2023 was a significant year for Pro Tools. While the return of Avid to a private company is likely to be significant in more ways that we can predict, of more immediate concern to the people who spend their time actually using Pro Tools to do real work every day is how are Avid making our lives easier? It’s sometimes the big things which will make the difference but sometimes it’s those small tweaks. Changes which are clearly the result of someone at Avid asking real users what they need to make their days better.

In this article I’ll highlight five ways Pro Tools changed in 2023 which I think make Pro Tools that bit more useable.

Native Apple Silicon Support

We’d had a Beta for some time but an actual native release was overdue when it finally landed in 2023. A transition like this is always complicated and someone has to move first. The third party developers need the motivation of a DAW on which to run their Apple Silicon native plugins and without those key third party plugins which enjoy must-have status in parts of the industry already Apple Silicon ready, the native version of Pro Tools was still going to end up running under Rosetta to accommodate them. The fact that Rosetta worked so well probably didn’t help speed things up but however efficient running Pro Tools under Rosetta on an Apple Silicon machine was, when we finally got native performance it was like getting a new computer. At launch the performance gains over running via Rosetta were as follows, and these will have inevitably improved since then:

• Plugin CPU Performance up to +150%

• Launching Pro Tools +80%

• Opening Large Complex Sessions +25%

• Delete, Create and Duplicate Tracks +80%

• Activate Tracks by dragging 100 tracks from inactive folder +67%

• Deactivate Tracks by dragging 100 tracks from active folder +62%

• Offline Bounce (complex Sessions surround and Dolby Atmos) +64%

• Plugin Instantiations while in Low Latency +25%

• Plugin Instantiations while in High Latency +35%

• Importing AAF (copy from source) +24%

A big project finally complete and, if you’re anything like me, the performance gains were immediately taken for granted by users…

Return Of Perpetual Licences With No Reinstatement Fee For Off-Plan Users

In September Avid surprised us all with the announcement of the return of perpetual licences. Not only that but the system of reinstatement which made it necessary in most cases for people for whom subscription wasn’t appealing to maintain an uninterrupted support and update plan or face a reinstatement fee was discontinued, meaning that people can choose to go on and off ‘plan’ as they see fit without incurring additional costs.

This doesn’t affect the operation of Pro Tools per se but it does potentially influence a vocal minority of Pro Tools users who have been unhappy with the previous system, potentially to the point of of no longer using Pro Tools at all. In these cases it definitely qualifies as affecting ‘usability’. For all users of Pro Tools there is no downside to this development and to keep users upgrading Avid have to deliver desirable updates and new features. Win-win!

Plugin Width Filtering

Compared to other items in this list this is a minor point but it’s exactly the kind of small tweak which can help real users by fine-tuning areas of software, removing clutter and making things just that little but more streamlined.

This is linked to the introduction of new, wider track widths, up to 9.1.6 and 7th order Ambisonics, itself an useful addition to usability for immersive mixers. This practical tweak clears the clutter from plugin menus. If any plugin offers four or more widths those choices are moved to a sub-folder. Since a single plugin can have over ten width-changing variations this can make it easier to find the plugin version you’ll actually use faster. Pro Tools does have excellent search facilities meaning that some people probably rarely use the plugin menus but old habits die hard and anyway, browsing reminds you of the plugins you don’t use as regularly (and maybe should remove…).

Integrated Atmos Renderer

The setup process for Atmos and Pro Tools previously involved use of the external Dolby Atmos Renderer application, either running on a separate computer or in the host machine and running up to 128 channels of audio between Pro Tools and the renderer using either the Dolby Atmos Bridge as your playback engine or more complex methods involving additional hardware. Whichever method was used it added complexity.

With Pro Tools 2023.12 Dolby and Avid have integrated the renderer directly into Pro Tools, so you can mix in Dolby Atmos without having to use (or purchase) the external Dolby Atmos Renderer application. This greatly simplifies the setup and use of Dolby Atmos within Pro Tools, while lowering the cost as the new integrated renderer is included free in both Pro Tools Studio and Ultimate.

Pro Tools can toggle between using an external or the integrated renderer and output mappings persist when doing so. An additional benefit of the integrated Pro Tools Dolby Atmos renderer is that it provides Playback Engine independence. It is no longer necessary to change the playback engine to Dolby Atmos Bridge to route audio conveniently to the renderer with the related limitations that can introduce to some users, for example users of HDX systems. Being able to easily change a session between integrated and external renderers is particularly useful for session interchange between systems.

Live re-renders are provided from the Pro Tools Dolby Atmos renderer. A 5.1 re-render for loudness measurement and a re-render for binaural headphones. There is a new tab in the IO Setup dedicated to Dolby Atmos meaning that the IO Setup, as well as being somewhere an Atmos mixer can expect to spend less time, is also simpler to navigate.

While the Pro Tools Dolby Atmos renderer is similar to the external Dolby Atmos Renderer, it isn’t identical and some improvements have been made. The 3D perspective views have been enhanced, three modes are available: Free, Top and rear and the Top and Rear views offer views with more apparent depth than the Free view when viewed from these perspectives. A nice touch is the addition of Path names in the text display for Objects. This allows you to customise the text of your Object to see how it relates to specific elements in the session. Everything about this integration and the tweaks to the UI it includes make when was previously a rather unfriendly aspect of Pro Tools way more usable. For example the inclusion of a button in the renderer window which takes you straight to the IO setup - Nice!

H.264 Same As Source Support

This is one of those little tweaks which benefits the both the intensive and casual user of the video features in Pro Tools. In fact its a return of a previously available feature. If you work in Post then being able to easily return a video with your stellar mix included in the same format as it arrived is of obvious benefit but if you’re like me and prefer to keep as far away as possible from the hot mess which is video formats this is your get out of jail free card!

2023 was a big year for Pro Tools. With ARA 2 integration of RX as previewed at IBC still outstanding what else would you like to see in Pro Tools in 2024? Watch out for part 2 which features 5 more ways Pro Tools became more useable in 2023.