Pro Tools for Film and Video

Introduction

 

Figure 1 Dr. Tom Stockham at the University of Utah 1976. Image courtesy of the Marriott Library special collections.

Pro Tools was released in 1987 as the Mac-based “Sound Tools.” Until that time, digital “tapeless” systems were very experimental and proprietary. In 1976 Dr. Tom Stockham of the University of Utah made the first commercially successful 16-bit digital recording on his “Soundstream” digital recorder. The recorder was a reel-to-reel tape system using one-inch data tape. Because no consumer digital format existed at the time, these recordings were sold as vinyl records on the Telarc label. Dr. Stockham also edited ...