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]

A few more observations to clear my head on this matter.. For the shrinking minority out there who may be championing the use of PTHD systems, just exactly how many plug-in instanciations can one glean out of their system when it's running at a ridiculously high sample rate of 192khz? And to be worrying about the strain on your hard drive when exceeding 24 tracks? It would appear that one would end up with a very unwieldy system (a few hot & tired noisy audio drives would be part of it)...I thought the 21st century was about conservation and efficiency, not "build bigger roads and then make everyone buy SUV's..."



I heard of a well known producer/engineer using his Apogees with his TDM rig at 24/44.1 and that those who are "better informed" are aware that the quality & detail in hard disk recording is more attributable to bit depth rather than sample rate. And of course, being an accomplished engineer with good ears is 75% of a great mix anyhow!

Most PT people who own PTHD are generally still using their new system at 48khz or 44.1 anyway!! It's just like buying the latest Mercedes model just so they can "keep up with the jones's" next door!



PTHD people sometimes MIX to 24/96khz (so the little red light with 96khz written underneath it glows in the A&R man's/director's audio system in his office behind the walnut panelling...THEY will never know that the master files of the "96khz session" were recorded at 24/44.1, certainly not with their ears, that's for sure - it's all industry politics, this 96khz thing...VERY boring)



Here's another observation on TDM: I dont like the way TDM 'interrupts' the entire audio bus when enabling/disabling plug-ins/sends/i/o/etc. Hey, VST2 doesn't behave like that! I think that's quite a fundamental design fault right there! When maxing out the DSP farms, sometimes hitting the limit when inserting a TDM plug can actually cause the system to hang. What's all that about?! I never have that problem on VST2 either.



My VST2 mixes p**s all over my TDM mixes - I wonder why?!



Summary: Approach Dodgydesign with extreme caution. And then turn around, and walk in the opposite direction.