Pro Tools 10

So... Pro Tools 10 is out and Avid has laid off many of the people who helped make it and version 11 possible. It certainly sounds terrible, but I'll reserve judgement as I don't have all the facts yet. Considering how their stock price has fallen over the last year, perhaps their options were limited, although the timing of it certainly seems rather cold and calculated.

As for Pro Tools 10 itself... it isn't 64 bit, which is what I was really hoping for. It does have some nice features which I could get excited about, such as clip gain and new Audiosuite functions, but I'll probably skip this version and wait for 11.

Clip Gain is great, adding a new level of gain adjustment without having to draw in automation or process Audiosuite gain. Clip gain can even have envelopes - creating a new layer of automation, which enables you to leave the primary automation lane intact without resorting to trim automation. This is fantastic especially for post work and for sound design, where the levels of individual assets would previously need to be modified with AudioSuite GAIN processing or with automation.

What would have been nice to see was for them to take Clip Gain one or two steps further and implement beyond the features that Ableton Live offers in that area. In Ableton, individual clips on the fly can be pitch shifted, time stretched, reversed, gated, and contain individual envelopes that modulate more than just gain. Pro Tools can do the stretching and pitch-shifting when Elastic Audio is enabled on a particular track, but it still isn't quite as elegant as Ableton's design.

More to come on Pro Tools 10 later, I am still learning my way through the new features manual, even though I probably won't be picking this version up.

Best Wedding Ever

So I just got back in San Francisco from my sister's wedding, and I have to say, it was the most beautiful thing I've ever been to. (I guess it should have been, as they spent two years planning it.) But still, I am really happy for her and my new bro, Kris.

The wedding took place at the Red Corral Ranch in Wimberley, TX, and was an incredibly serene and ethereal place, which defied my expectation of "Ranch" and was more like a shady romantic oasis. I'll be sure to link to pictures whenever they come back from the photographer.


Congratulations, Kris and Jen Harrup!

Frustration in the wake of Testpress

Well, from my post last week I clearly knew what the issue was with the track "Faraway" before going into Testpress, but I didn't have the time to correct it. The judges didn't particularly care for it for that very reason: it lost its groove.

The track hits the best part and then loses energy and never recovers before the short ending at 3:30. I should go back in and make a longer edit of the track with an extended dance section. Sonically, it also felt a tad too strident in the mids and lower mids. Either my ears were fatigued when I worked on it last or there's an issue with the HD room at Pyramind. They HAVE been planning to reshoot that room for awhile now.

At any rate, I am happy for Jay, Nick, and Alex. They did a great job and deserved to win.