Pro Tools 2024.3 introduces MIDI effect plugins and more

The Pro Tools 2024.3 software update is now available and offers music creators powerful new ways to work with MIDI, as well as seamless MIDI copy and paste functionality between Pro Tools and Sibelius. 2024.3 also delivers the ability to print and monitor live Dolby Atmos re-renders using the internal Pro Tools renderer, detachable Melodyne and Clip Effects tabs, Pro Tools Sketch enhancements, macOS Sonoma 14.3 support, and more.

For a detailed technical overview of the new features, be sure to check out the “What’s New in Pro Tools 2024.3” 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.

SUPPORT FOR MIDI EFFECT PLUGINS

Pro Tools now supports MIDI effect plugins that enable you to quickly generate and manipulate MIDI to realize your musical ideas. From triggering multiple notes and modifying velocity and pitch to automatically generating musical riffs, rhythms, and arpeggiations, you can tweak and automate MIDI effects in real time.

Read the MIDI Effect Plugins blog to learn more.

Pro Tools 2024.3 MIDI Plugins 

MIDI COPY/PASTE BETWEEN PRO TOOLS AND SIBELIUS

Pro Tools now offers seamless copying and pasting of MIDI to and from the Sibelius music notation application (version 2024.3 and later), enabling composers to save days of work as they no longer need to build up scores from scratch in parallel applications. You can copy MIDI from Pro Tools into the public clipboard and then paste into Sibelius with all relevant MIDI information including notes, pitch, note duration, timing/position in clip, and continuous controller data across the clip(s). Conversely you can copy a passage selection or entire conductor track in Sibelius with all relevant data and paste directly into Pro Tools.

Read the blog for more details.

Sibelius Pro Tools MIDI copy and paste

DOLBY ATMOS CUSTOM LIVE RE-RENDERS

Pro Tools 2023.12 introduced built-in rendering of a Dolby Atmos® mix. This was the first step toward improving the Dolby Atmos workflows inside of Pro Tools and laid the foundation for further improvements. Once it was released, we kept an eye on the user community to see if our road map for future improvements lined up with the users’ priorities. We already had many improvements in mind, but we wanted to see what really rose to the top. Many of our users who were already using the Dolby Atmos Renderer application, were leveraging its additional live re-renders to monitor and print stems back into Pro Tools. Even though that was possible, the re-renders were not delay compensated and had to be manually adjusted after a record pass. While the Dolby Atmos renderer inside of Pro Tools did provide delay compensated headphone and loudness re-renders, they did not have the same flexibility (and number of simultaneous re-renders) as the Dolby Atmos Renderer application.

Pro Tools 2024.3 now provides custom live re-renders for binaural, 2.0, 5.1, 7.1, 5.1.2, 5.1.4, and 7.1.4 with Pro Tools Studio and Ultimate, as well as 9.1.6 with Ultimate. Not only can you create additional copies of the mix in different formats, but you can also use groups to render portions of the mix, such as music and effects. The only limit on the number of simultaneous live re-renders is your processing power, and we have greatly optimized their performance to give you as many as your computer can handle.

Custom live re-renders serve several purposes. You may use them to print delay compensated stems directly into the session. This allows you to independently monitor different configurations, apply limiting, easily QC the stems after punching, and quickly export the stems as files after you’re done with the mix.

Custom live re-renders also make it easier to monitor your mix using Apple Spatial Audio. Audiomovers and Embody have both created plugins to monitor Apple Spatial Audio that can be placed on a track fed by a 7.1.4 re-render.

The stock re-renders for headphones and loudness, which were introduced when the Dolby Atmos internal renderer integration was first released, are still available but have a few behavioral differences from the custom re-renders.

Stock re-renders

• Only allow a re-render of the full mix and support specific formats.
  • Loudness: 5.1 and 2.0
  • Headphones: 2.0 and Binaural
• Follow the Pro Tools H/W buffer size, allowing lower latency monitoring if needed. As a result, binaural processing is only available at higher buffer sizes.
• Follow mutes in the Dolby Atmos renderer window.
• Cannot be bounced.

Custom re-renders

• Support all formats that the internal Dolby Atmos renderer supports.
• Do not follow the Pro Tools H/W buffer size setting—they always run at the highest possible buffer size for the best possible performance, but they cannot be used for lower latency monitoring. This also means that binaural processing is available regardless of H/W buffer size setting.
• Do not follow the mutes in the Dolby Atmos renderer window.
• Can be bounced from the Bounce Mix window.

We will continue to monitor feedback around our Dolby Atmos integration and work with Dolby to deliver more enhancements over time. Custom re-renders are just the first incremental step, and we are very excited about what the future will bring.

Unrelated to re-renders, some other Dolby Atmos improvements in 2024.3 included:

• Custom Bed Sub-Paths
  • Beds in the Dolby Atmos tab may now have custom sub-paths. This offers more flexibility and better compatibility with earlier Pro Tools sessions that utilized Dolby Atmos.
• Additional ADM Metadata
  • Additional information is displayed about the WAV ADM BWF file in the Import Session Data Window
• Easier ADM Import
  • Pro Tools will now re-use any compatible paths when importing a WAV ADM BWF file. This reduces the amount of I/O Setup configuration needed.
• Dolby Atmos renderer window is now translated for supported languages

PRO TOOLS SKETCH ENHANCEMENTS

2024.3 also offers several enhancements to the Sketch iPad window and free iPad app, including:

New for Sketch Window

• Improved drag and drop between Sketch Window and Pro Tools Edit Window, including Mixer settings when dragging from Sketch into Pro Tools and Render MIDI as audio from Pro Tools to a Sketch audio track.
• Auto-Pin a Sketch document when saving into a Pro Tools Session folder.

New for Sketch iPad App

• Count off available when recording audio and MIDI clips simplify recording and minimize editing of performances.
• Count off available when recording audio and MIDI clips simplify recording and minimize editing of performances.

Pro Tools Sketch Count Off

Pro Tools Sketch Loopmasters content

DETACHABLE MELODYNE AND CLIP EFFECTS TABS

The Pro Tools Edit Window has editor tabs for working with MIDI, ARA plugins and Clip Effects, and you can now detach the Celemony Melodyne and Clip Effects tabs as separate windows to better organize your workspace to fit your preferred workflow. You can detach both the Clip Effects tab and the Melodyne tab and move them independently of each other, put windows into full screen mode, or even move them to another screen. Watch this video to learn more.

MACOS 14.3 SONOMA SUPPORT

Pro Tools 2024.3 is qualified for macOS 14.3. The work to qualify macOS 14.3 has also resulted in significant performance improvements utilizing Efficiency Cores in M1, M2, and M3 systems. For more information and a list of know issues, check out this article.

VIDEO ENGINE CAN REMAIN DISABLED

Pro Tools will no longer require the video engine to be enabled when opening a session containing video. This allows the system to save resources when picture does not need to be displayed.

AVAILABILITY

Pro Tools 2024.3 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. You can download the Pro Tools Sketch iPad app free here. 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.