Anyone Using Cloud Collaboration

[Carl Lie]

I'm thinking of opening myself up to this. Would be cool to get other musicians on some stuff. Mostly piano parts and perhaps esoteric things like pedal steel guitar or percussion.

Can anyone share their experiences? is it working well? is there talent out there?

Thanks

Carl

[gives]

I'm thinking of opening myself up to this. Would be cool to get other musicians on some stuff. Mostly piano parts and perhaps esoteric things like pedal steel guitar or percussion.

Can anyone share their experiences? is it working well? is there talent out there?

Thanks

Carl

hi Carl! I used it a bit with a pal in Germany, but then he was tied up being a professor at a University there, but will report once we get back to it. He has a few upgrades to make on the Internet side and also some old Hardware interface issues. Seems to work though. Not sure about using it with clients. I usually just sent stuff directly to a dub stage or ftp the music editor etc.. G

[huzzam]

apparently not...

[deanrichard]

I think the powers that be at Avid grossly overestimated the demand for this feature, and also grossly overestimated the income they could derive from it. And I think they also grossly underestimated the cost and time required to add this feature. The word "boondoggle" comes to mind, and this is the kind of fiasco that usually puts key officers of the corporation out of work.

I'm thinking of opening myself up to this. Would be cool to get other musicians on some stuff. Mostly piano parts and perhaps esoteric things like pedal steel guitar or percussion.

Can anyone share their experiences? is it working well? is there talent out there?

Thanks

Carl

[gives]

I think the powers that be at Avid grossly overestimated the demand for this feature, and also grossly overestimated the income they could derive from it. And I think they also grossly underestimated the cost and time required to add this feature. The word "boondoggle" comes to mind, and this is the kind of fiasco that usually puts key officers of the corporation out of work.

Probably. All the major studios would never use this due to NDA's and intellectual property. I think it's nice for hobbyists, but there have been several iterations of this type of thing thru Avid, REMEMBER Rocket Networks. That sunk.. I had a bit of fun with it, but it never really got off the ground either. I hope they can rethink this platform a bit more, but there are other things I wish they would focus on. Exportation of sessions to other DAW formats is a big one for me other than OMF or AAF. Just needs to be better for Pros. I usually just send the PT Selected tracks export to Dub Stage and that is good, but you always have to make sure all of your EQ's are either printed and Clip Gain Rendered for those older systems that might bring it in without automation, pan and un-rendered clip gain.

G

[deanrichard]

I realize it would help you, and many others, but I get the impression that the last thing Avid wants is better compatibility with other DAW products. They currently have the bulk of market share, but there are strong (and IMO, better) products available that would gain inroads into the market if they were more compatible and it was easier to integrate them. How long would it be before one of those other products replaced PT when frustration with crashes and bugs boiled over?

They had an opportunity to offer more compatibility with the redesign that went into PT 10/11, when they could have offered VST compatibility. Instead they chose to remain proprietary with AAX.


...
Exportation of sessions to other DAW formats is a big one for me other than OMF or AAF. Just needs to be better for Pros. I usually just send the PT Selected tracks export to Dub Stage and that is good, but you always have to make sure all of your EQ's are either printed and Clip Gain Rendered for those older systems that might bring it in without automation, pan and un-rendered clip gain.

G

[Extreme Mixing]

I'd say that pros are much less frustrated with Pro Tools than most of the folks I see here complaining so loudly. I don't see too many post houses or large studios switching away from Pro Tools. But I will say that they are much less likely to upgrade. Lot's of post and large rooms are still using older versions of Pro Tools. That's their big untapped market.

Steve

[zakco]

I think the powers that be at Avid grossly overestimated the demand for this feature, and also grossly overestimated the income they could derive from it. And I think they also grossly underestimated the cost and time required to add this feature. The word "boondoggle" comes to mind, and this is the kind of fiasco that usually puts key officers of the corporation out of work.

THIS.

And I'll add that the failure to release a rock solid PT12 due to this misconceived re-direction of resources also had the effect of convincing many pro users to jump of the subscription train out of frustration which must have cost them a not so small fortune last march when all of those support plans lapsed and weren't renewed.

[JCBigler]

I tried to use it. Have a couple of songs that I wanted to work on with some friends. But I was never able to figure out how it works.

Plus the internet speed that I have at home is miserable and doesn't work with the CC. So I would have to basically be at work to use :(

[amagras]

The only use I've given to Cloud Collaboration is the mention on my website.

[Bob Olhsson]

...REMEMBER Rocket Networks. That sunk...True but that was back in dial-up days.

[Prabha]

NO, I don`t use it and probably never will. The same goes on with the loop stuff they added when nobody asked for.

But I could use warp audio if it worked!

[clausiii]

I use it making songs and backing tracks with my bandmate outside the rehearsal room! And i like it!

[Horns-Up]

I have used it for album collaboration with my buddy in Germany.
It took us some time to figure the thing out, but after that it was a great experience.
Like someone here mentioned before... for big production studios, where you deal with NDAs and other proprietary legal stuff, it may not work, but for musicians dispersed around the world it is great.
In my case, I never had an issue with it, but I wish there would be an option to use other cloud storage services... I am perfectly fine with the limit of only 3 projects in the cloud with the Included Cloud Storage Plan license, but not so happy with the storage space.
It would be perfect if AVID would offer more options, like for example:
- Included Cloud Storage Plan: 3 sessions and 1GB of AVID storage
- Included Cloud Storage Plan: 3 sessions and my own whatever storage provider with whatever amount of storage I can get
- all other possible plans

I sidetracked a bit, I know... I'm still relatively new to PT, and to be honest one of the deciding factors to go with PT, was the ability to do online collaboration with my buddy in Germany.
So, long story short, beside the above storage comment...
I do like it. :-)

[Carl Lie]

I have used it for album collaboration with my buddy in Germany.
It took us some time to figure the thing out, but after that it was a great experience.
Like someone here mentioned before... for big production studios, where you deal with NDAs and other proprietary legal stuff, it may not work, but for musicians dispersed around the world it is great.
In my case, I never had an issue with it, but I wish there would be an option to use other cloud storage services... I am perfectly fine with the limit of only 3 projects in the cloud with the Included Cloud Storage Plan license, but not so happy with the storage space.
It would be perfect if AVID would offer more options, like for example:
- Included Cloud Storage Plan: 3 sessions and 1GB of AVID storage
- Included Cloud Storage Plan: 3 sessions and my own whatever storage provider with whatever amount of storage I can get
- all other possible plans

I sidetracked a bit, I know... I'm still relatively new to PT, and to be honest one of the deciding factors to go with PT, was the ability to do online collaboration with my buddy in Germany.
So, long story short, beside the above storage comment...
I do like it. :-)

Thanks for your helpful input.

C

[deanrichard]

Did you only use the free Cloud service, or did you buy a cloud subscription? I'm wondering if Avid recouped any of their significant financial investment.

I have used it for album collaboration with my buddy in Germany.
It took us some time to figure the thing out, but after that it was a great experience.
Like someone here mentioned before... for big production studios, where you deal with NDAs and other proprietary legal stuff, it may not work, but for musicians dispersed around the world it is great.
In my case, I never had an issue with it, but I wish there would be an option to use other cloud storage services... I am perfectly fine with the limit of only 3 projects in the cloud with the Included Cloud Storage Plan license, but not so happy with the storage space.
It would be perfect if AVID would offer more options, like for example:
- Included Cloud Storage Plan: 3 sessions and 1GB of AVID storage
- Included Cloud Storage Plan: 3 sessions and my own whatever storage provider with whatever amount of storage I can get
- all other possible plans

I sidetracked a bit, I know... I'm still relatively new to PT, and to be honest one of the deciding factors to go with PT, was the ability to do online collaboration with my buddy in Germany.
So, long story short, beside the above storage comment...
I do like it. :-)

[Horns-Up]

Did you only use the free Cloud service, or did you buy a cloud subscription? I'm wondering if Avid recouped any of their significant financial investment.

I have used only the Included Cloud Storage Plan that came with my license of PT. Never purchased the Cloud Subscription.
Like I mentioned in my post, the limit of 3 projects was fine... we were working on two at a time at most...

[deanrichard]

That's fine.

But from Avid's perspective, they spent about two years of development time creating this feature, and it appears they greatly damaged the stability and reliability of the product in the process, all because the alleged "brain trust" at Avid thought there was money to be made selling it as a service. I'm curious if they got anything for it. Of course, I assume their target market was big post houses rather than individuals, but I was curious.

I have used only the Included Cloud Storage Plan that came with my license of PT. Never purchased the Cloud Subscription.
Like I mentioned in my post, the limit of 3 projects was fine... we were working on two at a time at most...

[Riture]

That's fine.

But from Avid's perspective, they spent about two years of development time creating this feature, and it appears they greatly damaged the stability and reliability of the product in the process, all because the alleged "brain trust" at Avid thought there was money to be made selling it as a service. I'm curious if they got anything for it. Of course, I assume their target market was big post houses rather than individuals, but I was curious.

My 2 cents:

1. Those using Cloud Collaboration could be exchanging files quietly since they trust each other or are happy to maintain money-making connections without announcing to the world.

2. Prior to Cloud Collaboration, there was eSession's defunct Virtual Glass which was for PT only; engineers could 'see' each other live and collaborate on a project. Not sure if some lost faith since then.

3. There are many great musicians/producers willing to collaborate; it's a question of finding them.

[Bob Olhsson]

There are already a great many pros collaborating with Dropbox.

Avid's problem is that there are still a great many top people using earlier versions of Pro Tools HD so anybody switching would still need to continue paying for dropbox. One solution is the free version. Hopefully it can be co-installed.

[deanrichard]

But again, is anyone paying for it? Or willing to? Avid did this to create a revenue stream.

My 2 cents:

1. Those using Cloud Collaboration could be exchanging files quietly since they trust each other or are happy to maintain money-making connections without announcing to the world.

2. Prior to Cloud Collaboration, there was eSession's defunct Virtual Glass which was for PT only; engineers could 'see' each other live and collaborate on a project. Not sure if some lost faith since then.

3. There are many great musicians/producers willing to collaborate; it's a question of finding them.

[Carl Lie]

But again, is anyone paying for it? Or willing to? Avid did this to create a revenue stream.

I'd pay for it if it turns out to be useful. My guess is a small percentage of Avid's pro user base actually hangs out on this forum.

C

[Bob Olhsson]

It's actually a very cool thing but it will take time.

[Eric Lambert]

We've tried it. It's far too clunky for important sessions. And the pace at which they're introducing improvements/fixes isn't leaving us optimistic. So we've more or less written it off. The idea is smart -- the implementation has not been.

[BobK88]

I've been trying it for two or three weeks, and it's been a nightmare.

When it works it's arguably more convenient than exchanging audio files via Dropbox, but the amount of time my colleague and I have spent troubleshooting has so far negated any advantage of PT collaboration.

The worst was yesterday, when Pro Tools deleted all three of the Projects in my local cache. One minute they were there - I saw all three Project bundles in the folder (and verified that they were complete by examining the Audio files inside, which you can do via "Show Package Contents" in the Mac Finder) - and the next minute they were gone.

And for reasons which Avid support has so far been unable to explain, I can't download them from the Cloud.

For me, at least, it's been a disaster. Maybe I should reserve the word "disaster" in case they lose my data, but being unable to access my Projects is bad enough.

[Carl Lie]

I've been trying it for two or three weeks, and it's been a nightmare.

When it works it's arguably more convenient than exchanging audio files via Dropbox, but the amount of time my colleague and I have spent troubleshooting has so far negated any advantage of PT collaboration.

The worst was yesterday, when Pro Tools deleted all three of the Projects in my local cache. One minute they were there - I saw all three Project bundles in the folder (and verified that they were complete by examining the Audio files inside, which you can do via "Show Package Contents" in the Mac Finder) - and the next minute they were gone.

And for reasons which Avid support has so far been unable to explain, I can't download them from the Cloud.

For me, at least, it's been a disaster. Maybe I should reserve the word "disaster" in case they lose my data, but being unable to access my Projects is bad enough.

Sorry to hear this. I hope there is an easy fix. I'm staying away from CC for now.

C

[BobK88]

Sorry to hear this. I hope there is an easy fix. I'm staying away from CC for now.

C

Thanks.

Yesterday I finally was able to download my Projects.

Avid support had told me to uninstall 12.8 and go back to 12.7.1. I did that, but it didn't help. It was while running 12.7.1 that my Project Caches were deleted, though I can't say that this wouldn't have happened under 12.8.

After a couple of days of failed attempts at downloading the Projects via 12.7.1, I updated back to 12.8 via App Manager. Then I was able to download the Projects.

I suspect that at least some of the server issues had been resolved by then, but that's just a guess.

There were a number of issues during and after the downloads, which I describe in this thread.

http://duc.avid.com/showpost.php?p=2445148&postcount=7

One of the most absurd ones is that due to a bug, PT was duplicating audio files in some Projects. My cloud usage meter went from the mid or upper 40s up to 59 percent without me or my colleague doing anything.

Bottom line: I converted the Projects to Sessions and my colleague will be sending audio via Dropbox.

[DJ Hellfire]

My problem with CC is most people I know still don't have PT 12. They are still on 10 or lower for whatever reason. A lot of other people I know don't use Pro Tools at all.

[Extreme Mixing]

The fact that this forum is so dead answers that question loud and clear. Not many are using the Avid brand of collaboration.

[StillHollow]

I tried using it with my brother and even with him and his laptop sitting side by side we had all kinds of gremlins. I would send tracks and they would show up blank sometimes. Other times it wouldn’t let us edit or take ownership of the track shared. Great concept that is not even close to being ready for prime time. How on earth Maroon 5 seems to have had a trouble free experience in those promo videos is beyond me.

[gives]

I have been monitoring this info thread. After looking at issues I was having on a couple of macs here with the latest PT and latest Sierra, I decided to NOT install Cloud Collaboration when updating my system. I was having issues with my mac's being sluggish launching. I already deleted Application Manager and NEVER use it. Uninstall App manager immediately after I install Protools. For what it's worth, everything is running extremely well with the latest version.

G