I would like to question to those who are on sequencing and audio recording.

I don't hear any of you mentioning Pro Tools by Digidisgin, can you tell me why it is not so popular, Is it because it's expensive or becacause more complicated to use, I really would like to hear some comments about it, cause I think it's the best there is around!!! especially when it comes to plugins.

Please feedback about this subject


Tony.

Tony,
Digidesign (Avid) produces great products but it is expensive. The Dutch going price for the Digi001 is about 1200 Euro's and the Digi002 costs 2800 Euro's. For these amounts of money you can buy great Harddiskrecorders with built-in digital mixers, effect processors, harddisks, samplers etc.

I gave the Digi001 a try about a year ago but prefer an 'ordinary' harddisk-recorder.
The plugins work fine but they take lots of processor-load, more than I expected !
Apple users have the same complaints.
Often error-messages appeared because of overloaded CPU. (At that time a Athlon 1800+ with 512 Mb memory)
Protools 6.x LE is OK but the midi-editing interface is poor compared to e.g. Cubase SX.

I chose to purchase a Yammie AW16G (very portable) and use SX with Audiophile 2496.
(Sold the Digi001) DirectX plugins work fantastic on SX or Soundforge

Roel

[This message has been edited by Roel (edited 01-07-2004).]

Expensive, yes. Complicated, yes. Those are the two main reasons why
I don't use it. My brother-in-law has it and has an entire computer dedicated to it. Everytime he wants to use it, it takes him another two hours to remember everything. He loves it. It's a little too much for my style of playing and simple recording. But I think it's a fantastic program.

Roel I see you are very into audio recording, I am trying to see the vieus of people who are in digi recording, I agree with you in all you said, and like you my cousin use it on Apple machintosh and still it clashes his computer, it is very demanding on hardware but I really would like to hear from most of those who have been in touch with it.

In my cousin studio we use a lot of sampled sounds to do recordings especially the precasion section section and Bass. But when you have some good plug ins that goes with it , there is nothing in the market that comes close to it, I believe. But as you stated they are very expensive and I think it still aimed to those who are really in buisnis.
Thx CASSP for your imput appreciated very much

Tony.

I have a Pro Tools HD System and use it only when a client requests it which is rare. While Pro Tools HD is by far the most reliable Pro Tools system Digidesign has ever developed, its still not on par with my Fairlight Hard Disk Recorders for sound, speed, reliability, and ease of use. Pro Tools however has become a standard at most commercial studios here in the US for a few reasons. 1. Its relatively cheap to get into if you start with an MBOX or Digi 001. 2. Most people already own a computer so the idea of buying software is very appealing to them. 3. Pro Tools does allow one to start with a basic system then upgrade as they can afford to. 4. Compatibility with other studios is also very appealing. 5. Plug Ins and the ability to mix in a single environment also make it appealing.

Each hard disk recorder has its advantages and disadvantages and which one to choose is a personal choice. Personally I've found that I like hardware based recorders much better than computer based systems for their reliability and intuitive interface. At least my Fairlight systems have been rock solid and delivered everything as promised. I can't say the same thing for Pro Tools although the PT HD system isn't bad. I see lots of users who enjoy using Plug Ins but I've yet to find a plug in that sounds anywhere near as good as its hardware based counterpart. Perhaps one day software plug ins will equal or rival hardware but that hasn't happened yet.

I have used Protools for a couple of years along with Cakewalk products, that is untill Sonar and now Sonar 3.0 came out. To me Sonar does everything Protools will do and some midi related functions better. The new version of Sonar 3.0 has the vst wrapper built in and I'm using just about every major plugin and soft synth made. I can tell you from experience that if you want flawless performance buy or build a pc for music and music only, no other programs or resource hogging programs. I have a system that although is not the biggest baddest spec'd pc made can and does out perform some peoples "Protools" setups because the heart of the system is tweaked for music and is maintained as such. I often track as much as 30-40 tracks with plugins and softsynths running and never have issues. Sorry I'm off the track but I can assure you from my Professional experiance it's more about the engine in the car than the fabric of the interior. Right now I believe with the exception of the dedicated hardware you can't go wrong with Sonar, Cubase SX or nuendo, each offer about the same specs and is on par with Protools.........

[This message has been edited by mdolmon (edited 01-07-2004).]

[This message has been edited by mdolmon (edited 01-07-2004).]