Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/987065
64 S P R I N G 2 0 1 8 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y Audinate, the company that gives us Dante, has introduced a new AVIO series of Dante adapters, which may be the smallest connectors on the market. In addition to a new version of Sibelius, Avid introduced Pro Tools 2018. Other than the name change, there does not appear to be much of an upgrade from v12. There are long-overdue MIDI enhancements, track presets, new playlist workflows (which use less screen space). It also allows you to see a combined EQ graph for each track. There are three versions of the new software. Pro Tools First is free and is for beginners, with limitations. You cannot store your session locally, you must get an Avid Cloud Collaboration account, which has a monthly fee. In addition, you cannot open a PT First session in other ver- sions of Pro Tools and vice versa. These two limitations are enough to turn off any professional, but for someone just learning the software, it's probably fine. Although it ships with 20 plugins, you can only use other plugins that were purchased through Avid Marketplace, which is not only limiting, but if you bought a plugin from a different site, you will have to buy it again from Avid. Track limit From left: Zaxcom at NAB, Avid and SSL at NAMM, TEC Awards AVIO Dante adaptors from Audinate is 16 stereo tracks, with recording limited to four tracks. It does not allow sync to picture. Sample rate is limited to 96 kHz and below. The other two versions are Pro Tools and Pro Tools Ultimate. Pro Tools is the software-only version that does not require Avid hardware. It has a track limit of 128 stereo tracks. Recording is up to 32 tracks. Pro Tools Ultimate is the version previously known as Pro Tools HD. It allows up to 192 inputs depending on your hardware setup. These two versions can be purchased via subscription, or bought for a one-time fee that excludes upgrades. AES@NAMM For the first time, the Audio Engineering Society (AES) had a presence at NAMM. Badges had to be obtained separately, and the AES functions were happening at the Anaheim Hilton, adjacent to the Convention Center. This added many presentations by professionals, including one by Scott Martin Gershin, who gave an excellent talk about the use of spatial audio. Scott Martin Gershin