®

What’s New in Pro Tools and

Pro Tools | Ultimate
version 2020.9
Legal Notices

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Guide Part Number 9329-66171-00 REV A 09/20

Contents

What’s New in Pro Tools 2020.9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

New Features and Enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
System Requirements and Compatibility Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Conventions Used in This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

New and Improved Features in Pro Tools 2020.9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Support for Ableton Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Record Enable Buttons Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Convert SDII Files to Session File Format on Launch or Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Audio Playback Support for BW64 Wave Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Cloud Collaboration Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

What’s New in Pro Tools 2020.9 iii

What’s New in Pro Tools 2020.9

New Features and Enhancements

Pro Tools® and Pro Tools | Ultimate software version 2020.9 provides the following new features and enhancements.

Support for Ableton Link

• Ableton Link lets you synchronize playback of different Link-enabled applications (macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android) on the
same or separate devices with each other over a local network.

Updated Record Enable Buttons Preferences

• Lets you select from multiple options to determine the behavior of Record Enable buttons.

Convert SD II Files on Launch or Import

(macOS Only)
• SD II files can be imported and converted to the session file format (AIFF or WAV) on session launch or audio file import.

Audio Playback Support for BW64 Wave Files

• Pro Tools lets you import and convert BW64 files, as well as link to and play back BW64 files referenced by imported AAF se-
quences.

Updates to Cloud Collaboration

• The Artist Chat window has been simplified to handle Pro Tools Projects and Messages, while Profile and Talent (contacts) manage-
ment is available using Avid Link.
• The Auto buttons have been removed from the Collaboration cluster in the Edit and Transport windows.

System Requirements and Compatibility Information

Avid can only assure compatibility and provide support for hardware and software it has tested and approved.

For complete system requirements and a list of qualified computers, operating systems, hard drives, and third-party devices, visit:
www.avid.com/compatibility

What’s New in Pro Tools 2020.9

Conventions Used in This Guide
Pro Tools documentation uses the following conventions to indicate menu choices, keyboard commands, and mouse commands:
:

Convention Action

File > Save Choose Save from the File menu

Control+N Hold down the Control key and press the N key

Control-click Hold down the Control key and click the mouse but-
ton

Right-click Click with the right mouse button

The names of Commands, Options, and Settings that appear on-screen are in a different font.

The following symbols are used to highlight important information:

User Tips are helpful hints for getting the most from your Pro Tools system.

Important Notices include information that could affect your Pro Tools project data or the performance of your
Pro Tools system.

Shortcuts show you useful keyboard or mouse shortcuts.

Cross References point to related sections in this guide and other Avid documentation.

How to Use this PDF Guide

This PDF provides the following useful features:
• The Bookmarks on the left serve as a continuously visible table of contents. Click on a subject heading to jump to that page.
• Click a + symbol to expand that heading to show subheadings. Click the – symbol to collapse a subheading.
• The Table of Contents provides active links to their pages. Select the hand cursor, allow it to hover over the heading until it turns
into a finger. Then click to locate to that subject and page.
• All cross references in blue are active links. Click to follow the reference.
• Select Find from the Edit menu to search for a subject.
• When viewing this PDF on an iPad, it is recommended that you open the file using iBooks to take advantage of active links within
the document. When viewing the PDF in Safari, touch the screen, then touch Open in “iBooks”.

What’s New in Pro Tools 2020.9

Resources
The Avid website (www.avid.com) is your best online source for information to help you get the most out of Pro Tools.

Account Activation and Product Registration

Activate your product to access downloads in your Avid account (or quickly create an account if you do not have one). Register your
purchase online, download software, updates, documentation, and other resources.
www.avid.com/account

Support and Downloads

Contact Avid Customer Success (technical support), download software updates and the latest online manuals, browse the Compatibil-
ity documents for system requirements, search the online Knowledge Base or join the worldwide Avid user community on the User Con-
ference.
www.avid.com/support

Training and Education

Study on your own using courses available online, find out how you can learn in a classroom setting at an Avid-certified training center,
or view video tutorials and webinars.
www.avid.com/education

Video Tutorials
The Get Started Fast with Pro Tools series of online videos provide tutorials to help if you are new to Pro Tools. They also provide vid-
eos for the experienced user that introduce new features found in the latest versions of Pro Tools.
www.avidblogs.com/get-started-fast-with-pro-tools/

Products and Developers

Learn about Avid products, download demo software, or learn about our Development Partners and their plug-ins, applications, and
hardware.
www.avid.com/products

What’s New in Pro Tools 2020.9

New and Improved Features in Pro Tools 2020.9

Support for Ableton Link

Pro Tools supports Ableton Link, a synchronization technology from Ableton that keeps Link-enabled applications in time over a
local network (LAN or WLAN). Link synchronizes musical beat, tempo, phase and start/stop commands across multiple applica-
tions running on the same or different devices. Applications on devices connected to a local network discover each other automat-
ically and form a musical session in which each participant can perform independently:
• Anyone can start or stop while still staying in time.
• Anyone can change the tempo and the others follow.
• Anyone can join or leave without disrupting the session.

Link-enabled applications on the same network are referred to as peers. Peers can be on the same computer as well as on other com-
puters on the network.

The tempo range supported by Ableton Link is 20 bpm to 999 bpm.

All Ableton Link peers must be behind any firewall on the network.

For more information about Ableton Link, visit www.ableton.com.

To enable Ableton Link:

1 Ensure that your Pro Tools system is connected to a local network (LAN or WLAN).
2 Ensure that any other devices running Link-enabled applications (peers) are connected to the same local network.
3 In Pro Tools, show the Ableton Link controls in the Edit window toolbar or the Transport window.
4 Click the Link button so that it turns blue.
5 Enable Start/Stop if desired.
6 Select the desired Quantize value.
7 Start playback.

In Pro Tools, use Elastic Audio on tick-based tracks to conform to tempo changes made over Ableton Link.

In Pro Tools, disable the Conductor to enter Manual Tempo mode otherwise the Pro Tools Tempo track may override tempo
changes made in other Link-enabled applications.

Showing and Hiding Ableton Link Controls

Controls for Ableton Link can be shown or hidden in the Edit window toolbar and the Transport window.

To show (or hide) Ableton Link controls in the Edit window toolbar:
1 Do one of the following:
• Click the Edit Window Toolbar menu (in the upper-right corner of the window).
• Right-click in the Toolbar.
2 From the menu, select (or deselect) Ableton Link.

New and Improved Features in Pro Tools 2020.9 4

Selecting Ableton Link in the Edit Window Toolbar menu

To show (or hide) Ableton Link controls in the Transport window:

1 Do one of the following:
• Click the Transport Window menu (in the upper-right corner of the window).
• Right-click in the Transport window.
2 From the menu, select (or deselect) Ableton Link.

Selecting Ableton Link in the Transport Window menu

Ableton Link Controls and Indicators

Start/Stop Sync

Number of Connected Peers

Launch Quantize selector
Beat Cycle Position indicator
Link button

Ableton Link controls

Start/Stop Sync

Click Start/Stop to toggle Pro Tools transport start/stop synchronization on and off. Start/Stop lights green when enabled. When
enabled, starting and stopping the Pro Tools transport sends and responds to start and stop messages to and from any other linked
applications. Note that not all Link-enabled applications send or respond to start and stop messages. For those that do, you may
need to enable Start/Stop sync within the application itself.

Number of Connected Peers Display

The number of connected peers is displayed to the right of Start/Stop. Peers are other Link-enabled applications connected over
the network or running on the host computer. For example, in addition to your Pro Tools system, if there is a laptop on the network
running Ableton Live and an iPad running two Link-enabled applications (such as a synth app and a drum machine app), the num-
ber of peers displayed will be 3.

Note that peers can be on the same computer as well as on other computers on the network.

Launch Quantize

Launch Quantize determines the bar/beat cycle for synchronizing playback with other peer applications on the network. The se-
lected Quantize value determines at what point in the bar/beat cycle Pro Tools playback starts when joining an active multi-peer
session. This ensures that Pro Tools synchronizes with other peers on the network in a musically meaningful way.

New and Improved Features in Pro Tools 2020.9 5

If Pro Tools is the first peer on the network to start playback, playback starts immediately regardless of the selected Quantize value
and tick-based tracks follow the session tempo.

If playback has already been started by another peer on the network, Pro Tools starts playback at the beginning of the next bar/beat
cycle specified by the selected Quantize value, and tick-based tracks follow the network tempo set by any peer on the network. For
example, with Quantize set to 1 Bar and you start playback after the downbeat played by other peers on the network, Pro Tools
waits to start playback until the next downbeat.

The following bar and beat values are available:

• None (Launch Quantize is off and Pro Tools starts playback immediately regardless of beat/bar location, and tick-based tracks
follow the network tempo)
• 8 Bars
• 4 Bars
• 2 Bars
• 1 Bar
• 1/2 note
• 1/4 note
• 1/8 note
• 1/16 note
• 1/32 note
• Triplet (select in addition to a beat value to make the selected beat value a triplet)

The selected Quantize value is saved with the session.

Beat Cycle Position Indicator

The Beat Cycle Position indicator shows progress through the bar/beat cycle.

Link Button

Click the Link button to toggle Ableton Link on and off. The button lights blue when enabled. When Ableton Link is enabled, your
Pro Tools session is automatically recognized by all other Link-enabled applications and devices on the same local network.

Record Enable Buttons Preferences

In previous versions of Pro Tools, disabling the Latch Record Enable Buttons preference invoked a “Cancel Previous” behavior
when record-enabling audio tracks. However, doing so did not disable record-enable on MIDI or Instrument tracks (and vice versa).
This could sometimes cause accidental erasures, especially if some of the record-enabled tracks were not visible.

In Pro Tools 2020.9, the Latch Record Enable Buttons preference has been replaced by a Record Enable Buttons setting with
three options. This permits the previous behavior, but adds a new one:
• Latch Audio Tracks behaves as when Latch Record Enable Buttons was enabled in earlier versions of Pro Tools.
• Cancel Previous on Audio Tracks behaves as when Latch Record Enable Buttons was disabled in earlier versions of
Pro Tools.
• Select Cancel Previous on All Tracks so that record-enabling a MIDI or Instrument track “Cancels Previous” on MIDI, Instru-
ment, and audio tracks (and vice versa_.

There is no change to the following behaviors:

• MIDI and Instrument tracks always “Cancel Previous” on other MIDI and Instrument tracks.
• In any Cancel Previous mode (or on MIDI or Instrument tracks at any time), holding Shift while enabling or disabling record en-
able temporarily invokes latching behavior across all track types.

Latch Audio Tracks and Cancel Previous on Audio Tracks are equivalent to the legacy Latch Record Enable Buttons option
enabled or disabled respectively.

New and Improved Features in Pro Tools 2020.9 6

To set the Record Enable Buttons preference:
1 Choose Setup > Preferences and click the Operations tab.
2 Select one of the following from Record Enable Buttons:
Latch Audio Tracks When selected, the Record Enable button on each audio track latches on (or off) when you click it.

Cancel Previous on Audio Tracks When selected, clicking the Record Enable button on any audio track disengages record enable
on all other audio tracks.
Cancel Previous on All Tracks When selected, click the Record Enable button on any track of any type disengages record enable
on all other tracks regardless of track type.

Setting Record Enable Buttons preference

Shift-click the track record enable button of any track of any type to engage or disengage record enable on that track in latch
mode regardless of the selected Record Enable Buttons option.

3 Click OK.

Convert SDII Files to Session File Format on Launch or Import

(macOS Only)

When opening a legacy session with SDII files, the session file format is set to BWF (.WAV) and all SD II files are also converted
to BWF (.WAV). Likewise, Pro Tools converts SD II (Sound Designer II) files on import when using Import Audio (File > Import
> Audio), Import Session Data (File > Import > Session Data), or drag and drop from a Workspace browser or macOS Finder.

Audio Playback Support for BW64 Wave Files

Pro Tools supports linking and play back of BW64 audio files. Both BW64 and RF64 are extensions to the WAV audio file format
that address the 4 gigabyte size limitation of other WAV audio file formats.

If Pro Tools creates or converts a 4 GB or greater file to the WAV format, the resulting file is formatted as RF64 even if the
file originated as BW64. While Pro Tools can link to and play back BW64 files, it does not acknowledge the ADM metadata
that is unique to the format.

Cloud Collaboration Changes

Artist Chat Window

The Artist Chat window has been simplified to handle Pro Tools Projects (Avid Link > Pro Tools Projects) and Messages
(Avid Link > Messages). Profile and Talent (contacts) management is available from the Avid Link menu (Avid Link > Profile and
Avid Link > Find Talent) and open in a separate window from the Artist Chat window.

Profile, Messages, Find Talent, and Pro Tools Projects are also available in the separate Avid Link application (installed with
Pro Tools).

To open the Artist Chat window focused on Pro Tools projects, do one of the following:

 Choose Window > Artist Chat.

 Press Command+Shift+= (equals) (Mac) or Control+Shift+= (equals) (Windows).

New and Improved Features in Pro Tools 2020.9 7

 Choose Avid Link > Pro Tools Projects.

Artist Chat window, Projects

To open Messages in the Artist Chat window:

 Choose Avid Link > Messages.

Track Collaboration Tools

The Auto upload and download buttons have been removed from the Global Collaboration controls in the Edit and Transport win-
dows. When there are changes to the cloud copy or local copy of shared tracks in the project, the Download or Upload changes but-
tons highlight accordingly. Click the Download or Upload changes button to manually download or upload changes.

Global Collaboration controls

Note that all uploads and downloads must now be done manually.

New and Improved Features in Pro Tools 2020.9 8

Technical Support (USA) Product Information
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