Is Protools Hd Worth The Money?, upgrading, waiting or simply switching? Options

[xfiles]

Dear macmusicians.
As a long time reader, i would first like to thank all the macmusic staff for their great and profitable work.

As a professional producer and songwriter, i've been using Digidesign products since their very beginning (my first digi was a SoundTools). I'm familiar with the idea of upgrading computer based solutions as the technology permanently evolves but I expect to get something out of it.

Therefore I am VERY disapointed with Digidesign's attitude towards their customers. It seems to be nowadays a generality for manufacturers (including Apple) to sell promises instead of true improvements as well as treating their customers of "walking wallets"...

I was planning to invest in a new Protools HD, for our main room, but the closer I look at it, the more i get the feeling that it is a very uncleaver choice. I really wonder if it's worth the money.

The truth is that nothing is EVER compatible between Digidesign products. The only solution for my studio to be up to date is:

1- Change ALL my digidesign hardware. This means upgrading for a very expensive price, all my processing cards (mix cube and 2 mix farms that i have bought only 10 month ago).

2- Throw out my 4 TDM SampleCell cards (knowing that there is nothing to replace them exept Soft-SampleCell which will never give me the 64 stereo voices needed for emulating symphonics with Miroslav collection for exemple). What an improvment...

3- I will also have to change my brand new USD as well as my three 888 interfaces. (I know I can use them if I buy 3 new Digi interfaces just to connect my old ones). Wow !!! Great deal !!!

4- Most plug-ins (ie TC) are still NOT compatible with HD systems... Anyway, I know I'll have to PAY expensive updates JUST to stay compatible. Who cares, i'm rich!?

5- Major sequencers including my favorite (Logic Audio) don't currently support ProTools HD.
I guess i will have to do with the ridiculous MIDI features of PT 5.

6- I was expecting Digidesign (the big leader) to announce an OS X version of their softwares but they simply let their competitors do it... Knowing (as Steeve Jobs announced it) that the new Mac product line will only support OS X by January, How much $$$ will I have to spend again to upgrade my henceforth costly Digi set up (Plugs and why not hardware again?)

7- BTW Thanks for strongly advising me to buy a very expensive Geronimo 2000 video card that will never be supported by OS X according to Appian themselves.

8- I've heard of big problems with the new Digidesign sync interface.

9- Best of all, I have been told that Digidesign may change their approach and favorise their development on PC's. I guess I will just have to upgrade again...

10- Does anyone at Digidesign care about their customers desesperatly waiting for a simple and efficient way to "direct connect" the growing collection of the amazing VST instruments.

All theses points lead me to reconsider my next investments. Considering it is nowaday easy to find mix farms at an affordable price and that ProTools mix systems are rock solid, I would suggest any "Digidesign shareholder" to wait and see...

Meanwhile I will certainly buy a new G4 just to experiment alternative solutions. The main problems with theses new compititors is that they are good looking, they offer great possibilities, they support many popular standarts and are a hell of a lot cheaper.


Cheers,

[Teiwaz]

Hi, this is my first posting. I'm a mate of Damann, and I'm based in LA with my studio after leaving the UK.

To begin with, I would like to clarify my political veiwpoint.

I have a PT TDM system using Logic 99% of the time as the front end on a G4. I also have a dual gig G4/VST2 rig with a MOTU 2408, also running Logic. I refuse to touch dodgy's 888 interface (I've heard better top end coming from a glass of coca cola) or how about their new 192 (looks like a piece of crap, what pathetic led metering, if it sounds like it looks, no thanks). I have an Apogee AD-8000 and have come across some very interesting test results comparing Bum Factory's Pultec EQ with the magnificent UAD-1 card's Pultec EQ. I Eq'd a bass on the UAD-1 Pultec plug, then passed the signal through a TDM channel via lightpipe, inserted a Bum Factory Pultec across it, and lo and behold, the 50hz bottom end generated by the UAD-1 Pultec was CANCELLED OUT (my speaker cones stopped moving) when switching the Bum Factory's Pultec out of bypass mode (all controls flat). And just to imagine some greenhorn buying the Bum Factory version (because of their ball & chain PT system) for around the same price that you can buy the UAD-1 PCI card and get all those great plugs bundled free!! One could misconstrue another as being a monkey without a brain to buy into the profools/notools HD "solution". What is all this crap about HD sounding so good anyway?! If you get an Apogee convertor (expensive but worthwhile) you can interface anything to it. The AMBUS cards available are A) ADAT lightpipe B) Firewire - direct connect to your ASIO host) and C) dodgydesign interface (if you so happen to own a TDM/Mix/Mixplus system) and D) DA-88 interface . Beyond that, why bother at all with dodgy? I keep thinking of a large ship in the middle of the atlantic with not enough lifeboats to go around... Children & lazy programmers first! Interestingly enough, dodgy have recently coerced Universal Audio to release their LA-2A, Urei & Pultec plugs on the HD "platform". I see many PT heads migrating to VST2 once they realise they can have the whole shooting match for around the price of one TDM plug-in of the same breed

Just thought I'd share my thoughts with you...