Avid will soon begin offering packages of its M-Audio branded audio hardware bundled with an entry-level package of its Pro Tools recording software that could well make a dent in the progress Apple has lately made with Garage Band.
Three offerings priced under $130 will make it easy for first-time Pro Tools users to easily create and record music at home using Avid’s Key, Recording and Vocal studio products with the included Pro Tools SE recording software. Whatever Pro Tools SE may lack in Garage Band’s take-you-by-the-hand user friendliness, it more than makes up for in multi-track recording capability and direct compatibility with higher-end professional grade Pro Tools installations.
Recent updates to Apple’s iLife suite of software included a revamped, juiced up version of Garage Band with well-received interactive learning features that solidified the software’s status as a highly capable tool for creating great-sounding recordings at home. But soon it will become possible to do the same things using an inexpensive version of Pro Tools — with the resulting tracks being readable and usable by the same more expensive studio versions of Pro Tools used by nearly every major recording facility in the world today.
Pro Tools SE offers the very same UI used by its full-featured sibling but is by no means a wimpy alternative. It supports mixing up to 24 tracks (16 audio tracks plus 8 virtual instrument tracks) and includes pro-quality effects — reverb, EQ, and guitar amp/distortion effects — making it surprisingly easy to create richly detailed and polished recordings right in your bedroom, basement or garage. With over 100 different virtual instruments and more than 3 GB of audio loops built-in, everything from mere ideas to whole songs can be produced on the fly and its included MIDI sequencing and score editing features provide professional-grade creative solutions to users of any ability level.
The sweet spot in the line-up is probably the Recording Studio ($119 MSRP), a diminutive USB device with balanced XLR and 1/4″ line inputs that supports simultaneous recording of vocals and instruments in better-than-CD quality at 24-bit/48 kHz. The Vocal Studio ($99 MSRP) includes the M-Audio Producer, a USB cardiod microphone — complete with a nice leather carrying case and handy table-top mic stand — that will be attractive to podcasters and voice-over artists. Rounding out the lineup is the Key Studio’s M-Audio keyboard ($129 MSRP), a 49-note, velocity-sensitive MIDI device that opens up worlds of possibility using Pro tools SE.
Avid’s Pro Tools SE family is fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.5.8 or higher, requires a 1.8Ghz multi core processor and 1GB RAM and will be available in-store at Best Buy, Guitar Center, Fry’s, and online soon. Asked if the company is planning an iOS4 release to bring all this goodness to the iPad, Avid’s Pro Tools SE Product Manager Andy Panizza was coy, saying ” we’re always exploring new platforms to enhance the user experience.”
Translated from market-speak that’s probably something like “we’ll wait and see how popular this becomes on the Mac desktop before jumping into the mobile space.”
Everyone loves a David vs. Goliath story, right?
But what do you get when it’s Goliath vs. Goliath? Or Godzilla vs. Mothra?
Pro Tools is the software behind digital audio and video productions that power almost everything you hear and see in the world of media, music and film today. Apple, of course, makes almost all the computer hardware used by the people who use Avid products to produce all that sound and visual fury. It might seem like the two companies would enjoy a happy coexistence and to be sure – on a professional level – they do.
But the consumer market is a different story altogether and this week marks the chalking of a new field of future battle between the two companies.
Avid’s new wares will call to every kid with a dream via hardware and software bundles that challenge Apple’s own consumer audio and video products, seeking to leverage those kids’ dreams with easy access to the pro-standard facilities they all hope to use one day.
