With Pro Tools 2022.4 Avid have shaken up their product lineup, adding value for everyone but particularly for aspiring producers and continuing their progression towards moving customers to a subscription model. We have all the details.

There are now three versions of Pro Tools:

Pro Tools Artist - aimed at the next generation of entry level or budget-conscious users who don’t need all the features of Pro Tools. A third of the cost of Pro Tools and far more capable than the discontinued, free Pro Tools First. Subscription only. $99/year, 9.99/month.

Pro Tools Studio - This replaces Pro Tools (as opposed to Pro Tools Ultimate). It doubles the Audio Track count of current Pro Tools, adds surround capabilities including Dolby Atmos support via the Dolby Atmos renderer and introduces new virtual instruments. $299/year

Pro Tools Flex - For Audio Post facilities and high end music studios, this option’s software remains Pro Tools Ultimate and is required for HDX/HD Native systems. Pro Tools Flex bundles Pro Tools Ultimate with additional content and third party products which will grow over time. Among the new features in this latest version of Ultimate is a raising of the native IO limit from 64 to 256 channels making it very interesting to Dolby Atmos mixers. $999/year

So the headlines are that new perpetual licences will not be available for sale after April 26th. Existing perpetual licences will, of course, continue to function and new perpetual licences which are already in the sales pipeline will continue to be available via dealers but new licences will not be entering that pipeline.

New Pro Tools Product Lineup

Pro Tools Artist

Pro Tools First was very much a walled garden and was limited to the point that it was frustrating to use. While not free, the pricing of Artist is accessible and we feel the value proposition is much improved, which is quite an achievement when comparing to a free product! The point is that with Pro Tools Artist you have enough to do real work.

This product is aimed at what Avid have referred to as Next Gen music creators, often young, usually inexperienced but who are serious about creating new music. With MIDI samples and loops being prominent in production and probably only needing a few mic inputs. In the past, users like this have often not considered Pro Tools as an option, seeing it as too expensive and complicated, less capable for MIDI use and lacking bundled plugins, virtual instruments and sounds. The track count of Pro Tools Artist is limited to 32 audio, 32 auxes, 32 instrument and 64 MIDI and the IO is limited to 16 inputs and outputs. Artist ships with over 100 bundled plugins and the restriction on use of third party plugins which existed in Pro Tools First doesn’t apply here, you can run third party AAX plugins.

The plugin bundle offers nearly everything current subscribers can access as the Complete Bundle, and it includes the two new virtual instruments which will be covered later. Most are familiar and have been part of the lineup for many years but there is a good mix of dynamics and EQ, filters and modulation and guitar stomps. It’s good to see Melodyne Essentials and Eleven II as well as Reverb One included in this bundle.

Unsurprisingly Pro Tools Artist is stereo only. It’s only available as a subscription product for $99 a year or $9.99 and month.

Pro Tools Studio

This middle tier product replaces the version which was known as Pro Tools, often referred to as Pro Tools Standard or Pro Tools Vanilla. It is Avid’s main music product and should meet the needs of non HDX users. This also is a subscription-only product for new customers and in several ways feels closer to Pro Tools Ultimate than the old Pro Tools Standard. The big feature upgrade is Surround and Atmos capability, previously only available in Ultimate. Considering the level of interest in Dolby Atmos for music this feels very appropriate as surround and Atmos are very much things which a music producer/mixer now has a need for.

Audio Track limits are doubled from 256 to 512, Automation capabilities are improved and Clip FX are now editable. The Complete plugin bundle is augmented by the two new Virtual Instruments. All holders of current perpetual Pro Tools licences will be automatically entitled to Pro Tools Studio software.

A one year subscription for Pro tools Studio is $299, A month to month subscription is $39.99, An annual subscription paid monthly is $31.99

Pro Tools Flex

Pro Tools Flex isn’t just the software, it is a bundle of products and additional content aimed at Post Production and large studios, facilities and institutions. The software element of Flex is Pro Tools Ultimate. This tier is required for users of HDX and HD systems, Carbon will run with Pro Tools Studio or Pro Tools Ultimate, and this is an area where the offer will accumulate features over time. The details aren’t available at the time of writing but they are expected to be features of particular interest to large studios and institutions as well as Post users.

As mentioned earlier, the native IO limit has been raised from 64 to 256 meaning that it is no longer necessary to use DigiLink hardware to access more than 64 IO. This will be particularly welcomed by people working in Dolby Atmos.

All holders of current perpetual Pro Tools Ultimate licences will be automatically entitled to new features in Pro Tools Ultimate software but not the additional content bundled with Flex.

Pro Tools Flex is $999 for a new one year subscription, $799 for a one year subscription renewal,  A month to month subscription is $99.99, slightly more than Ultimate which was $89.99.

Apple Silicon Compatibility

One feature many will have been anticipating which is conspicuously absent is native Apple Silicon compatibility. With the recent announcement of full Apple Silicon support for iLok there has been a flurry of plugin developers announcing compatibility, and with the other major DAWs having announced compatibility Pro Tools is conspicuous in not yet having native Apple Silicon support. Whether this matters depends very much on who you are but our thoughts are that Rosetta works so well that it’s less of a big deal than it might appear. If you look at the results we got in our tests with an M1 Max equipped Mac for both a music and a post session, the one thing which wasn’t in short supply was power. The power benefits of the current generation of M1 Macs, and for those affected by it the power gains introduced by the Hybrid Engine in Pro Tools mean that the necessity for Native M1 support is less urgent than it would have been without these developments. I’m sure there will be those who don’t agree but the amazing performance of Rosetta must change priorities when it comes to allocating the time of your development team.

On a less technical level, one of the most unexpected benefits of this release for me is that there is no longer a product know just as ‘Pro Tools’, meaning that its now possible to refer to the non-Ultimate version of Pro Tools as ‘Pro Tools Studio’ rather than ‘Standard’ or ‘non-Ultimate’ or ‘Vanilla’. That’s going to make lots of peoples lives simpler!

New Virtual Instruments

All the new versions of Pro Tools feature the two new virtual instruments, GrooveCell and SynthCell, a drum machine for use with custom samples and an analogue style subtractive synth respectively. Read more about these here.

New Features And Bundled Content

The news of the new tiers in the product lineup and the changes to the licensing in Pro Tools 2022.4 are likely to be the biggest news of this release but there are some very significant changes in Pro Tools in terms of its features and the bundle of content and software which comes with a subscription, including, for the first time, the ability to customise keystrokes. To find out more follow this link.

Costs and Customer Migration Options

With any change a big as those introduced in Pro Tools 2022.4 with new customers no longer having the option of buying a perpetual licence and the inevitable questions holders of Perpetual licences will have, here are the details on what this means for you.

We’ll have more content to follow on this big announcement so check back for more on 2022.4