Quote:
Originally Posted by JFreak
Don't you still get it? Cloud Collaboration and Avid Marketplace is the thing and they need to have a product where "anyone" can collaborate in a project without buying the full software. Kind of like people with GarageBand sessions can send their "beats" to a LogicX studio, but this is a real thing instead of copying looped stuff over.
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Oh well we'll see where that pesky reality stuff intercedes here.
So this "collaboration" platform Pro Tools | Crippleware can't read or write existing Pro Tools (or any other DAW) sessions. Uh great start.
Somebody collaborates with you (or visa versa) and oops suddenly you've got to buy a bunch of Pro Tools | Crippleware compatible plugins, even if you already own them from before.
I'm not sure if this, from the scant details available about Pro Tools | Crippleware, will actually be any more the "real thing" from a collaboration sense than say a Logic Pro user opening a GarageBand session, either directly of via a file sharing/collaboration service. And I'm not talking about a marketing "vision" description, but actually how will this actually work in practice.
And somebody in a Pro Tools or Pro Tools HD environment will have to subset or do what exactly to sessions to be usable by a Pro Tools | Crippleware user? Reduce track counts? And users on Pro Tools 10? 11? can they collaborate with clients etc. on Pro Tools | Crippleware? Lower sample rate from 192 kHz? Print tracks for missing plugins? (will Freeze try to handle that automatically?) How will it work? And then can stuff be round-tripped through the Pro Tools | Crippleware to real Pro Tools? If this does not work well in practice, it maybe just being easier to send audio or midi files.
Lower-end users are likely to come in with an expectation of a GarageBand like ease of use. For this to work well Avid is going to have to do a lot to help users of Pro Tools | Crippleware out there, and get the software to install and work more relatively on a wider range of hardware and OS releases than they do now. Significant effort and cost there in chasing a wider/broader/consumer market. Something that Avid has consistently failed at. And those "Garageband users" are used to really free (OK you need a Mac or iOS device) or very low cost software with no cloud lock-ins/storage costs and ease of sharing those sessions with Logic Pro, a very capable $199 DAW, again with no crazily complex support/subscription plans.
So yes while there will be appeal to some users, I'm really not convinced there is a huge need out there, not beyond what people can do now collaborating online. Now high-end users collaborating Pro Tools to Pro Tools , that would seem more interesting *if* done well, and works to support Avid's core market. Trying to do all at the same time, well hold on...