All Audio Engineering students are required to have a laptop computer capable of running the current version of Pro Tools by the second semester of their first year, when they enroll in A102. The computer and software will be used in classroom and lab instruction and for individual projects for the duration of the student’s studies.
Macintosh
Any recent M1/M2 or Intel computer running at least OS 12.4, a minimum of 8 GB RAM, 1 TB or greater boot drive. Check the Avid support website for the latest information.
PC
Any current computer running Windows 10 or 11 operating system, a minimum of 8 GB RAM, and a 1 TB boot drive. We recommend a quad-core i7 processor if you budget allows. Check the Avid support website for the latest information.
Software
All students enrolled in Audio Engineering have access to a cloud-based Pro Tools Ultimate subscription at no cost. However there are a limited number of seats so we recommend students purchase their own Pro Tools Studio academic subscription ($99/year).
iLok
An iLok subscription is required to run Pro Tools. You may choose to purchase a physical iLok or subscribe to the iLok Cloud service, however if you choose to use the iLok cloud you must be connected to the internet to run Pro Tools.
Interface
No audio interface is necessary to run Pro Tools, you may use your computer’s internal sound card. Most current USB audio interfaces will work with Pro Tools.
System Configuration and Troubleshooting
Mac and WIndows system optimizations (from Avid)
MAC and Windows system optimization (from Sweetwater)
Pro Tools troubleshooting (From Sweetwater)
Hard Drive
Minimum of 1TB Solid State or NVMe drive.
Data Backup
Each student is responsible for backing up their data. Data loss will not be accepted as an excuse for a late or unsubmitted assignment. We recommend that students have at least two data hard drives, one for production and a second for backup. Students should also regularly backup the boot drive of their laptop. SuperDuper (Mac only) and FreeFileSync (Mac and PC) have proven to be reliable.
Note:
All studio Pro Tools Systems are Macintosh based. If you use a PC for your personal system we recommend installing MacDrive which will allow you to use HFS+ formatted drives on your PC. Otherwise you should create NTFS and HFS+ partitions or format your drive as exFAT to allow you to work on both platforms.