AudioSuite processing is a powerful feature that allows you to render effects and processing offline, It was developed at a time when real-time processing was limited because of TDM DSP resources, or to help underpowered Native systems cope with the demands being placed on them. Times and computers may have changed but Pro Tools AudioSuite has stayed true to form. Is it time for a change and if so, what would we change? Our Expert panel suggests features they would like to see.

Though a legacy feature, AudioSuite has seen improvements over the years; notably in Pro Tools 10 when the ability to open multiple AudioSuite windows simultaneously was added. The Target button allows Shift-clicking from the AudioSuite Menu but beyond that AudioSuite functionality, is much as it has always been.

What Changed In Pro Tools 10?

Yes,  Pro Tools 10 brought with it the ability to open multiple AudioSuite windows. Leaving untargeted AudioSuite plugins open can be a real time saver. For example, leaving the RX De-plosive plugin open, but untargeted, while editing dialogue and still being able to open other AudioSuite plugins as you need them is really very handy.

Prior to Pro Tools 10, there was no way to add handles to the AudioSuite processing. Handles are vital to editing, as they allow for the extension of clips both at the beginning and the end. Before PT10,  the plugin was applied to the edit selection only. This could cause  “invalid fades” warnings when crossfading. Having user-definable handles deals with this.

Chains using multiple AudioSuite plugins in a single operation isn’t supported. However, with the introduction of Window Configurations, multiple AudioSuite plugins can be recalled in a single operation. If you open multiple AudioSuite plugins and create a new Window Configuration then the settings of the AudioSuite plugins will be saved as well as the window layout.

Clip Effects

One of the most useful aspects of AudioSuite is that it is a useful alternative to automating an AAX plugin for spot effects - processing which only needs to be applied to a single clip on a track. The introduction of Clip Effects in Pro Tools 12.6 represented a useful middle ground between real-time AAX plugins and file-based, rendered AudioSuite. Unfortunately, at present, it is a Pro Tools Ultimate only feature (though standard Pro Tools can read clip effects, but not create or edit them) and the only effects available are the Avid Channel Strip, and as there are no meters available, the dynamics section is inconvenient to use.

What Changes Would We Like To See Made To AudioSuite? Our Expert Panel Share Their Thoughts

Our jobs are all about editorial decisions. A nip here, a tuck there; everything organized and making sense. My feeling is this same level of tailoring might well be applied to the Audiosuite list. Here’s my idea:

I think there should be a show/hide button at the bottom of the pull-down list that engages a bunch of checkmarks next to the manufacturers, categories and the individual plugins so we can manually show/hide what we don’t want to see.

The same sort of logic as applies to bussing could work here. Holding CONTROL down, I could engage or disengage checkmarks through an entire category or manufacturer. There are simply things that ship with Pro Tools or that come with software bundles that I do not use. Clearing them from my sight-- whilst retaining the privilege of recalling them if needed, would make AudioSuite navigation much more simple and speedy. Add to this a couple of user scripts like these and we’ve got ourselves a dynamic, rather than manual, process.

1. Hide all plugins that haven’t been used for x months.

2. Hide all unlicenced plugins from x manufacturer.

Allowing me to streamline my workflow in this way would bring AudioSuite up-to-date and make the whole user experience that much more friendly.

It would be great if Avid finished the work started on Clip Effects so it’s not just limited to an implementation of the Avid Channel Strip. Being able to use any AAX plug-in on a specific clip, in real-time, with an optional function similar to Track Freeze would be great. This would easily supersede the need for AudioSuite in almost all workflows. Being able to see the waveform before or after the processing would be great too.

Given Clip Effects is a feature already available in Media Composer, it would be nice if Avid could bring their biggest products more in line with each other.

There are so many things that feel very 1990s about AudioSuite. That said, AudioSuite is very useful to me & I use it on a daily basis.

My biggest wish: a separate undo history for AudioSuite, much like RX has a process history. Then you can move backwards and forwards in the history to see where you really screwed things up, If this isn’t possible, every AudioSuite plugin should have a checkbox “apply to copy” that would automatically duplicate the playlist and then apply the AudioSuite process to the duplicate, giving you an easy way to audition the results against the original.

I would also like the ability to string together a set of AudioSuite plugins as a “process group” and apply them all at once.

Alternatively, Clip Effects should turn into a plugin host - add any plugin you want & apply it clip by clip. Re-order at will and never have to write it to disk until you bounce. This is sort of a bridge between regular plugin hosting & AudioSuite. I would even be okay if this only worked with Avid plugins...as long as it applied to their "Pro" plugs too.

Would be fantastic to have user-generated drop-down folder lists of AudioSuite plugins. That way you could generate subfolders of eq, dynamics, sound design etc. And those folders themselves could have their own subfolders. Also a whole subfolder section of "never used", which could also be hidden or greyed out so I don't see the millions of plug inside I simply never use.

I wish the plugins would default to "create individual files" I've lost count of the number of times I've used AudioSuite on multiple clips only for it to generate 1 massive file. Grrrrr.

Make processed clips a particular colour. That way you could see at a glance which clips you've already affected.

When hovering over a processed clip, have a drop-down menu appear with a list of what you've done to it, in the order you did it. 

Soundflow has a search AudioSuite feature. It’s overdue for Pro Tools itself.

I'd like it if (on Windows) they'd implement dark mode properly so when you go to your AudioSuite menu (or any top menu) you're not blinded. I'd also love user-editable categories/columns for both AudioSuite and real-time plugins.

I think that Clip Effects has the potential to replace AudioSuite but we really need to see the functionality greatly extended to cover all plug-ins, not just the Avid Channel Strip. Most effects could easily be applied in real-time now but there is still one thing, which I find useful about AudioSuite: The fact that the audio waveform updates when the audio file is rendered. Currently, with any real-time, non-rendered plug-in, the waveform does not adjust to reflect the processing applied. For certain tasks, such as high pass filtering of very excessive low-frequency content on dialogue, I still use Audiosuite purely because of the cleaned-up waveform once the effect has been applied. So I’d like to see Clip Effects extended to include a much wider selection of plug-ins and also the option to have the waveform update to reflect the effect of the real-time processing.

Conclusion

Looking at the themes, which emerge from our panel’s contributions, the clear top request is a way to organise the AudIoSuite list. While this doesn’t exist it is possible to promote specific AudioSuite plugins to the top of the list by Command-clicking on the desired AudioSuite plugin. Use Control on a PC.

While it is possible to remove plugins by either deleting or moving them from the plugins folder to the Unused folder, the AudioSuite and real-time AAX plugins aren’t accessible separately in the plugins folder, there is no separate AudioSuite folder, and as a result, you can remove a plugin altogether but you can’t remove just the AudioSuite version.

This is the only concession to convenience when it comes to quick access in AudioSuite so search or user-defined folders and the like aren’t possible at present.

The suggestion for colour coding to represent processed clips isn’t available automatically, of course, you can manually colour clips any colour you want by opening the colour palette and Pro Tools does append clip names with a truncated version of the plugin name (for example SnareEQ37B_01-01) but this isn’t quite the same thing.

The suggestion of recallable chains is partly met by the workaround using Window Configurations to store and recall multiple AudioSuite settings.

The observation that rendering a process to the clip using AudioSuite is the only way to give a visual representation of the waveform post-processing beyond gain changes using clip gain (which can be confused by the use of waveform zoom) is an interesting one that invites comparison with the way the changes made by Real-Time MIDI Properties can either be represented in the clip or not depending on the preference setting Display Events As Modified By Real-time MIDI Properties.

Clip Effects do represent something of a halfway house between real-time AAX processing and file-based AudioSuite. Further development of Clip Effects has been notably absent since their introduction and we would hope that future development would be more likely in this area. The ability to host any plugin in a user-definable Clip Effects chain would be a great thing. Considering the impact Clip Gain had on workflows when it was introduced a fully implemented system of clip effects could be extremely useful.

It is our suspicion that the use of AudioSuite is more common among the post community than it is in music production. Considering the ubiquity of iZotope RX in the post community and the fact that until ARA type workflow comes to Pro Tools the de facto way for getting audio from Pro Tools, to RX and back again is using the AudioSuite RX Connect plugin we speculate that if ARA were to come to Pro Tools and allow the use of RX without AudioSuite, this would result in a significant decline in AudioSuite use almost overnight.

Do you use AudioSuite? If so what do you use it for and what if any changes would improve your workflow the most?