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103-476: Digidesign's flagship software product was Pro Tools , which came in three variants: Pro Tools|HD, Pro Tools LE, and Pro Tools M-Powered. Pro Tools|HD required a Digidesign TDM system and interface, and was intended for professional recording studios. Pro Tools LE was a complete package intended for home users and some post-production facilities. The package included the Pro Tools LE software and hardware such as

206-486: A capacitor to store the analog voltage at the input, and using an electronic switch or gate to disconnect the capacitor from the input. Many ADC integrated circuits include the sample and hold subsystem internally. An ADC works by sampling the value of the input at discrete intervals in time. Provided that the input is sampled above the Nyquist rate , defined as twice the highest frequency of interest, then all frequencies in

309-437: A digital encoder logic circuit that generates a binary number on the output lines for each voltage range. ADCs of this type have a large die size and high power dissipation. They are often used for video , wideband communications , or other fast signals in optical and magnetic storage . The circuit consists of a resistive divider network, a set of op-amp comparators and a priority encoder. A small amount of hysteresis

412-438: A saw-tooth signal that ramps up or down then quickly returns to zero. When the ramp starts, a timer starts counting. When the ramp voltage matches the input, a comparator fires, and the timer's value is recorded. Timed ramp converters can be implemented economically, however, the ramp time may be sensitive to temperature because the circuit generating the ramp is often a simple analog integrator . A more accurate converter uses

515-407: A virtual mixer . 16-bit, 24-bit, and 32-bit float audio bit depths at sample rates up to 192 kHz are supported. Pro Tools supports mixed bit depths and audio formats in a session: BWF / WAV (including WAVE Extensible, RF64 and BW64) and AIFF . It imports and exports MOV video files and ADM BWF files (audio files with Dolby Atmos metadata); it also imports MXF , ACID and REX files and

618-470: A 500 Hz sine wave. To avoid aliasing, the input to an ADC must be low-pass filtered to remove frequencies above half the sampling rate. This filter is called an anti-aliasing filter , and is essential for a practical ADC system that is applied to analog signals with higher frequency content. In applications where protection against aliasing is essential, oversampling may be used to greatly reduce or even eliminate it. Although aliasing in most systems

721-656: A circuit board for the processor, then developed the software to make it work with Sound Designer. A beta version of the DSP was ready by December 1988. The combination of the hardware and the software was called Sound Tools. Advertised as the "first tapeless studio", it was presented on January 20, 1989, at the NAMM International Music & Sound Expo . The system relied on a NuBus card called Sound Accelerator, equipped with one Motorola 56001 processor. The card provided 16-bit playback and 44.1/48 kHz recording through

824-491: A clocked counter driving a DAC. A special advantage of the ramp-compare system is that converting a second signal just requires another comparator and another register to store the timer value. To reduce sensitivity to input changes during conversion, a sample and hold can charge a capacitor with the instantaneous input voltage and the converter can time the time required to discharge with a constant current . An integrating ADC (also dual-slope or multi-slope ADC) applies

927-525: A constant current source . The time required to discharge the capacitor is proportional to the amplitude of the input voltage. While the capacitor is discharging, pulses from a high-frequency oscillator clock are counted by a register. The number of clock pulses recorded in the register is also proportional to the input voltage. If the analog value to measure is represented by a resistance or capacitance, then by including that element in an RC circuit (with other resistances or capacitances fixed) and measuring

1030-422: A digital number representing the magnitude of the voltage or current. Typically the digital output is a two's complement binary number that is proportional to the input, but there are other possibilities. There are several ADC architectures . Due to the complexity and the need for precisely matched components , all but the most specialized ADCs are implemented as integrated circuits (ICs). These typically take

1133-432: A faithful reproduction of the original signal is only possible if the sampling rate is higher than twice the highest frequency of the signal. Since a practical ADC cannot make an instantaneous conversion, the input value must necessarily be held constant during the time that the converter performs a conversion (called the conversion time ). An input circuit called a sample and hold performs this task—in most cases by using

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1236-465: A featured digital audio workstation . They discussed with E-mu the opportunity of using the Emulator III as a platform for their updated software, but E-mu rejected this offer. Therefore, they decided to design both the software and the hardware autonomously. Motorola , which was working on its 56K series of digital signal processors , invited the two to participate in its development. Brooks designed

1339-446: A flow of digital values. It is therefore required to define the rate at which new digital values are sampled from the analog signal. The rate of new values is called the sampling rate or sampling frequency of the converter. A continuously varying bandlimited signal can be sampled and then the original signal can be reproduced from the discrete-time values by a reconstruction filter . The Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem implies that

1442-430: A free version: Pro Tools Intro. Pro Tools was developed by UC Berkeley graduates Evan Brooks, who majored in electrical engineering and computer science , and Peter Gotcher. In 1983, the two friends, sharing an interest in music and electronic and software engineering, decided to study the memory mapping of the newly released E-mu Drumulator drum machine to create EPROM sound replacement chips. The Drumulator

1545-422: A known voltage charging and discharging curve that can be used to solve for an unknown analog value. The Wilkinson ADC was designed by Denys Wilkinson in 1950. The Wilkinson ADC is based on the comparison of an input voltage with that produced by a charging capacitor. The capacitor is allowed to charge until a comparator determines it matches the input voltage. Then, the capacitor is discharged linearly by using

1648-436: A longer time to measure than smaller one. And the accuracy is limited by the accuracy of the microcontroller clock and the amount of time available to measure the value, which potentially might even change during measurement or be affected by external parasitics . A direct-conversion or flash ADC has a bank of comparators sampling the input signal in parallel, each firing for a specific voltage range. The comparator bank feeds

1751-519: A machine containing one or more HD Core, Accel, or Native cards, the software ran as Pro Tools HD with the complete HD feature set. In all other cases, it ran as Pro Tools 9 standard, with a smaller track count and some advanced features turned off. In response to Apple's decision to include Emagic 's complete line of virtual instruments in Logic Pro in 2004 and following Avid 's acquisition of German virtual instruments developer Wizoo in 2005, Pro Tools 8

1854-476: A new implementation of RTAS with multi-threading support and improved performance, Region groups, Instrument tracks, and real-time MIDI processing, introduced with Pro Tools 7 in 2006; VCA and volume trim, introduced with Pro Tools 7.2 in 2006; support for ten track inserts, MIDI Editor, and MIDI Score, introduced with Pro Tools 8 in 2009. Pro Tools | MIX hardware support was dropped with version 6.4.1. Pro Tools LE, first introduced and distributed in 1999 with

1957-470: A new plug-in format for both Native and HDX systems called AAX (an acronym for Avid Audio eXtension). AAX Native replaced RTAS plug-ins and AAX DSP, a specific format running on HDX systems, replaced TDM plug-ins. AAX was developed to provide the future implementation of 64-bit plug-ins, although 32-bit versions of AAX were still used in Pro Tools 10. TDM support was dropped with HDX, while Pro Tools 10 would be

2060-589: A number of products for the Pro Tools platform, including several software plug-ins . They also manufacture a wide variety of hardware add-ons for Pro Tools, such as audio interfaces, MIDI interfaces, Synchronizers , and control surfaces . In the spring of 2005 they introduced a system for live sound mixing called VENUE . Digidesign Software was developed by UC Berkeley graduate Peter Gotcher and his friend Evan Brooks, both majors in electrical engineering and computer science. The first incarnation of today's Pro Tools started life in 1984 as Sound Designer, while

2163-409: A pulse of a particular amplitude is always converted to the same digital value. The problem lies in that the ranges of analog values for the digitized values are not all of the same widths, and the differential linearity decreases proportionally with the divergence from the average width. The sliding scale principle uses an averaging effect to overcome this phenomenon. A random, but known analog voltage

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2266-451: A sampler. It cannot improve the linearity, and thus accuracy does not necessarily improve. Quantization distortion in an audio signal of very low level with respect to the bit depth of the ADC is correlated with the signal and sounds distorted and unpleasant. With dithering, the distortion is transformed into noise. The undistorted signal may be recovered accurately by averaging over time. Dithering

2369-467: A sequencer and more tracks, with the system offering recording at 16-bit and 44.1 kHz. In 1997, Pro Tools had reached 24-bit and 48 track versions. At this point, the migration from more conventional studio technology to the Pro Tools platform took place within the industry. Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign ) for Microsoft Windows and macOS . It

2472-443: A single FPGA chip but did not mount DSP (audio processing relied on the host system's CPU). Round trip latency at 96 kHz was 0.7 ms for HDX and 1.7 ms for HD Native (with a 64-sample buffer). To maintain performance consistency, HDX products were specified with a fixed maximum number of voices (each voice representing a monophonic channel). Each HDX card enabled 256 simultaneous voices at 44.1/48 kHz; voice count halved when

2575-467: A two-channel A/D converter (AD In), while the DSP handled signal processing, which included a ten-band graphic equalizer , a parametric equalizer , time stretching with pitch preservation, fade-in/fade-out envelopes, and crossfades ("merging") between two sound files. Sound Tools was bundled with Sound Designer II software, which was, at this time, a simple mono or stereo audio editor running on Mac SE or Mac II ; digital audio acquisition from DAT

2678-451: Is a very small amount of random noise (e.g. white noise ), which is added to the input before conversion. Its effect is to randomize the state of the LSB based on the signal. Rather than the signal simply getting cut off altogether at low levels, it extends the effective range of signals that the ADC can convert, at the expense of a slight increase in noise. Dither can only increase the resolution of

2781-535: Is added to the sampled input voltage. It is then converted to digital form, and the equivalent digital amount is subtracted, thus restoring it to its original value. The advantage is that the conversion has taken place at a random point. The statistical distribution of the final levels is decided by a weighted average over a region of the range of the ADC. This in turn desensitizes it to the width of any specific level. These are several common ways of implementing an electronic ADC. Resistor-capacitor (RC) circuits have

2884-471: Is also used in integrating systems such as electricity meters . Since the values are added together, the dithering produces results that are more exact than the LSB of the analog-to-digital converter. Dither is often applied when quantizing photographic images to a fewer number of bits per pixel—the image becomes noisier but to the eye looks far more realistic than the quantized image, which otherwise becomes banded . This analogous process may help to visualize

2987-428: Is built into the comparator to resolve any problems at voltage boundaries. At each node of the resistive divider, a comparison voltage is available. The purpose of the circuit is to compare the analog input voltage with each of the node voltages. The circuit has the advantage of high speed as the conversion takes place simultaneously rather than sequentially. Typical conversion time is 100 ns or less. Conversion time

3090-487: Is characterized primarily by its sampling rate . The SNDR of an ADC is influenced by many factors, including the resolution , linearity and accuracy (how well the quantization levels match the true analog signal), aliasing and jitter . The SNDR of an ADC is often summarized in terms of its effective number of bits (ENOB), the number of bits of each measure it returns that are on average not noise . An ideal ADC has an ENOB equal to its resolution. ADCs are chosen to match

3193-421: Is done without overwriting the source files), track compositing with multiple playlists, time compression and expansion , pitch shifting , and faster-than-real-time mixdown. Audio, MIDI , and video tracks are graphically represented on a timeline. Audio effects , virtual instruments , and hardware emulators—such as microphone preamps or guitar amplifiers—can be added, adjusted, and processed in real-time in

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3296-427: Is limited only by the speed of the comparator and of the priority encoder. This type of ADC has the disadvantage that the number of comparators required almost doubles for each added bit. Also, the larger the value of n, the more complex is the priority encoder. A successive-approximation ADC uses a comparator and a binary search to successively narrow a range that contains the input voltage. At each successive step,

3399-459: Is the ADC's resolution in bits and E FSR is the full-scale voltage range (also called 'span'). E FSR is given by where V RefHi and V RefLow are the upper and lower extremes, respectively, of the voltages that can be coded. Normally, the number of voltage intervals is given by where M is the ADC's resolution in bits. That is, one voltage interval is assigned in between two consecutive code levels. Example: In many cases,

3502-414: Is the number of ADC bits. Clock jitter is caused by phase noise . The resolution of ADCs with a digitization bandwidth between 1 MHz and 1 GHz is limited by jitter. For lower bandwidth conversions such as when sampling audio signals at 44.1 kHz, clock jitter has a less significant impact on performance. An analog signal is continuous in time and it is necessary to convert this to

3605-407: Is uniformly distributed between − 1 ⁄ 2 LSB and + 1 ⁄ 2 LSB, and the signal has a uniform distribution covering all quantization levels, the signal-to-quantization-noise ratio (SQNR) is given by where Q is the number of quantization bits. For example, for a 16-bit ADC, the quantization error is 96.3 dB below the maximum level. Quantization error is distributed from DC to

3708-404: Is unwanted, it can be exploited to provide simultaneous down-mixing of a band-limited high-frequency signal (see undersampling and frequency mixer ). The alias is effectively the lower heterodyne of the signal frequency and sampling frequency. For economy, signals are often sampled at the minimum rate required with the result that the quantization error introduced is white noise spread over

3811-442: Is used for music creation and production, sound for picture ( sound design , audio post-production and mixing ) and, more generally, sound recording , editing, and mastering processes. Pro Tools operates both as standalone software and in conjunction with a range of external analog-to-digital converters and PCIe cards with on-board digital signal processors (DSP). The DSP is used to provide additional processing power to

3914-475: The Nyquist frequency . Consequently, if part of the ADC's bandwidth is not used, as is the case with oversampling , some of the quantization error will occur out-of-band , effectively improving the SQNR for the bandwidth in use. In an oversampled system, noise shaping can be used to further increase SQNR by forcing more quantization error out of band. In ADCs, performance can usually be improved using dither . This

4017-470: The bandlimited analog input signal. The resolution of the converter indicates the number of different, i.e. discrete, values it can produce over the allowed range of analog input values. Thus a particular resolution determines the magnitude of the quantization error and therefore determines the maximum possible signal-to-noise ratio for an ideal ADC without the use of oversampling . The input samples are usually stored electronically in binary form within

4120-463: The effective number of bits (ENOB) below that predicted by quantization error alone. The error is zero for DC, small at low frequencies, but significant with signals of high amplitude and high frequency. The effect of jitter on performance can be compared to quantization error: Δ t < 1 2 q π f 0 {\displaystyle \Delta t<{\frac {1}{2^{q}\pi f_{0}}}} , where q

4223-873: The lossy formats MP3 , AAC , M4A , and audio from video files ( MOV , MP4 , M4V ). The legacy SDII format was dropped with Pro Tools 10, although SDII conversion is still possible on macOS. Pro Tools has incorporated video editing capabilities, so users can import and manipulate high-definition video file formats such as XDCAM, MJPG-A, PhotoJPG, DV25, QuickTime , and more. It features time code , tempo maps, elastic audio, and automation ; supports mixing in surround sound , Dolby Atmos and VR sound using Ambisonics . The Pro Tools TDM mix engine, supported until 2011 with version 10, employed 24-bit fixed-point arithmetic for plug-in processing and 48-bit for mixing. Current HDX hardware systems, HD Native and native systems use 32-bit floating-point resolution for plug-ins and 64-bit floating-point summing. The software and

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4326-408: The signal-to-noise ratio performance of the ADC and thus reduce its effective resolution. When digitizing a sine wave x ( t ) = A sin ⁡ ( 2 π f 0 t ) {\displaystyle x(t)=A\sin {(2\pi f_{0}t)}} , the use of a non-ideal sampling clock will result in some uncertainty in when samples are recorded. Provided that

4429-421: The ADC, so the resolution is usually expressed as the audio bit depth . In consequence, the number of discrete values available is usually a power of two. For example, an ADC with a resolution of 8 bits can encode an analog input to one in 256 different levels (2  = 256). The values can represent the ranges from 0 to 255 (i.e. as unsigned integers) or from −128 to 127 (i.e. as signed integer), depending on

4532-602: The Digi 001 interface, was a specific Pro Tools version in which the signal processing entirely relied on the host CPU. The software required a Digidesign interface to run, which acted as a copy-protection mechanism for the software. Mbox was the entry-level range of the available interface; Digi 001 and Digi 002/003, which also provided a control surface, were the upper range. The Eleven Rack also ran on Pro Tools LE, included in-box DSP processing via an FPGA chip, offloading guitar amp/speaker emulation, and guitar effects plug-in processing to

4635-577: The Disk I/O card incorporated a high-speed SCSI along with DSP chips, while the upgraded DSP Farm PCI card included four Motorola 56002 chips running at 66 MHz. This change of architecture allowed the convergence of Macintosh computers with Intel -based PCs, for which PCI had become the standard internal communication bus. With the PCI version of Digidesign's Audiomedia card in 1997 (Audiomedia III), Sound Tools and Pro Tools could be run on Windows platforms for

4738-452: The M-Box 2 or Digi 003. Pro Tools M-Powered was simply the Pro Tools application adapted to run on M-Audio hardware, and generally comparable in power to an LE system. In 2010, these various editions of Pro Tools were mostly abandoned and it is now being sold by Avid as a singular software product, with the level of functionality dependent on the hardware chosen by the user. Digidesign also made

4841-458: The Motorola 56301 chips mounted on MIX cards; this translated to about twice the power for a single card. A system could combine one HD Core card with up to two HD Process cards, supporting playback for 96/48/12 tracks at 48/96/192 kHz sample rates (with a single HD Core card installed) and 128/64/24 tracks at 48/96/192 kHz sample rates (with one or two HD Process cards). When Apple changed

4944-446: The OSC's engineers who developed Deck, split from Digidesign to focus on releasing lower-cost multi-track software that would run on computers with no additional hardware. This software was known as Session (for stereo-only audio cards) and Session 8 (for multichannel audio interfaces) and was selling for US$ 399. Peter Gotcher felt that the software needed a significant rewrite. Pro Tools II,

5047-469: The Pro Tools environment, allowing a more meticulous and effortless editing workflow (especially on vocals). While consolidating its presence in professional studios, Digidesign began to target the mid-range consumer market in 1999 by introducing the Digi001 bundle, consisting of a rack-mount audio interface with eight inputs and outputs with 24-bit, 44.1/48 kHz capability and MIDI connections. The package

5150-622: The Sound Accelerator card. External synchronization with audio and video tape machines was possible with SMPTE timecode and the Video Slave drivers. The complete system was selling for US$ 6,000. Sound Tools II was launched in 1992 with a new DSP card. Two interfaces were also released: Pro Master 20, providing 20-bit A/D conversion, and Audiomedia II, with improved digital converters and one Motorola 56001 processor running at 33.86 MHz. In 1993, Josh Rosen, Mats Myrberg and John Dalton,

5253-519: The actual sampling time uncertainty due to clock jitter is Δ t {\displaystyle \Delta t} , the error caused by this phenomenon can be estimated as E a p ≤ | x ′ ( t ) Δ t | ≤ 2 A π f 0 Δ t {\displaystyle E_{ap}\leq |x'(t)\Delta t|\leq 2A\pi f_{0}\Delta t} . This will result in additional recorded noise that will reduce

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5356-409: The application. Resolution can also be defined electrically, and expressed in volts . The change in voltage required to guarantee a change in the output code level is called the least significant bit (LSB) voltage. The resolution Q of the ADC is equal to the LSB voltage. The voltage resolution of an ADC is equal to its overall voltage measurement range divided by the number of intervals: where M

5459-432: The audio engine were adapted to 64-bit architecture from version 11. In 2022, Avid switched Pro Tools from a perpetual license to a subscription model. New users have to choose between three new plans: Pro Tools Artist, which costs $ 9.99 per month or $ 99 per year; Pro Tools Studio, which costs $ 39.99 per month or $ 299 per year; and Pro Tools Flex, which costs $ 99.99 per month or $ 999 per year. Later in 2022, Avid launched

5562-601: The bandwidth and required SNDR of the signal to be digitized. If an ADC operates at a sampling rate greater than twice the bandwidth of the signal, then per the Nyquist–Shannon sampling theorem , near-perfect reconstruction is possible. The presence of quantization error limits the SNDR of even an ideal ADC. However, if the SNDR of the ADC exceeds that of the input signal, then the effects of quantization error may be neglected, resulting in an essentially perfect digital representation of

5665-422: The best-selling digital audio workstation. In 1994, Pro Tools 2.5 implemented Digidesign's newly developed time-division multiplexing technology, which allowed routing of multiple digital audio streams between DSP cards. With TDM, up to four NuBus cards could be linked, obtaining a 16-track system, while multiple DSP-based plug-ins could be run simultaneously and in real-time. The wider bandwidth required to run

5768-415: The converter compares the input voltage to the output of an internal digital-to-analog converter (DAC) which initially represents the midpoint of the allowed input voltage range. At each step in this process, the approximation is stored in a successive approximation register (SAR) and the output of the digital-to-analog converter is updated for a comparison over a narrower range. A ramp-compare ADC produces

5871-660: The decade, while editing features such as Beat Detective (introduced with Pro Tools 5.1 in 2001) and Elastic Audio (introduced with Pro Tools 7.4 in 2007) redefined the workflow adopted in contemporary music production. Other software milestones were background tasks processing (such as fade rendering, file conversion or relinking), real-time insertion of TDM plug-ins during playback, and a browser/database environment introduced with Pro Tools 6 in 2003; Automatic plug-in Delay Compensation (ADC), introduced with Pro Tools 6.4 in 2004 and only available with TDM systems with HD Accel;

5974-417: The effect of dither on an analog audio signal that is converted to digital. An ADC has several sources of errors. Quantization error and (assuming the ADC is intended to be linear) non- linearity are intrinsic to any analog-to-digital conversion. These errors are measured in a unit called the least significant bit (LSB). In the above example of an eight-bit ADC, an error of one LSB is 1 ⁄ 256 of

6077-462: The expansion slot architecture of the Mac G5 to PCI Express , Digidesign launched a line of PCIe DSP cards that both adopted the new card slot format and slightly changed the combination of chips. HD Process cards were replaced with HD Accel, each mounting nine Motorola 56321 chips running at 200 MHz and each providing twice the power than an HD Process card; track count for systems mounting an HD Accel

6180-472: The final release for Pro Tools | HD Process and Accel systems. Analog-to-digital converter In electronics , an analog-to-digital converter ( ADC , A/D , or A-to-D ) is a system that converts an analog signal , such as a sound picked up by a microphone or light entering a digital camera , into a digital signal . An ADC may also provide an isolated measurement such as an electronic device that converts an analog input voltage or current to

6283-575: The first software release fully developed by Digidesign, followed in the same year and addressed its predecessor's weaknesses. The editor and the mixer were merged into a single Pro Tools application that utilized the Digidesign Audio Engine (DAE) created by Peter Richert. DAE was also provided as a separate application to favor hardware support from third-party developers, enabling the use of Pro Tools hardware and plug-ins on other DAWs. Selling more than 8,000 systems worldwide, Pro Tools II became

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6386-586: The first time. With the release of Pro Tools | 24 in 1997, Digidesign introduced a new 24-bit interface (the 888|24) and a new PCI card (the d24). The d24 relied on Motorola 56301 processors, offering increased processing power and 24 tracks of 24-bit audio (later increased to 32 tracks with a DAE software update). A SCSI accelerator was required to keep up with the increased data throughput . Digidesign dropped its proprietary SCSI controller in favor of commercially available ones. 64 tracks with dual d24 support were introduced with Pro Tools 4.1.1 in 1998, while

6489-442: The form of metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) mixed-signal integrated circuit chips that integrate both analog and digital circuits . A digital-to-analog converter (DAC) performs the reverse function; it converts a digital signal into an analog signal. An ADC converts a continuous-time and continuous-amplitude analog signal to a discrete-time and discrete-amplitude digital signal . The conversion involves quantization of

6592-499: The full signal range, or about 0.4%. All ADCs suffer from nonlinearity errors caused by their physical imperfections, causing their output to deviate from a linear function (or some other function, in the case of a deliberately nonlinear ADC) of their input. These errors can sometimes be mitigated by calibration , or prevented by testing. Important parameters for linearity are integral nonlinearity and differential nonlinearity . These nonlinearities introduce distortion that can reduce

6695-449: The host computer for processing real-time effects , such as reverb , equalization , and compression and to obtain lower latency audio performance. Like all digital audio workstation software, Pro Tools can perform the functions of a multitrack tape recorder and a mixing console along with additional features that can only be performed in the digital domain, such as non-linear and non-destructive editing (most of audio handling

6798-413: The input, so it necessarily introduces a small amount of quantization error . Furthermore, instead of continuously performing the conversion, an ADC does the conversion periodically, sampling the input, and limiting the allowable bandwidth of the input signal. The performance of an ADC is primarily characterized by its bandwidth and signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SNDR). The bandwidth of an ADC

6901-851: The interface, allowing them to run without taxing the host system. Pro Tools LE shared the same interface of Pro Tools HD but had a smaller track count (24 tracks with Pro Tools 5, extended to 32 tracks with Pro Tools 6 and 48 tracks with Pro Tools 8) and supported a maximum sample rate of 96 kHz (depending on the interface used). Some advanced software features, such as Automatic Delay Compensation, surround mixing, multi-track Beat Detective, OMF/AAF support, and SMPTE Timecode , were omitted. Some of them, as well as support for 48 tracks/96 voices (extended to 64 tracks/128 voices with Pro Tools 8) and additional plug-ins, were made available through an expansion package called "Music Production Toolkit". The "Complete Production Toolkit", introduced with Pro Tools 8, added support for surround mixing and 128 tracks (while

7004-405: The introduction of surround sound mixing and multichannel plug-ins—up to the 7.1 format —with Pro Tools TDM 5.1 in 2001. The migration from traditional, tape-based analog studio technology to the Pro Tools platform took place within the industry: Ricky Martin 's " Livin' la Vida Loca " (1999) was the first Billboard Hot 100 number-one single to be recorded, edited, and mixed entirely within

7107-487: The larger number of tracks was achieved with a SCSI expansion card developed by Grey Matter Response, called System Accelerator. In the same year, Digidesign announced that it merged into the American multimedia company Avid , developer of the digital video editing platform Media Composer and one of Digidesign's major customers (25% of Sound Accelerator and Audiomedia cards produced was being bought by Avid). The operation

7210-494: The logarithm of the resolution, i.e. the number of bits. Flash ADCs are certainly the fastest type of the three; The conversion is basically performed in a single parallel step. There is a potential tradeoff between speed and precision. Flash ADCs have drifts and uncertainties associated with the comparator levels results in poor linearity. To a lesser extent, poor linearity can also be an issue for successive-approximation ADCs. Here, nonlinearity arises from accumulating errors from

7313-561: The pair thought to design a more functional and flexible solution which could take advantage of a graphical interface. In collaboration with E-Mu , they developed a Mac-based visual sample editing system for the Emulator II keyboard, called Sound Designer, released under the Digidesign brand and inspired by the interface of the Fairlight CMI . This system, the first ancestor of Pro Tools,

7416-617: The pair were creating and selling drum sound chips under their Digidrums label. Sound Designer was originally designed to edit sounds for sampling synthesizers like the Prophet 2000, Ensoniq Mirage, Akai s900 and the E-MU Emulator sampling keyboard. Sounds would be sampled into the synth and transferred onto the Mac. Here, the user could manipulate the sample's sound—EQ, amplitude, etc.; truncate to save memory; or set loop points; and then transfer back into

7519-410: The performance of the ADC can be greatly increased at little or no cost. Furthermore, as any aliased signals are also typically out of band, aliasing can often be eliminated using very low cost filters. The speed of an ADC varies by type. The Wilkinson ADC is limited by the clock rate which is processable by current digital circuits. For a successive-approximation ADC , the conversion time scales with

7622-623: The playback of 16 tracks. A dedicated SCSI card was still required to provide the required bandwidth to support multiple-card systems. Along with Pro Tools III, Digidesign launched the 888 interface, with eight channels of analog and digital I/O, and the cheaper 882 interface. The Session 8 system included a control surface with eight faders. A series of TDM plug-ins were bundled with the software, including dynamics processing , EQ, delay, modulation, and reverb . In 1996, following Apple's decision to drop NuBus in favor of PCI bus , Digidesign added PCI support with Pro Tools 3.21. The PCI version of

7725-513: The possibility of integrating their renamed 'Sound Tools' software into the Emulator III keyboard released in 1987; however, E-MU rejected this option, and Gotcher and Brooks went on to start DigiDrums. Sound Tools was debuted at the NAMM Show on January 20, 1989. At this stage, Sound Tools was a simple computer-based stereo audio editor. Although the software had the possibility to do far more, it

7828-502: The previous 24-bit and 48-bit fixed-point resolution of the TDM engine), thus improving dynamic range performance. Signal processing could be run on the embedded DSP, providing additional computational power and enabling near zero-latency for DSP-reliant plug-ins. Two FPGA chips handled track playback, monitoring, and internal routing, providing a lower round trip latency. A second line of PCIe cards, called HD Native, provided low latency with

7931-628: The printed source code to a 68000 assembly language interrupt-driven MIDI driver, was distributed through Macintosh MIDI interface manufacturer Assimilation, which manufactured the first MIDI interface for the Mac in 1985. Starting from the same year, a dial-up service provided by Beaverton Digital Systems, called MacMusic, allowed Sound Designer users to download and install the entire Emulator II sound library to other less expensive samplers: sample libraries could be shared across different manufacturers platforms without copyright infringement. MacMusic contributed to Sound Designer's success by leveraging both

8034-415: The sample rate doubled (128 voices at 88.2/96 kHz, 64 voices at 176.4/192 kHz). Up to three HDX cards could be installed on a single system for a maximum of 768/384/192 total voices and for increased processing power. On Native systems, voice count was limited to 96/48/24 voices with the standard version of Pro Tools and 256/128/64 voices with Pro Tools HD software. With Pro Tools 10, Avid deployed

8137-499: The signal can be reconstructed. If frequencies above half the Nyquist rate are sampled, they are incorrectly detected as lower frequencies, a process referred to as aliasing. Aliasing occurs because instantaneously sampling a function at two or fewer times per cycle results in missed cycles, and therefore the appearance of an incorrectly lower frequency. For example, a 2 kHz sine wave being sampled at 1.5 kHz would be reconstructed as

8240-432: The software (Pro Tools 6) with new features and a redesigned GUI, developed for OS X and Windows XP . Two HD interfaces could be linked together for increased I/O through a proprietary connection. The base system was selling for US$ 12,000, while the full system was selling for US$ 20,000. Both HD Core and Process cards mounted nine Motorola 56361 chips running at 100 MHz, each providing 25% more processing power than

8343-414: The software was still limited by their performance; densely edited tracks could cause glitches. However, the rapidly evolving computer technology allowed developments towards a multi-track sequencer. The core engine and much of the user interface of the first iteration of Pro Tools was based on Deck. The software, published in 1990, was the first multi-track digital recorder based on a personal computer. It

8446-479: The software. Any audio device could be used through Core Audio on macOS or the ASIO driver on a Windows. Core Audio allowed device aggregation, enabling using of more than one interface simultaneously. Some Pro Tools HD software features, such as automatic plug-in delay compensation, OMF/AAF file import, Timecode ruler, and multi-track Beat Detective, were included in the standard version of Pro Tools 9. When operating on

8549-406: The subtraction processes. Wilkinson ADCs have the best linearity of the three. The sliding scale or randomizing method can be employed to greatly improve the linearity of any type of ADC, but especially flash and successive approximation types. For any ADC the mapping from input voltage to digital output value is not exactly a floor or ceiling function as it should be. Under normal conditions,

8652-539: The synth for playback. The software was originally written for editing drum samples and then for burning new chips for the LinnDrum era drum machines. The SDII (Sound Designer II, sometimes seen abbreviated as SD2) is a monophonic/stereophonic audio file format, originally developed by Digidesign for their Macintosh-based recording/editing products. It is the successor to the original monophonic Sound Designer I audio file format. Gotcher and Brooks discussed with E-MU Systems

8755-482: The system was still limited to 128 voices). With the acquisition of M-Audio in 2004–2005, Digidesign released a specific variant of Pro Tools, called M-Powered , which was equivalent to Pro Tools LE and could be run with M-Audio interfaces. The Pro Tools LE/ M-Powered line was discontinued with the release of Pro Tools 9. Pro Tools 9, released in November 2010, dropped the requirement of proprietary hardware to run

8858-415: The time it takes to charge (and/or discharge) its capacitor from 1 ⁄ 3   V supply to 2 ⁄ 3   V supply . By sending this pulse into a microcontroller with an accurate clock, the duration of the pulse can be measured and converted using the capacitor charging equation to produce the value of the unknown resistance or capacitance. Larger resistances and capacitances will take

8961-550: The time to charge the capacitance from a known starting voltage to another known ending voltage through the resistance from a known voltage supply, the value of the unknown resistance or capacitance can be determined using the capacitor charging equation: V capacitor ( t ) = V supply ( 1 − e − t R C ) {\displaystyle V_{\text{capacitor}}(t)=V_{\text{supply}}\left(1-e^{-{\frac {t}{RC}}}\right)} and solving for

9064-496: The universal file format and developing the first online sample file download site globally, many years before the World Wide Web use soared. The service used 2400- baud modems and 100 MB of disk space with Red Ryder host on a 1 MB Macintosh Plus . With the release of Apple Macintosh II in 1987, which provided card slots, a hard disk, and more capable memory, Brooks and Gotcher saw the possibility to evolve Sound Designer into

9167-411: The unknown input voltage to the input of an integrator and allows the voltage to ramp for a fixed time period (the run-up period). Then a known reference voltage of opposite polarity is applied to the integrator and is allowed to ramp until the integrator output returns to zero (the run-down period). The input voltage is computed as a function of the reference voltage, the constant run-up time period, and

9270-464: The unknown resistance or capacitance using those starting and ending datapoints. This is similar but contrasts to the Wilkinson ADC which measures an unknown voltage with a known resistance and capacitance, by instead measuring an unknown resistance or capacitance with a known voltage. For example, the positive (and/or negative) pulse width from a 555 Timer IC in monostable or astable mode represents

9373-488: The updated Pro Tools | 24 MIX system provided three times more DSP power with the MIX Core DSP cards. MIXplus systems combined a MIX Core with a MIX Farm, obtaining a performance increase of 700% compared to a Pro Tools | 24 system. Pro Tools 5 saw two substantial software developments: extended MIDI functionality and integration in 1999 (an editable piano-roll view in the editor; MIDI automation, quantize and transpose) and

9476-418: The useful resolution of a converter is limited by the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and other errors in the overall system expressed as an ENOB. Quantization error is introduced by the quantization inherent in an ideal ADC. It is a rounding error between the analog input voltage to the ADC and the output digitized value. The error is nonlinear and signal-dependent. In an ideal ADC, where the quantization error

9579-433: The whole passband of the converter. If a signal is sampled at a rate much higher than the Nyquist rate and then digitally filtered to limit it to the signal bandwidth produces the following advantages: Oversampling is typically used in audio frequency ADCs where the required sampling rate (typically 44.1 or 48 kHz) is very low compared to the clock speed of typical transistor circuits (>1 MHz). In this case,

9682-549: Was also possible. A two-channel digital interface (DAT-I/O) with AES/EBU and S/PDIF connections was made available later in 1989, while the Pro I/O interface came out in 1990 with 18-bit converters. The file format used by Sound Designer II (SDII) became eventually a standard for digital audio file exchange until the WAV file format took over a decade later. Since audio streaming and non-destructive editing were performed on hard drives,

9785-441: Was developed by OSC, a small San Francisco company founded the same year, in conjunction with Digidesign and ran on Digidesign's hardware. Deck could run four audio tracks with automation; MIDI sequencing was possible during playback and record, and one effect combination could be assigned to each audio track (2-band parametric equalizer, 1-band EQ with delay , 1-band EQ with chorus , delay with chorus). The first Pro Tools system

9888-573: Was distributed with Pro Tools LE, a specific version of the software without DSP support, limited to 24 mixing tracks. Following the launch of Mac OS X operating system in 2001, Digidesign made a substantial redesign of Pro Tools hardware and software. Pro Tools | HD was launched in 2002, replacing the Pro Tools | 24 system and relying on a new range of DSP cards (HD Core and HD Process, replacing MIX Core and MIX Farm), new interfaces running at up to 192 kHz or 96 kHz sample rates (HD 192 and 96, replacing 888 and 882), along with an updated version of

9991-440: Was extended to 192/96/36 tracks at 48/96/192 kHz sample rates. The use of PCI Express connection reduced round-trip delay time , while DSP audio processing allowed the use of smaller hardware buffer sizes during recording, assuring stable performance with extremely low latency. Pro Tools, offering a solid and reliable alternative to analog recording and mixing, eventually became a standard in professional studios throughout

10094-513: Was finalized in 1995. With a redesigned Disk I/O card, Pro Tools III was able to provide 16 tracks with a single NuBus card; the system could be expanded using TDM to up to three Disk I/O cards, achieving 48 tracks. DSP Farm cards were introduced to increase the processing power needed for a more extensive real-time audio processing; each card was equipped with three Motorola 56001 chips running at 40 MHz. Multiple DSP cards could be added for additional processing power; each card could handle

10197-420: Was launched on June 5, 1991. It was based on an adapted version of Deck (ProDeck) along with Digidesign's new editing software, ProEdit, created by Mark Jeffery; Sound Designer II was still supplied for two-channel editing. Pro Tools relied on Digidesign's Audiomedia card, mounting one Motorola 56001 processor with a clock rate of 22.58 MHz and offering two analog and two digital channels of I/O , and on

10300-512: Was limited by the hard drive technology, which was used to stream the audio and allow for the non-destructive editing that Sound Tools offered. Independent public radio producers soon discovered the power and economy of Sound Tools as an alternative to traditional analog tape, sparking the transition to digital program production and distribution in radio. The first version of Pro Tools was launched in 1991, offering four tracks and selling for US$ 6,000. Digidesign continued to improve Pro Tools, adding

10403-514: Was quite popular at that time, although it was limited to its built-in samples. They started selling the upgrade chips one year later under their new Digidrums label. Five different upgrade chips were available, offering different alternate drum styles. The chips, easily switchable with the original ones, enjoyed remarkable success between the Drumulator users, selling 60,000 units overall. When Apple released its first Macintosh computer in 1984,

10506-478: Was released in 1985 at the price of US$ 995. Brooks and Gotcher rapidly ported Sound Designer to many other sampling keyboards, such as E-mu Emax , Akai S900 , Sequential Prophet 2000 , Korg DSS-1 , and Ensoniq Mirage . Thanks to the universal file specification subsequently developed by Brooks with version 1.5, Sound Designer files could be transferred via MIDI between sampling keyboards of different manufacturers. This universal file specification, along with

10609-626: Was supplied with its first built-in virtual instruments library, the AIR Creative Collection, as well as with some new plug-ins, to make it more appealing for music production. An expansion was also available, called AIR Complete Collection. In October 2011, Avid introduced Pro Tools 10 and a new series of DSP PCIe cards named HDX. Each card mounted 18 DSP processors, manufactured by Texas Instruments, allowing an increased computational precision ( 32-bit floating-point resolution for audio processing and 64-bit floating-point summing, versus

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