Avid Pro Tools Carbon is the first Pro Tools interface in a new generation of recording systems with flexible DSP control. Unlike older Avid interfaces, Carbon allows the channel strip to be calculated individually for each track and bus on the DSP or native Pro Tools system. This opens up numerous possibilities for the user, such as latency-free monitoring via plug-ins during recording, hardware-free working on the go, uncomplicated outsourcing of computing processes entirely as required, or direct recording via plug-ins, which then no longer need to be calculated during further work. The computing power of the 8 DSP cores is sufficient even for larger projects with 20 tracks and more!
Since Pro Tools 2023.6, Carbon supports monitoring for surround and immersive audio setups. The following formats can be realized: 5.1 (plus 2 x stereo), 7.1 (plus 1 x stereo) as well as 5.1.4 and 7.1.2 for Dolby Atmos (without further stereo monitoring). The analog LR-TRS and the 8-channel D-Sub output on the Carbon can be used for this. However, the ADAT outputs are not available for the monitor section.
Carbon, with its 8 preamps, 8 line outs, 4 headphone mixes, 2 ADAT pairs including word clock, and flexibly designed DI options, represents a complete, expandable studio setup that makes live recording possible for more than just the standard rock lineup. As you would expect from a manufacturer like Avid, the technical values have again been significantly improved compared to the last converter and preamp generation, and the entire system has been realized in 32-bit floating point, resulting in the widest possible dynamic range with very low distortion and noise levels - for clear and transparent recordings.
In addition, the Avid Pro Tools Carbon comes with a Pro Tools Ultimate perpetual license including 120+ plug-ins that emulate hardware from a wide variety of manufacturers, as well as a colorful bouquet of perpetual licenses from brainworx, Native Instruments, Arturia, and several others. So if you're looking for a complete solution with excellent usability, state of the art performance and expandability, but otherwise have little or outdated equipment, you can't really go wrong with the Avid Carbon.