PRO TOOLS 8 REVIEW

PRO TOOLS 8:
INSTALL SIZE: 4 GIGS
SAMPLE PACK: 5+ GIGS
OPERATING SYSTEM: 0S X 10.5 OR HIGHER/VISTA
PT8

As a user of ProTools 7.3/7.4 I have found my system to be very stable. I remember back in PT 6.4 the stability of that build to be a little shaky but maybe that was my rubbish computer, who knows? Anyway, I have allot to compare PT8 to, Logic 8 and the earlier PT 7.4. My 7.4 system runs flawlessly so moving to a new operating system was a pain in the banger. I downloaded PT 8 on a Eircom broadband connection at 700kbps which is pretty fast so in terms of Digidesign and their purchasing service I found it to be outstanding. It just worked well, let's put it that way. So after 5.5 hours I installed my new OS X and PT 8 and launched the beast.

Now I have to be honest in this review so here we go. PT 8 has a spooky kind of dark halloween Logic rip off feel to it and I am not sure if I am liking the new look at all. PT 8 has got a beautiful new lick of paint but the selection of dark browns and greens just reminds me of logic 8. In PT 7.4 I liked the grey, the white and the blandness, it was simple. It looked simple and was easy to navigate. Here, like in Logic everything is crammed onto the page like an overproduced Timberland track.

Taking a look at the positives it is very nice to see how much more power is now available to the PT user. With a massive track count of 48 in LE, 64 with the DV toolkit and 128 with the DV Production kit 2... I as an LE chap am very impressed with the higher track count. Secondly I can now run 10 plug ins simultaneously on my mono/stereo inserts should I need to be a fat greedy plug-in pig beast.

The new midi editor is very sweet and allows midi manipulation to happen at a touch. Just like in Reason 4 you have lanes with vol,pan,fx etc.. which is very nice. I haven't gone near the audio comping tool yet but it has a star rating system where you can rate the best takes from 1-5 which is very handy for the perfectionist or as mentioned above the Timberland kind of producer.


Now I am in a position to compare the PT 7.4 version to PT 8 and the issue with moving to 8 is that you have to upgrade your system and plug ins, to me personally just as I am feeling SAFE with a very reliable PT DAW I am being drawn to a new version like a donkey to a carrot. You see from what I can tell PT 8 is full of bugs. Communication errors and lack of stability are undoubtably questioned as it is only PT 8.0 NOT 8.9.

As a result I will keep working professionally on PT 7.4 and Logic 8. Both these well tested systems have been fixed and bug tested and fixed again so it is a safer road for now. It will be 6 months down the road before we see an update or patch that addresses these issues and we must not forget how new OS X is either.

PT 8 comes with some new plug-ins that in all honesty do not compare to the Logic plug-ins. These AIR plug-ins are very cool indeed and one will do some nice stuff with them no doubt.

So here is the beef. Logic just seems so much more Native friendly. You rarely run out of power with a decent MAC and Logic 8 but in PT 8 you do and you chop and change so much more that it breaks the fun of MAKING MUSIC.

I cannot believe I am saying this but until I go HD (if I ever do) I will be sticking with Logic 8 and my wonderfully creative and stable PT 7.4.

PT 8 will keep getting more stable and there will come a time where I will delete Tiger and 7.4 but not just yet.