Differences in Workflow Between Pro Tools LE vs. HD

[Matt C.]

sorry if this question has been done to death, but i couldn't find an old thread about it. i know that pro tools LE has some technical limitations (track count, etc) compared to HD, and is a native DAW (rather than using HD's TDM cards), but i'm wondering if there is much of a difference as far as workflow within the program, layout of buttons and other features, etc.

i just bought a cheap mbox with protools LE 7, just so i can learn how to use pro tools in case i'm ever working at a studio other than my own. but then i started to get paranoid that LE and HD would be radically different and my knowledge of LE wouldn't translate to HD.

if i know one, do i (pretty much) know the other?

[LazarusLong]

by and large, yes. you will get the vast majority of the Pro Tools experience through LE.

[Marc Alan Goodman]

Yeah, pretty much the same. Only thing that strikes me as different from a first glance is the fact that each track has its own input monitor button, as opposed to turning it on and off globally in a menu.

[dubh dubh dubh]

You'll have an easy time goin back and forth. Though PT 8 does look a little different than 7.x on both LE and HD, so you might want to get into vs. 8 when you can. I take LE sessions into HD and back all the time, and your sessions will just give you a prompt when you open 'em on whichever other version, telling you that the session's original playback engine isn't available- but that's no issue; hit 'ok' and you're up and going.