old-style ‘Classic’ look then you can switch themes in the Display tab in Pro Tools Preferences. Note that there is no difference in Pro Tools functionality between the two available UI Themes. 

Audio to MIDI New In Pro Tools 2020.11

Wish you could re-pitch notes, play with the timing, or even change the instrument in an audio file in Pro Tools? With new Audio-to-MIDI capabilities introduced into Pro Tools 2020.11, you can. To achieve this, Avid has integrated Melodyne from Celemony into Pro Tools 2020.11.

Just drag and drop an audio clip to an instrument or MIDI track, and Pro Tools analyzes and renders all pitches and timing as MIDI note data, ready to be edited or revoiced.

You will be able to do this by dragging and dropping an audio clip onto a MIDI or Instrument track, using a new command in the Track menu, or using special clipboard commands in the audio track’s contextual (right-click) menu(s).

It not only works with melodic material, but you can also convert percussive and polyphonic recordings too, opening up more new ways to create.

Note that Melodyne must be installed and activated for this feature to work. 

Melodyne Essential 

To enable the new Audio to MIDI future to work, Pro Tools subscriptions and Software Updates + Support Plans will now come with Celemony Melodyne 5 Essential at no additional cost (worth $99), making it easier to fix bad notes, hold out good ones, tighten up grooves, or even rearrange the melody. With natural-sounding results. There will be an affordable path to more pro versions of Melodyne as your needs grow.

Are you a Pro Tools user, but new to Melodyne? Then this video will guide you through your first steps in Melodyne 5 essential that comes bundled with Pro Tools 2020.11.

With a variety of audio examples you’ll learn how to:

  • transfer parts of your audio tracks to Melodyne

  • work on multiple tracks in your session

  • use different algorithms for individual instruments

  • understand the basics of the Melodyne editing workflow

  • optimise individual notes

  • optimise multiple notes simultaneously with the intelligent Macros

  • create your custom key commands or use the prefab set mirroring typical Pro Tools commands

  • make use of the Melodyne chord track

  • use Audio-to-MIDI for polyphonic material (new in Pro Tools 2020.11, based on Melodyne ARA integration)

Space Clips

Space Clips is a new batch command that enables you to insert a user-specified amount of space between selected clips on the timeline. This allows you to quickly space out a large number of clips by a desired amount at any time scale.

You might be wondering why Avid included this feature. For video game sound designers, dialogue editors, and sound librarians who often import tens of thousands of audio files per project, Space Clips has been designed to eliminate the mind-numbing grind and time wasted spacing clips apart before getting to work. With a single command, you can separate multiple clips on a track at equal time intervals of your choosing, quickly and easily.

Bounce Mix Window New Options In Pro Tools 2020.11

With Pro Tools 2020.11, the original “Bounce to Disk” window has been replaced by a single “Bounce Mix” window.  with the Bounce Mix window, it is now possible to bounce audio or video file formats from a single window, accessed by a single key command. 

The new Bounce Mix window has been designed by Avid to be driven by presets.  You are able to use Presets to save and restore your chosen parameters in this window, including the mix sources and location options, saving you time configuring the Bounce settings every time you want to bounce a mix out.

The Bounce Mix window also offers custom location options, including the ability to bounce to a user-definable directory structure relative to the session file, as well as a static location.

 Avid also tell us that all of the above improvements have also been applied to the Track Bounce window.

Dolby Atmos ADM BWF Export (Pro Tools Ultimate Only)

‘Dolby Atmos ADM BWF’ has been added as a new exportable file format in the Bounce Mix window in Pro Tools 2020.11.  This has been designed to enable much quicker deliverable turnarounds with offline bounces directly from Pro Tools. 

It has been designed so that you can say goodbye to all the tedious time spent bouncing Dolby Atmos mixes to ADM (Audio Definition Model) files in real-time ready for delivery.

With Pro Tools 2020.11 Ultimate, you can directly export and import ADM files to and from Pro Tools in faster-than-real-time offline mode, so streamlining your workflow. All groups and their associated beds and objects in the mix are embedded in the file, making delivery easy. 

It’s now possible to generate new deliverables from a new project, with new metadata, or rework previous ADM files, passing along or changing the previous metadata. 

QuickTime Export (Public Beta)

Avid has released the next stage of video file support, following the loss of QuickTime in both macOS and Windows. With Pro Tools 2020.11, Avid is opening up the ability to bounce to MOV files, across all OS’s (Mac and Windows), without the need to install any additional components (like QuickTime). 

Avid stresses that not all intended functionality has been completed for the 2020.11 release, but they realise the importance of this workflow and so they are choosing to add the features incrementally, rather than wait until everything is in place.

In Pro Tools 2020.11, the new Bounce Mix window has a ‘MOV (Public Beta)’ option in the File Type menu.

 This allows you to bounce MOV files with the following options.

  • Transcode video to:

    • DNxHD

    • DNxHR

    • Apple ProRes

    • H.264 (VBR and CBR)

  • Include the following audio formats

    • PCM uncompressed audio.

    • 7.1, 5.1, Stereo, and Mono channel widths

    • Multiple audio stems

It is intended that more features will be added to this bounce method in the future, but in the meantime, the previous Bounce to QuickTime functionality is still available on macOS Mojave (and below), as well as on Windows with QuickTime installed.

In this video, Avid Audio Solutions Specialist Daniel Lovell reviews the improvements for video and audio file support in Pro Tools 2020…

QuickTime and MXF OP-1a Import

In Pro Tools 2020.11, it is now possible to import audio from the following files, across all OS’s, without the need to install any additional components.  This adds new support for macOS Catalina and beyond, and it removes the QuickTime installation dependency on Windows for import.

The following audio file types and codecs can now be imported on all supported OS’s, in addition to the existing file support.  All imported audio will be converted to the current chosen session audio format.

  • .m4a/.m4v/.aac

    • AAC audio

  • .mov/.mp4

    • PCM (uncompressed)

    • AAC audio

  • .mxf

    • OP-1a  (audio  from a combined audio/video MXF)

    • PCM (uncompressed)  audio

Master Fader Increase (Pro Tools Ultimate Only)

Pro Tools 2020.11 Ultimate can now create 512 Master Fader Tracks.  This is useful in situations where it is important to have plug-in processing at the end of the output stage for each output.   Now it is possible to insert limiters when mixing in Dolby Atmos, for each object and bed, just before the signal reaches the final output.

AAF Mute

Static track mute settings can now be received in an AAF from Avid Media Composer 2020.9 (and later).  Pro Tools can also export static mute settings with an AAF.  Media Composer 2020.9 (and later) can import this mute information.

Performance Improvements

  • Offline bounce speed has been improved.

  • Optimisation at low buffer sizes:

    • A new setting has been added to the Playback Engine called, “Optimize Performance at Low Buffer Sizes”. This setting applies to the two lowest buffer sizes available.

    • In some cases, this optimization will conflict with certain plug-ins and cause a CPU error. If that occurs, Pro Tools will post a dialog with the suggestion to disable this optimisation.

What Do Think About Pro Tools 2020.11?

Will these new features help you work smarter and faster? If not what features are you looking for to help you do what you do smarter and quicker? Do tell in the comments below…

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