Pro Tools 2024.6 Now Available—What’s New

The Pro Tools 2024.6 software update is now available and introduces significant new capabilities for both music and audio post customers, including ARA 2 support for solutions from iZotope, Synchro Arts, and Sound Radix, two new included MIDI effect plugins from Mixed In Key, and session export for Media Composer. The release also delivers Dolby Atmos® enhancements, MIDI note visualization, improved searching and importing of Session Data, Memory Locations enhancements, and more.

For a detailed technical overview of the new features, be sure to check out the “What’s New in Pro Tools 2024.6” 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.

ARA 2 PLUGIN SUPPORT

2024.6 adds ARA 2 support for six industry-leading plugins, including iZotope RX Spectral Editor, Synchro Arts RePitch, VocAlign, and Revoice Pro, as well as Sound Radix Auto-Align 2and Auto-Align Post 2. Together with existing Celemony Melodyne integration, ARA 2 support enables users to leverage these tools significantly faster and easier in Pro Tools without having to roundtrip audio. Additionally, customers with active subscriptions and perpetual upgrade plans will automatically receive iZotope RX 11 Spectral Editor and Synchro Arts RePitch Elements as part of this release. Check out the blogs below to get the details for each plugin.

Learn more about iZotope RX Spectral Editor ARA 2 Pro integration
Learn more about Sychro Arts RePitch, Revoice, and VocAlign ARA 2 integration
Learn more about Sound Radix Auto-Align 2 and Auto-Align Post 2 ARA 2 integration

NEW INCLUDED MIDI PLUGINS

2024.6 gives Pro Tools customers two new MIDI plugins by Mixed In Key: Captain Chords Lite and Human Lite. Captain Chords Lite is a perfect songwriting companion that allows users to pick any key and instantly create chords to try out, with complete control over inversions, substitutions, and passing tones. Captain Chords Lite also includes a library of chord progressions and rhythms to experiment and create something amazing. The Human Lite plugin adds the organic feel of live musicians to quantized MIDI performances, loops, and even entire tracks. The Captain Chords Lite and Human Lite plugins are exclusively available to all Pro Tools customers with active subscriptions and perpetual upgrade plans. Read the blogs below to learn more about each plugin and how to use it in Pro Tools.

Explore the Mixed In Key Captain Chords Lite and Human Lite plugins

IMPORT SESSION DATA

Import Session Data is a fundamental part of Pro Tools used by nearly everyone for data interchange between sessions. As functionality continues to be added to Pro Tools, sessions have become larger and more complex over time and the requirements of Import Session Data have also grown. We’d gotten to the point where even finding a spot to add a single checkbox was difficult, so it became clear that broader changes were needed.

The changes were prompted with a single request: allowing the ability to filter out inactive tracks. To understand how we facilitated that request, it helps to understand a little bit about what’s happening under-the-hood. When a session is saved, Pro Tools stores a small amount of summary data. This way, it can skim the surface of the session much quicker when opening it. The existing session summary already gave us information about the track types, widths, and names, so we simply had to add ‘inactive tracks’ to the list. But since we added new data to the summary, we thought of other types of data that could be useful—track color, hidden state, frozen state, are there any clips on the track, and how about automation or markers? This allows us to visualize more information about the tracks, as well as filter the data. As track names were another obvious filterable element, we added those too.

With filtering, you can limit the number of tracks that ‘match tracks’ applies to. This means that you can filter a set that you would like to match, press the ‘match tracks’ button, change your filter and then match again, without destroying your previous match.

After these changes we stepped back and took a look at the window. As there was not nearly enough real estate for the tracks list, we moved it to the right side and made it horizontally resizable. We also optimized the general layout of the window and made the Source Properties section hideable, so that it’s easier to fit more import options on screen.

Using text had previously taken a lot of space to describe track types so we used the well-established track type iconography instead. This gave us folder icons, which you can click on, just like in the Edit and Mix windows. Another common request we heard was that when you imported a folder track, the members weren’t included. While we didn’t want to force this to always happen, we did add a new button next to each of the folders, allowing you to import it and all of its members. What’s great about this is that you can even close the folder to hide the members while still having the ability to import them all.

INTELLIGENT SHOW AND HIDES

The work we did to filter track data in the Import Session Data window also opened up several possibilities in the Edit Window. You now have the option to show only tracks that have clips on them, even just within a selection or at the insertion point. This way, if you have a session built from a template that has tracks with empty material, you can easily find the tracks that are actually contributing to the mix. And yes, this command only filters out empty tracks which have the capability to have clips on them (Audio, Instrument, MIDI, and Video).

It's now possible to expand lanes that contain automation. This will help you find lanes with automation breakpoints, as well as portions of lanes that have a ramped change without a breakpoint.

All of these commands now have assignable keyboard shortcuts, including a shortcut for the “Restore Previously Shown Tracks” command.

SEARCH AND FILTER

Adding the text filter in Import Session Data also opened the door for more search and filter functionality throughout the app.

The Clip List has had the ability to “Find Clips” functionality, using a separate search window, for a long time. The challenge with the previous functionality was that it was hard to see if a filter was being applied. We’ve now added the same text filter box from the Import Session Data window to the Clip List. This makes the filtering far more noticeable and easier to access. Accessing the Clip List filter via a key command will even open the Clip List if it is closed.

We also added a search box to the Preferences, which leverages much of the same functionality as the other new filters. Instead of filtering, it highlights both the containing tab, as well as the specific area where a text match is found. This makes it far easier to find items in the preferences by keyword if you don’t know the exact name or location.

DOLBY ATMOS IMPROVEMENTS

Pro Tools 2023.12 introduced the internal Dolby Atmos renderer and Pro Tools 2024.3 introduced custom live re-renders. Pro Tools 2024.6 has even more Dolby Atmos enhancements.

Alongside Dolby, we’ve introduced several new formats for monitoring and custom live re-renders. 9.1.4 and 7.1.2 unlock the internal renderer for more listening environments. Stereo Direct allows you to listen to a direct stereo representation of the mix, without going through cascaded downmixes.

Binaural mode settings are now assignable directly from the Edit and Mix windows, allowing you to hear the effect on the mix immediately during playback. Dolby Atmos group settings can also be assigned from the Edit and Mix windows, giving you better context when making the assignment.

You can now solo and mute Dolby Atmos groups from the renderer window. This means that as soon as you assign a group to a bed or object, a solo/mute button is automatically available for you to quickly isolate or mute all elements assigned to that group.

A new settings pane in the renderer window gives you quick access to the fundamental Dolby Atmos controls, including various re-render settings, I/O Setup, Trim and Downmix, and group configuration. In previous versions, we used orange text to indicate when a session’s trim and downmix settings differed from your personal defaults. Since the Trim and Downmix Button is not always visible now, we make sure to carry this color through to the settings icon when the pane is closed, so you still get the same notification.

Finally, we’ve added the ability for you to bounce, commit and freeze signal from the Dolby Atmos internal renderer. This means that if you are using the internal renderer, you can use Bounce Mix and select the physical output of your monitor path, which is the output destination of the renderer. The bounce will include the renderer output, any signal manually assigned to the monitor path, as well as any processing on the Master Faders for the renderer or monitor path.

You can also freeze, commit, or track bounce tracks that are receiving live re-renders as their input. This is very useful when dynamics processing is required for any re-render stem delivery because any inserts on the receiving tracks will be included.

MEMORY LOCATION IMPROVEMENTS

We’ve been continually improving our memory locations and marker functionality. Pro Tools 2023.6 introduced Track Markers. Pro Tools 2023.12 added four additional marker rulers, the ability to multi-select memory locations in the Memory Location Window, and keyboard shortcuts to navigate previous and next memory locations. Pro Tools 2024.6 refines this functionality further.

After we released the multi-select functionality, we kept an eye on the forums and kept talking with our customers. While people were very happy to be able to batch delete memory locations, we noticed that the implementation introduced some inefficiencies for certain workflows too. People were finding that certain key commands, such as up and down arrows, were getting processed by the Memory Location window, instead of the Edit Window, if the memory location window was accidentally left in focus. We also noticed that people were having a hard time figuring out how to use the shift+click modifier in the recall column to select from the current insertion to the marker location. Because of this, we’ve decided to tweak the implementation a bit. Now there is a “Manage” mode. Manage mode allows you to multi-select memory locations, delete, and even batch rename them. When the management mode is off, we only allow a single memory location to be selected at a time, making it behave much like it did in earlier versions of Pro Tools.

We also received a lot of feedback on the previous and next commands. There was a strong desire to have the command apply relative to your timeline position, so that’s what we did. Now in Pro Tools 2024.6, there’s a new mode that lets the ‘go-to’ and ‘select’ previous / next memory location commands apply relative to your timeline insertion point. Since these commands are still based on your filtering in the Memory Location Window, you can filter on just the targeted track or ruler, and limit which markers are affected by the commands. This is helpful if you have a ruler dedicated to song sections or director’s notes. You can narrow in to just that ruler and ignore the rest.

MEDIA COMPOSER SESSION EXPORT

We have a combined team of both Media Composer and Pro Tools engineers actively working on improvements to each application to improve interchange and sound to picture workflows. The first feature that the team was responsible for was the ability for Media Composer to export Pro Tools session files in Media Composer 2022.12. Since then, the team has been making general purpose improvements to each application, with an end goal in mind of bettering interoperability. Track Markers and exporting a session range were both examples of this. Now in Pro Tools 2024.6, there is the ability to export Media Composer compatible sessions (.ptxm files).

.pxtm files are created by selecting the set of tracks that you’d like to export, opening the Save Copy In window, and choosing to export a Media Composer compatible session. Pro Tools will render audio on a frame boundary for each clip, or as an entire stem. If the panning format is stereo, 5.1, or 7.1, Pro Tools also gives you the option of keeping the sample accurate volume and pan automation. Alternately, you can choose to always render. Any downmixing will use the Pro Tools coefficient preferences, which means you have control over how the downmix will sound.

It’s also possible to export Dolby Atmos re-renders as a .ptxm file. You may assign any live re-render to an Auxiliary Input track, then select those tracks and a timeline range. This is a great way to leverage the Dolby Atmos grouping and divide the re-renders into different food groups, resulting in true Dolby Atmos rendered stems that can be handed off directly to Media Composer. Any markers that are added to the Aux tracks or timeline will be included.

Media Composer 2024.6 will be the first release to support these types of sessions. It adds 16 marker colors, as well as support for receiving sample accurate volume and pan automation. Media Composer can also continue editing the automation on subframe boundaries.

A .ptxm file is, for all intents and purposes, a session file. It can be opened in Pro Tools just like any other session file, but it guarantees that all of its contents can be supported by Media Composer. Over time, we will be expanding the capabilities of each application, bringing their functionality closer together, and increasing what the .ptxm file will support.

MIDI NOTES VISUALIZATION

Previously, there was no way to see what the pitch value of the recorded or played notes was. And for those not familiar with music theory, it could be challenging to easily track the notes in the Piano Roll, as notes other than C had no pitch indication. A Display Options menu entry with two options has now been added in the MIDI Editor (Docked and Window) that allows you to display the Pitch labels on the MIDI notes and on the Keyboard. Additionally, the new Flats display button enables switching between flats and sharps display on both the MIDI notes and the Keyboard. All the mentioned settings can be saved separately for the docked and window MIDI Editors.

ENHANCED COPY/PASTE BETWEEN PRO TOOLS AND SIBELIUS

Pro Tools 2024.3 introduced seamless copying and pasting of MIDI to and from Sibelius, allowing composers and producers to easily move music from one application to the other. Enhancing this functionality in 2024.6, users can now copy and paste key signatures, time signatures, and tempos between both programs, providing a more efficient workflow for music creation.

In Pro Tools, copying a MIDI clip will also copy the corresponding key, meter, and tempo data for that specific section. By incorporating the rulers into a timeline selection, you can now effortlessly paste all note, key, meter, and tempo data from Sibelius.

SKETCH DRAG AND DROP IMPROVEMENTS

Users can maintain their creativity while working between the Pro Tools Edit Window and the Sketch Window thanks to convenient drag-and-drop workflows. When dragging entire Scenes and the complete Arrangement from the Sketch Window to the Edit Window, both audio and MIDI elements are retained. From 2024.6, this will include Pro Tools | PlayCell parity across both platforms. When an idea is dragged from Sketch with a PlayCell preset loaded into the Edit Window, Pro Tools will automatically add the AAX plugin with the corresponding preset.

EVEN MORE

2024.6 contains a lot of small enhancements too, so be sure to review the documentation for details.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Enable/disable clusters of checkboxes in multi-select menus by Opt+clicking (mac) / Alt+clicking (win)
• Move the current edit selection to the marker ruler by Cmd+clicking (mac) / Ctrl+clicking (win)
• Assign a keyboard shortcut that allows showing and hiding all marker rulers at once
• Use new advanced keyboard shortcuts to shrink the current edit selection, match just the start or end of the timeline and edit selections, and set the pre/post roll using the current edit selection

Hopefully you have noticed some trends in our releases lately. We’re doing our best to deliver value as it becomes available, instead of waiting years for something that comes with all the bells and whistles. Not only that, but we are keeping a steady eye on the features we release and making needed adjustments along the way. We realize that it can be worrying if a new feature doesn’t include a desired piece of functionality, but hopefully this shows that each release is not the end. Thank you all for your continued support and feedback.

AVAILABILITY

Pro Tools 2024.6 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.