M powered pro tools review12/7/2023 ![]() ![]() In Pro Tools M-Powered, the iLok USB dongle is used for the program too. Previous versions of Pro Tools have, in effect, used Digidesign's hardware as a dongle, with PACE's iLok system employed as an adjunct for authorising third-party plug-ins. PT M-Powered uses the existing M-Audio device drivers, provided you have the latest version, but is unable to 'see' any audio devices other than the five listed above. Those who were hoping for an 'open' version of Pro Tools will also be disappointed. Perhaps Digi still have a warehouse full of M Boxes somewhere. With the Audiomedia III and Digi 001 interfaces both long discontinued, this means you can now run a 'lite' version of Pro Tools with a PCI interface for the first time in ages, but it's interesting that none of M-Audio's USB audio interfaces is supported. Initially, five M-Audio interfaces are supported: the Audiophile 2496 and 192 PCI soundcards, the Ozonic combined controller keyboard and Firewire interface, and the multi-channel Firewire 410 and Firewire 1814 interfaces. Well, the first fruits of the marriage were announced at the Frankfurt Musikmesse, in the shape of a version of Pro Tools designed to run on M-Audio hardware. Would Digidesign make an ASIO-compatible version of Pro Tools? Would M-Audio continue to bundle other companies' software with their interfaces? Would we see the end of open driver support for M-Audio hardware? The takeover thus led to plenty of speculation about how the two companies would work together. (In recent years, Digi have written ASIO drivers allowing their hardware interfaces to be used by third-party programs, but they rarely exploit all of the features of a particular interface.) Pro Tools has always used the proprietary Digidesign Audio Engine instead, and the same is true of Digidesign hardware. ![]() Digidesign, on the other hand, have never made a version of Pro Tools that would support other companies' hardware via protocols such as ASIO or WDM. ![]() M-Audio have always tried to support all of the common driver standards for both Mac OS and Windows, ensuring that their interfaces would work with as many different recording packages as possible. There was also something of a clash of corporate philosophy, in terms of the two companies' approaches to open standards. ![]() In recent years, Digidesign had devoted increasing attention to their Pro Tools LE systems, which package a slightly cut-down version of their Pro Tools recording software with small audio interfaces such as the M Box and 002, and some of these have very similar counterparts in M-Audio's range. There was, however, a certain amount of overlap between the new siblings' product ranges. The motives behind Avid's acquisition seemed pretty clear: Digidesign, also owned by Avid, had reached a dominant position in the pro and semi-pro markets, whilst M-Audio were one of the leading players in the home-studio computing arena, so the takeover gave Avid a substantial slice of the latter market to complement Digidesign's dominance at the higher end. By the time the company was bought by Avid Technology last year, sales of M-Audio's core products - affordable soundcards, USB and Firewire interfaces, and controller keyboards - were bringing in tens of millions of dollars. For the first time ever, Digidesign's Pro Tools recording software is available as a stand-alone product, which can be used in conjunction with any of five audio interfaces from M-Audio.įrom humble beginnings as Midiman, makers of handy gadgets such as format converters and MIDI interfaces, M-Audio's growth is the stuff of business legend. ![]()
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