PRO TOOLS 2024.10 NOW AVAILABLE—WHAT’S NEW

Authors: Chris Winsor and Elpiniki Pappa

Please allow 24-48 hours for new Pro Tools software updates to show up in your account.

The Pro Tools 2024.10 software update is now available and introduces new capabilities for both music and audio post customers, including ARA 2 plugin support for Steinberg SpectraLayers and WaveLab, inclusion of Native Instruments Kontakt 8 Player and content, as well as MIDI effect plugins from 510k and BLEASS. The release also delivers MIDI playlist workflows, clip drag-and-drop into virtual instruments, Dolby Atmos enhancements, and more.

For a detailed technical overview of the new features, be sure to check out the “What’s New in Pro Tools 2024.10” guide and release notes here. To get a summary of all recent releases and more, please visit the What's New in Pro Tools page.

Watch this video on how to redeem all the plugins and other content in the Pro Tools 2024.10 release:

NATIVE INSTRUMENTS KONTAKT 8 BRINGS A WORLD OF SOUNDS TO PRO TOOLS

Avid is partnering with Native Instruments to include the recently released Kontakt 8 Player with all tiers of Pro Tools along with an exclusive collection of curated instruments. Kontakt 8 is a major update to Native Instrument’s industry-leading virtual instrument platform that adds new capabilities like wavetable synthesis, integrated MIDI tools, and Leap—a new way to play and manipulate loops and samples.

While all Pro Tools offerings will include Kontakt 8 Player and the Pro Tools Factory Essentials instrument library, customers with active subscriptions and perpetual upgrade plans will also receive Native Instruments Hybrid Keys, and active Pro Tools Studio and Ultimate customers will additionally get Native Instruments Soul Sessions. The inclusion of Kontakt 8 Player and instruments provides you with inspiring new ways to create music in Pro Tools, and Avid will also release new Kontakt instruments as part of the Pro Tools | Sonic Drop rewards program to spark your creativity.

ARA 2 PLUGIN SUPPORT FOR STEINBERG SPECTRALAYERS AND WAVELAB

Together with existing ARA integration for a range of solutions from Celemony, iZotope, Sound Radix, and Synchro Arts, 2024.10 adds ARA 2 support for Steinberg’s SpectraLayers and WaveLab plugins.

MIDI EFFECT PLUGINS FROM 510K AND BLEASS

2024.10 offers Pro Tools customers two more powerful MIDI plugins to generate and experiment with new musical ideas. SEQUND Lite by 510k is an intuitive sequencer that allows you to easily explore polyrhythms. Whether creating exciting basslines or eccentric melodies filled with groove, SEQUND’s interface includes a range of patterns that can be recalled instantly via MIDI notes to allow pattern changes on the fly with seamless transitions and incredible timing.

Developed by Audio Developer BLEASS together with top music producer Canblaster, the BLEASS Arpeggiator MIDI effect plugin transcends traditional up-and-down patterns, offering polyrhythms and polyphony and a large collection of highly configurable arpeggios. Its intuitive interface encourages spontaneous experimentation, while XY pads, advanced LFOs, and a motion sequencer enable deep modulation.

The 510k SEQUND Lite and BLEASS Arpeggiator plugins are available to all Pro Tools customers with active subscriptions and perpetual upgrade plans. Read the blogs below to learn more about how to use each plugin in Pro Tools.

MIDI IMPROVEMENTS AND ENHANCEMENTS

With the 2024.10 release, we bring some major new features for Music Creation and MIDI workflows. We’ve added Playlists for Instrument and MIDI tracks, Input Monitoring for Instrument tracks together with a per Track setting for MIDI Delay Compensation, introduced the Focus View for the MIDI Editor, and implemented some smaller improvements here and there.

MIDI PLAYLISTS

One of the most requested MIDI features is finally here! Catching the perfect performance in one take is amazing, but for a lot of us it is a rarity. No need to worry about that anymore: Playlists are now available for Instrument and MIDI tracks! Record and experiment with different ideas, by saving each take in a new Playlist. Play them back to compare, pick and edit parts from different takes and combine them to achieve the best result out of all your recordings!

FOCUS VIEW

Focus View is a new view that lets you display only the notes that are present throughout your selection. This view can be usually quite handy when programming drums, but also in other cases where you want to see only the notes of a specific string section, or the notes that handle articulations. Just click on the new button of the MIDI Editor and stay focused on the notes that matter!

Focus View is also available in the Edit Window via the keyboard right click menu, which is particularly useful when running sessions with multiple tracks that span across a wide note range and you need as much context as possible.

INSTRUMENT TRACK INPUT MONITORING AND MIDI DELAY COMPENSATION

We've introduced Input Monitoring for Instrument Tracks that enables you to listen to the output of your track in real-time, which is particularly useful for live performances or when checking the output of a plugin with MIDI Out functionality. This can be done without the need to focus or enable recording for the track, offering a more flexible and efficient workflow.

The previous "MIDI > Basics > Default Thru Instrument" option has been replaced with "MIDI Input Monitoring follows selected", allowing you to switch your audition focus by simply selecting the desired track, making it easier than ever to manage multiple tracks. Moreover, creating a new Instrument track will automatically enable Input Monitoring for that track, ensuring a smooth and uninterrupted creative process.

You can now also activate or deactivate MIDI Delay Compensation for Recording and Input Monitoring separately for each track. When you are recording live MIDI, keep the option ‘OFF’ to hear and record your performance in real-time, exactly as played. However, when using Virtual Instruments with internal sequencers where synchronization with the MIDI Beat Clock and the system delay) is crucial, turning MIDI Delay Compensation ‘ON’ is advisable. This ensures that your tracks will be perfectly in sync, providing seamless integration of your plugins with the MIDI Beat Clock and other tracks in the session.

OTHER MIDI IMPROVEMENTS

• MIDI Input Quantization is now accessible from the Edit Window and MIDI Editor toolbars
• You can now display note velocity values in the MIDI Editor
• A global indicator for any incoming/outcoming activity has been added in the MIDI Selection area of the Edit Window Toolbar

IMPORT SESSION DATA ENHANCEMENTS

Pro Tools 2024.6 introduced a major rework of the Import Session Data window, and now Pro Tools 2024.10 adds even more.

A long standing request was for allowing selections of tracks to be matched. Previously, you could only match all tracks at once or one at a time. Selecting a track caused it to be imported as New. We had to change this functionality in order to facilitate this request, but we didn’t want to disrupt muscle memory. For this reason, we added a new mode to allow you to ‘unlink’ the track selection from the act of importing. Now you can make a selection, then decide if you would like to match or import the selection as new tracks. You can then make a new selection and choose a different action for each group of selected tracks.

Historically, the matching logic in Import Session Data used a single fuzzy algorithm that relied on more than just the name. Although this could be advantageous when looking for approximate matches, most of the time you need to ensure that the match is accurate. We added several things to solve for this. The first was an option that enforces the matching logic to only look for exact name matches. The second was color coding the imported tracks, so you can see which tracks are being imported as new, matched exactly by name, or matched without an exact name match. We also added new options to the track filters, so you can see which tracks are being imported, or inversely, you can see which tracks are NOT being imported. This way you can understand at a glance what is going to happen when you hit the ‘OK’ button.

DOLBY ATMOS RENDERER ADDITIONS

We are committed to delivering the best Dolby Atmos workflows possible. With each release, we’ve added more functionality.

• 2023.12 introduced the internal Dolby Atmos renderer.
• 2024.3 added custom live re-renders.
• 2024.6 added new monitoring formats, group solo/mutes, and it exposed group and binaural settings on tracks. It also added the ability to directly commit or bounce a live re-render that is routed through the session.

Now with 2024.10, you can solo and mute speakers in the Dolby Atmos internal renderer window. Hovering the mouse over a speaker will reveal a solo and mute button, which allows you to affect an individual speaker. You can also use a modifier click to solo or mute a horizontal row of speakers, or you can affect the entire top or bottom set.

COLOR

Color is a great way to see signal routing relationships between tracks. In Pro Tools 2023.12, we added the ability to color paths in I/O Setup, which will be reflected on track I/O plates (“Audio Input/Output Track Selectors”) in the Edit and Mix Windows. But in order to color a track output, you needed to visit I/O Setup, find the path that was assigned to your track, and then color from there.

Now, in Pro Tools 2024.10, you can assign the path color right from the track I/O plate. In fact, we’ve added a mechanism to quickly color virtually anything that is colorable. You can simply right-click on an item to access a color picker from a context menu, or use a key modifier click on the element to instantly access a color picker.

THE LITTLE THINGS

• What do these things have in common? They can now be used together!

• The Clip List can be detached and used as a floating window, allowing you to place it on a separate monitor, and giving you more real estate for your Edit Window.

• The Bounce Mix Window now allows you to type to search for a mix source.

• Many marker lines can make it hard to see. Sometimes you want them, but sometimes you don’t. To solve for this, we’ve added key commands and menu items to turn on/off all ruler marker lines, as well as folder marker lines.

• It’s now possible to right-click on individual markers, or a selection of markers, in the marker ruler or track lanes. A context menu will appear, allowing editing, coloring, and deleting.

KEY COMMANDS

We’ve all had the experience of trying a new application and fumbling through the menus because we can’t figure out how to zoom. It detracts from fun and creativity and dampens the motivation to pursue use of the application. We’d like Pro Tools to be inviting to new users, and if you already have experience with another DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) or NLE (Non-Linear Editor), you likely have a basic understanding for what Pro Tools can do. Maybe you just don’t know how to access it.

We’ve added basic key command presets for many of the popular DAW’s and NLE’s out there. These can be found in the Keyboard Shortcut Window. The key mappings are not an exact science because concepts between applications do not always map perfectly, but we did our best to map the most common key commands, which are fundamental to navigating Pro Tools. If there was no perfect mapping, we left the Pro Tools default command in place.

Here’s a list of application commands that we mapped. Tell your friends!

• Audition
• Cubase and Nuendo 
• DaVinci Resolve 
• FL Studio
• Live
• Logic Pro
• Media Composer
• Premiere 
• Reaper
• Studio One

AVAILABILITY

Pro Tools 2024.10 is now available for all Pro Tools customers on an active subscription or perpetual license with current Upgrade Plan, as well as all Pro Tools Intro users. You can update through Avid Link or find it in your Avid Account. If you need to upgrade your Pro Tools perpetual license to get the latest features, you can find options to do so here. And if you’re new to Pro Tools, you can try out the latest version with our free 30-day trial.

For more details about this release, please see the new documentation now available in your Avid Account.

Dolby Atmos is a registered trademark of Dolby Laboratories. Celemony, Melodyne, DNA Direct Note Access und ARA Audio Random Access are registered trademarks of Celemony Software GmbH.