Digidesign's Pro Tools M-Powered 8 is software aimed at small project studio owners just looking to have Pro Tools on their systems. Before M-Powered Pro Tools, you could only run Pro Tools with a Digidesign (now Avid) hardware interface, but with M-Powered it was the first time that you could use another brand's audio interface, and in this case it was M-Audio gear. However, while M-Powered Pro Tools is still around, it's getting a bit obsolete since it's now possible to run Pro Tools 9 with any interface of your choosing, or even as a stand alone application with your iLok. I personally never owned Pro Tools M-Powered since I've always had LE, so I've never been involved with installing it. I do have a few friends who have Pro Tools M-Powered however and I've used it a bit at their home studios. The interface of Pro Tools M-Powered is pretty similar to Pro Tools LE, but you're just more limited in the features that you get. For smaller project studios where you're only working with a limited number of tracks anyway, it will definitely do the job, but it's not really suitable for larger projects since it can really only take you so far. If you're new to Pro Tools in general and just got M-Powered, it's probably a good call to have the manual handy.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

The good thing about Digidesign Pro Tools M-Powered 8 is that can be handled better on lesser systems since it's a slightly less complex software. I don't know what the minimum requirements would be for running this, but as always with Pro Tools you're probably going to want a Mac, although it will run on both. Since I've never had M-Powered Pro Tools I can't say what an adequate system to run it on would be, but I do know that the friend who I've used this with has a regular Mac Book and it seems to work fine, although he doesn't run big sessions. It all just depends on the nature of your use of the software. If you think you might be on the fence, I'd recommend going with Pro Tools LE instead of M-Powered.

OVERALL OPINION

While not as relevant with the advent of Pro Tools 9, Digidesign's (Avid) Pro Tools M-Powered 8 is a beautiful thing if you were to have an M-Audio audio interface and want to learn how to use Pro Tools. I really see this best as a learning tool and stepping stone to Pro Tools LE and HD, as I wouldn't recommend using M-Powered for anything other than small project and demo sessions. It's simply not designed to handle as much as an LE system could and doesn't have the features to work with to boot. In most cases I'd recommend springing for Pro Tools 9 now, but for those just getting started it's still worth checking out M-Powered Pro Tools.