Brief Summary

Pro Tools users have a lot to be happy about with the progress made with introducing new much requested features like Native Silicon support and ARA 2 to Pro Tools. But of course there is always more to be done. Here’s our take on what is top of professionals’ lists when it comes to new Pro Tools features.

Going Deeper

So in early 2023 the consensus among the Production Expert team is that things are looking better for Pro Tools users than they have done for years. It’s only a few years ago that Avid seemed ill at ease and the stock price was tanking. And customers were almost universally dissatisfied. Pro Tools customers now have many of the things they have been asking for for a long time: Apple Silicon, ARA 2, a useful free version. Even the immutable standard keyboard shortcuts have given way to custom keystrokes!

However, regardless of the progress which has been made, there are still lots of features which users would like to see in Pro Tools. Looking at comments on social media and the Pro Tools feature request Lounge in Avid Link, if you miss the old Pro Tools Ideascale, this is where to find it’s current equivalent, what are the features Pro Tools users are requesting most? Which would you like to see introduced first and are there others you think should be on this list?

Here are our top 10.

Folders In The Clips List

We have track folders but the clips list is still a stubbornly flat list. In a large session it can get enormous. It’s actually surprisingly manageable if you know you way around it, with search options, the ability to sort, show and hide clips by type, navigation using keyboard focus and much more but if you’ve ever used Media Composer you’ll have seen how this Avid product has a powerful system of Bins, logical containers which can organise large collections of assets. Once day we hope we’ll see at least a dendritic folder structure in the clips list. Now we have folders in the tracks list it makes the Clips list look even more flat!

Marker Improvements

Memory locations in Pro Tools are really powerful, useful for far more than just timeline markers but this, really important, use could do with an upgrade. Only having a single markers ruler feels restrictive. We’d love to see multiple rulers, from example one for navigating a song, another for fixes, another for comments. The possibilities are many but if you cram all of that onto a single ruler things get crowded. A useful workaround is to use an empty track as an additional marker ruler with empty clip groups as markers, you can navigate these groups using Tab. It works but we’d rather have multiple rulers.

Another improvement we’d love to see is easy renumbering of memory locations. Doing it manually involves complicated shuffling. There is a workaround using a MIDI file but just a convenient way to renumber memory locations within Pro Tools would be very useful.

More ARA Integrations

We finally have ARA 2 integration between Pro Tools and Melodyne. This is great and so convenient it’s whetted the respective appetites of users of other, as yet incompatible software which supports ARA in other DAWs. RX users are the obvious first choice, round tripping using RX Connect is something we’re used to but having used Melodyne via ARA we really can’t wait. Next after RX on my list is Revoice Pro. These integrations feel inevitable now we have Melodyne but they really can’t come quickly enough.

Integrated Atmos

Pro Tools was ahead of the game in the early days of Dolby Atmos, however the slightly Heath Robinson arrangement of components necessary to use it, while better than they used to be with the Dolby Atmos Bridge and now Aux IO connecting Pro Tools and the Dolby Atmos Renderer, it still falls short of actual integration. Other DAWs’ Atmos workflows are looking more accessible these days and we can only hope Pro Tools is going to make things more convenient and the setup process less intimidating for the new user in future.

Multiple Sessions Open

Not much to say here. We can’t think of any other software we use where we can’t have multiple files open at the same time. There are sound historical reasons for this but in 2023? Operating systems used to only run one program at a time but that was a really long time ago. This restriction feels the same.

Move Multiple Faders Without Grouping

A very popular choice among users is the ability to be able to adjust the level of multiple faders at the same time, ganging them together temporarily with a keystroke or modifier. It’s been done before. We have the ability to temporarily suspend fader ganging from an active Mix Group using Control on a Mac (Start on a PC) couldn’t we have the converse behaviour?

Change Playback Engine Without Restart

Another regular timewaster is having to restart a session when you find yourself using the wrong playback engine. For example launching Pro Tools with a dislodged Thunderbolt cable meaning you end up on internal speakers, Dante Virtual Soundcard or the like. You can launch straight to the Playback Engine dialog by holding N when launching Pro Tools but once you’re in, if you need to change it you’re going to be quitting and relaunching. Does it have to like that?

Automatically Route To Folder Bus

For lots of users Routing Folders have completely replaced submixing through Aux Inputs, the improved Solo logic removing what was a persistent issue for people mixing in Pro Tools of having to solo safe either the member tracks or the submix Aux of a submix. However many users have requested an automatic switching of the outputs of tracks contained in a routing folder to that routing folder’s bus. It is sometimes useful to be able to have tracks within a routing folder which aren’t routed through the Folder Track but we can see the merit in having a preference which automatically routes member tracks through the folder.

More Groups

One for the post mixers. Pro Tools offers 104 Groups and while this is more than enough for a typical music mix, Post mixers often work on sessions which dwarf music mixes. This has become more of an issue as Pro Tools systems have become more powerful. Whereas previously big film mixes would use multiple Pro Tools systems to handle different elements of the mix, that work can now be done on a single system. Orchestral projects can also eat the available groups of a single system. While most of us won’t hit the groups limit, if it affects you there’s no simple solution.

More Clip Effects Options

When they were introduced in Pro Tools 12.6 Clip Effects brought a convenient middle ground between real time AAX plugin processing and rendered AudioSuite processing. Being able to apply effects on a per-clip basis is both convenient and powerful. The initial implementation brought EQ, filters and dynamics processing based on the Avid Channel Strip and we reported at the time that we understood Avid planned “extend this to 3rd party plugins in the future”. Several years later we haven’t see this implemented but we’d still like to see it.

So there are our top ten, there were more on the list. What would you like to see in an upcoming version of Pro Tools?