Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546135
C I N E M A A U D I O S O C I E T Y. O R G 21 definitely on the bleeding edge of what the platform could do!" When asking Peter about the motivation behind even the first version of Pro Tools having the ability to sync with video using SMPTE, he said, "At the time, virtually all serious audio post involved synching analog multitracks to pro format video decks using SMPTE. The Mac wasn't a powerful enough platform to integrate pro quality video and audio, and we felt that supporting the industry sync standard was 'table stakes' to integrate into existing pro workflows." Speaking more to the audio post side, Peter continues, "I need to give a huge shout-out to Bill Koepnick of Advantage Audio. My background was music—I had no idea what audio post was. Bill was an early Sound Designer user who convinced us to develop Q-Sheet. Evan worked closely with Bill and developed the app single-handed. It wasn't much of a money maker, but it was our intro to post and started our education on SMPTE timecode and many other post requirements." Q-Sheet was, essentially, a sequencer that allowed timecode to be entered for events (such as sound effects) to be triggered via MTC on playback. One of the game changers in audio post was the implementation of OMF. I was a Pro Tools editor and studio assistant in Sony Music Studios NYC's audio post department starting in 1995 and, shortly thereafter, we were beta testing the OMF Tool software because Sony had a bunch of Media Composer systems and a handful of PT systems. I asked Peter about this development. "As Media Composer and Pro Tools users tried to collaborate on projects, there were many areas of workflow pain. OMF Tool was an early effort to improve interoperability. Those early versions had a lot of issues, but our dedicated user base put up with a lot because they could see the potential." Speaking of another big product, their first control surface, Peter shares, "ProControl was a very controversial product at Digi and we had several false starts. Some people in the company thought we would never be capable of building a professional-grade control surface, but I felt it was an essential nut to crack if you are trying to build the studio of the future. Early third-party options like the Mackie control surface convinced me that we could never get the experience right, or tightly integrated, if we didn't do it ourselves." Personally, I feel the successful interchangeability of media from Media Composer to Pro Tools that OMF provided, along with the stability and real "feel" of the ProControl—not to mention the somewhat more "affordable" price point of Pro Tools software and hardware (relative to some other proprietary DAW's of the time such as AMS AudioFile and SSL ScreenSound) —allowed Pro Tools to become the standard in post that it is. The CAS celebrates the vision, ingenuity, and drive of Evan Brooks and Peter Gotcher. Peter Gotcher and Evan Brooks