ProTools First - XPand2! not installing or showing
My audio mixing skills and experience are virtually nonexistent but I wanted a basic system to start playing with to record piano so I bought a Scarlet Solo Studio 3 which included ProTools First.
I had a spare, older laptop, and installed it to get started. Everything installed but was very slow and trying to record something was unbelievable frustrating so I took another newer laptop and reinstalled ProTools First. Everything seemed to install, including a screen showing that XPand2! was being installed. While I ended up being able to actually record audio, XPand2! was not available from the dropdown menu nor did it show when I clicked through to Avid Marketplace. I have now spent 10 days trying to get a solution. Focusrite (Scarlett) tech support has been abysmal and the information on Avid about this minimal. However, you have to admire the cost effectiveness of a business model which gets its own customers to fix their own problems. A Big Tech version of tough love no doubt.😁
I am writing this not to ask for help but to post information for anyone else having a similar problem. I seem to have found one solution. The installer that comes with the ProTools First software is obviously flawed and doesn't actually install XPand2! despite showing that it is (although it did the very first time but not on the subsequent occasions). Why? Who knows?
Ultimately I searched for any entry on my laptop with the name "XPand2" and found a folder in my download folder, where I had downloaded the software from Avid. The folder was D:\Software downloads\Pro_Tools_First_2020.9_Win\Pro Tools First\ISSetupPrerequisites\Xpand!2. Inside that folder was a file called "AIR Xpand!2 Setup" I right clicked on this, selected "Run as Administrator" and it installed the XPand plugins , following which when I again opened ProTools First I was finally able to access the XPand2 plugins. I shudder to think how long it will take me to actually understand and use those plugins but that's a post for another time. I hope this post helps someone. Cheers.
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