Avid Pro Tools Sketch, Free iPad App and Tool in Pro Tools Desktop

It’s nonlinear and clip-based, comes with free loops, fx, and virtual instruments

This is the first announcement we’ve heard from Avid since they were acquired by a private equity company last month. In addition to Pro Tools Sketch, Avid announced that they’re making the Pro Tools Perpetual License (i.e. no subscription) available “after receiving clear and consistent feedback from the user community” – which one would suspect sounded a lot like very loud audio feedback. 🙂

As you’ll read, Pro Tools Sketch has been under development for a long time. But given the importance of Pro Tools to the music community, we’re watching with great interest.

Here’s most of the company release explaining Pro Tools Sketch:

NEWS RELEASE

BURLINGTON, Mass., Sept. 21, 2023— Avid^® (Nasdaq: AVID) today announced Pro Tools Sketch™ a new non-linear, clip-based creation tool in Pro Tools software that is also available as a free iPad app. Pro Tools Sketch enables musicians to quickly capture new ideas and freely experiment with concepts and songs, and find inspiration with a massive library of free loops, virtual instruments and effects. Years in the making, this new addition to the Pro Tools workflow adds a must-have creation process directly alongside the Edit and Mix windows that established modern linear audio recording. 

With Pro Tools Sketch, Avid addresses the growing needs of modern creators, no matter their preferred music creation style. While the Pro Tools Sketch iPad app is available for free to anyone via the Apple App Store, the Pro Tools 2023.9 update is now available to all Pro Tools customers on an active subscription or perpetual license with a current Software Updates + Support Plan, as well as all users of the free Pro Tools Intro application.

Pro Tools Sketch

Pro Tools Sketch is a significant expansion of the Pro Tools music creation workflow, adding a non-linear creation environment to the proven Pro Tools toolset used on the majority of top music releases, movies and TV shows. Users can now start with clip-based sketches in which loops, MIDI and recordings can be freely organized and played, and then exported to be shared with friends. Sketches can also be moved to the Pro Tools timeline for further production using its world-class editing and mixing tools. And since sketches can be moved between computer and iPad at will, users can capture and play with ideas anywhere inspiration strikes.

Pro Tools Sketch features 16 tracks and virtually unlimited scenes and includes over 1 GB of loops and a variety of onboard effects to create for any kind of music genre. Users can quickly audition audio and MIDI loops in the Browser and drag them into the launcher where they can be played, moved and tweaked. Audio and MIDI can be recorded and edited alongside loops and then quickly organized into linear song arrangements. Whether users are experienced or new to Pro Tools, Sketch gives them new ways to experiment and make something they truly love.

Other New Pro Tools 2023.9 Features

Pro Tools 2023.9 software update also introduces Export Selected Range, which enables Pro Tools Studio and Ultimate customers to export selected portions of the timeline as a new session. This feature is perfect for breaking up large post sessions, separating a live recording into a session per song, and saving important elements of the session as bite size pieces. The release also delivers drag-and-drop plugin slot reordering to give users greater flexibility in experimenting with and changing processing order, and more.

Availability

The Pro Tools Sketch iPad app is now available free to download via the Apple App Store. The Pro Tools 2023.9 software release is now available to all Pro Tools customers on an active subscription or perpetual license with a current Software Updates + Support Plan, as well as all users of the free Pro Tools Intro application.

Avid has also announced that it is making available the Pro Tools perpetual license purchase option after receiving clear and consistent feedback from the user community. New Pro Tools perpetual licenses are exclusively sold by authorized Avid resellers.

For more information and to download Pro Tools Sketch at no charge, please visit Avid.com/pro-tools-sketch.