Avid Digi 003 Factory Firewire Audio Interface (with Pro Tools LE)

About the 003:

Are you a man or are you using a mouse? While some engineers get accustomed to mousing around with their DAWs for the control of all the on-screen functions, there’s no denying that a dedicated, fully featured integrated control surface brings a heck of a lot more to the “pro”-verbial table. Avid’s Digi 003 control surface offers all the hands-on control and convenience of a high-end mixing console, but its diminutive size makes it a pleasure for the desktop studio engineer. Simply put, there’s no better way to control your Pro Tools system.

The Avid Digi 003 records at up to 24 bit/96 KHz resolution and includes 8 analog inputs and outputs to handle all your musical instruments and outboard gear. It’s built solid so it can take a hit…bring it on the road and sleep tight. There are 8 touch-sensitive motorized faders and 8 motion-sensitive rotary encoders making mixing, panning and the total recall of automated moves for plugins and sends a cinch to not only navigate but to recall at any time. There’s an LCD display for track naming (beats using masking tape and a pen every time), send, pan, fader and plug-in values as well as timeline position. Metering is handled via a 5-segment LED display which also reveals automation status. A dedicated transport control and a jog/shuttle wheel round out the generous offering of hands-on controls.

The Avid Digi 003 connects via Firewire so hookup to your computer is as effortless as can be. There are 4 onboard professional microphone preamps with individual gain and high pass filter, as well as 48V phantom power switchable in pairs. You can increase your I/O via the ADAT optical connectors (hook up the 8 channel converter of your choice here…the 003 wont mind)! It has SPDIF digital I/O for yet an additional 2 channels of connectivity and MIDI input and 2 MIDI outputs. BNC Word Clock is provided allowing the 003 to be the digital clock’s slave or master in a digital setup. The dual headphone outputs with individual controls have no trouble driving most headphones. All in all the Avid Digi 003 is the perfect partner to your Pro Tools software.

About the software:

Pro Tools 8 is a complete software recording, mixing and mastering package. It’s fully fleshed out with a broad palette of virtual musical instruments and sound processing plugins affording you a complete software solution for music creation and high-level audio production. With 7 renowned RTAS virtual instruments and 70 Digirack, A.I.R. and Bomb Factory plugins ranging from acoustic instruments, a drum machine, in-depth synthesis and sampling to delays, compressors, eqs and reverbs, there’s nothing that cannot be accomplished within the M-Powered Pro Tools 8 environment.

Pro Tools 8 lets you record up to 48 simultaneous stereo or mono audio tracks (expandable to 64 with the optional Music Production Toolkit 2) at 16 or 24-bit resolution with up to a 96Khz sampling rate right along side 256 simultaneous midi tracks. REX, ACID, WAV, SDII, AIFF AAC are all supported along with MP3 files. It includes the unique Beat Detective LE auto groove analysis and correction tool as well as Elastic Pitch, which allows manipulation of pitch and tempo in real time without affecting timing or leaving behind nasty audio artifacts…it’s quite invisible and works a treat! QuickTime video is also supported including H.264

Powerful looping tools allow you to take any audio or midi region and loop to your heart’s content. You can update your loop selections on the fly, all while the music is still running!

On the midi side, Pro Tools 8 is loaded with powerful sequencing tools that make composing and recording intuitive and complete. Everything is here to handle all your midi chores from transposition and velocity manipulation to selecting and splitting notes into multiple tracks and layers. You can remove duplicate notes to the midi editing window where you can change everything associated including automation data, step sequencing, and a score editor (based on the Sibelius notation engine).

Ah yes, the included score editor! You can easily view, edit, arrange and print out sheet music with the touch of a button. You can even export to the full-blown Sibelius software for further scoring tasks. This enables you to keep your ergonomic workflow intact as well as communicate with the sheet music needy musician community (they’re out there).

M-Audio’s Pro Tools 8 needs a supported hardware interface to operate and man are there some awesome options! There’s a wide reaching choice of M-Audio hardware interfaces (as well as the popular M-Audio ProjectMix i/o and Digidesign Command 8 control surfaces) running via USB, USB2, firewire and Delta PCI. Different models have different I/O capacities, so check with us for the right interface to suit your needs and beyond.

So whether you’re a singer-songwriter building your musical masterpiece or a studio tracking multi-player bands and ensembles or perhaps a composer for film and video, Pro Tools M-Powered 8 gets you there in style and substance.

To wrap it up, you’ll appreciate the power yet relative ease in which Pro Tools 8 operates. It’s truly beautiful to look at (important if you’re using it on any regular basis…wont burn the eyes). It’s compatible with all other versions of Pro Tools 8 so your sessions can be opened in other studios using Pro Tools which if you take a look…are just about EVERYWHERE!

See ya at the Grammys!

Get your Digi 003 Factory today from Sam Ash Direct and enjoy the confidence that comes from fast, free shipping, the guaranteed lowest price and our 45/60-day return/price protection policy.

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