Today I had an issue with "Time Machine" backup system on my Mac and I had to re-install the operating system. I took the opportunity to reformat the hard drive and to clear up any unwanted programs that have been sitting stale on my computer as well as upgrade my OS.  I loaded my "i-Life," Photoshop, some midi-synths and Finale software and saved the biggest one of them all, Pro-Tools, for last. I was really struggling with this one. Over the past three years I have used Nuendo, Cubase and Sonar more and more for my final mixing since for me Pro-Tools LE was becoming a two channel recording tool rather than a mix platform. Let me tell you my history with Pro-Tools (LE)…

 

In 1998 I downloaded Pro-Tools Free. This was a 4 channel version of full blown Pro-Tools 5 at the time. Previous to this I had "Music@Passport" for my writing program and dabbling in Cakewalk for some small recording stuff.

 

In 2000 I bought Pro-Tools LE's Digi 001. An 8 I/O 1 RU 48 KHz 24 Bit box that sounded pretty damn good. Cost was $1800.00

 

I upgraded three times at $125 each. This got me through college until 2004 when I tried to upgrade my computer to OS X 10.2. Digidesign was no longer supporting the Digi 001 so In order to keep using my 001, my Mac G4 had to forever be stuck in OS X 10.1.3.

 

So in 2004 I bought the first generation of M-Box for my new mac laptop. Cost $650. I upgraded an additional 2 times at $140 per version.

 

In 2007 I bought the next generation of the M-Box with "M-Powered Pro Tools Le. Cost was $750.

 

Lets add the total cost of everything for Pro-Tools Le.

 

$1800

$ 125

$ 125

$ 125

$ 650

$ 140

$ 140

$ 750

$3855.99

Eeek…Ok so eventually over the long term my profits outweighed the costs of the units but that was over a 10-year period. And why only LE you say? My operation wasn't big enough for TDM or HD.

So I made the decision; I didn't load Pro-Tools back onto my computer. Here are my reasons why:

1)    I recently bought an Ultra Light MK3 that I use with Nuendo, Cubase and Sonar Pro for a project that was working on. There ya go, one piece of hardware is able to interface with three different DAWs (digital audio workstation).

2)    Pro-Tools hardware was necessary to run the program. These other programs can run off the computers original sound card.

3)    Pro-Tools LE was incapable of surround sound.

4)    Pro-Tools doesn't like VST instruments without third party conversion, which adds more latency.

5)    I took the opportunity to upgrade my OS again so I would have had to buy another upgrade for Pro-Tools.

 

I like Pro-Tools a lot, the interface is slick and user friendly. However, I can't justify being tied down to a big clunky box when I want to mix on the road on a laptop. I know that they came out with a small M-Micro set up but still, that is an additional $280 I have to spend on hardware for software I already own. I'm sorry, I have spent enough on this one product. AVID, I put this challenge out to you. Open the software up, use a dongle or use a software dongle like Max MSP. If you un-tether me, I will return for my personal use.