Ok, so Pro Tools 8 was announced at the AES show over the weekend, and they’ve been busy lads indeed. Lots of extra plugins, increased track counts, lots of MIDI love, notation editor, elastic pitch, and a very pretty revamped interface. Look at it up there, looking all smooth and metallic and… well, a lot like Logic 8, really

I’ll upgrade, if only to keep current with my knowledge of the platform, but I must admit that once the excitement wears off there appears to be a lot of catch up being played here.

I have this constant love/hate thing with Pro Tools. If I’m being honest, I’ll have to say that to some degree it’s just tall-poppy syndrome. It really rankles when people who don’t really know about the alternatives won’t look at you seriously unless you’re using Pro Tools. You’re not going to veto a writer because they use a certain brand of pencil, or a photographer who uses a Nikon rather than a Canon, or whatever. But people seem to have this raging love for Pro Tools to the detriment of some (arguably superior) competitors. Which is not to say it’s a bad product, which it absolutely isn’t. But it’s not the only product.

Is it because it has “Pro” in the title?

I don’t know.

And despite my little diatribe there, every time a new version comes along, I still feel compelled to take a look. Ah Digidesign, you seductive little minx.