Insane Frustration With 2023 Versions

[DontLetMeDrown]

I just wanted to chime in and say the press play and nothing happens error has been haunting me for over 10 years. It's very random but happens at least once per day. Absolutely hate that crap. Windows 11 user here but I also experienced it across 4 different builds in Win 7, 10, and 11.

[basslik]

Originally Posted by DontLetMeDrown

I just wanted to chime in and say the press play and nothing happens error has been haunting me for over 10 years. It's very random but happens at least once per day. Absolutely hate that crap. Windows 11 user here but I also experienced it across 4 different builds in Win 7, 10, and 11.

By chance have you tried a different keyboard. I'm sure you did. process of elimination.



I remember struggling for years with my PC's. Too many players in the PC world, many products I imagine conflicts and bottlenecks.



That pretty much went away when I switched to Mac.


I would like Darryl's thoughts >?

[albee1952]

Re the "missing PTW.dll" error, I recently had this on my Windows 11 machine. The solution was to uninstall Pro Tools(with Prefs and database files) and then run CCleaner to clear the registry(repeat until it finds no problems).

[PT Zone]

Originally Posted by ja_allen

Thanks PT. I appreciate you checking it out. Dont want to hijack thread, but ill answer Brother!
Singer is a long time friend, Jenny Burgan
Three VOX tracks, one lead, other two are same singer, just one in 3rd, other 5th harmony. I recorded it as best I could from the start. We took our time. First win on that.

Inserts were from top to bottom:
Trim:
ff d2 4 band: with a boost at 480 Hz / +4.6 db / Q 2.0. She had great body in her voice, so did not have to high pass it at all. No other EQ needed. All three tracks the same.
Compressor: good old D3, just a touch for transient and de-ess.

Sends:
I have my VOX DL go into my VOX Plate reverb (pretty wet) on busses, so just fed all tracks to the DL, set to a short tap L/R sync to tempo.

There is automation on the tracks, to ride up soft and bring down loud, make her a "Star" treatment. A compressor cant always do the job on some VOX material, this was one of them.

I am a less is more mixer, player, so I guess its NYC style. Yes, drums parallel compressed, lol.

Ok, thanks, let's not hijack the thread.

[basslik]

Originally Posted by AndreBlaze

I'm having a whole litany of issues with what seems to be every version that's come out in 2023 and I'm exhausted by the frustration these issues have caused me.

I've mentioned in another thread elsewhere that not once in the last year and a half have I been able to close Pro Tools without it hanging and requiring a force quit to terminate the program.

That wouldn't be a problem were it for this strange issue that started plaguing me in the last month or two: after an indeterminate amount of time and with no discernible pattern whatsoever, Pro Tools will randomly just stop its ability to play back. I'm able to click around the program but it will absolutely refuse to play back (transport will simply flash when I hit space bar). No it's not Count-Off or anything like that - the program will randomly do this right in the middle of playback where transport will suddenly stop.

To add to this frustration, literally every business practice of Avid's just makes me despise them as a company. I love the software and it's functionality but man oh man are they terrible. Every aspect of every single thing they do is just mind-bogglingly inane and moronic to say the least.

Even the little things like Avid Link's insistence to show an "Update" button for a version I can't actually use (2023.12 the support for my perpetual license ended in November), to Avid's insistence to be obscurantists at every turn when it comes to being able to manually install older versions, or the fact that none of those older versions seem to work (at least for me).

Other aspects of the program continue to blow me away too - here we are in 2024 and I suspect that Pro Tools may well be the only DAW that doesn't allow you to switch Playback Engine mid-session without a full restart of Pro Tools (which as I've mentioned, invariably results in Pro Tools hanging and having to be forced to quit). On top of that you have comments that you can't see while typing and all sorts of other strange bugs... This is a long rambling post but man... I just want to use my software with a minimum of headaches.

I tried reinstalling 2023.6 which results in a "missing PTW.dll" error, and 2023.9 just gives me an error with an extremely long alphanumeric string that ends with a "BUI.dll" error.

Need support? Absolutely not without paying! This is Avid! The greediest piece-of-crap company in the Audio industry lol... what a trainwreck honestly. Meanwhile every other audio software company will continue to support their products (as they should). I run DaVinci Resolve Studio (which has its issues) and Reason 12 (ditto) - both will support you without question. Nope... not Avid though.

I'm sorry for the sour grapes guys, but I can't be the only person to love the software, while simultaneously DESPISING Avid?

Get wrecked Avid, I hope you guys get bought out by the Reaper. (lol, yeah right I wish)

In all seriousness though, Avid needs to:

- Not be so F!@#$ing greedy and petty and support their garbage coding
- Improve Avid Link to allow me to download old versions of Pro Tools so I can bypass all this nonsense.
- Remove any "updates" from Avid Link that I don't have a license for (or at least allow me to hid it or something).
- Allow me to remove Pro Tools Intro and Ultimate (wish I never demo'd it) from my account so that they aren't even an option in my Avid account.
- Improve the website's design to not be so intentionally and infuriatingly obfuscating/obtuse.

Hijacked, my bad. I thought it was about PT hanging.