Making the swith to Pro Tools

[jangoux]

Pro Tools is too counter-intuitive for me, and its interface bugs me too much. It has cool shortcuts, tho. Nuendo can be setup on a similar fashion, and the workflow for me just works better...but Beat Quantize and Elastic Audio are two features that cant be beaten..

 

[The Unavoidable]

I went from analogue boards and 2-inch tape and later ADATs, to Digital Hard Disk Mackie stuff, to Cubase (for about 4 years) and now I'm on to Pro Tools. I will work on any DAW, but after doing some records with Pro Tools, I definitely prefer it. That being said. I agree with METALTASTIC... Learn on a small, inexpensive unit. No sense in jumping in head-first when it's easier to test the water slowly.

BTW... Pro Tools is the easiest DAW I've ever learned to use. And LE is not that bad. Yeah, it's only 32 tracks until you buy the Production Bundle, which you should get anyway, so you'll have Sound Replacer and the other plugins that come with it. And the Plugin Latency is NOT that big of an issue. There are not that many RTAS plugins that use but so many samples. And you can compensate the latency, if you need to, on the fader in the mix window. As far as external plugins, you can go with the UA stuff that has automatic compensation built in to the PCI card. And I'm sorry, but if you need to run a shitload of external plugins that use THAT MANY samples, you probably shouldn't be working off of a low to mid level DAW like LE or Cubase or Reaper anyway. If you're packing that much heat in plugins/tracks/etc... You should be using HD.

So, would LE with the production bundle be equally capable as Cubase 4 or similar?

 

[Metaltastic]

So, would LE with the production bundle be equally capable as Cubase 4 or similar?

Yeah, but you'd have to use a crappy digidesign interface, or a slightly less-crappy M-Audio interface + Pro Tools M Powered

 

[Tommy Gun]

So, would LE with the production bundle be equally capable as Cubase 4 or similar?

IMO, yes.. At least the DAW is perfectly capable. But, you'll end up wanting a better interface than the MBox Mini. Starting off with that will be fine. But, the more you want to track and mix, you'll obviously want an 003 rack or something similar that you can expand on via the lightpipe.

 

[The Unavoidable]

IMO, yes.. At least the DAW is perfectly capable. But, you'll end up wanting a better interface than the MBox Mini. Starting off with that will be fine. But, the more you want to track and mix, you'll obviously want an 003 rack or something similar that you can expand on via the lightpipe.

Obviously. But what is this about Digidesign interfaces being crappy?

 

[Tommy Gun]

Well, I think they mean the preamps. We run one of our studios with an 003 rig, but everything is sent through dbx or Focusrite preamps on the way in. So, to be honest with you, I don't have a lot of experience with how the internal preamps of the digidesign interfaces sound. That is, except for our HD rig, which runs off the Control 24 console, but that actually has Focusrite preamps in it.

You may want to try the M-Powered setup, with one of the compatible M-Audio interfaces. But, I think you'll be fine to learn the system with the Mini and LE. Then, if you want to upgrade at somepoint, you can get the 003 Rack or Control surface bundle, and through the Lightpipe hook up, you'd be able to add other interfaces with better preamps anyway... such as the Focusrite Saffire 26, or Presonus Digimax stuff.

 

[Metaltastic]

Obviously. But what is this about Digidesign interfaces being crappy?

Not really "crappy," but for the price you pay the converters and preamps in the 003 are apparently pretty inferior to other interfaces in that price/functionality range, namely the RME Fireface, Mackie Onyx, and probably even the Focusrite Saffire

 

[The Unavoidable]

I see, thanks guys. But:

What's a Lightpipe?

 

[Tommy Gun]

I see, thanks guys. But:

What's a Lightpipe?

Here you go man...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADAT_Lightpipe