Limitations of ProTools First?

[DocDan]

ProTools First questions
from an experienced former PT User (up to vers. 8, a bit 10)
now trying out PT First
and discovering a totally worsened experience!

I was a ProTools user for 20 years (from version 3 until v.8 then shortly vers.10)
I had invested in my RTAS plug-ins etc. and didn’t want to be forced to upgrade everything due to the changes Avid recently made.
Now I’m running some new hardware (MacBook Pro / Sierra) and there’s the end to that line.

So I have experimented a while now with the newest PT”First”- just to work on some basic recording/editing tasks, well knowing that I can’t use my full virtual studio… (but I can go back at anytime to my old mac with everything running very fine with snow leopard and PT8

It’s quite shocking how many things have changed- and most of them to the worse (at least that’s what it seems now to me unless you can inform me otherwise and it’s just the crippled PT First versions fault…)

1)
Online ONLY???

I want to use it anywhere, also at my lodge, there’s no internet!!!
It says I can choose to create a session (stored locally as it used to be)
even then it produces a “project” and tries to upload something to the cloud
I DO WANT AND NEED THE CHOICE of working completely offline on the road, or in my lodge with no internet!!!

if I’m forced to the “cloud” it is a major DRAWBACK and cripples the programm to a bad toy!!!

When I tried to open my session with no access to internet it warned me in the open dialog (“dashboard”) that there was now a “version conflict”; the session still opened, my edits seemed to be there but all my crossfades had dissapeared!!

2)
(cross)fades:

where are the fade files stored now? (no fades folder anymore…)
when I bounce (“export”) they were not included (committed) in the bounce even though
I had selected many clips and crossfades…
The same when consolidating a selection including audio clips and crossfades resulted in a newly combined region of the audio but also ignored the crossfades.

3)
where is the session overview window?
no preferences anymore?

4)
where is the storing structure of a session folder in the finder?
I found a very cryptic folder called “eeBjeq5djbnL_BzzXtkZIcsdgsdigsdig” etc. gibberish in a folder “project cache” (even though I just wanted to work with a regular session!!!!). It seemes Avid doesn’t want any user interaction with this packaged file: but of course I looked into it (right click: “show package content”) when I tried to access an earlier autosave version from there ProTools said it can’t open those ptpx files (error -200006)- what???

So how can I access autosaved backups selecting the time I want?
From the open dialog I only get the option of opening latest auto-backup- what if I need the backup from 2 hours earlier?

5)
no playlists on tracks?
can’t find them anymore

6)
groups?
I cant seem to find them anymore…
there are clip groups but they don’t work the way I expect them,
also where’s the “show groups” option for the edit window…

7)
region lists?
I cant seem to find them at all…
also no “show regions list” option for the edit window…

8)
documention:
no (big) pdf manual anymore?

just this sluggish / slow / incomlete online help version? Is that it, really?
It’s also so small that I have to wear 2 reading glasses on top of each other with no option I can see to increasae font sizes.
it’s pretty useless, for example when i searched for “bounce” it returned nothing

9)
I can’t import tracks from other sessions anymore??

10)
I can’t “save as” (like in an earlier session format) anymore??



this list will probably get even longer but I'll stop for now to get a chance of a reply

#ciao
Dan

[destefano.rafa]

You do realise this is a free and limited version of Pro Tools, right?

[64GTOBOY]

Everything you have listed is available with any paid pro tools application. The First version is targeted at inexperienced users

[EdgarRothermich]

Originally Posted by DocDan

It’s quite shocking how many things have changed- and most of them to the worse (at least that’s what it seems now to me unless you can inform me otherwise and it’s just the crippled PT First versions fault…)

Things have not changed from previous versions, because Pro Tools | First is a new application with an (on purpose) limited feature set, targeted to new users as a "try before you buy" product.

Although it is limited, for a free Pro Tools version you can get quite far before feeling the need to pay for next version.