Pro Tools Debate!

Myth5331

Myth5331

New member
I love my pro tools setup! however the more and more I get into the pro tools "lifestyle". you become somewhat stuck! like I said I love my set Up (an 003 rack Le) but do you think pro tools is all its cracked up to be???

Let me know?
 
Before Pro Tools, I used Adobe Audition...and I loved it....I can navigate through it in my sleep. I do still master with AA though....but anyway, I made the switch to PT because everyone always asked me about it, or potential clients would ask about my setup and when I would tell them, they say "Have you every used Pro Tools?" they almost seemed disapointed that I didnt use PT....Especially Rappers. Protools seems to be the only thing to use in the Hip Hop community....

I purchased mine from someone here on the board at a good price, and I already had M-audio hardware that it would work with.

I can do everything with protools that I could do with Adobe Audition...things are done a bit differently, and I can thank www.multiplatinumprotools.com for helping with the learning curve....but to me, its all in the name....it seems that more people have heard of Protools than all the other softwares combined...
 
What do you mean by "stuck"?

For me, what I got for the price paid I thought was always reasonable. I've got a 002 now, but started with a Mbox 1. Now days, for the price of an mbox 2

http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--DGDMB2

You get software and hardware for about $449. That seems a pretty good entry point for most people. I know that was what got me in the beginning.

I used to be a bit annoyed at not having time compensation, the track restriction ... I can't think of anything else? Music production tool kit alleviated some of the pain of that. Whilst that hasn't really been a problem, I’m anticipating bigger mixes/more work in the near future so am saving for a HD rig.

I used to think digi sucked you in to LE and then gave you no other hardware options but HD, and was irritated at how expensive HD is. However, when you add up the cost of say the top version of other programs, and equivalent converters/dsp cards it is a very similar cost. Not exactly, but not far off it. If I can be bothered I might do the math later.

I just finished my pt cert, and I have learned so much about PT that I didn’t know. Gradually I'm working out how to work/edit/mix more efficiently, and I couldn't see any reason to switch. I use nuendo as well, but mainly because some video guys I work with use it, and its easier to swap sessions. I don't mind it, and maybe I haven't put the effort into really learning it - but I wouldn't want to edit in it all day.

The only thing that bugs me a bit in PT is the midi editing, however I mainly do my midi arranging in reason and port the midi data in.

Also maybe its me, but I get a lot less RTFM when asking pro tools questions than I do asking nuendo questions, PT guys seem a lot friendlier and from my experience don't often start the "my software is better than yours" debate.


Maybe an easier question to answer is what do you not like about PT. For me the list is about 2-3 points long, and once I go HD it will be probably 1 point (MIDI!). Most of the time when I ask people to be specific they make reference to things in older versions like not having a click (version 5 < ?) and other things that have already been changed.

Oh and the other thing that i'm loving now is the 50% software discount and 40% hardware discount from the digi store when you finish a PT certification. Makes plugin's and the extras very affordable. I got the music production tool kit for 250 bucks :)

So yea, I guess for me Pro Tools is all its cracked up to be!

I wonder how long it will be before the reaper fan club comes chimes in :)
 
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First time I used protools I hated it, was used to using Cool Edit which is now adobe audition. Then switched to nuendo and loved it got a job a studio so had to learn protools now I am as well "stuck" I hate having to use anything else the only thing I hate is the fact that you have to bounce to disk in real time.

And the reason the rappers wanted protools is because about 90% of the studio's uses it and that way it would make it easier for them to go anywhere and let their "friends" or other artists record by just pulling up the session.
 
What I don't like about pro-tools. ( I have been using it for almost a month now)

  1. -no mp3 encoder to boot
  2. -my inexperience with the playback cursor and not knowing punch in's(can only blame myself)
  3. -bounce to disk in real time
  4. -the dump it takes on my computer
  5. -needing to have a digidesign product hooked up to run
  6. -that pro-tools is the "industry standard" .. it shouldnt be the program that matters but how you use it.
  7. -having to record enable on track and transport
  8. -zoom function ... reapers comes off as much more intuitive. :-)eek:)
  9. -No Vst's unless I spend more money
  10. -Limited free RTAS plugins if any at all really
  11. -The learning curve isn't quite as easy for me as they boast.
  12. -"Your Playback Engine SUCKS, Increase hardware buffer size if this keeps occurring (Error:#23523664)"
  13. -Not knowing it well enough slows down my workflow
  14. -Boots successfully about 85% of the time.

What I do like about Pro-tools?
  1. -My "clients" think I know what I'm doing
  2. -I'll be more prepared for the "real world"
  3. -I'll be ahead of the game when I use pro-tools during school
  4. -It can fix bad drummers
  5. -Comes with decent bundle of (Pretty darn LITE) software
  6. -003 looks good in my rack
  7. -2 Headphone Outs (003)
  8. -Well rounded interface
  9. -ctrl+d for duplicate ... very fast

I'm much more comfortable with Reaper right now .. but I need to break my habits and take time to delve deep into what pro-tools has to offer. I think I hear a difference in fidelity and pro tools is winning that competition. Eric.
 
wreckd504 said:
Oh and the other thing that i'm loving now is the 50% software discount and 40% hardware discount from the digi store when you finish a PT certification. Makes plugin's and the extras very affordable. I got the music production tool kit for 250 bucks :)
Click to expand...

Wow. I've been using pt for about two years now but there's ALOT that has yet to be discovered. How rigorous is the certification? I'll check out the digi website before I ask anymore questions:D
 
Erockrazor said:
What I don't like about pro-tools. ( I have been using it for almost a month now)

  1. -no mp3 encoder to boot
  2. -my inexperience with the playback cursor and not knowing punch in's(can only blame myself)
  3. -bounce to disk in real time
  4. -the dump it takes on my computer
  5. -needing to have a digidesign product hooked up to run
  6. -that pro-tools is the "industry standard" .. it shouldnt be the program that matters but how you use it.
  7. -having to record enable on track and transport
  8. -zoom function ... reapers comes off as much more intuitive. :-)eek:)
  9. -No Vst's unless I spend more money
  10. -Limited free RTAS plugins if any at all really
  11. -The learning curve isn't quite as easy for me as they boast.
  12. -"Your Playback Engine SUCKS, Increase hardware buffer size if this keeps occurring (Error:#23523664)"
  13. -Not knowing it well enough slows down my workflow
  14. -Boots successfully about 85% of the time.

What I do like about Pro-tools?
  1. -My "clients" think I know what I'm doing
  2. -I'll be more prepared for the "real world"
  3. -I'll be ahead of the game when I use pro-tools during school
  4. -It can fix bad drummers
  5. -Comes with decent bundle of (Pretty darn LITE) software
  6. -003 looks good in my rack
  7. -2 Headphone Outs (003)
  8. -Well rounded interface
  9. -ctrl+d for duplicate ... very fast

I'm much more comfortable with Reaper right now .. but I need to break my habits and take time to delve deep into what pro-tools has to offer. I think I hear a difference in fidelity and pro tools is winning that competition. Eric.
Click to expand...

If I get a chance, I'll get your don't likes down more later but for now

7. Record enable the track then press f12 to record straight away. You can also use 3 on the numeric keypad (press the other numbers and see what they do as well). Here's a good guide to some of the shortcuts

8. Sounds like you need to learn more about zooming. I suggest starting with

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruWDxDL-FZc

Theres a few other things the vid doesn't mention, like recalling zoom settings with memory locations [check out this site or this one] and using the ALT key (on a PC) and scrolling the wheel on a mouse to zoom. How does reaper do it? Maybe there's a way to do it the same way you don't know about.

12. Are you recording to/playing back from a system drive? What is the RPM of your drives? IDE or SATA? If IDE are they on separate channels?


KyleAtGalaxy said:
Wow. I've been using pt for about two years now but there's ALOT that has yet to be discovered. How rigorous is the certification? I'll check out the digi website before I ask anymore questions:D
Click to expand...

I've been using it for 5 years and only found out about the discount at the digi course last week, found out I'd been doing so many things the slow way too. PT 101 is easy if you used pro tools for 3 months or more, 110 had a few tricky things, I mainly stumbled on remembering shortcuts and menu locations. There was a wierd one I didn't know which was - how many ticks are in a quarter note? Found out its 960, which basically means you can move a quarter note to 960 locations between it and the next quarter note. [if i'm not mistaken]

I recommend the certs, I thought i'd breeze through them because I work with PT everyday but definately learned alot. Got 201 and 210M coming up in a month, looking forward to it.
 
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I'd like to add that the peak levels are indicated by color and not numbers for dB's. Id like to have numbers to really tell me my levels.

Thanks for the good start Wreckd! A lot of my complaints are still due to my own ignorance ... but there still are things that are beyond my control that I dont like.
 
Erockrazor said:
I'd like to add that the peak levels are indicated by color and not numbers for dB's. Id like to have numbers to really tell me my levels.

Thanks for the good start Wreckd! A lot of my complaints are still due to my own ignorance ... but there still are things that are beyond my control that I dont like.
Click to expand...

Ctrl + Click on the lower side of the fader (it says vol, when you ctrl + click it it changes to peak if you are using PC)
 
dualflip said:
Ctrl + Click on the lower side of the fader (it says vol, when you ctrl + click it it changes to peak if you are using PC)
Click to expand...

Thanks for helping me out, I'll check it out when I get home.

I don't want to hi-jack the thread and turn it into a "help erockrazor with his pro-tools noob status" thread. (Though I of course appreciate all the help)

What are other people's opinions? Likes and Dislikes?...
 
wreckd504 said:
sorry I was reading gs this morning and thought I read it had been announced, explains why i was struggling to find any info. Do you know the AES website? It doesn't look it's this one http://www.aes.org/events/124/


edit: found it

http://www.aes.org/
Click to expand...

No worries - was just clearing that up. There's a fair amount of bullshit floating around right now regarding this! It's all fine until the rumours are taken as gospel; until Digidesign announce anything, you won't know what's true!
 
Well of course now it's been announced! I was just being flippant.

The videos on the digidesign site are indeed real; and make a pretty cool watch.
 
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