Ready to pull the plug. Yup - another goodbye post

[AlainZagar]

I think I’m done with Protools.

My annual renewal is coming due in 7 days.

I’ve been using Protools since V8 and M-audio. I’ve spent way too much time over the years finessing Protools and not enough time doing what I love which like everyone here is about the music.

I’ve been slowly switching my workflow over to StudioOne (S1) and I have to admit, I’m finally at a point where I can do so much more with the combination of Sibelius and S1 than I could ever do with Protools.

I can run Sibelius through to S1 using virtual midi and /or midi over IP. Even with dozens of Virtual Instruments and effects, I can pipe the midi to the VSTs in S1 and the CPU hardly seems loaded down. Same for audio latency.

Does it crash? Yes, but very infrequently. S1 is generally pretty solid. S1 isn’t without its issues but what I’ve noticed is that Presonus contrary to Avid, does appear to want to resolve known bugs. The community here has been begging Avid to fix existing bugs and not release new “features” until the known bugs are fixed. But that lands on deaf ears.

When it’s working, Protools works well. For up to about an hour or so. Then I have to deal with

• Random crashes
• Disconnects on the Command8
• Having to trash preferences
• Memory access violation errors
• Hanging on Quit which necessitates forcing a reboot
• Hang on Start
• There are GUI anomalies
• Scaling problems with plugins on high dpi monitors.
• The list goes on and on.

Protools crashes on tiny sessions with one VST that are created using the built-in templates. That’s just wrong.

In my use case, I do like to edit music in notation mode. The built-in score editor is rather pointless for my needs.

Now back to my renewal. I just cannot justify the return on my investment given that the problems I and a great many of you experience just never seem to get fixed. In Canada this amounts to $330. That’s half the price of new FaderPort 8 to replace my Command8.

For what it’s worth, I did finally fix my problems with Command8 dropping offline all the time. It’s now very rare that it happens. I set up a Virtual Here (https://www.virtualhere.com/home) USB server and access the Command8 via ethernet. For whatever reason, the virtual USB port appears to be better suited to the method Protools uses to talk to the Command8 as opposed to using the built-in USB ports on the DAW machine.

I know that a lot of you get great value from using Protools. I'm finally good with the realization that it's not a good fit for my needs.

Sorry for yet another goodbye post.

Cheers and good luck guys!

Alain

[[email protected]]

I use Nuendo the majority of the time. I only use PT when a clients give me something on it. I think I have had maybe 1 error with Nuendo ever that was not a beta plugin error that crashed it. Steinberg really seems to make sure the code it working right with Nuendo and Avid just does not seem to care at all.


If it was not for people giving me projects on PT I doubt I would ever use it.

[K Roche]

Such a poignant fair well (I wonder what the physiological ramifications are of DUC likely being the only DAW forum that gets goodbye posts )

As Roy sang "Happy Trails To You"

Or as Arnold so eloquently phrased it

https://youtu.be/LRxaXmXvjnU

[JFreak]

Goodbye then

[grayter1]

Originally Posted by K Roche

Such a poignant fair well (I wonder what the physiological ramifications are of DUC likely being the only DAW forum that gets goodbye posts )

Happens on the Reaper forum as well, but interestingly enough, I've not seen them on the Nuendo forum. As nice as the Reaper faithful are when asking for help, they can be brutal to those who break ranks (and tell you why). Lots of Bye Felicia memes and the like. It's an interesting phenomenon to witness.

tg

[daeron80]

Originally Posted by AlainZagar

...I can do so much more with the combination of Sibelius and S1 than I could ever do with Protools.

That's curious. Sticking with Avid for notation while moving to a competitor (which has its own notation program) for the DAW. Granted, Notion isn't quite as full-featured as Sibelius. But then, neither of them is nearly as full-featured as Finale, which works brilliantly with everything, in my experience. And Notion has pretty good integration with S1, I'm told.

I'm tempted to switch to S1 for my composing work, though my post house work will always, of necessity, be PT. At the moment, though, my HP Z440 is handling PT brilliantly as long as I remember to kill Processor Zero in Affinity. Very few problems at all. In fact, once I switched from a Digidesign interface to a Focusrite, nearly all the problems I'd been plagued with for years disappeared. :shrug:

[Southsidemusic]

Really dont understand why ”some” feel a Goodbye post is necessary and I am sorry but never seem you here so just go to whatever software that float your boat, no need to advertize leaving a ”DAW” LOL ... those ”Someones” LOL

[Tweakhead]

Originally Posted by AlainZagar

snip . . .
Protools crashes on tiny sessions with one VST that are created using the built-in templates. That’s just wrong.

Perhaps what's wrong is using a "VST".
The fact is, there are no built-in templates that use VST plug-ins.

[SomeOtherGuy]

When I left DP for Logic and then Logic for PT, I just left without saying goodbye.

[Obsidian Dragon]

Originally Posted by Tweakhead

Perhaps what's wrong is using a "VST".
The fact is, there are no built-in templates that use VST plug-ins.

That is one of my pet peeves. VST stands for "Virtual Studio Technology" and refers to a plugin platform used with Steinberg software. Protools does not use VST natively and requires a wrapper or another host application to make it work in Protools. So many people mistakenly use this acronym to mean "Virtual Instrument." I have to mentally substitute the acronym VI in place of VST every time I see this error. I know...I should just get over it, but I'm OCD so it bugs me to no end. Ugh.