Pro Tools 8.0.3pr Snow Leopard Prerelease (no longer available)


Update: December 15, 2009
With the release of Pro Tools 8.0.3, the Pro Tools 8.0.3pr Snow Leopard Prerelease is no longer available for download.

To update to the official Pro Tools 8.0.3 release, see the following page:

For reference purposes, this is the previous "Prerelease" information:

Pro Tools 8.0.3pr Snow Leopard Prerelease
September 24, 2009

Avid/Digidesign is pleased to announce the immediate availability of a prerelease version* of Pro Tools® software that provides expanded Mac OS X 10.6.x Snow Leopard compatibility to Pro Tools 8.0 users. Pro Tools 8.0.3pr software is provided as a convenience for Mac-based Pro Tools 8.0.x users who may wish to begin their transition to Snow Leopard before a fully tested and qualified version of Pro Tools becomes available.

Pro Tools 8.0.3pr software is available as a download only and requires Mac OS X 10.6.x and an existing Pro Tools 8.0.x installation.

Download the Free Pro Tools Prerelease
Pro Tools 8.0.3pr is a free download for the following Pro Tools users. Please note that you will need your Pro Tools 8.0 authorization code (Pro Tools LE) or iLok authorization (Pro Tools|HD or Pro Tools M-Powered) to authorize the Pro Tools prerelease software:
  • Registered Pro Tools HD 8.0 users
  • Registered Pro Tools LE 8.0 users
  • Registered Pro Tools M-Powered 8.0 users
Please Note: There is no prerelease version of Pro Tools 8.0.3 for Pro Tools M-Powered Essential software. Support for Pro Tools M-Powered Essential on Snow Leopard will be available with the official Pro Tools 8.0.3 release (a free update from M-Powered Essential v8.0.2). See Additional Information below for more.

Download Updated Device Drivers
Updated M-Audio device drivers for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard are required for Pro Tools M-Powered 8.0.3pr, and are available from the following locations:

Additional Information
The following items have not been fully qualified with Pro Tools 8.0.3pr:
  • Certain AIR instrument plug-ins (see below)
  • Avid video peripherals (see below)

The following items are currently not supported with Pro Tools 8.0.3pr:
  • Pro Tools MIX-era Peripherals:
    • 888|24 I/O
    • 882|20 I/O
    • 1622 I/O
    • 24-Bit ADAT Bridge I/O

The following items are no longer supported with Pro Tools 8.0.3 and higher:

As always, we appreciate your ongoing support and are doing our best to get you up and running on the latest Mac platforms as quickly and reliably as possible.

For end user discussions and bug reports visit the Pro Tools 8.0.3pr user conference:

*Important: Pro Tools 8.0.3pr software is prerelease software, and is not fully tested or supported by Digidesign. Technical Support is not available for prerelease software. Digidesign recommends backing up your system and work files before using this software, or installing a fresh copy of OS X 10.6.x on a different system partition. In preliminary testing Digidesign has found most plug-ins to be compatible with Pro Tools 8.0.3pr and Snow Leopard.


Additional Information



Q: The last Pro Tools software update was version 8.0.1 but the prerelease is labeled 8.0.3. What happened to version 8.0.2?
A: Pro Tools M-Powered Essential 8.0.2 is a new software version specifically made for bundles with certain M-Audio hardware [ more info ]. Like Pro Tools 8.0.1, Pro Tools M-Powered Essential 8.0.2 has not been qualified with OS X 10.6.

Q: Will this prerelease run on Leopard OS?
A: While we have not yet qualified Leopard with Pro Tools 8.0.3pr, we intend to release the final version with support for both OS X 10.5.x Leopard and OS X 10.6.x Snow Leopard. At this time we recommend not using Pro Tools 8.0.3pr with OS X 10.5.x Leopard.

Q: Will the final Pro Tools 8.0.3 release be free or a paid upgrade?
A: Pro Tools 8.0.3 will be a free update for all registered Pro Tools 8.0 HD, LE, M-Powered, and M-Powered Essential users.

Q: Do Avid video peripherals work in this prerelease version?
A: Avid video peripherals have not been qualified yet. We intend to support Avid video peripherals with the final release of Pro Tools 8.0.3.

Q: Will all plug-ins work on Snow Leopard, or should I expect a lengthy compatibility transition?
A: At the time of this writing we have found most plug-ins to work without problems except the following AIR instruments which exhibit a yellow user interface:
  • Hybrid
  • Strike
  • Structure
  • Transfuser
  • Velvet
If you encounter additional issues please let us know by providing your feedback here:

Q: Does Pro Tools 8.0.3pr take advantage of new OS technologies such as GrandCentral or OpenCL?
A: While both technology developments are exciting on many levels, Pro Tools 8.0.3 software will not directly take advantage of either one.

GrandCentral allows new software developers to take advantage of many-core processing without requiring complicated and lengthy development work. Pro Tools already employs a modern multi-threaded processing engine that is fully compatible with many-core CPUs.

OpenCL affords additional processing power by taking advantage of the computer's graphics processing unit (GPU) in addition to the CPU. While extremely powerful, GPUs will work best with only certain kinds of calculations and are not well suited for low-latency audio environments. Additionally OpenCL support is only available with certain computers and display cards.

As always, we are in close contact with Apple and will evaluate this and other new developments for future use in Pro Tools.

Q: Snow Leopard provides a 64 bit kernel mode. Will Pro Tools 8.0.3 work in 64 bit kernel mode?
A: We do not intend to qualify 64 bit kernel mode at this time as it does not offer significant performance advantages and may cause compatibility issues with other devices and software.

Q: Is Pro Tools 8.0.3 a 64 bit application?
A: Pro Tools 8.0.3 is a 32 bit application. We are investigating 64 bit support and have no release plans to share at this time.
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