Protools 8 LE. Opinions

[Tiberius]

Hey guys,


Sorry wrong board, I need an expert opinion on Protools 8 LE. I love the program and create my music using the Protools 8 LE DAW but I’ve found some pros and cons over the course of using Protools 8 LE. I’m hoping your expert opinion about the software can help me out. I’m having a extremely difficult time mixing EDM.

• I’ve have tried countless time to produce EDM music using Protools but the mixing and effectiveness is just not there. After hours of mixing a EDM track and trying to produce a decent quality sound, Protools 8 LE just can’t. I’ve had no trouble producing and mastering a Jazz track and even have been able to produce good quality using the stock plugins for acoustics. However when mixing the tracks together it doesn't flow or sound nice together. Funk and Jazz found great!

• I’ve found that Protools 8 LE is great for only certain genres of music. Jazz, Rock, County, Acoustics, hip hop, orchestral, and new wave. Anything electronic I’ve tried to make I just can’t get the program to master it very well. I've found that there are only certian genres of music that this program caters too. Want to make a Big Room EDM track with banging bass, not going to happen. Smooth Jazz with audio samples and use of real instrumentals, perfect.

• Midi instruments that come with Protools are just substandard. With Serum and other programs Xpand and Boom don’t even come close. I'll admit that the percussive instrumentals are very realistic sounding and the orchestral pads sound amazing.

• Compression and EQ’s – I don’t know if it is just me here, but for mixing and setting eq’s on tracks for EDM protools lacks the power to do this, I've also noticed that stock sounds come out very "flat" Other programs like FL Studio seem to already mix the songs to a certain quality before any eq's are even added. There is something in the background that is already mixed in for FL studio’s sounds. It’s almost like there is a “room” effect with a compressor and white noise already set.

My big question is, is Protools seriously capable of producing decent EDM or is it my mixing and mastering skills. For making a Jazz track or mastering audio recordings I can say that Protools does an excellent job. For mixing and mastering a modern pop song with bass and big beats I can't. In my opinion I just don’t think this software is cut out for EDM. Even the online community doesn't provide the tools. I’ve looked everywhere online for EDM tutorials with protocol but they just aren’t there. If I want clean vocals or a clean drum sound I can easily find that.


Any other software for EDM is recommended. Also tutorials for creating a mixing session.

Thanks guys,

[VRW]

Originally Posted by Tiberius

My big question is, is Protools seriously capable of producing decent EDM or is it my mixing and mastering skills.

Basically you can produce EDM even with Pro Tools. It may not be the ideal software for this genre though.
And, yes, if you are an experienced producer and mixing engineer you will get decent results out of Pro Tools as well.

However you have to separate producing and mixing. Many EDM guys produce their tracks in other DAWs/recording
softwares like Ableton Live, Logic etc. and record the vocals and do their final mixes in Pro Tools anyway.

That is what I would recommend you as well.

Get Logic Pro (big bang for the buck, very suitable for EDM, comes with tons of VIs, loops and other stuff for $199.- only)
or Ableton Live (used by many professional EDM producers, standard version for $349.-) and start producing your tracks
in these DAWs. When it comes to recording live instruments and vocals, make a 2track playback from these tracks, make
sure to start from 1.1.1.0, import it into PT and do your live stuff there.
You can decide later if you bounce your live tracks out of PT and put it back into your producing DAW or if you bounce out
all your tracks as audio files of your producing software and do the final mix in Pro Tools.

For EDM from my experience you probably will need more than one single DAW to gain the best results. Pro Tools still delivers
the best quality on live recording whereas other softwares probably will do a better job as for programming, Midi, VIs etc.

Pro Tools as the one and only recording/producing software for EDM might not be the best solution. For professional vocals and
live instruments, even used in EDM, PT still might be the way to go as for the quality.
Mixing imo depends on the particular tracks. If you do not want to print your VIs to audio tracks and you really have tons of it,
you probably better will do your mixes in the software you have produced your stuff.

If however you are really used to mixing in PT and you don´t mind having your VI´s rendered to audio and imported into PT for
the final mix, Pro Tools always is nice on mixing.

You see, a few things to consider but there are solutions out there indeed.


The best of success to you.