Back in March 2023 we shared 10 Things Professionals Want To See In Pro Tools. Looking back over that list in mid 2024 it’s clear that progress has been made on several of them. So where are we now? What can we tick off the wish list? Are there any stragglers which are still to be addressed and are there any new suggestions from the team?

The 2023 list was as follows, text from the 2023 post is in italics:

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. One 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!

In 2024 this is unchanged. It’s still very much in demand among the team. Maybe it’s coming but we have no information either way. It would certainly be a welcome feature of any tech previews at a show this year. We’ll have to wait and see, but we’ve been waiting a long time for this one.

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 marker 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.

The situation in 2024 is completely different, with not one but two rounds of improvements. It was only a month after our original list was published that Avid previewed Track Markers at NAMM 2023. Track markers were introduced in Pro Tools 2023.6 and additional Marker Rulers and new filtering functionality were introduced in Pro Tools 2023.12. As far as we’re concerned Avid have done an excellent job on this one. Check out the video below demonstrating the new features.

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.

Considering the Melodyne integration was introduced in September 2022 the promised follow up integrations have been slow to appear. We know integrations of RX, VocAlign, RePitch and Auto Align are all in the works but at the time of writing none are available yet. It does look as though some integrations are imminent though. It’s safe to categorise this entry as ‘nearly there’.

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.

This is most definitely achieved. The integrated Atmos renderer arrived in December 2023 as a part of Pro Tools 2023.12 and a further refinement was added in 2024.3 with custom live re-renders.

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.

No change here. However fully featured the Import Session Data window is, it would still be very welcome to be able to open more than one session at a time…

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?

Again, no change.

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?

Nope. I suspect this is much simpler to suggest than it is to do, but still.

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.

It’s not a great deal of work to select the member tracks, hold Option+Shift and change the output routing but it does feel like a waste of time.

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.

While I’ll never run out of Groups in my sessions, I see the problem. Considering we had an upgrade to the number of memory locations from 999 to 32,000 in Pro Tools 2022.9 would it be possible to up the number of Groups too?

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.

The idea at launch was to extend clip effects beyond the channel strip facilities as first implemented. this hasn’t happened but I suppose the usefulness of AudioSuite has made it less of a priority than it might otherwise have been.

What About 2024?

So of the 10 features from 2023 progress breaks down like this:

• Folders In The Clips List - No

• Marker Improvements - Yes

• More ARA Integrations - No

• Integrated Atmos - Yes

• Multiple Sessions Open - No

• Move Multiple Faders Without Grouping - No

• Change Playback Engine Without Restart - No

• Automatically Route To Folder Bus - No

• More Groups - No

• More Clip Effects Options - No

It’s fair to call this two and a half out of ten as the next ARA integrations are clearly on the way. And considering the relative importance of each of our suggestions I’d definitely say the important stuff is being addressed first. Markers and an integrated Atmos renderer are more of a priority for more people than more Groups or manual routing of Folders.

We decided to consult the wider team and get their suggestions for updates to this list.

Option To Move Folder Tracks Relative To Member Tracks

At present a Folder track is always to the left of its member tracks in the Mix window or above the member tracks in the Edit window. I’ve always placed my submix Aux Input to the right of, or below, the member tracks and the option to change which side of the Folder Track the member tracks sit would be very welcome. It appears I’m not alone. When I asked our team of contributors for suggestions for this list William Wittman suggested this as well.

Multi Point Editing

This is a suggestion from Nathaniel Reichman. He has a background in classical music recording and mixing and really values this workflow which he uses in Pyramix where it is also referred to as Source/Destination editing. Some might be familiar with three and four point editing, which is essentially the same thing.

I wasn’t familiar with it and had been meaning to look into it more closely since Nathaniel first mentioned it to me, telling me that Pro Tools users “don’t know what they are missing!” The most useful resource I found to understand the workflow benefits of multi point editing is this video from Merging, the makers of Pyramix. It’s long but very thorough. The advantage of multipoint editing is that it makes it easy to comp together an edit from multiple takes of multitrack material as easily as editing stereo material. You can do the same in Pro Tools but this system is much more elegant for this application.

Phase Button On Every Track

This has been requested for years and while it’s simple enough to use a plugin for the same purpose, it seems an odd omission not to have a button on the track header/mixer channel.

LUFS Metering

Compared to some DAWs the metering In Pro Tools is excellent. The option to set a different meter type for Master Faders is useful, I usually set my Master Fader to Linear but, considering the number of metering types on offer in Pro Tools Ultimate, it feels like an omission not to have the option of LUFS metering with Short Term displayed on the meter and Integrated along with peak level in the numeric display.

What do you think of your updated list? Would anything else be on your list? We’ll have to check back next year and see how many we can cross off then…