Pro Tools 9 is an unusual update, in that nearly all of its ‘new’ features aren’t new at all. Admittedly, support for ASIO and Core Audio is a deal that’s about as big as they come, but apart from that, almost everything was already there in HD. It’s not hard to think of further additions that might have improved the program for everyone, such as offline bouncing or a ‘freeze’ function for plugins and instruments, but these will remain the province of rival packages for the time being. Likewise, Pro Tools remains the only major DAW that has not yet been coded natively for 64bit operating systems. In practice, this is not an issue unless you need to use large sample libraries, but it probably needs to happen soon.
Nevertheless, by suddenly opening up so much previously HDonly functionality to native users, Avid have effected the biggest step forward in the history of Pro Tools as a native application. At a stroke, they have removed almost all the frustrations afflicting the many users who wanted or needed to belong to the Pro Tools world, but lacked the budget to go HD. The upgrade to Pro Tools 9 is not cheap, but it is surely worth it: as someone who worked mainly with LE and MPowered, I literally jumped for joy when I first saw the feature list, and I can’t imagine anyone else in the same position feeling otherwise.
While the Core Audio implementation appears pretty solid, ASIO support in Pro Tools 9 still feels a little immature, both in comparison with other applications such as Cubase, and with Avid’s own hardware drivers. If you’re planning on using a Windows system, check carefully that your preferred audio hardware works properly: the AIR Users’ Blog maintains an unofficial list at www.airusersblog.com/protools9hardwarechecker/ that may be helpful. But it’s already very usable with the right interfaces, and this is such an important and central issue that I’m sure Avid and other manufacturers will be working to improve it. (Focusrite, for example, have already announced that they’re working on an RTAS plugin that will replicate the Saffire MixControl functionality within Pro Tools.) In other respects, Pro Tools 9 is remarkably free of bugs and teething troubles, because so much of its functionality has already been tried and tested in the HD world.