Is Pro Tools behind the curve?

[itsjustmeee123]

Something I've wondered after updating my studio and using PT 2020 for a while now. Is Avid behind the curve? There's a lot of other DAWs out there and a quick "best of" google search often times lists PT at the bottom. I've personally been using PT for over 18 years now and learning something new just wouldn't make sense. I did get Logic Pro X at the same time I updated PT and honestly if I was just starting out again, I'd probably take that over PT. It's way cheaper, much more intuitive and easier to get an idea down. I do understand PT's appeal though. For someone like me who has grown up with in studios using multi-track for many years, PT is the closest thing to a real studio experience with a DAW and still the industry standard. I'm not sure that is appealing to many now that are younger and just starting out. PT might just be pricing themselves right out of the game. But more than that, it seems overly complicated by newer DAWs standards. Given all of the other options out there, I'm just curious to see how other long time PT users feel.

[@tention]

The opposite is the case.
PT concentrates on the really important things.
While some other DAWs have a gazillion bells and whistles (that often don't work as expected) PT really - I mean really (!) - gets the basics right.
If a new function or haardware arrives it is usually really working well.

I switched over from Nuendo after working with the platform from version 3-8 because I just simply could not bear the amount of mind blowing show stoppers they were introducing.

[EdgarRothermich]

Originally Posted by @tention

The opposite is the case.
PT concentrates on the really important things.
While some other DAWs have a gazillion bells and whistles (that often don't work as expected) PT really - I mean really (!) - gets the basics right.

There is at least one exception and that is metering.
Pro Tools provides a gazillion bells and whistles for any meter standard on the planet and lets you tweak them on top of that (which is great), BUT it pretends that Loudness Meters don't exist.
For an industry leader, that omission is just strange. For a kid that makes some beats in their bedroom maybe, but not for audio professionals. And no, this is not some "special" tool that you should be required to install a third-party plugin.

[Bob Olhsson]

Loudness meters have a lot more computational overhead than others. I'm not sure it would make sense on every channel. The Avid Pro Limiter has a nice one.

[JFreak]

Just choose VU metering and that kid making beats will see that the lightbulb is on all the time and that it means good

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Just choose VU metering and that kid making beats will see that the lightbulb is on all the time and that it means good

[jasonkalman]

I think PT's is fine. Sure there are things I'd like to see improved. CPU usage is an obvious one. Limiting voice counts seems odd.

That said, I've tried to switch to Logic Pro X but the latency is just atrocious. Sure that could be due to my interface (Apollo TB3) but still really bad at even the lowest buffer. Plus editing audio in Logic is a pain, so I just always come back to PTs. It just works.

[saptezsapte]

The real curve where Pro Tools is way behind is the prices Avid asks to mantain the boat floating, alienating a lot of it's user base with recent moves (the trust is earned hard and lost fast - I like PT but I don't trust Avid at all after recent shift, I don't care what were the reasons behind it). The reference is the crowded market with more and more capable competitors for home users, not to say about industry decline - the one adressed by Avid. The game industry is occupied fast by Steinberg's aggresive moves with Nuendo (they have the will and the resources to do that). With this prices and politics, Avid will become a joke. The other competitors user base are making jokes already about Avid bullying it's customers with a long list of expensive or "dead end" traps when You wand to make a decision. Shares can be a little better today, but in long term the ship will sink, all because competition is being more performant as business model and because the lack of trust in Avid.

[XJENSEN]

Sorry, but I have to strongly disagree.
You can't make statements like that.

Pro Tools misses out on some of the most basic functionality, like proper delay compensation and MIDI. Even the current version is full of long-standing bugs that just never get resolved, despite all the feedback from the user base. The forum is full of it.

[EGS]

Originally Posted by itsjustmeee123

... curious to see how other long time PT users feel.

(Old pro here...) Many years using tape, a few years on Sonic Solutions, and finally switched to Pro Tools version 5. I've (briefly) checked out several other DAWs over the years. While one DAW might implement certain functions better than another DAW, all things considered I'll stick with PT.