Digidesign Pro Tools 2.0 System

Transcript

Digidesign Pro Tools 2.0 System: Intro: This is the revolution! This is the future! A multitrack digital studio on your ‘desktop’ which lets you master audio directly to CD via the new ‘write-once’ CD recorders! Or lets you put audio to video at full broadcast quality while viewing synchronized, randomly-accessible, video on your computer screen! Maybe you would like to hook in your favourite piece of analogue outboard, or even your existing mixing desk - no problem! You want to use the best Midi software available to control your Midi hardware - and now you can because all the leading Midi software packages are able to integrate very closely with this digital studio system on a common computer platform! Perhaps you want to transfer your audio data to another system elsewhere in the studio (and, ultimately, anywhere around the world)! Computerised networks using the latest communication technologies are making this increasingly feasible! At last the ‘Global Village’ is opening up for the musician and audio engineer! And the best news is that all this is now much more affordable compared to previous generations of equipment which offered only some of these capabilities! The march of computer technology and economies of scale are driving the prices of everything down to the point where professional studios should have no difficulty in affording such systems, and individuals are increasingly able to afford entry-level systems which can be expanded as required - and which offer full compatibility the with larger professional systems! I’m talking in particular about the new possibilities on offer via Digidesign’s Pro Tools system running on the Apple Macintosh or Quadra computers. Many audio professionals and musicians have already opted for Digidesign’s Sound Tools two-track digital audio editing system, which has become the market-leader in personal computer-based digital audio systems. Here we will take a look at Digidesign’s Pro Tools system, which offers a complete multitrack digital audio recording, processing, and mixing environment on the Macintosh II and Quadra ranges of computers - with many exciting new capabilities on offer, as we will see! According to an independent survey in Pro Sound News, Digidesign have 61% share of the digital audio editing market in the USA. This represents 350400 systems sold in the US alone. Pro Tools is being increasingly widely used by multimedia producers and desktop video editors, as well as by audio engineers and musicians. In this review I will try to give you the answers to many questions you may have about the system - the new features available in Version 2 software; what you might need in a fully-equipped system; what Macintosh configuration you should use, and why; other software and hardware to use with the system; and how much it might cost to set up a complete Pro Tools system. To discover what the system is like in use in my programming suite, how the PostView system works in practice with digitised video, how to master to CD, who is using the system, what users think of 16-track systems in action, and so on, you will have to wait for forthcoming articles in AudioMedia. However, there should be more than enough information about the system in this article to keep you happy until then! So what's in a Pro Tools set-up? There are three components in the most basic four-channel configuration: the Pro Tools software which offers graphic editing of digital audio and Midi where you can duplicate, trim, crossfade, or 'slip' tracks non-destructively plus automated mixing and signal processing; the NuBus Audio Card which fits in the back of your Mac; and the Audio Interface which is in a separate 19" rack - providing four independent channels of digital recording and playback and high speed digital signal processing. You can expand the system up to 16 tracks by adding additional NuBus cards and 4-way audio interfaces, although you need to use an additional NuBus System Accelerator card with expanded systems, bringing the number of cards in a 16-track system up to 5. The System Accelerator speeds up overall processing, and provides smoother screen graphics. So what do you do if your Mac does not have enough NuBus slots, for instance if you choose a 16-track system and you want to use one or more SampleCell cards, or you want to use other NuBus cards such as accelerators or video cards in your Mac slots? In this case, Digidesign can supply a NuBus Expansion Chassis which holds the cards externally and connects to the Mac via a special NuBus card - supplied with the expansion chassis. This Expansion Chassis, which is rack mountable, provides up to 12 full-size NuBus slots. This provides room enough for a 16-channel Pro Tools system and at least 64 voices and 32 outputs of sample playback with Digidesign's SampleCell card. The Quadra 950 is currently the best choice for larger systems, while the other NuBus-equipped Macs may be suitable for smaller systems. You do need the fastest Mac you can get, or you will notice performance limitations, such as a limit of 2-3 channels that can be recorded simultaneously. Digidesign say that all Mac II models should be able to playback four channels plus Midi while synchronised to SMPTE. Of course, for SMPTE sync you will need a SMPTE/MTC converter (typically built-in to professional Mac/Midi interfaces like the MotU Midi Time Piece, these days), and to capture time code locations during frame-by-frame crawling using VITC you will need a VITC/MTC converter (such as the MotU Video Time Piece). Digidesign actually recommend using a Quadra 800 for a basic 4 or 8-channel system, or a Quadra 950 for 16-channels. The software is fully System 7 compatible, and is 32-bit clean to allow addressing of more than 8 Mb of RAM. Digidesign recommend using a minimum of 8 Mb of RAM. As far as I am concerned, 12 Mb would be a recommended minimum amount of RAM, and double this would be a more ideal amount. The extra RAM would make everything work more efficiently, with program code not needing to be swapped between RAM and disk as often, and with a realistic amount of RAM available for crossfades, looping, and so forth. You do need a very fast Mac with a large screen to make the most of a Pro Tools System. I use a 21” SuperMac monitor, and sometimes hook up an additional Apple 16” or 13” monitor - especially if I am working on a project with Studio Vision, Galaxy, and Sound Designer II as well as Pro Tools, all running together under System 7. Colour monitors are highly recommended, although grey scale are acceptable. Mono monitors will work but are not really recommended. A maximum of 4 tracks will record at one time to hard disk, but you should have no problem playing back up to 8 at once from a sufficiently fast hard drive. You need to use a fast hard disk drive with access time of 18 ms or less, and a transfer rate of 800 KBytes or better. A separate hard disk drive is required for each set of eight channels, and each mono track uses 5 Mb of disk space per minute at 44.1kHz sample rate. If you want to use up to 8 tracks with a single hard disk, you will probably be looking at between 1 Gb and 2 Gb disk capacities. Here in the UK, Digital Audio Concepts (DAC) provide a range of rack mounted drives particularly suitable for use with Pro Tools, and these come in a variety of sizes, some of which use the various optical removable formats. For the highest quality backups of your Master recordings, the higher-capacity 650 Mb or 1 Gb opticals are recommended, although for many purposes, backup to DAT via the supplied Digidesign DATa utility is more than adequate. It is not really feasible to record directly to most optical drives, although it is possible to record four tracks to the latest, fastest drives such as the 600 Mb Alphatronix Inspire II. For backing up shorter audio files, the 128 Mb 3.5” optical format is the best choice currently available. - with disks costing around £50 each. Related Products: Waveform Editing: Digidesign's Sound Designer II software is extremely useful to have for straightforward editing of two-track masters and for more sophisticated waveform editing and DSP. You can also prepare sound files in Sound Tools or other Mac-based systems and import these into Pro Tools. One thing to watch out for here is that Sound Tools uses interleaved stereo Sound Designer II format files, but Pro Tools uses linked pairs of mono Sound Designer II files, so when you import a Sound Tools stereo file, you need to have enough free disk space for Pro Tools to create two mono files from this original file. The latest version of the Sound Designer software comes in two versions, SD II ST which runs on the Sound Accelerator NuBus card, and SD II PT which will only run on the Pro Tools NuBus card. Noise Removal: If any of your recordings are spoilt by unwanted noise, Digidesign Intelligent Noise Reduction (DINR) software can achieve significant reductions in ambient background noise, hum, vinyl surface noise, tape hiss, and noise from other analogue or digital sources, with virtually no audible colouration of the audio signal. DINR is provided as a software ‘plugin’ module for Sound Tools and Pro Tools systems. Midi: Although ProTools does let you record up to 32 tracks of Midi, the sequencing facilities are actually very rudimentary. A much more practical proposition is to import a Midi file for replay from within Pro Tools which you create using your favourite sequencer. You can choose between Studio Vision, Digital Performer, Notator Logic Audio or CuBase Audio. These are very popular Midi sequencers for the Macintosh which also provide integrated multi-channel digital audio recording and editing in conjunction with the Pro Tools or Sound Tools hardware. For some types of work, these systems are a better choice than the Pro Tools software - especially if Midi sequencing is your main activity - with audio tracks added to finish your recording off. These packages do not provide the audio signal processing available in ProTools, but do offer Midi volume, panning, and mix automation, with automated mixing of any other Midi parameters. Notator Logic Audio does also offer detailed waveform editing from within the software - providing some advantage over the other packages in this respect. Sampling: Digidesign's SampleCell (a Midi sampler on a NuBus card) can be easily integrated into a Pro Tools system to provide an additional on-board source of audio from your Mac, and you can use as many SampleCell cards as your Mac has space for. This is a good idea for anyone who likes the idea of a totally integrated Midi/Hard Disk Audio setup on their Mac. The SampleCell II card comes without any RAM installed, so you have to buy standard Macintosh SIMMS which are readily available at competitive prices from the usual outlets. You can fit up to 32 Megabytes of RAM using 4 Mb chips, and you will need this amount of RAM to make best use of the factory sample library which is supplied on two CD-ROM disks. Additional disks are available from other companies, and many of the popular disks for the EIII or Akai samplers are also available in SampleCell format. Obviously, you need to buy a CD-ROM player, and one of the best choices is the Apple CD 300 which is available in both internal and stand-alone versions. Synthesis: Digidesign’s TurboSynth sound synthesis and design software has recently been upgraded to work in a thoroughly-integrated way with SampleCell cards. TurboSynth is a digital sound design program which features a wide variety of modular synthesis and sample editing tools to assist in creating sound effects for music, film, and broadcast production. TurboSynth lets you create new sounds from scratch, or modify existing samples with an extensive palette of software-based tools, including additive, subtractive, FM, and waveshaping methods of synthesis. Sounds can then be played with a Midi keyboard and a SampleCell card, or via an audio playlist in a Pro Tools system. Unfortunately, Digidesign have removed the option to transfer audio between TurboSynth and a range of popular samplers, choosing instead to focus their efforts on integrating it with SampleCell. This is because there are many samplers available, and it costs Digidesign more than they are prepared to outlay to write the code to support all these samplers. I would have liked to see support for SCSI transfer to at least a small selection of the top professional samplers, such as the Akai S1000 and 3000 ranges, the EMU EIII and Kurzweil K2000 samplers, and the Roland S750. Surely this would provide the utility that professionals need, without putting Digidesign to the expense of supporting hundreds of semi-pro devices! Ergonomic Hardware Control: A hardware controller (the CS10) is available from JL Cooper Electronics which provides 8 faders, transport controls, a jog/shuttle control, and a number of user-assignable buttons. Expecting to be able to control ProTools mixing and recording facilities using just the mouse and QWERTY keyboard is asking a little too much, so use of the CS-10 (in my opinion) is virtually mandatory. The scrub wheel on the CS-10 is infinitely superior to using the mouse or a trackball, and real faders are still the best way to control fader movements. In recognition of this situation, Digidesign themselves have announced an advanced professional control surface for use with Pro Tools, cutely called “Miles”. This features motorised faders and a touchscreen, as well as programmable rotary knobs, transport and autolocate controls, and a variety of dedicated control buttons. The LCD touchscreen lets you display, change, or recall signal routing with the touch of a finger. Other features include a jog/shuttle wheel; grouping, effects, and cue options; control room/studio/headphone monitoring system (with multiple speaker and headphone outputs); plus built-in talkback - all contained within an ergonomically-designed unit. Miles is compatible with Digidesign’s TDM Bus, so it will be possible to use it to control other equipment around the studio as well. Version 2.0 Software: ProTools Version 2.0 software has many new features and enhancements. Unlike the previous versions, you can now record, edit, and mix from within the one program using different windows. Pro Tools now provides two ‘windows’ into your session, each with a slightly different set of audio production tools. The Mix window supplies the recording, mixing and automation capabilities, and the Edit window provides these tools plus complementary graphical editing capabilities. In the Mix window, tracks appear as mixer modules, each with controls for volume, panning, EQ, and effects send/return - although there are no effects sends on 12 and 16 channel systems. • Pro Tools Mix window The Edit window provides a timeline type of environment for editing and arranging audio and Midi tracks. As in the Mix window, each track has controls for record-enable, automation record-enable, and mute/solo. EQ and effects send can also be displayed in the Edit window by choosing these options in the Display menu. The sonic performance of the parametric EQs has been substantially improved, although the other effects have been removed. Graphic automation editing has been added, with envelopes containing “breakpoints” displayed over the waveform. The scrubbing has been improved, and the on-screen VU meters are now bigger, brighter, faster, and more accurate. Support has been added for Opcode’s Studio 5 and MotU's MIDI Time Piece FAST mode, and many other operational aspects have also been improved. • Pro Tools Edit and Transport Windows Post-Production: A special version of the Pro Tools software has just been released called Post View which will allow users to open a QuickTime movie in a window, and if this has SMPTE timecode embedded in the QuickTime file, you can use this code as a master clock for the Pro tools system. This is great for synchronizing music to picture, for film music composers and sound editors who need to refer constantly to ‘hit’ points on video. You need a video capture system such as VideoVision Studio from Radius to digitise your video and to let you view it in any size up to full-screen. You can either replay this video in a small window on the same screen as your Pro Tools software, or you can display the video at up to full-screen size on a separate monitor. Using PostView in this way frees the user from waiting for video tape to shuttle back and forth while assembling audio tracks. Until now, the only workstations to offer this feature cost many times that of Pro Tools. Post View enhances the Apple QuickTime-based time standard for digital video, by establishing its own frame-accurate synchronization between audio and video - thus making it suitable for professional applications. This allows the user to slowly ‘scrub’ a portion of the audio session, with the PostView movie scrubbing along, frame-by-frame, in perfect sync. This digitised video is not currently broadcast-quality (it is just a little better than consumer VHS quality), so for broadcast usage you will still need to synchronize your audio with the original source video on a high-quality VTR , and record this source video along with your finished audio to the destination master video at the final stage of your project. Digidesign have anticipated this requirement, so PostView also offers a VTR Control feature which allows direct machine control of professional VTRs using standard Sony 9-pin or V-LAN protocols. This lets you lay your audio up to video using Pro Tools as the master clock source controlling external video decks such as the Sony 5850 U-Matic. Two other useful pieces of post-production software are also scheduled for release in the coming months - PostEDL and PostConform - which will allow autoconforming and autoassembly of edited video with a variety of different systems. SMPTE Synchronization: If you just need to work on short durations of video, such as 30-second TV adverts or short animations, you can use any SMPTE/MIDI converter, such as the MotU Midi TimePiece or the Opcode Studio 4 or 5. This will convert the timecode from the VCR into Midi Timecode to control Pro Tools. If you want to use VITC, the best choice here is to use a MotU Video Time Piece. For longer durations you will need to synchronize everything to a source of stable video ‘house-sync’, such as a black burst generator. Digidesign’s Video Slave Driver allows you to synchronize Pro Tools recording and playback clock using an external video black burst or word clock signal. This signal is converted into a master clock signal which is sent to the Pro Tools Audio Interface. The SMPTE code is only used to locate, chase, and trigger playback or recording. Playback speed of both Pro Tools and the video recorder are then controlled by the black burst or word clock signal. If you want to use LTC to slave more reliably to timecode from an audio tape recorder, you can use Digidesign’s SMPTE Slave Driver. This SMPTE/MTC converter accepts LTC and converts this into a master clock signal which it sends to the Pro Tools Audio Interface. The SMPTE Slave Driver monitors any variations in the rate of the external timecode, then the Pro Tools sample rate is varied by the SMPTE Slave Driver to compensate for these speed variations. None of Pro Tools’ processing power is used up, as the Slave Driver carries out all the necessary calculations, thus avoiding audio degradation. The Slave Driver can also function as a very stable master sync source generating LTC. The most professional solution, however, is the TimeLine MicroLynx. This is a professional two-machine SMPTE controller (with a hefty professional price-tag) which can be used to lock audio 2-track and multitrack tape machines with a video machine. To control a Sony 5850 or a third machine of any type, a special card is required. Another card is required to output a master clock signal to the Pro Tools system, and a video sync generator and a VITC reader are also available. The MicroLynx can interface directly to the Macintosh, and supports all types of SMPTE. Mastering: Digidesign’s new MasterList CD software allows users to create CD or album masters on a number of affordable CD recorders, as well as audio DAT recorders or 8mm SCSI tape drives. When used with a compatible CD recorder, MasterList CD creates fully ‘Red Book’-compatible, ‘glass-master ready’ CDs, with complete PQ-code encoding in a standard format acceptable to duplication plants worldwide. You create a playlist of stereo soundfiles from your hard disk, then make any necessary changes to start and end times and the relative levels for each track. Up to 99 tracks are supported, and up to 99 Index Points per track can be taken automatically from markers in the sound file, and can be edited in the program. The user also has the option of entering additional PQ information, such as ISRC codes, Catalogue Code, Begin and End Access Points, and so forth, to create a fully Red Bookcompatible master. The program then transfers the information digitally to a CD recorder, audio DAT machine or 8mm SCSI tape. Because MasterList CD generates all the PQ-code information necessary to generate a glass duplication master, it eliminates the necessity for 1630/1610 transfers and manual PQ code editing, saving the user duplication plant time and expense, and possible errors. All the current popular CD recorders from Sony, Pinnacle Micro, JVC, Philips, Kodak, Ricoh and Yamaha are supported, and newer models will be supported in the future. CD duplication plants are starting to accept CD write-once discs, especially now that a new device is available from Doug Carson Associates (DCA) in the USA. This DCA device allows the CD plant to create glass masters directly from any CD write-once disc, eliminating the need for 1630 U-Matic tapes or expensive special-purpose CD readers. The DCA machine also allows a number of plants to accept audio DAT and 8mm tapes that are written in the DDP format, which is supported by MasterList CD. Write-once discs are also useful for people who want to create reference discs, produce limited production runs, or for archival to CD. Most of the CD recorders available will also allow you to produce CD-ROM, CD-ROMXA, CDi discs, and other formats as well - providing a wide range of options from the investment. Networking: Support is now available for industry-standard optical Fibre Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) networking options that provide high-bandwidth networking with off-the-shelf cards. With an FDDI network and Digidesign’s new file browsing utility, Pro Tools users will be able not only to transfer files between machines with great speed, but also to audition audio files in real time over the network. The file browsing utility can be used to manage not only audio, but also digital video and other files. It also provides comprehensive search and file library tools, and can be used in real-time during an editing session. Networks can now be set up locally within one building or group of associated buildings, but could also be established between remote sites - as networking technologies are developed. ISDN and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technologies are the ones to watch out for here. In Action: So what can you do with Pro Tools? The manual outlines a typical scenario like this - Start by importing a MIDI file that you have prepared with a sequencer like Performer or CuBase containing the basic arrangement for your music. Working first in the Mix window, record various digital audio tracks, vocals, guitars, other instruments, into Pro Tools in sync with the Midi tracks you have imported. Punch audio in and out of record to perfect your music, and set basic levels for playback. When you have everything roughly in place, open the Edit window and try out various arrangements of your audio and Midi tracks - repeating verses, swapping choruses and so on till you are happy with the results. At this stage you could switch back to the Mix window and actually record your Midi tracks onto digital audio tracks (assuming you have enough free audio tracks). With everything now on disk as digital audio, you can add any EQ or effects processing, automate a full digital mixdown (with EQ and effects), and mix the session to a digital stereo master on disk or on DAT. The digital stereo mixdown is then ready in a suitable format for mastering to CD. You may well ask how successfully this scenario will work with only 16 tracks, let alone 8 or 4. Well that’s where the concept of ‘virtual tracks’ comes in! Although you can only play back as many tracks at any one time as your hardware allows, you can actually record as many tracks as your hard disk space will allow. Supposing you had 8 tracks to play on a 4-channel system, it might be that several tracks only had an instrument playing for a certain number of bars within the song, like a guitar solo in the middle, or a string line just in the choruses. If this is the case, you can assign the string line and the guitar solo to play back from the same output, and as they never play at the same time, they each can use that output when they need to. In this way, the system becomes much more versatile than the actual number of outputs would suggest. Of course there are many more ways in which you can use the software and hardware, especially in conjunction with all the other equipment mentioned here, but you will have to wait for further articles to outline how the system works in a variety of different situations. Conclusion: Pro Tools is an extremely well thought out system which is clearly aiming to provide a complete studio control system based around Digidesign hardware and software and run from an Apple computer. Digidesign have made several moves to help position their system well for future developments. The TDM bus and the hardware and software modules, such as the Lexicon NuVerb and the proposed Digital Farm signal processors should provide exciting alternatives to conventional studio equipment. The provision of CD mastering software, and the wide availability of writeable CD systems from JVC, Sony, Philips and others, means that it is now feasible to master and produce short runs or one-off Compact Discs ‘from the desktop’. Networking via FDDI will be important to broadcast users, and post-production users will surely adopt the new Post View software in their droves - once they realise the benefits to be had here. Audio for Video is clearly one of Pro Tools strongest areas, especially with the release of PostView and the linkup with random-access video using a digital video system. Now that the MicroLynx synchronizer is available, this offers the very highest standards of performance for professional applications where there is a need to synchronize with external audio and video machines. The ADAT interface is also bound to prove popular as ADAT increases its ‘market-penetration’. Perhaps the most interesting item is Miles, the hardware control surface currently under development. Professional audio engineers will no doubt welcome the return of real knobs, switches, and faders instead of relying on the mouse and the QWERTY keyboard which are still so alien to many. To set up a 16 track system with sync to video and mastering to compact disk will still cost 'an arm and a leg' by most individual musician’s standards. On the other hand, professional recording and broadcast studios will find the prices very affordable compared with other professional systems. To set up a well-specified entry-level 4-track system, taking into account the cost of a suitable Mac and disk drives, could cost the best part of £15,000, while a full 16-track system with all the options and additions could cost over £45,000. So whichever applies to you - it's not the cheapest system available. However, when you take into account the expandability, the compatibility with a wide range of other hardware and software, the market-penetration of Digidesign systems, and the way the system is being developed on so many fronts, I believe that the Pro Tools system is probably the best and most cost-effective choice in many situations for professional audio recording, and particularly for post-production. Mike Collins © November 1993 Lexicon Digital Reverb Card for Digidesign Audio Systems: Digidesign and Lexicon, the leading manufacturer of digital effects devices, have recently announced a card-based digital reverb/effects product for Digidesign's hard disk digital audio systems. The card, which will be manufactured by Lexicon, will take advantage of Digidesign’s new TDM Digital Audio Bus technology. Digidesign's TDM Digital Audio Bus is a breakthrough technology that gives Digidesign systems an "open architecture" that lends itself to modular expansion with products from Digidesign and other developers. The technology consists of two components: a custom, Digidesign-engineered VLSI chip that powers a 256-channel, 24-bit digital audio bus for high speed, multi-channel audio routing; and a software “DSP Engine” that allows third parties to design audio software applications which utilize Digidesign cards’ on-board DSP capabilities for their audio processing power. Digidesign's new technology will allow users of Digidesign's Pro Tools and Sound Tools systems to create an all-digital audio production environment within their computer by installing card-based products—effects, samplers, and other devices—or software-based products in their computer. The Lexicon card is one of the first products to be announced that will take advantage of the TDM Bus technology. Currently there are around 30 thirdparty companies, from Lexicon to Kurzweil, developing products for the TDM system. Digidesign Sound Tools ProMaster 20, a 20-bit Recording & Editing System: Sound Tools ProMaster 20 is a stereo, 20-bit mixdown and mastering system for professional audio production. ProMaster 20 is based on Digidesign's acclaimed Sound Tools system, and builds on that product's reputation as the industry standard for 2-channel, direct-to-disk recording, editing and mastering. ProMaster 20 has all of the features that Sound Tools users have come to depend on, including waveform editing, extensive DSP functions, and playlist-style CD pre-mastering. What ProMaster 20 adds is the superior fidelity of true 20-bit digital audio, with converter technology developed by Ultra Analog of Fremont, California. Ultra Analog's A/D converters, which boast 128x oversampling in the A/D stage, are recognised industry-wide as being the best available for professional audio recording. Digital audio data is stored and maintained on disk at full 24-bit resolution throughout the signal chain, preventing any degradation of the signal through digital processing. The ProMaster 20’s additional four bits of data provides a true signal to noise ratio of 108 dB as opposed to a typical signal to noise ratio of 90dB in 16-bit systems. This additional 18dB of dynamic range provides additional headroom in the recording process and greatly improves fidelity in low-level signals. In addition, it allows for the ability to do signal processing without degradation, and results in a final product whose performance exceeds 16 bit resolution—as opposed to the typical 12- to 14-bit performance found in a 16 bit system after audio signals have undergone processing. The ProMaster 20 Audio Interface features sample-accurate digital metering; balanced, +4 analog inputs & outputs; AES/EBU digital inputs & outputs; and sample rates of 44.1 and 48 kHz. The system is compatible with all Mac II- and Quadra-series CPUs. ProMaster 20's combination of ultra high-fidelity 20-bit audio and industry-standard recording, editing and DSP processing capabilities make it an ideal tool for music recording, mixdown, mastering and archiving. Digidesign TDM Bus: The intriguingly named Trans-system Digital Matrix (TDM) Bus is an optional enhancement to the Pro Tools system. The TDM Bus features a 256channel, 24-bit “data highway” which allows high fidelity, high-bandwidth communication between the Pro Tools system and other software or hardware products from Digidesign and third-party developers. Based on time-domain multiplexing technology, the TDM Bus provides an open-ended, digital alternative to the analogue patchbay found in most studios. A TDMequipped Pro Tools system allows users to digitally connect both NuBus card-based and software-based products, as well as conventional studio outboard equipment such as reverbs, equalisers, other signal processors and other mixers. Once devices are connected to the TDM matrix, audio patching, routing and processing are all done within the digital domain, under software control. Digidesign’s TDM Starter Kit includes one Pro Tools TDM Module which plugs onto an existing 4-channel Pro Tools Audio card, and one DSP Farm (a high-performance, multi-DSP card used for signal mixing and processing), with software, cables, and accessories. This board will be used by both Digidesign and third-party companies to provide a range of digital effects for use within the system. Additional TDM Modules for 8 - 16 channel systems and for SampleCell II cards, as well as additional DSP farms will also be available. A choice of high-performance software ‘plug-ins’ which use the ‘DSP horse-power’ of the DSP Farm cards will provide features such as ‘designer’ reverbs, digital noise reduction, and other signal processing functions traditional found in outboard studio gear. The True Cost Of A Complete System: So let's take a look at the prices of complete systems with a selection of suitable peripherals including disk drives, and using realistic prices for the selected items: A full 16 track system with 4 Audio cards and a System Accelerator running on a Quadra 950 16/1 Gb with a 21" Apple colour monitor would cost about £22,000. To add a MicroLynx synchronizer, a CS10 controller, two DAC 1Gb Hard Disks for multitrack recording and one DAC 600 Mb Optical Disk for stereo mastering, could cost an additional £12,000. To include Sound Designer II and MasterList CD software, a Studio 5 Midi/SMPTE Interface, a SMPTE Slave Driver, Studio Vision software, and a Sony DTC 1000 for DAT backup and general use would add another £5,000 to your budget. A write-once CD recorder would cost at least £3,000, and a SampleCell II card with TurboSynth software and an Apple CD-ROM drive would cost about another £3000, making a total of around £45,000. An 8-track system based around a Quadra 950 16/1 Gb with 21" colour monitor, with maybe one DAC 1Gb and one DAC 600 Mb Optical, a Video Slave Driver, and a CS10, would cost about £20,000. Extras which you may wish to add to this type of mid-range Mac-workstation, such as Sound Designer II and DINR software, Studio Vision, a Midi Time Piece II, a Video Time Piece, a CD write-once system and a Sony DTC 1000, a SampleCell card and an Apple CD-ROM player, could add a further £10,000 - totalling around £30,000 for the complete system. A more modest 4-track system could use a Quadra 800 8/500 CD with a 16" Apple colour monitor, with maybe one DAC 1 GB Hard Disk and one DAC 128 MB Optical, and a CS10 totalling about £11,000. For additional SDII software, a copy of Studio Vision, an Opcode Studio 4, and a Sony DTC 1000 you would need about another £3000 - making around £14,000 in all. For cheaper systems substitute cheaper Macs, cheaper screens, cheaper disk drives, cheaper Midi interfaces, and do without any of the other extras. For instance, a 4-track system using a second-hand or some low-cost Mac and 13" Apple colour monitor priced at about £1250, a Micronet 1 GB hard disk at about £1000, and a Micronet 128 MB optical disk at about £1000, with no extra stuff included could be put together for around £8,000, and if you do without the optical drive you are down to about £7,000. Looking at these figures, prices (including a suitable Mac, disk drives, and other options) would seem to range from as little as £7,500 for a not very highly-specified four track system to as much as £45,000 for a top-of-the-line system with all the extras! Very roughly speaking, a decent 4-track setup might cost £14,000, 8-track might be about £30,000, and 16-track might be about £45,000. Of course, keen 'street prices' and dealer packages may well let you put systems together at even more favourable prices than these. UK Distributor: Contact: Tel: Digidesign UK Chas Smith 0483 740009 List Prices: Pro Tools Basic 4-Track System: (1 Card, 1 Interface, 1 Set of Software): £ 4665.00 + VAT Pro Tools Audio Card + Audio Interface: £ 3067.00 + VAT Pro Tools System Accelerator: £ 1533.00 + VAT Pro Tools Video Slave Driver: £ 775.00 + VAT Pro Tools SMPTE Slave Driver: £ 993.00 + VAT Pro Tools Expansion Chassis: £ 1797.00 + VAT ProMaster 20: £ 4597.00 + VAT TDM Starter Kit: £ 2665.00 + VAT Post View Software (use with Pro Tools): £1130.00 + VAT Sound Designer 2.5 Software: £763.00 + VAT DINR Sound Designer II Software: £763.00 + VAT MasterList CD Software (av. Dec 1993): £765.00 + VAT Pro Tools ADAT Interface: Available January 1994 SampleCell II Card (0Mb installed, takes up to 32 Mb of standard Macintosh 4Mb SIMMS): £1530.00 + VAT TurboSynth Software for use with SampleCell II: £267.00 + VAT Lexicon NuVerb: £ 1500.00 + VAT approx. DAC 540 MB Hard Disk: £800.00 + VAT DAC 1 GB Hard Disk: £1200.00 + VAT DAC 2 GB Hard Disk: £1800.00 + VAT DAC 600 MB Optical Drive: £1900.00 + VAT DAC 1 GB Optical Drive: £2950.00 + VAT DAC 128 MB Optical Drive: £1250.00 + VAT DAC 2 GB SCSI DAT for Backup: £1300.00 + VAT DAC 4 GB SCSI DAT for Backup: £1500.00 + VAT DAC 5 GB 8 mm (ExaByte) SCSI DAT for highest-reliability & fastest tape backup: £2600.00 + VAT JL Cooper CS10 Control Station: £1299 inc. VAT TimeLine MicroLynx: Two-Machine Controller: £2840.00 + VAT Third Machine Expander Card (required with Sony 5850): Video Sync Generator: £931.00 + VAT £227.00 + VAT ACG1 Audio Clock Generator Card for Pro Tools: £426.00 + VAT ACG2 card (features AES/EBU interface) £620.00 + VAT VITC reader: Available soon. Opcode Studio 5: £1099.95 inc. VAT Opcode Studio 4: £549.95 inc. VAT MotU Midi Time Piece II: £649 inc. VAT MotU Video Time Piece: £1195 inc. VAT Apple Macintosh Quadra 950 16/1 GB: £3295.00 + VAT Apple Macintosh Quadra 800 8/500 CD: £2395.00 + VAT Apple 21" Colour Monitor: £2495.00 + VAT Apple 16" Colour Monitor: £862.00 + VAT Apple CD300 CD-ROM drive: £275.00 + VAT Stand-alone version. £245.00 + VAT Internally mounted version. Macintosh 4Mb SIMMS: £135.00 + VAT Studio Vision inc. Galaxy: £499.95 inc. VAT Digital Performer: £699.00 inc. VAT Cubase Audio: £680.00 inc. VAT Notator Logic Audio: £574.00 inc. VAT