Projectmix with pro tools

MP and LE seem to be almost exactly the same in function and features. All my LE plug-ins worked without issue in MP. One small difference is the way the hardware is configured. This app controls all of the essential settings such as monitoring options, sync source, sample rate, etc. Another difference with MP is the way authorization is handled; it requires a valid iLok license to launch, so have your iLok at the ready!

I forgot mine on the way to a mobile session and had to turn around to get it. There are elements to iLok-style authorization I like, but it is just another thing to have to remember to drag around with you.

I'm just gonna leave the iLok on my keychain and hope I don't forget my keys. One major gripe I had with MP was resolved with the recent release of version 7. Until this upgrade, a Pro Tools user could not have both LE and MP versions on the same system-it was one or the other! Now, fortunately, both LE and MP can co-exist.

M-Audio's got a whole range of versatile interfaces that work with PT MP, so the flexibility that this offers is huge. Looking to get into Pro Tools? Looking for a DAW controller or interface? All of the above? Well, you can't really beat this combination. The SoundToys suite of plug-ins was developed by a crew of ex-Eventide gurus headed up by Ken Bogdanowicz. Since the biggest difference between this model and the FaderPort 8 [Tape Op ] is the additional eight channels, I Steinberg Nuendo has been my main DAW for a couple years now, and during that time, both Nuendo and its sibling application Cubase took two minor steps in version number, but with each update, I was For acousticians and those engaged in research and development, the ability to measure attributes of rooms, speaker systems, and audio circuits is obviously invaluable.

While the need for this See Issue 30 for my review of the Mbox as most of my comments there on small to mid-sized studios needing Pro Tools compatibility also apply here. You've probably seen the ads and know that the Digi I don't recall exactly how I came to find Tim Prebble's Hiss and a Roar website, but I do remember what I heard first - sounds of an old broken-down piano being taken apart.

Odd, unique and There are quite a few soft synths out there which aim to emulate or improve upon classic keyboard sounds of the past. But what about new sounds? What about a soft synth that is built from the ground But hey, at least it's got a shuttle wheel, unlike many budget controllers. Six-pin to six-pin and six-pin to four-pin Firewire cables of decent length are included. Installing the drivers from CD was straightforward, and although it generated a couple of error messages while attempting to uninstall my existing M-Audio Firewire drivers, worked first time.

The latter is not exactly comprehensive, and although it tells you the function of each control, you will need to consult your sequencer's own documentation to learn how it works with a control surface. Where the Project Mix improves over the is in its analogue circuitry: there are eight rather than two mic preamps, there's a high-impedance jack socket for connecting electric guitars directly, and all eight line inputs are on balanced jacks. I noticed no difference at all between the sound of the and the Project Mix.

The preamps are clean and quiet, with plenty of gain, the guitar DI socket worked as expected, and the headphone outputs put out a decent level. A vintage Neve desk it ain't, but I think it's fair to say that most of those who will buy a Project Mix are unlikely to find themselves limited by the quality of its preamps or converters.

However, Pro Tools users had to wait until the launch of version 7 to access the Project Mix's audio interfacing. PT7 is reviewed elsewhere in this issue, but as the M-Powered version wasn't available until late in the review period, I began my tests with Cubase SX instead.

As is the case with most control surfaces, many of the buttons take on different functions in different applications, but the labelling seems to be based primarily on Pro Tools. For instance, the five Aux buttons allow you to set the levels of sends 1 to 5 in Pro Tools, but work differently in Cubase. That is, it's of limited use for setting up projects or editing audio and MIDI, but it's very useful for tracking and mixing.

A list of what you can't do at all would include creating, naming and deleting tracks, choosing input and output routings, accessing off-line audio or MIDI processes, opening or using Editor windows, zooming individual tracks, and changing tracks' automation status this is possible on Mackie Control, but not here. Unless the Flip button is engaged, the faders always control and reflect the positions of the faders of the eight channels in the current bank, while buttons adjacent to them shift this selection up or down by a single channel and in banks of eight.

Touching a fader automatically selects that track within Cubase , which is sometimes what you want, but not always: there are times when you want to be able to adjust the volume of other tracks without having to remember to return the focus to the one you're recording on. The rotary encoders default to panning duties for the eight channels in the current bank, but five Aux buttons switch them to controlling the eight FX sends for the selected channel, selecting that channel's insert effects and switching them off or on, doing the same for the first eight slots in the VST Instrument rack and Master effects, and controlling the EQ on the selected channel.

There are no dedicated Page up and down buttons, but in all of these modes, holding Alt and pressing the Bank Select buttons allows you to access deeper-level parameters, such as controls for the plug-ins you've selected. When I first switched the Project Mix on, the shuttle wheel worked backwards. However, hitting the Setup button accesses various housekeeping functions, one of which is Jog Wheel Calibration, and after I'd visited this, everything was normal.

There are things I don't like about the way Cubase deals with the shuttle wheel, but these are Steinberg's fault rather than M-Audio's. The most annoying is that if you have Snap to Grid enabled in Cubase , but you stop the transport with the Project Cursor between grid lines, the shuttle wheel will retain that offset from the nearest grid line rather than actually snapping.

Although there are separate Alt and Shift buttons, most commonly used functions can be accessed without them, and they're reasonably well placed at the top between the rotaries and the Aux buttons. None of these is vital, however: the latter functions are easily accessed from the QWERTY keyboard, and thanks to the touch-sensitive faders, you can put Cubase 's automation into Touch mode and leave Read and Write permanently enabled for all tracks.

For instance, you can use one of the rotaries to select which VST Instrument is installed in which slot in the rack, but you can't select that VST Instrument as an output for your chosen MIDI track, and this is a setting that needs to be made every time you select an Instrument. With VST plug-ins that report their parameter names back to the host, you can have a lot of fun making real-time parameter changes: however, not all plug-ins are well-behaved in this respect, and the likes of Sampletank quickly sent me back to my QWERTY keyboard.

Hit the MIDI button on the control panel and launch the Control utility from the Start menu, and you will be greeted with an on-screen replica of the Project Mix.

Hovering the mouse pointer over any button, fader or rotary controller will tell you what MIDI data it is set up to output, and on what channel. Clicking with the mouse then allows you to change this assignment. When you've set the on-screen version up to your satisfaction, you can then dump its settings into the hardware Project Mix, which should remember them.

The Control utility can also be used to update the Project Mix's firmware. This could be a fantastically useful facility for those who want to control a piece of software that is not directly supported by the Project Mix. However, there are areas where the Control utility could be improved. The dialogue boxes where you enter CC or note values are wrongly named: for instance, clicking on a fader tells you that you're entering CC values for a Mute button.

More importantly, there's no way to save or load Project Mix setups within the utility, and nor can you store more than one user setup within the Project Mix itself. It would be nice to be able to set up a number of different templates for different applications, but as things stand, this is not possible. It would also be handy if there was a way to switch all the parameters to a different MIDI channel in one go — opening odd dialogue boxes in order to do this takes forever.

Hopefully, M-Audio will continue to develop this utility and add some of these features in a later version. Support for Mackie Control was added in the latest version 5 of Ableton Live , and provided you have recent enough firmware, you can put the Project Mix into Live mode by holding down Aux 5 as you switch on. The Window button toggles between Session and Arrangement views, and once again, the basic Pan mode sees faders and rotaries used to control track level and pan, with the record arm, select, solo and mute buttons doing what you'd expect.

And just as for Cubase , you can change the focus to access settings that are specific to a channel, such as effects sends. Unlike Cubase , however, Live 's Mackie Control implementation depends heavily on a feature that M-Audio have left out of the Project Mix: the ability to use the rotary encoders as momentary buttons. For instance, pressing the Plug-in button shows the Devices that are active on the selected track, and according to the Live manual, you should be able to select a Device for editing by pressing the corresponding rotary encoder.

Since the Project Mix's rotaries only respond to twisting, and Live wasn't mentioned in the documentation, I thought that this wasn't possible. Just as we went to press, though, M-Audio's technical people told me that you can select Devices by holding down the Alt key and pressing the channel's Sel key.

It was too late for me to test this arrangement, but it seems logical, and should make the Project Mix a good companion for Live. I still think Live is an odd choice to bundle with the unit, though! Version 7 of Pro Tools M-Powered finally arrived towards the end of the review period, so I was keen to try it out with the Project Mix.

As you might expect, M-Audio have put a lot of thought into the way that the Project Mix integrates with Pro Tools , and the way the buttons are labelled suggests that the designers worked with this application in mind above all.

You could also argue that Pro Tools is intrinsically more suited to hardware control than some other software, thanks to its simple two-window interface.

Either way, you can certainly do everything that's possible in Cubase , and more. It is, for instance, straightforward to choose input and output routings for tracks in Pro Tools , while the In and Out buttons allow you to make selections on the fly. When the Zoom button is unlit, the arrow keys have the same navigation functions as the 'P', semicolon, 'L' and apostrophe keys in Command Focus mode.

With the Zoom button lit, they control global horizontal zoom, and vertical waveform zoom for all audio tracks it would be much more useful if they controlled track height, preferably on just the selected tracks, but there you go. Pressing the Zoom button again makes it flash, whereupon you can use the left and right arrow keys in conjunction with the shuttle wheel to select Regions or horizontal sections of a Session.

The Scrub key, meanwhile, cycles Pro Tools through its two scrubbing modes. Despite the slightly wobbly feel of the shuttle wheel, I found it perfectly usable for locating edit points.