Avid Pro Tools | Carbon Hybrid Ethernet Audio Interface Standard

For artists, bands and producers, Avid Pro Tools | Carbon Hybrid Audio Interface is a new breed of audio interface—built to capture brilliance. It’s a hybrid audio production system that features incredible sound quality and combines the power of your native CPU with onboard HDX DSP acceleration. So you can push your computer to the limit when you mix and record through AAX DSP plug-ins with near-zero latency monitoring. All at the touch of a button. 

DSP and Native, the Best in Both Worlds
With the Hybrid Engine under its hood, Avid Pro Tools | Carbon maximizes Pro Tools performance, letting you say goodbye to distracting third-party apps. Because every AAX DSP plug-in has a native counterpart, you can move seamlessly between worlds at the touch a button. Put a track in DSP Mode for recording, and Carbon accelerates real-time AAX DSP plug-ins, while your CPU plays back the rest of your mix. Bring the track back to native mode for mixing, and Pro Tools automatically takes care of the technical tasks for you.

AAX: Architected to Go Beyond
Unmatched dynamic range. 64-bit float double-precision processing. When it comes to shaping and enhancing sounds, the AAX plug-in architecture lets you take your music further. It’s the only plug-in architecture with true hybrid capability. And it’s designed to deliver the same impeccable sound quality in both native and HDX DSP domains. That means you can disconnect Carbon and take your mix on the road or collaborate with others who don’t have the interface.

HDX DSP Acceleration: Made to Remove Barriers
With a custom-designed FPGA and eight HDX DSPs at its core, Carbon is a powerhouse. The FPGA routes audio blazingly fast—one sample at a time—with near-zero latency, while the HDX DSPs handle real-time plug-in processing, performing at an amazing 22.4 billion operations per second. So, no matter how big your session gets, or how many plug-ins you use in it, you can always record with sub-1 ms latency monitoring. And it frees up your CPU cores for virtual instruments and more creative mixing.

Converters: Clean and True
The best sound quality begins with exceptional audio converters. Avid went the extra mile designing this with four ADCs per channel, providing a remarkable 126 dB dynamic range. From input, to the HDX DSPs, and into Pro Tools, the entire gain structure works at uniform 2-bit precision, providing more headroom without any signal degradation. The result? You can capture clean, natural sounding audio. Every time you record.

Mic Preamps: Musical and Transparent
With a padless design, incredible 126 dB dynamic range, and support for 32-bit/192kHz audio conversion, Carbon features the most pristine preamps Avid has ever made. Capture performances without coloration. Bypass any preamp to use your own outboard gear. And with Variable Z built in, you can adjust input impedance to optimize or alter the tone of any microphone or instrument—from dynamic and ribbon mics, to guitar and bass.

Clocking: Twice as Accurate
Precision clocking is crucial for distortionless, artifact-free audio. That’s why Avid designed a double-resolution implementation of the patented JetPLL jitter elimination technology that runs twice as fast as typical JetPLL-based clocks for better sound and separation. And it’s twice as accurate, with extraordinarily low jitter, ensuring high-fidelity capture and playback.
 
Connections for the Whole Band
With 25 x 34 simultaneous I/O, Carbon is ready to record any session—from solo artists to full bands. Eight pristine preamps, four headphone outputs, and 16 channels of ADAT I/O open up creative possibilities for miking, cue mixing and expansion. Plus, its super-fast, high-bandwidth Ethernet connection not only preserves the highest possible sound quality from input to output, it’s designed to support future workflow enhancements too.