bait and switch?

[prd]

Hmmm. . .Pro-tools Free. . .sounds too good to be true? Maybe.

I've read through numerous message boards, checked compatability issues, jumped through all the hoops I can find to get this "free" software to work. Although I find some comments from other users about Digidesign a bit over the top, I am beginning to question whether it is actually intentionally full of bugs. Clever way to draw in new users?

For what it's worth...
my system:

PIII 600
256MB [pc133 ram]
WinME
DCS S817 sound card
ATI 16mb video card
21" mon

optimized features:
file system - network server
graphics accel - none
virtual mem - 512min & max

adjusted system.ini vcache to 51200

--
Pro-tools starts but appears very sluggish and locks up when trying to open or create a new project.

I've worked with pt on a mac for years.

This definitely leaves a bad taste in my mouth after all the time I've spent trying to get it to work.

There's no such thing as a free lunch.
How often I forget...

[DigitalWaveform]

greetings...

being a PT Mix Plus, Digi001, and PT Free user myself i have a hard time understanding what exactly your motivation is for writing this (you mentioned you used PT on MAC) ...are you asking a question, making a statement, or simply displaying your frustrations for the world to see.

personally, i've visited this site less and less getting tired of people complaining AND wanting help from other users.

it's FREE for crying-out-loud, deal with it. if you feel that you must "jump through hoops" to get this software to work, there could be an operator flaw.

the bottom line is if someone wants help, ASK...don't demand, don't get sarcastic, and don't take out your frustrations on the fact that YOU can't make it work...some of us are getting tired of hearing it...

DigiDesign is up to amazing things...no one can doubt that. but it's easier to help those who help themselves.

cheers...

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Сgî‡å£ Wàvèƒôrm

[blorge]

I find it hard to believe a company would post software that is intentionally full of bugs to entice you to buy the full (read: working) version. Thats like, anti-shareware. There are many fine companies providing very functional multitrack programs for windows that are free or shareware. Give Digidesign a chance and I'm sure they'll make their windows software more widely functional as well. In the mean time, use something else.

[PJsmile1]

Hi, (prd)
try these settings .
optimized features:
file system - desktop comp.
graphics accel.- 100%
virtual memory- contr. by windows.

best regards
pjsmile

[prd]

Hi folks-

Thank you for your responses...

Note to DigitalWaveform:
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Honestly, I just reached the breaking point in trying to get the software to work. When you're frustrated you tend to say things you wish you hadn't... And in the day and age we live in I'm afraid I've become so skeptical of everyone and everything. A shame isn't it? I'll try to be more objective in future posts. Thanks for setting me straight.

PJ:
Actually those were my original settings when I began. I actually changed them from a suggestion in another post.

[DigitalWaveform]

Originally posted by prd:
Hi folks-

Thank you for your responses...

Note to DigitalWaveform:
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Honestly, I just reached the breaking point in trying to get the software to work. When you're frustrated you tend to say things you wish you hadn't... And in the day and age we live in I'm afraid I've become so skeptical of everyone and everything. A shame isn't it? I'll try to be more objective in future posts. Thanks for setting me straight.

PJ:
Actually those were my original settings when I began. I actually changed them from a suggestion in another post.

fair enough...

cheers...



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Сgî‡å£ Wàvèƒôrm

[audiotracker]

Hi guys, I've been posting fairly regularly and yes, at one time, I had completely given up on ProTools Free...BUT...this is my latest system configuration:
Go to Control Panel>System>Device Manager>Disk Drives>Generic(do this for all your hardrives if you have more than one)>Properties, and put a check mark in DMA checkbox if one's not already there. Restart the computer
Next, go to Control Panel>System>Performance>File System>Hard Disk and choose "Network Server" as the typical role of the computer and "None" as the Read-Ahead optimization. (reduces file swapping, which slows down hardrive performance)

Go to Control Panel>System>Performance>Graphics and choose "Full" for Graphics Acceleration

Then go to Control Panel>System>Performance>Virtual Memory and choose "Let me specify my own virtual memory settings" and set the minimum and maximum values to twice(some people like to set it at 3 times) the size of your RAM(so if you have 256MB Ram, set BOTH values to 512)they have to be the same or Windows will crash.

Then go Start>Run and type in "sysedit" in the command line, without the quotations. Choose the system.ini window and go to the line called "vcache". Place your cursor directly under the vcache title and type in the 2 following lines exactly as written below;

MinFileCache=51200
MaxFileCache=51200

This allows your hardrive to cache up to 50MB instead of the Windows default of 1-4MB.

SYSTEM:
Celeron 400MHz processor
Fujitsu 5400 RPM hardrive 6.2G(just the one drive, not partitioned)
Matrox G200 Millenium videocard
SoundblasterLive(original, before they started coming out with the Platinum and MP3 versions)
256MB RAM

All other applications shut-down using control-alt-delete.(except for explorer and systray)

This week-end, I mixed down 8 tracks of audio with 4 band EQ on all tracks, compressor on 2 tracks, and D-verb on 2 tracks, and the mix came out great(I just open up the "view automation" window so I can keep track of how much load is being put on the CPU and system). Mind you, I didn't record those tracks using PTF, I recorded them using another piece of recording software, then imported the tracks into PTF(the tracks were recorded before I got my hands on PTF). I've seen people complain about their system locking up or PTF freezing when they tried that and it did for me too after importing the 4th track. To get around this, I saved the session after every track import. Then, if PTF locked up, I just re-opened the session(although the odd time I get a "no memory" error message when trying to re-open PTF and have to re-boot the computer) and continued on(if you move a fader....SAVE THE SESSION!!)
The software is buggy.....but it's FREE!!!...of course there are problems with it, but the final sound you get from mixing in PTF is definitely worth a little inconvenience of having to restart PTF and/or your computer.
I just hope that Digidesign works on de-bugging this piece of software. (NOTE TO DIGIDESIGN: Not everyone is going to go out and buy a full ProTools system or the DIGI001, but if you get this software working, I would guess that they might look at purchasing some of the RTAS and/or Audiosuite plug-ins available....I mean, I bought the D-verb plug-in already....make it worth our while)

That's my 2 cents...
hope it helps someone

CHEERS!!