When Avid announced that it would be making a consumer oriented version of Pro Tools available for under $100, I was excited. Pro Tools, if you're not familiar with it, is an industry standard audio production suite used by musicians, music studios, radio journalists, and pretty much anybody else in need of a robust solution for editing audio.

The pro audio software is available for Mac or Windows, and has always required users to purchase a computer audio interface from DigiDesign (a subsidiary of Avid). The new versions are available under the company's consumer brand, Pinnacle. You still need to purchase some hardware, and it needs to be plugged in or the software won't run. But for $100 you can get either a USB mic or a guitar input or for $130 you can pick up a 49-key keyboard. The hardware alone is almost worth the price, which makes the Pro Tools software almost a value-added feature.

But it turns out that value is a relative term. I've been testing Pro Tools Vocal Studio (with an M-Audio USB mic) for the last few days. I'm using it with a Windows XP laptop with a dual core processor, and I've found that the software is resource hog, audio playback is choppy, and you have to deal with a limited feature set.

One thing to note is that Pro Tools has long been reported to run better on Macs than PCs. Unfortunately my primary computer is a PC, so that's what I used to test this software. Your results may vary.

For $60, you could pick up a personal copy of Reaper, an audio editor which offers better stability and more features. But you wouldn't get the USB mic, keyboard, or guitar input or the experience of using the industry standard Pro Tools software. If those things don't matter to you, then you might want to skip the rest of this post and go check out Reaper. If you're still curious, I'll meet you after the page break.

Pro Tools is something of an industry standard when it comes to digital audio editing. Sure, there are other applications for Windows, Mac, or Linux that are cheaper, or which can do many of the same things. But walk into almost any recording studio or radio station and you'll probably find at least one machine running Pro Tools.

But in order to use Pro Tools, you need to shell out some money for supported hardware. Right now, the cheapest option is to pick up an Mbox Micro audio interface, which has an MSRP of about $279. That's not bad, considering you get a copy of Pro Tools LE, plus a high quality audio input for your computer. But it's a bit pricey for amateur audio producers on a budget.

Now Avid is releasing a new suite of consumer oriented Pro Tools product with a slightly stripped down version of the software. For $99 you can pick up either a USB microphone or a guitar interface with Pro Tools M-Powered Essential. Or for $129 you can get a 49-note keyboard that comes with the software.

Pro Tools M-Powered Essential functions pretty much like the full version. But you can only create up to 16 tracks and some of the mastering capabilities are missing. And if you really need more than 16 tracks, odds are you can justify spending the big bucks on a full version of Pro Tools.

The hardware and software are compatible with Windows XP and Vista or Mac OS X 10.5.5 or higher.