Avid has announced the launch of the Pro Series line of AAX Native and AAX DSP plug-ins, featuring three new advanced processors. Pro Compressor and Pro Expander (available now), along with Pro Limiter (coming soon), are the first plug-ins in the series, joining an expanding line-up for the AAX platform.

Avid's Pro Series plug-ins work with AAX DSP and AAX Native systems, including Pro Tools|HDX, Pro Tools|HD Native, and any system using Pro Tools 10 and higher software. All three plug-ins offer "amazing sound quality, exceptional metering, extremely low latency, and efficient DSP usage".

They also include these advanced features:

• Pro Limiter is a transparent-sounding limiter that enables you to maximize the loudness of any mix, without distortion or harshness. It offers a variety of features that enable you to control how it reacts, with great precision, including:
  • Clean and transparent sound that sits well in the mix while maintaining tight control over output levels.
  • Unique character knob adds soft saturation to signals, enabling an increase in loudness and a higher amount of gain reduction.
  • EBU R128 loudness metering enables you to normalize broadcast audio to EBU specifications quickly.
• Pro Compressor is a high-quality compressor based on the Avid System 5 console and Channel Strip plug-in (which is bundled with Pro Tools 10 software), enabling you to shape sounds, enhance tracks, and breathe life into mixes. But it offers a wide range of features and improvements that go way beyond the Channel Strip, including:
  • Four advanced detectors, plus a unique SMART mode, change how to the compressor sounds and reacts.
  • Solo function isolates just the gain reduction part of the audio material, enabling faster and easier settings adjustments.
  • Parallel compression feature allows users to blend the compressor signal path with the unprocessed input material.
• Pro Expander is also based on the Avid Channel Strip plug-in, enabling you to give mixes more energy, gate noise, and duck signals. It offers a handful of easy-to-use features and improvements, including some unique elements not found in Pro Compressor, including:
  • Look ahead mode with up to 15 milliseconds of "look ahead" for perfect results when setting a hard gate, even on low frequency signals.
  • Upward mode increases the dynamics in the material, allowing for more creativity—especially when used with a steep Q side-channel filter setting.
  • Ducker mode, with its own optimized algorithm and detector, emulates the sound and natural feel of radio programming fader moves.

"Avid continues to set the standard for professional audio production gear, and we're excited to be adding a new crop of our own professional-level plug-ins to complement the rich selection of processors currently offered by third-party AAX developers," says Dana Ruzicka, Vice President of Segment and Product Marketing, Avid. "The Pro Series plug-ins are the answer to our audio professional customers' requests for low-latency dynamics processors that can be used with Pro Tools 10 systems and DSP-based Pro Tools|HDX systems. Furthermore, the Pro Series plug-ins raise the bar for sound quality, features, and usability, making Pro Tools an even more powerful tool. These plug-ins are just the first in a larger roll-out for the line, which will better enable our customers to achieve great sounding results."

Availability

The new Pro Compressor and Pro Expander AAX plug-ins are available now for $99 in the online Avid Store and at Avid resellers worldwide. Pro Limiter will be available soon.