Avid’s latest iteration of Pro Tools, version 11, brings some fantastic new features to the world of post production sound.  Some of the best additions include offline bounce, full native 64-bit support, new metering ballistics, gain reduction metering for all tracks, and native support for Avid video codecs like DNxHD.  Let’s look closer at a few of these.

Possibly the most coveted feature of Pro Tools 11 is offline bounce.  In Pro Tools 10 and older, bouncing your mix to a stem in order to match back to picture was always a real-time task.  If you were working on a 90-minute feature, you had print stems for 90 minutes.  You can check out our previous post about printing internal mix stems to see how this is traditionally done.

In Pro Tools 11 this monotonous task becomes dramatically faster.  You can simply choose to offline-bounce the audio going to one or more outputs or busses, and it’s achieved as fast as your system can handle.  It’s possible to bounce stems at 60x speed or faster, meaning a 90-minute feature mix stem can be output in less than 2 minutes.  You can also choose to automatically import your bounced stem right back into your session.  The time-saving implications of this new workflow are huge!

Another new feature of Pro Tools 11 that is great for post is the addition of improved meters with multiple ballistics options on the mix page.

First off, the meters on the mix page are now 30% taller.  This change alone allows for a more accurate view of the levels in your mix.  There are now 17 different options for metering ballistics.  The ballistics of a meter refer to the characteristics of its response to incoming signal level.  How quickly does it respond to peaks?  How long does it sustain on RMS level?  Does it better represent the average signal level or instantaneous changes?  Different meter ballistics lend themselves to different content styles, so having 17 different types to choose from in Pro Tools 11 is a big plus.

Of all the new options for ballistics, the two that probably best serve post production sound mixing are the new K-20 scale and K-14 scale.  The K-System is a metering scale invented by mastering engineer Bob Katz as a means to combat the loudness wars in music.  If everyone agrees on a standard loudness range to work within, dynamic range and musicality can be better preserved.  Of course theatrical mixing has long-since had an agreed-upon standard whereby 85dB SPL in the theater is calibrated to -20dBFS in the DAW.  K-20 scale meters are the best match for this, as they reference 0dB on the meter to -20dBFS just like a typical setup with the popular Dorrough meters.

Another great new feature of the Pro Tools 11 meters is the addition of a gain reduction meter.  Any track that has a dynamics plugin instantiated on it will now show a downward-firing orange meter representing the total amount of gain reduction taking place on that track.  This is a fantastic quick visual indicator of how much compression you are introducing on each track without having to display each compression plugin.

Another new meter that is introduced in Pro Tools 11 is a signal meter on each plugin insert on the mix window.  Now every single plugin has a tiny meter on the right-hand side of its insert point on the mix window, giving you simple visual feedback to know what plugins are currently receiving signal.  The meter is far too short to meaningfully evaluate level, but even just confirming the presence of signal is quite useful.

Another tidbit for us post sound professionals is the inclusion of satellite link at no extra cost.  You can now link up to 12 Pro Tools rigs across a network connection without having to pay extra for the feature!  Since we do this all the time in post sound, it’s a nice plus for Avid to stop up-charging for the privilege.

There are a ton of other new features in Pro Tools 11 that would take all day to cover, but these are a few of the post production sound-oriented highlights.  What are your favorite new features?  Post a comment and let us know!