October 29, 2024

New Pro Tools 2024.10 - Everything you need to know

Today Avid released Pro Tools 2024.10. Highlights of this release include a new partnership with Native Instruments, which bundles Kontakt content and the Kontakt 8 Player for Pro Tools users, new ARA integrations from Steinberg, new MIDI enhancements and MIDI plugins, improvements to the Import Session Data window and the internal Dolby Atmos renderer, and much more. As usual, we’ve got the details.

The updates will be available starting today, but it may take some time for them to roll out to all users in all locations, so if you don’t see the updates in your account, please wait 24-48 hours. They’ll be available soon.

Kontakt 8 Player and Included Content
A new partnership with Native Instruments sees the free Kontakt 8 Player bundled with a selection of sample content to use with it. All tiers, including the free Pro Tools Intro, get Pro Tools Factory Essentials, a much-needed addition to the still surprisingly usable Xpand sound set! 2 and the newest, but fairly small selection of sounds offered by PlayCell.

All paid tiers (Artist, Studio, and Ultimate) also get NI Hybrid Keys, which as the name suggests is a collection of keyboard instruments that Native Instruments describes as “Distinct keyboard-based sounds drawn from pianos, organs, harpsichords, and more. Hybrid patches that combine keyboard samples and creative effects.” Pro Tools Studio and Ultimate also get Soul Sessions, a library that NI summarizes as “Keys, live guitar, bass, sax, trumpets, vintage synths and more inspired by the evolution of soul music.”

How to Use Native Instruments Kontakt 8 Player in Pro Tools

If you haven’t checked out the new features in Kontakt 8 Player yet, one cool thing we like is Leap. It lets you interact with loops and one-shots from the keyboard with additional effects available for real-time interaction. This isn’t strictly new. Those of us with long memories will remember Transfuser, and even longer ago Synchronic, which offered some of these features. What we love about Leap is its ease of use. I figured out how to create a custom Leap instrument, without any manuals or additional research, in minutes. I can’t say the same for Transfuser.

You can create custom Leap instruments, and the drag-and-drop addition from the Pro Tools Timeline, Clip List, or Workspace is set to make sampling in Pro Tools immediate and fun. And of course, the partnership with Native Instruments opens up the possibility of future additions to this initial Kontakt content package. We can’t wait to see how things develop.

New ARA Integrations
In Pro Tools 2024.6, we’ve seen a huge increase in the number of ARA integrations with Pro Tools. The total has been increased even further with the addition of Steinberg’s SpectraLayers and WaveLab getting the Pro Tools ARA treatment, allowing you to seamlessly use these powerful tools from within Pro Tools. And just as existing users of these products can use their full versions under ARA in Pro Tools, all Pro Tools users with a current Update & Support plan or subscription will be able to use free bundled versions of both titles.

How to Use Steinberg SpectraLayers Go ARA Plugin in Pro Tools

Steinberg SpectraLayers Go is a lite version of SpectraLayers Pro exclusively for Pro Tools customers. SpectraLayers is getting a lot of attention from professionals who are finding its combination of spectral editing, stem separation, and layer-based editing extremely powerful. Having access to advanced stem separation technology in Pro Tools will be a significant benefit to both music and post-production users. The obvious use cases for music users are clear, and for post-production users, being able to separate dialogue from ambient sounds is an obvious application, and of course, much more.


How to Use Steinberg WaveLab Go ARA Plugin in Pro Tools

WaveLab Go is also a unique lite version. In this case, of the comprehensive editing and mastering softwarefrom Steinberg. Pro Tools has never had an integrated sample editor, zooming in far enough on an audio clip gives access to sample editing, but WaveLab offers a more comprehensive solution. Spectrogram, Loudness analysis and visualization, corrupt audio repair using resynthesis, M/S editing and more will further add to what can be achieved in Pro Tools without having to make a round trip to an external application.

New MIDI Effects Plugins - Seqund and BLEASS
Two new MIDI plugins are introduced for Pro Tools 'on plan' users. Generative MIDI plugins are popular and can be inspiring during the composition process. These two new plugins take the idea of an arpeggiator or sequencer far beyond the typical results associated with them.

510k’s Seqund is a polyrhythmic step sequencer and BLEASS Arpeggiator is a full-featured arpeggiator, both of which are included with an active Pro Tools Artist, Studio, or Ultimate license. Check out these videos on Seqund and BLEASS to learn more.

MIDI Enhancements
There are several new features involving the way Pro Tools uses MIDI:

MIDI Playlists


How to Use MIDI Playlists in Pro Tools

Audio playlists are essential to the Pro Tools workflow. The ability to capture and compile your ideal take from a selection of alternatives is so powerful that it may come as a surprise to users familiar with this audio workflow to discover that it is not available for MIDI as well. This new feature addresses that omission. MIDI playlists allow you to easily record multiple takes and then compare/edit them into a perfect performance in the same way you can with audio.

MIDI Focus View

This new feature allows you to display only keys with notes in the MIDI Editor. This is especially useful when programming drums. The recent addition of a new feature that allows you to display note names in the piano roll itself reduces the chance of users getting lost when some notes are omitted from the editor. MIDI Focus View can also be accessed in the Edit Window from a right-click menu. This is useful when running multi-track sessions that span a wide range of notes.

Track Input Monitoring on Instrument Tracks



Pro Tools Input Monitoring on Instrument Tracks

MIDI users will be aware that unless you want to set the Default Thru Instrument preference to the first selected MIDI track and select a track to audition it, or if you want to audition more than one track at a time, you need to record-arm a MIDI track before you can audition it. Audio tracks have input monitoring buttons, so record-arming is not necessary, but until this release MIDI and instrument tracks did not. This is now addressed in Pro Tools 2024.10 with the introduction of input monitoring buttons on the instrument and MIDI tracks.

MIDI Delay Compensation
Pro Tools 2024.10 now includes Delay Compensation for MIDI, which is particularly important for users of instruments with internal sequencers to maintain synchronization with the session.

Other MIDI Improvements
MIDI input quantization is now accessible in the Edit window and MIDI Editor toolbars

You can now display note velocity values in the MIDI Editor

A global indicator for any input/output activity has been added to the MIDI Selection area of the Edit Window Toolbar.

Session Data Import Improvements
Pro Tools 2024.6 introduced a major overhaul to the Import Session Data window, and now Pro Tools 2024.10 adds even more.

It used to be the case that you could only combine all tracks at once or one at a time. Selecting a track would cause it to be imported as New. This functionality needed to be changed to facilitate a long-standing request to allow selections of tracks to be combinedIn addition, Avid felt it was important not to change the familiar operations of the Import Session Data window, so they added a new mode that allows users to "decouple" track selection from the import process. Users can now make a selection and decide whether to combine or import the selection as new tracks. This can then be repeated with a new selection of tracks with a different action chosen for each group of selected tracks.

There are also new features such as the option to search for exact name matches when comparing tracks, useful new use of colors in the Import Session Data window, and new search functions.

Additions to the Dolby Atmos Renderer
Since the internal Atmos renderer was introduced late last year, it has been steadily improved with each subsequent Pro Tools update, including new custom live renditions, new monitoring formats like Stereo Direct, the ability to solo and mute Dolby Atmos groups in the renderer window, and the ability to directly bounce the renderer output to any supported format via the Bounce Mix window.

New to the internal Dolby Atmos renderer in 2024.10 are controls for soloing and muting speakers in the renderer window. Hovering over a speaker reveals solo and mute buttons, which allow you to solo or mute individual speakers or the entire upper or lower array. The Trim and Downmix window is now also available in a floating window.

Other features:
Drag and Drop Clip to Sample Instruments
Even without the new Kontakt 8 Player and Kontakt content pack, being able to edit samples in the timeline and drag them straight into GrooveCell or Structure Free is very welcome. Additional convenience comes from the ability to drag clips directly from the Workspace browser or the Clips List.

Detachable Clip List
The Clip List is now a detachable window, so you can pop it out onto a separate screen if you need to.

ARA Tab Show/Hide
With the total number of ARA integrations in Pro Tools now at 9, we’ve added a feature where you can check and uncheck the visibility of the ARA software to customize the editors docked at the bottom of the Edit Window to exactly what you’re using.

Disable Marker Lines
Another new way to reduce visual clutter is to hide the marker lines that extend down the Edit Window. Avid has added key commands and menu items to toggle all ruler marker lines on/off, as well as folder marker lines, so you can keep the ones you want and ditch the ones you don't.

Key Command Presets from Other DAWs and NLEs
Some of us at Production Expert found it controversial when editable keys were introduced in Pro Tools, but Avid has taken things a step further with basic key command presets for many of the popular DAWs and NLEs being added to the Keyboard Shortcuts window.

The mapped headings are:

Searching in the Bounce Mix Window

Audition
Cubase & Nuendo
DaVinci Resolve
FL Studio Live
Logic Pro
Media Composer
Debut
Reaper
Studio A
Searchable Bounce Source
Finally, one little something: the Bounce Mix window now lets you type to search for a mix source.
How to Get Pro Tools 2024.10 and Plugins
Watch the video below for a guide on how to download Pro Tools and the additional installers for the new features. If you don’t see them yet, be patient. They’ll be available to everyone in the next 24-48 hours.


Pro Tools 2024.10 is a well-balanced release with new features for both music and post-production users. We’re particularly pleased to see a healthy number of UI tweaks, with the additions to color routing and drag-and-drop for samplers being very welcome. And we’re excited to try out SpectraLayers Go and Wavelab Go. For guidance on getting Pro Tools 2024.10 and the new software added, check out this video. Which of these new features are you most excited to see?