How likely are you to recommend Avid to others?

[Stephen Bond]

For the record I answered 3 out of 10.

Here's my accompanying message...

Hello Avid,
I've been with Pro Tools since 2001 (https://duc.avid.com/member.php?u=21566)

I have bought pretty much every upgrade in that time, LE & TDM at one time and now for the first time I am not running the latest version as I have let my upgrade plan lapse last year. Pro Tools is way too expensive these days.

Also, I do not have a single subscription and will not be subscribing for anything. Call me old school but I buy my plugins and music software. I will not be paying over and over for the same product or for buggy software that needs fixing. Neither will I be forced into doing so with policies which disrespect me and attempt to manipulate me. I liked the old way where an upgrade was offered at a reasonable sum and the user could purchase or not. I almost always ended up buying it. Now I am being forced to buy it or loose out. As it is Avid are now loosing out on my money.

Remember Avid, the customer is always right. Try and work with the customer not treat them badly, force them into something they don't want. Subscription might be the vendor's dream for some but I'm NOT buying. Be flexible yourself or continue to loose out from my revenue stream and others. Consider your pricing in the market place and the products, pricing and features of your competitors.

£100 a year for a feature or two and bug fixes was expensive for Vanilla. £200 is a rip off. I don't mind spending money but I am spending it with your competitors. For the same money I can buy Logic Pro X and free updates which usually last for a few years. I am spending it with Native Instruments, Reason Studios and many others who are offering value for money.

I love Pro Tools but as I said, Pro Tools is plain far too expensive and my money is better placed elsewhere.

[Emi]

Same here.

I avoid to recommend pro tools due to how they treat customers.

[Tweakhead]

Very well written and expressed. (I've been with them since it was 2 x apps . . . Sound Tools/Sound Designer.)
However I'm assuming your scale is only running from 0 > +10.
My scale would go from -10 < 0 > +10.
and I would give them a -10 for how they've reacted this year to all these critical bugs, such as Mixer-Bit-Depth, Tab-To-Transient, OS folder navigation, etc etc.
My money will not be spent with this company again, or until they release something that's truly worth it, rather than this "forced yearly payment" model - either the subscription or the annual fee to simply stay in the "bugfix update" lane for permanent license holders.
The current model makes it more worth it for them to not fix anything, as users will panic into thinking they need to keep up their payment in the hope of some day receiving an actual bug-free version (while the company actually does nothing).
Ya. Keep dreaming.
My last $399 payment to stay in the update channel got me nothing useable, with zero information on how these bug-ridden releases are being addressed. The 2021.3.0 release even got deleted by Avid from the older download archives because it was so bad and unusable (I don't recall that ever happening before in the entire history of Digidesign/Avid)

So, all I got for $399 was a floating pop-up qwerty virtual MIDI keyboard (that doesn't even grey-out the A-Z command-key focus indicator when enabled). I can buy a small physical MIDI keyboard from M-Audio for $59.

I will simply never buy any of Avid's hardware or interfaces again, all of which are never thought-out properly and contain major design flaws.
Companies like Focusrite are showing the way with their Red Range. https://pro.focusrite.com/category/audio-interfaces

My money will go with them.

[foxes]

Never, rip off merchants!! They DO NOT fix super long standing bugs https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=404739 and as you've said maybe one if not two worthwhile updates a year that competitors have had for years!

Doubling the annual renewal fee!

They said when they first introduced the annual fee that we would get more regular updates.....that was a blatant lie.

[capt kirk]

My philosophy is it is a tool, and for my needs, it works perfectly, with the caveat that i have a FIXED system. I also consider both halves ONE TOOL, the OS and PT......therefore, it is the best tool ive ever owned, jusging by the fact ive had 2 crashes in 11 years of ownership, delivered hundreds of professional products to market. i look at my system like my vintage guitars , they do EXACTLY what i want them to do , EVERY TIME, without fail......would I mod them, ? only if i had a serious brain failure........why would you possibly 'mod' a tool that has almost mathematical 100% success rate......thats called stupid....my advice to people who need to deliver professional product , get a fixed system/tool, and LEAVE IT THE FK ALONE, and relax.......

[daeron80]

lol. My feeling is, I'm kind of stuck with it because I've used it nearly every work day for 26 years. PT is all but intertwined with my DNA. But I encourage most people to try anything else first. Writing electronica? Ableton. Writing songs? Studio One. Composing for film/TV? Logic or Cubase.

[Tweakhead]

my prediction for the day . . .
so there's a new release supposedly coming out today. here's what I think will happen . . .

not everyone will be able to download it immediately.
users will be sent "invite codes" by email, and their account will not get updated with a download link until they've been added to the list.
let's see if I'm right.
and if so, why is this the only company who cannot handle the download bandwidth of a major software update ?
and why are downloads even being hidden in the first place for software that is protected by iLok ? I just don't get it.

are they being that cheap with our "donations" that they cannot afford to pay for some real server bandwidth ?

[capt kirk]

Why do you feel 'stuck with it' if you've used it for 26 years?!?! if its that long , youve obviously paid off your house with it ,by now.....other than an SSL Gseries what other component could anyone say that about? NS10's or Auratones, maybe 1081's .......a U87..............they're useful, but they arnt absolutely mission critical........

[Basslice]

If anyone asks me what I use, I tell them. I am relatively new to DAW recording with a solid 2 years of concentrated use of PTs. I would never recommend any one DAW. I tell people to check out a few and then stick with and learn the heck out of one. I did that with PTs.

[daeron80]

Originally Posted by capt kirk

Why do you feel 'stuck with it' if you've used it for 26 years?!?

I'm not literally stuck, of course. It's just that my hands, eyes, and brain are so used it that the cost of moving to another DAW is greater than the potential gains. That's what I meant by "intertwined with my DNA." I no longer have to think about how to do things. In fact, when someone asks me how to do something in PT, I can't tell them without sitting down in front of a computer and watching myself do it. It's second nature. The cost of leaving that behind is extremely high.