The updates announced by Avid to those professional mixing solutions—part of what Avid now calls its Artist Suite of creative tools for audio, video and live sound production—have a few interesting new features (e.g., better integration with the Eucon control protocol, including VCA Spill, automation control and more).
The System 5 V. 6 software update provides full support for and integration with Dolby Atmos mixes, including support for 9.1 panning of “bed” channels, an integrated monitor control of the Dolby Rendering and Mastering Unit (RMU), and object metadata panning either direct from the console or through plug-in control. The new version includes control of the new Atmos plug-in in Pro Tools directly from from the System 5 surfaces.
The new Pro Tools | S6 software version 1.2 delivers several new enhancements and new features including:
- VCA Spill - ability to spill VCA slaves onto the surface from a VCA master to access and update as necessary
- Multi-Workstation Layouts – ability to map channels onto the surface from any of EUCON-connected DAW – side by side. Users can program and recall 96 layouts from the master touch screen
- Expand Mode – ability to expand a plug-in and its parameters across a single or double knob module – providing either 32 or 64 knobs to access all of the controls at once
- Audio Editing from an S6 Channelstrip – a user can fade in or out a clip, trim the head or tail, slip or nudge it in time, adjust its clip gain and more
- Vary the Scrolling Waveform Speed – a new preference has been added to vary the speed from one second up to 60 seconds
- Gain Reduction Enhancements – high-resolution gain reduction meters are now on both the channel display modules and the master module home page. There are also GR meters on the fader module between the two level meters and new dynamics graph with bouncing ball level indication
- Integrated DVI Switcher Control – ability to switch multiple workstation screens to one TFT has been added via the serial control of either a Gefen or Guntermann & Drunck switcher
- Automation LED indicators on knob modules
- Soft Key Editor - enables users to customize the four banks of soft keys
