Pro Tools 8 Includes Enhanced Notation Features

Original Content By Laura B. Whitmore

Back in December, Digidesign released Pro Tools 8, a new version of the industry standard recording software. Both Digidesign and Sibelius are a part of Avid Technology Inc., and if you are already familiar with Sibelius notation software, and even if you aren’t, you’ll be happy to know that Sibelius and Pro Tools have enhanced their partnership in Pro Tools 8, providing increased integration and functionality for Pro Tools’ notation features.

What does this mean to you? For starters, with Pro Tools 8 you can readily see and manipulate the notation for the recordings you are working on. You can choose either a full score window, which allows you to see your music as notation on the entire screen. Or, you can split the screen and select the part you want to see as notation. Then the notation appears at the bottom. You can zoom-in, edit, transpose, add chord symbols or just simply see what the notation for a passage looks like.

Editing features include inserting or deleting notes, lengthening notes, and much more. You can adjust the score spacing and layout, add more tracks to the score, or just zoom-in on parts. This is particularly useful for composition and arranging students who can connect the music notation to the score, see and hear changes immediately or just follow along. Then, when you’re all done, you can export the score to Sibelius for even further tweaking and finesse.

Educators find this feature useful for pulling out parts for rehearsals and changing scores to accommodate the instruments available in your school ensembles. Students can record their original compositions then create parts for their peers to play live. When you’re ready, you can print out notation directly from Pro Tools, too.


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