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Old 08-14-2017, 06:33 AM   #1
Dzamija
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Default Thinking of learning Pro Tools but it REALLY bugs me. Is it just me?

Alright so I've been an avid user of Cockos Reaper for a few years now, it's been my DAW of choice and I've really gotten good at using it. A few days ago, a pro mixing engineer that I visited to record some vocals and drums, who used Pro Tools, suggested that it might be a good idea for me to switch to Pro Tools or at least learn how to use it, since it's the industry standard and he's "never even heard of the DAW that I use".

Now while I do not plan on switching to any other DAW any time soon (or ever, for that matter) because of how happy I am with Reaper, it does make sense that I should probably learn how to use a couple of other DAWs because that kind of knowledge might come in handy, so I decided to start with Pro Tools.

Of course I'm not about to buy a $700 piece of software without testing it first, so I got a copy of Pro Tools First, which is the free version of Pro Tools. Immediately I started noticing many things that were bothering me about this DAW. I don't know if these are bugs, if there's something wrong with my installation (although I doubt it) or if it's just part of how the DAW works. Here's just a small list of things that I find really frustrating:

1. If during the time that Pro Tools takes to start up I happen to alt-tab and do something else (it can take up to 15 seconds on my PC), it will force the focus back to itself once it's open. Highly annoying.

2. It has to be restarted when I change the audio device I am using. In Reaper, I can change audio devices as much as I want without having to restart.

3. I got an error message that some .wav files I was trying to import were "read-only" so Pro Tools couldn't access them. When I checked if there were indeed read-only, they weren't. Very weird.

4. The peak-build time is much, much, much longer than in Reaper. Takes up to two minutes for 15 tracks.

5. Now this one really bothers me. If you maximize the Pro Tools window, you can only use one monitor, in other words I can't drag the mixer window over to my second monitor unless I manually extend the Pro Tools main window over both displays and leave it unmaximized. Very, very annoying.

6. When I close a project and want to quit the program, Pro Tools gives me a prompt that says "Waiting for transfers to complete..." and stays like that indefinitely until I click "Cancel" and click on the X again.

7. You have to install a bunch of additional stuff like the Avid Application Manager and several more whose names I can't recall now, which means that if you want to uninstall the software you have to do it like 5 times.

8. It needs QUICKTIME in order to read mp3 files. Like what in the heck, what is this, 2002?

That's about it. I don't know which of these are bugs, and which are not, but so far I'm really disappointed with what the industry standard DAW can or can't do, because quite frankly Reaper (which is a $60 DAW) blows it out of the water with what I've seen so far. I really want to learn but this kind of stuff is making it really difficult, and in my opinion these are some serious oversights. Some of the stuff might just be my fault because I'm rather new to the DAW, but it can't be all of it.
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Old 08-14-2017, 01:35 PM   #2
vanhaze
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Learning a DAW cause it's the industry standard (in my opinion) is an utterly b*llshit tunnelvision, short sided argument.

Please stay at Reaper and tell your friend he's also better of with Reaper.
Cause Reaper is (in general) way,way,way more powerful in terms of customisation, arsenal of functionality in both the audio and midi area, stability, community help,developer help etc.

I used Protools for more than 10 years, stepped over fully 4 years ago to Reaper.
Never ever looked back.
Even more, i have some Protools collaeges @ work who see me things do in Reaper that (they say and i quote them): :"we can only dream of that in Protools" and then they give me a "sigh" .

For me, creating the fastest workflows for things to get done in a DAW, plus performance and stability, are such key arguments to choose for a DAW and i experienced the last 4 years that (although also Reaper is not perfect) Reaper commands to these wishes in an unbelievable good way for me.

Warm Regards.
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Last edited by vanhaze; 08-14-2017 at 01:40 PM.
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Old 08-15-2017, 02:03 PM   #3
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Starting a few years ago and moving forward, Reaper is arguably the flagship DAW now. Protools is still prominent in some pretty big places but it's also end of life. It hasn't kept up with the last decade of innovation.

But none of that matters. If you need to learn Protools to work in one of the big houses married to it then that's that.

The transition from Protools to Reaper felt like a big upgrade to me. Crashy things that weren't crashy anymore. Features I always wanted. Some I didn't even know I wanted before that now I couldn't live without. So I imagine you'll run into a few things that are frustrating. But if you already know the basic workflows for audio and DAW apps you should be fine. (Not saying you'll like it. Just that you will be fine. And you can keep using Reaper at home.)
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Old 08-16-2017, 04:46 AM   #4
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I also came to REAPER from Protools nearly a decade ago and haven't looked back. I had been using Protools since the late 90s and knew it back to front. I still have my old Mac G4 Protools rig here for times when I need to transfer an old session over to REAPER. Funny thing is, last time I opened Protools, I could hardly remember how to use it!!!!

I'm with the others here. Time to convince your friend to take REAPER for a decent test drive for a couple of months.
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Old 08-16-2017, 05:40 AM   #5
peter5992
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Pro Tools can be a real pain in the ass ... I have one computer that is dedicated to Pro Tools, but greatly prefer to work with Reaper.

Your friend does have a point in that PT is still the industry standard in the large professional studios, and in film post production, so if you collaborate with either large studios or work on film soundtracks and have to send sessions back and forth, being able to deliver PT sessions is definitely a plus. It'll save the people on the other end from having to convert / manually rebuild sessions.
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Old 08-16-2017, 08:55 AM   #6
serr
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ReaDave View Post
I also came to REAPER from Protools nearly a decade ago and haven't looked back. I had been using Protools since the late 90s and knew it back to front. I still have my old Mac G4 Protools rig here for times when I need to transfer an old session over to REAPER. Funny thing is, last time I opened Protools, I could hardly remember how to use it!!!!

I'm with the others here. Time to convince your friend to take REAPER for a decent test drive for a couple of months.
The last couple times I tried to open an older Protools session I had better results using AATranslator! I'm not sure why I keep this old system sitting here at this point. I should sell this while it's still worth a couple bucks...

I'm almost more nostalgic for the G5 but I imagine the 2 PT HD cards are worth more now.

Hey, what studio are you working at with Protools Dzamija? Maybe they want to buy this?
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Old 08-16-2017, 09:48 AM   #7
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Nobody in their right mind would choose the way PT works from a clean slate.

We're on the cusp of a paradigm shift away from PT, I think starting over now learning PT would be gambling with effort unless one KNOWS they've got a job waiting at a production house. 5 years from now is going to be very different unless Adobe, Apple or MS buy Avid.
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Old 08-17-2017, 02:08 PM   #8
matthewbarnhart
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Pro Tools has plenty of problems, and if you're happy with REAPER -- and don't need to share sessions or work outside of your own studio -- there's no reason to switch.

That said, when I record live bands I work in a lot of different studios, from private basement studios to large commercial rooms. Knowing Pro Tools (or how to edit tape, intonate a guitar, or any of a million other skills) is a huge asset to me, professionally.

For good or bad, Pro Tools is the defacto standard for recording and editing, just as English is the lingua franca of international business despite being a jumbled mess of a language. You can get by fine without learning either, but you'll just be limiting yourself. All just depends on what your professional goals are.

You also don't need to spend $700 -- you can rent Pro Tools 12 for like $30/month if you want. That's what I do when I have PT sessions to work on at home, where I otherwise mostly use REAPER.
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