This week, Avid announced an update to their Pro Tools digital audio software. The update is available to Pro Tools 12 customers with Avid All Access plans.

The Pro Tools 12.4 update focuses on the Track Freeze feature “to manage, simplify and speed up processor-intensive sessions, and better facilitate collaborative workflows.” The company explains that these improvements build on the Commit and Track Bounce workflows from Pro Tools version 12.3, enabling more efficient workflows and easier preparation of projects for mixing, collaborating with others or final delivery.

The Freeze, Commit, and Track Bounce capabilities in Pro Tools 12.4 offer users have a number of tools to suit a range of situations and workflow issues. These include:

• Track Freeze – “a great way to quickly free up DSP resources on the fly to keep the creative process moving, and jump back to make a quick tweak if needed.”
• Track Commit – “another great way to free up DSP resources, but users can also edit and make changes to the newly created clip, and choose what happens to the original track.”
• Track Bounce – “typically used for making final output renders or stems of tracks for archiving or workflows involving moving audio files to other software platforms.”

Here is an overview of what is new in Pro Tools 12.4:

Pricing and availability. The Avid Pro Tools 12.4 update will be available before the end of December 2015, and is free of charge to existing Pro Tools 12 owners with current Avid All Access upgrade plans.

For new customers, Pro Tools 12.4 is $599 US, and Pro Tools 12 “perpetual licenses” include a renewable one-year All Access plan that gives customers access to the latest upgrades as well as a new bundle of creative plug-ins for the whole year. All Access plans also come with subscription licenses and are available for the term of the subscription. Subsequent “All Access” subscriptions for current and new Pro Tools 12 owners are $99/year.

For existing customers with older versions of Pro Tools, customers with Pro Tools | HD systems, and for pricing/upgrade schemes and other information, check out the Avid Pro Tools website.