Pro Tools | First - Free DAW - What's New

Create at the speed of inspiration

From numerous new MIDI editing enhancements and retrospective MIDI recording, to the ability to save your favorite effects chains and instrument sounds as track presets, Pro Tools | First 2018 enables you to keep your creativity flowing.

November

Create incredible sounds with UVI Workstation

Got loops, UVI instruments, and/or other sound files? Pro Tools | First now includes UVI Workstation—a powerful multitimbral instrument that enables you to play and edit a wide variety of samples and sounds, layer and manipulate parts, and employ an army of effects to create something truly unique that’ll make your music and audio projects stand out.

Get started with Plugsound Avid Edition

Gain inspiration from a great-sounding 2.6 GB sample library included with UVI Workstation. Designed by some of the industry’s top sound designers, this deeply editable collection offers everything—from high-quality keyboards, drums, synths, and fretted instruments, to loops and atmospheric soundscapes—to enhance any music or sound design project. Plus, you can fuel your creativity even further with additional UVI curated expansion packs available in the Avid Marketplace.

July

Search to access the plugins and busses you need

Forget scrolling through lengthy menus to find the plugin or bus you need. With tag-like search capabilities integrated into the Inserts, Sends, Inputs, and Outputs menus, you can simply start typing and Pro Tools will instantly display all matching items, enabling you to assign VIs, effects, and busses much faster than before.

Speed up multi-item menu selections

Pro Tools | First now makes it easy to select multiple items in a menu in one fell swoop to boost your workflow speed. Control-click (Mac) or Start-click (Windows) on a track send or output and select as many items as desired from the context menu. And quickly select multiple options in Soundbase, as well as Edit and Mix window view preferences, using checkboxes in pop-over menus.

Edit audio in the groove

Don’t want everything to perfectly align to the beat when rearranging a session? You can now have Pro Tools maintain the relative grid position when copying, cutting, and pasting audio and MIDI clips and note selections. Not only does this expedite the editing process, it preserves the perfectly imperfect feel of unquantized music by retaining all correct offsets established in your timeline.

Discover more new enhancements in this release

January

Build sessions on the fly with Track Presets

Kick time-consuming tasks to the curb. With Track Presets, you can quickly save, catalog, and recall your favorite effects chains, vocal processing, and other track settings—boosting your efficiency—so you can spend more time creating.

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Capture performances retroactively

Ever jam along to a song and nail the perfect run before hitting record? With retrospective MIDI recording, Pro Tools goes into “listen” mode even when you’re not recording, so you can retroactively drop those inspired improvisations into a track post performance, without missing a beat.

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Take deeper control of your MIDI

Making music has never been easier. With numerous MIDI improvements and enhancements, you can fix and finesse every note to perfection—from transposing and trimming notes with the arrow keys, to building chords and scores faster than ever before.

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Get a better view of your mix

With new EQ curve graphs on all Mix window channel strips, you can see how your settings and automation are impacting each track in real time—even those with multiple EQs (supported plugins only). In addition, pre-fader sends and Automation lane view menu entries are now color-coded, making them easier to distinguish.

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