Issues with Pro Tools and Frontier's AlphaTrack

[damionhill]

Alrighty then here it goes...
I must say I have never had so many issues with a DAW when I used Cakewalk's Sonar. Pro Tools LE is the buggiest DAW so far. Even Reaper isn't this bad! I just needed to get that off my chest. ok on to the real stuff.

Any ways... I just bought Frontier's AlphaTrack and installed the latest drivers. It did not register in the setup HUI area. So I uninstalled Pro Tools and reinstalled the AlphaTrack's drivers. Then I reinstalled Pro Tools with CS9. Hey surprise my AlphaTrack worked great! Oh... and Surprise your MIDI is all messed up and doesn't work. When I play my keyboard controller the midi light on my 002R shows activity but doesn't make into my computer for some reason. So I, yet again, uninstalled PTs, uninstalled AlphaTrack drivers, and reinstalled PTs 7.4 again. Now my midi works but when I go to close the program I get an access violation message. I have not reinstalled my AlphaTrack again in fear that it will mess everything up again.
I already talked to tech support at Frontier Design inc and they said the issue isn't with them but with Pro Tools not recognizing the controller it self. Any ideas? I'm tired of wasting money on your products if they work only half the time.

Gripe time:
The 002R sounds awful and I’m thinking of modding it or just replacing it with another non-digi product all together. Back before you bought M-Audio my Delta1010 lt sounded better than the 002R. There's no head room and no latency compensation. I refuse to spend money on HD because even the converters in that equipment don't compare to other units in the same price comparison. I've used a lot of DAWs in my time and I’ve had the most setup issues with Pro Tools out of any other software. Can you explain why this is? How can other manufacturers do it and you can't?
I have never experienced so many MIDI issues in a DAW in my life. Seriously Digi get on the ball! When I get the cash I think I’m going to switch to Logic. I hear it's more stable and you can use what ever hardware you choose.

Affectionately,
-D-

[jmitchell1532]

To test out the midi, what kind of track are you creating (midi with aux, or an Instrument track)? Easiest way is to create an Instrument track, and make sure the input of the plug in is routed properly. Also, have you set up the midi contoller in the Midi Studio section?

[damionhill]

Thank you for your comment. But that wasn't the issue at all. actually the midi in general was not existant. Like the Midi drivers just disapeared. None of my standalone instruments recognized the Digidesign Midi channels or the emulation part. It just wasn't there.

From what i'm gathering is that the AlphaTrack took all the available Midi channels to function or wqas causing a disruption with the midi drivers them selves. I just wondered why Digidesign hasn't figured this out yet. From what i hear PT 8.0 has an issue with connecting to any controllers that aren't Digidesign.

I'm just getting tired of the strict limitations that they offer. Because they're afraid of people using other products with their software or vis versa another DAW with their hardware. It's a joke. Propriety is nothing but a pain in the butt. They spend more money on their advertising than they do on making their products. You can buy AD/DA converters that sound better than their HD stuff for the same price or if not cheaper. It's a joke. The only reason I use PT in the first place is because they've convinced everyone in the industry that their product is the best!

I've been using Sonar for a long time before I switched over to Pro Tools. I must say they've been working a lot harder at be ahead of the game. The only thing they didn't have over digi is the Beat detecter. I don't think Cakewalk has made they're Elastic Audio as good as digi.

I know that cakewalk started out as a midi software. But if Digi is going to say that they are the leader in digital audio or something close to that they really need to get the bugs out of this stuff and make it work better than 75% of the time. Maybe it's more stable on a MAC. I'll have to buy a mac soon anyhow.