r/protools

Hi! First time poster, long time reader - I'm looking for a suggestion for a 24-32 channel board/interface that works with current Pro Tools (2026.4) and Mac OS (Tahoe). I run a small studio for recording bands and would love to move to a board instead of what I have currently (Tascam US 16x08). Would love to have phantom control on every channel if possible, and the ability to record in at least 96k (seems really hard anything that runs past 48k for less than $3k). The best cheap option would be great. I've been looking for the past week and just keep running into walls lol. Even something on the older side that I can get to communicate with current Pro Tools would be great. Thanks!

This seems like it’s a super obvious answer, but currently I have to run the HW buffer size pretty high or else I will have CPU overload errors. I’m currently on a 2017 Mac with a 4.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7. With a new Mac with an M chip would I be able to run more plugins with a lower sample buffer size? I just don’t know if it’s a software limitation of Pro Tools.

The problem I have is re-opening 25+ year old sessions, created on OS8 or OS9.

To be able to use them reliably in 2026 they would have to work on both macOS and Windows platforms, which eliminates some of the special characters that macOS has allowed the use of in the past. (e.g. @, ?, / and all the various accented characters that macOS didn't use the ISO-standard for in the past).

After transferring from HFS-drives to modern file-systems (including the resource forks) it is not a big problem renaming the actual files on the drive.
The problem arises when you have to find the files again when opening the session.

If the spelling is the same then it pretty much works OK, but if you have files that originally had special characters then Pro Tools cannot find them. You can go into the clip-list and rename the Offline files there (i.e. substituting the special characters with the same character you used to replace them on the hard drives), but that name-change isn't reflected in the ReLink-cue.

I.e. if you have a vocal take in the old PT4 session that was called "VOC JOHN @ 1st CHORUS-01", then the @ would be a problematic character on the harddrive and could be replaced with an underscore and now is called "VOC JOHN _ 1st CHORUS-01".
You could batch-rename all clips and whole files listed in the Clip List in Pro Tools and replace @ with _ , but the file names in the Relink window still retain their original name, and so cannot automatically find the file by name.

I realise that I can find that file in the Workspace and drag it into the candidates field of Relink and select it there, and then Commit Links, but that is very time consuming, and error prone.

So is there some way, hitherto unbeknownst to me where one can edit the Missing file names in the Relink window?

PT2026.4, Win11 Home 10.0.26200

How do I get a strong 808 bass in protools? In hiphop I know they combine a kick and a bass sound, I have the kick, but how do I get that strong 808 sound youd hear in modern rap like drake or travis scott

In some programs you can change the playback rate and record at that speed, then return to the real speed to do time stretching that doesn't have formant chunking.

If I still used my Windows box for audio work, it would be simply changing the playback rate in Audition and done. I think WaveLab allows this too.

In Pro Tools, I am able to playback at half-speed and record, but that it full chipmunk mode one octave up, but I want to do precise speeds to achieve the same thing a harmonizer would do, but naturally.

I'm more and more in need to buy a new computer. I've been wanting to buy a new MBP as these new M5 machines look very capable. The first of those machine came out in October iirc.

Avid site states:

> "Apple M5–series computers are currently unsupported and have known issues. We are actively working on qualification and will provide an update as soon as the process is complete.

>Please note that there are known issues that may impact the supported computers listed below when running macOS Sequoia and Tahoe."

So it's been 7 months with no support for the last Apple chip, and even longer (I believe Sequoia has been out since 2024) for full support, no asterisks, for the operating system.

Man this is depressing really.

I'm on windows 11, Intel core i7 10700, 16gb dual channel ram, Nvidia GeForce rtx 2060

It opens the window and shows the splashcreen while loading everything up, after "loading plugins" it just closes without explanation

Avid support doesn't seem to be of use here since I'm not paying $60 for support

Do you have any particular method for gauging that you're hitting desirable levels into Pro Tools?

Im curious mostly about tracking vocals but any other sources as well.

Do you use any level metering plugins or simply use the tracks green sample peak level meter?

Limited PT experience, coming from Reaper. In Reaper I can use markers to do all kinds of things (stop, skip to next marker, trigger whatever, etc.)

Can I easily and quickly do something like this in Pro Tools? It would be helpful to the live environment I’m using it in.

’m struggling to get protools to open on my windows 11 lenovo yoga 83DL laptop. I’m able to get avid link to to work and install protools. But when I go to open the application, the icon appears on the bottom of the screen but it doesn’t seem to be responding because no window is appearing.

Could it be that the program is impossible to run on this laptop? Or maybe is there something I could try? Something that might be wrong? Could it be that I should try freeing up my storage on my SSD? I have 157 GB free of 951 GB.

Pro tools has a really great new feature in the most recent version where you can separate clips by speaker after I has been transcribed. Does anyone happen to know how to possibly break those out into separate tracks automatically?

It’s a great start to the feature, would love to see it expanded upon. Will save a ton of time later

PT 2025, Mac os Sierra. Interface is Apogee Symphony i/o.

This isn't my rig, but when I work there I built a template that has clean inputs and outputs with headphone sends labeled. When I leave, the studio owner complains that something is changing the names of the outputs from "1-2" to "Playback 1-2" and then all of the sends from the template I built are broken.

What causes this? Why does pressing "default" ruin the i/o? How do I configure what the default setting is?

I just downloaded pro tools studio for the first time, and I got the latest version I believe. I am able to color the small strips at the bottom of my tracks, but I can’t change the entire track color. Does anyone have a fix for this?

Issue: midi controller is being read by pro tools but the instrument track isn't making sound. i.e. the volume indicator is moving so it is picking up the input no sound is coming from it.

1. Setup track as a stereo instrument and to test I put the standard grand piano 🎹

2. MIDI interface is ✅

3. MIDI thru✅

Have mercy I'm new lol 😅

version 2026.4.0

When ElastiquePro doesn't work on vocals what else would you recommend trying? I'm getting what I consider noticeable drift and it's sorta robotic. Almost as if I've stretched too much and there's tons of red spots. I don't have any red spots, but none of it sounds natural. It's almost as if the more aligning I do the less aligned it sounds. I presume this is happening because of the length of my clips and the amount of layering. How do I fix it?

If I switch to X-form will this delete my markers? Could this in theory work better?

What do you suggest when ElastiquePro doesn't work? I tried mono and it sounds worse.

I tried Syncvx and honestly it sounds 100x better, but I can't figure out how to make the plugin full screen so I can make edits.