Avid Pro Tools Carbon is the first Pro Tools interface in a new generation of recording systems featuring flexible DSP control. Unlike older Avid interfaces, Carbon allows the channel strip to be processed individually for each track and bus, either on the DSP or the native Pro Tools system. This opens up numerous possibilities for the user, such as latency-free monitoring via plug-ins during recording, working on the move without hardware, easily offloading processing tasks as required, or recording directly via plug-ins that no longer need to be processed whilst continuing to work. The processing power of the 8 DSP cores is more than sufficient even for larger projects with 20 tracks or more!
Since Pro Tools 2023.6, the Carbon has supported monitoring for surround and immersive audio setups. The following formats are supported: 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 additional stereo monitoring). The analogue LR-TRS and the 8-channel D-Sub outputs on the Carbon can be used for this purpose. However, the ADAT outputs are not available for the monitor section.

With its 8 preamps, 8 line-outs, 4 headphone mixes, 2 ADAT pairs including word clock and the flexibly configurable DI options, Carbon represents a complete, expandable studio setup that enables live recordings not only for standard rock line-ups. As one would expect from a manufacturer such as Avid, the technical specifications have been significantly improved once again compared to the previous generation of converters and preamps, and the entire system has been implemented 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, Avid Pro Tools Carbon comes with a Pro Tools Ultimate perpetual licence, including over 120 plug-ins that emulate hardware from a wide range of manufacturers, as well as a diverse selection of perpetual licences from brainworx, Native Instruments, Arturia and several others. So if you’re looking for a complete solution offering outstanding user-friendliness, state-of-the-art performance and expandability, but otherwise have little or no equipment – or only outdated gear – you really can’t go wrong with Avid Carbon.
Avid Pro Tools Carbon