The good hearsay: Digidesign has made a pre-release portrayal of Pro Tools 7.4 (all versions — M-Powered, LE, and HD) to hand for Mac OS X Leopard. You’re advised not to install this on a deprecative system and to hoard up accustomed backups, but if you’ve got a fashionable gang waiting for a Leopard-ready version, you can forgo this a go now.

Update: communication on Pro Tools Compatibility championing Mac OS X 10.5.3

The reason you might still lust after to wait on Leopard upgrading, in case this hasn’t already made you watchful: not all RTAS plug-ins are expected to be “Leopard-ready.” (TDM puff-ins run on Digi’s DSP hardware and are ostensibly unsophisticated in the same breath the MC works.) We’re told developers are being advised to test rigorously because of changes to Mac OS X. This may not be limited to Digidesign. Based on reports from readers, while users are on the whole happier with 10.5.3 than 10.5.2, there are still some kinks to work out — including users of products other than scarcely those from Digidesign and M-Audio. Best advice: support with Tiger 10.4.x if you can to the most stable surrogate.

Pro Tools advertise-in Compatibility with Leopard

Just as being self-possessed things being what they are is prudent, though, it’s equally good advice to reservation judgment on Leopard until the OS matures. Changes made to 10.5 promise wagerer performance on multiple-marrow systems, for exemplification — so while the interrupt-relations side effect may be glitchy audio until bugs are ironed out, now software is mature, you may sweetheart out more conduct. The dilemma is, we can’t know either trail until other issues are resolved first. That means patience pays off doubly: sticking with the most deep-rooted chance if you can is a good way to avoid distress, while waiting to see how things go means you could reap some rewards upgrading every now the software matures. (On the other hand, some readers have no quandary, so if you have more than one machine or a up to date machine that requires Leopard, I’d contemplate go in place of 10.5.3)

I’ll noise abroad those two words I favour to say all the on the dot: stay tuned.

Thanks to Ray Tovey and others for the tips!