In this extended video tutorial Avid Product Specialists Simon Sherbourne and Daniel Lovell give an update on audio post-production workflows, focusing on Pro Tools, EUCON, and present an overview of Pro Tools Sync X to provide a greater understanding of its new features and expansion from SYNC HD.

0:00 Opening Introductions from Simon Sherbourne and Daniel Lovell.

3:15 An introduction to the new Pro Tools Sync X. This is the successor to the Avid Sync HD unit. Within the Pro Tools infrastructure, there has always been a unit that provides connectivity to timecode, word clock, video reference etc, so that multiple Pro Tools systems can work together and Pro Tools can work with other machines and devices, including the hardware Dolby Atmos renderer.

5:20 Looking at a picture of the rear of the new Pro Tools Sync X, the first thing to see is a new feature, the 4 Video Reference Generator outputs on BNC. With the new Pro Tools Sync X, there is no need to rely on video reference from an external device. Sync X provides an onboard video reference generator with four outputs to distribute signals to other peripherals, cutting complexity and costs. If you already have an external video reference generator, Sync X can receive video reference too, with automatic format detection.

This has two benefits, for smaller facilities you no longer need a dedicated video reference generator unit. For those in larger faculties, it gives a degree of independence and can mean that you can work with a different reference than the one your normal ‘house syncs’ provides.

If you do want to work using ‘house syncs’ then there is a video reference input and two looped-through outputs, in case you need to feed that out to other equipment in the room.

When it comes to Word Clock, there is the traditional Word Clock input but new to the Pro Tools Sync X is a built-in Word Clock distribution amp with 6 buffered outputs.

There is still the traditional Pro Tools Loop Sync in and out, needed when you are using multiple interfaces on an HD rig and there is still the normal longitudinal timecode (LTC) I/O on XLRs.

New to the Pro Tools Sync X is support for AES3id I/O and a 10Mhz clock input, sometimes referred to as an atomic clock.

Then there are some more connections, that were on the old Sync HD, including GPIO, Bi-phase/Tach and AES 3. Then there is the MTC output and the conventional 9 pin Machine Control.

Finally, there is the host serial port that connects to the HDX card or HD Native card.

8:34 Turning to the front panel, although everything is controlled from within Pro Tools, the front panel does provide a nice clear display of the Sync X settings.

9:00 In the diagram above, you can see some of the typical use case examples including linking in a Dolby Atmos Hardware Renderer, a film projector, a MIDI workstation and a console with its own automation.

11:17 In this diagram, you can see a typical sound stage setup with 3 source Pro Tools systems, for dialog, effects and music all locked to a master record Pro Tools system with video playback, where it is essential to get frame-edge sync.

11:52 In this example, we see how a Sync X unit can be used in a Dante AoIP set up, in which Dante is providing the master clock and the Sync X is providing the necessary frame-edge sync.

13:30 What do we mean by Sync? It is usually made up of two things, a positional reference - ‘where are we?’, which is traditionally timecode and secondly, a clock reference, which is effectively answering ‘How fast are we going?’ - for example, once you start playback, is it normal speed or are we in fast forward mode?

16:08 When trying to sync up devices, the 3rd part of the puzzle, when video is involved, is where are the frame edges. Without this, from one playback pass to the next, although everything will be in sync, the exact position of the frame edge within a frame will be inconsistent and this is compounded when you have multiple machines, where on each playback, each of the machines could be in a slightly different place within a frame. The answer to this inconsistency is to use a video reference that tells all the devices in a system where the frame edges are. That way we lose that inconsistency and get reliable sync to frame edges every time.

23:47 New workflows for audio and video files import and exports. This mainly relates to macOS Catalina and Big Sur. The previous QuickTime based implementation still works as before if you are running macOS Mojave.

If you want to know the latest file type support then check out the Avid Knowledgebase article Pro Tools File Type Support on macOS Big Sur and Catalina.

With Big Sur support, nearly all the file types that were supported with the legacy QuickTime implementation are supported, with just a few exceptions.

For users running Catalina or Big Sur, Pro Tools now supports the importing of Apple AAC and ALAC m4a files. In addition, most of the common video formats you are likely to use these days like H264, DNxHD/HR and Apple ProRes are all supported.

Importing audio from supported video files should now be supported. Note that earlier versions of Pro Tools running on Cataline didn’t support the import of MXF OP1a audio files, commonly used on XD-Cam, but the current version does.

You can now export an audio-only MOV file and Avid has extended the range of audio channel types that can be added to a MOV file.

In the latest release of Pro Tools (2021.3), you should see an improvement in the speed when transcoding video files. However Avid is still working on improving the speed when the video codec is the ‘same as source’, ie when you changing something on the audio side.

29:09 How to import an MXF file. Avid recommends that when you are importing an MXF file, you do use the Video Import menu, rather than using drag-and-drop, because that should make sure that it captures all the audio files as well as the video file in the MXF wrapper.

31:15 New Bounce Window. With this new window, all the audio and video exports are in one place. You now have presets so that you can save regularly see export types and locations and talking of locations you can now store custom locations. Note that macOS Mojave users have access to the old QuickTime options and the new Bounce Window, whereas users running Catalina or Big Sur will only find the new Bounce Windows option in the Pro Tools File menu.

The options in the Bounce Window now include the following. BWF, ADM, AIFF, MP3, MXF OP-Atom and MOV.

37:28 Dolby Atmos Enhancements - There have been some improvements to the ADM File Export workflow.

• The default settings now include a choice of mono or stereo objects. In the I/O Setup window, Atmos Beds are now mapped for ADM Export.

• Beds, as well as objects, are now included in the fold-down path.

• The bed/object mix down now has an ‘always active’ option, if the connection is lost to the Dolby Atmos Renderer or the system that you open a session on doesn’t have access to a Dolby Renderer, whether software or hardware, Pro Tools can now do an approximation to how a fold-down mix would sound like if you were using a Dolby Atmos Renderer.

• Finally Avid has added the option to use a local cache option to speed up ADM exports to network-attached storage.

44:29 PEC/Direct Metering and workflow with the Avid S4 and S6 Control Surfaces - This long-requested feature, especially from long-form mixers, is unique to the Avid S4 and S6 control surface, as long as you also have the PEC/Direct module installed.

51:22 The new built-in virtual MIDI keyboard enables you to use a QWERTY keyboard to play MIDI notes etc. In this video, Daniel demos this to trigger audience applause tracks. This would also be great for Foley work when using a Foley virtual instrument, because as post users, we don’t always have a MIDI keyboard in our studio.

54:00 Q&A - THe rest of the video is Simon and Daniel answering questions from viewers of the live webinar.