Gen Cre8: A Public Assembly
Avid brought its Gen Cre8 movement to NYC yesterday, demoing its feature-packed, indie-priced video and audio wares at Public Assembly, in Williamsburg.
Morningwood performing for the Gen Cre8 crowd
It was the first in a series of events that will introduce a series of solutions — including Pro Tools Essential and Pinnacle Studio — to new artists working with video and music. NYC pop-rock band, Morningwood, headlined the event with a set on the Public Assembly main stage.
Demos of Pinnacle Studio HD and Pro Tools Essential took place on the second-stage at Public Assembly, covering the amazingly capable and accessible platforms for producing full-up videos and music.
Pro Tools Essentials sells in hardware/software bundles priced at either $99 or $129. It’s Avid’s best buy-version of Pro Tools, and that’s exactly where they’re selling it (though not exclusively).
Each of three bundles — Pro Tools Vocal Studio ($99), Pro Tools Recording Studio ($99) or Pro Tools KeyStudio ($129) — includes the “Pro Tools M-Powered Essential” software plus an M-Audio hardware component to get you started. That’s an M-Audio Producer USB microphone for Vocal Studio, Fast Track USB audio interface for Recording Studio and 49-key USB keyboard/audio interface for KeyStudio.
Avid demo artist (of the band The Chosen Few) playing through Pro Tools Essential at Public Assembly, using built-in SansAmp modeling.
Pro Tools M-Powered Essential includes virtual instruments and effects, and a no-experience-necessary interface and functionality. By dragging and dropping in drum and bass loops, then playing guitar (w/ SansAmp) and keys, the Avid demo artist produced a track in like 15 minutes on stage. Super easy.
The same seemed to be true of Pinnacle Studio — which has a very simple user interface for importing, editing and post-producing your video. Even getting into the advanced features like the stop-motion animation and effects seemed 100% doable to a total amateur like myself.
The Pinnacle Studio is available (Windows-only) in three versions — Studio HD ($49.99), Studio Ultimate ($99.99) and Studio Ultimate Collection ($129.99) — distinguished by feature set.
Each version allows users to export movies to Flash, QuickTime, PS3, Nintendo Wii, Xbox, Apple iPod, and even directly to YouTube. Studio Ultimate and Ultimate Collection also offer Blu-ray authoring with motion menus. Pretty cool, since you can export to play on your PS3 Blu-ray player.