Time to leave Pro Tools. What would be a good replacement?

JasonE

JasonE

Inspired
Well, Avid has finally angered me for the last time. I evidently have more money than sense. They raised the license price and doubled it and I didn't catch it last year. This year I spent more money in December and paid more attention to my credit card statement and caught the increase. I am not going to continue to pay the price they want every year so it is time to jump ship. This whole situation really ticks me off. I just spent a ton of money upgrading my hardware and drum plugin because the Mac OS upgrade I did made a bunch of things not work anymore.

I don't really use third party plugins. I didn't want to go down that expensive rabbit hole so I learned how to do everything I wanted to do in Pro Tools using their plugins. The only third party thing I use is Steven Slate Drums, which I may now also have to replace if I can't move that over. I just upgraded that. I want the new solution to be as all inclusive as possible. It needs to cost me less than $199 per year to use it. I really don't want to have to pay every single year to have a DAW. Solutions that get me away from that will be preferred. I am running this on a Mac. I had thought about moving to Windows but that would cause me to have to buy a new large monitor as part of that move.

I have used Reaper and Studio 1 in the past. I have until December of this year when my license expires to find a new solution. What else should I be looking at?
 
Wired said:
If you are sticking with the Mac check out Logic.
Click to expand...

I do like the idea of moving to Windows without having to switch programs again.

I am also now wondering if it would be a good idea to move to something like Reaper and buy a plugin bundle like Waves to get what I need. I just need to make sure I don't have to pay an annual license fee for the plugin bundle.
 
For me Logic on Mac replaced Pro-Tools very well (same reasons as you)

I’ve tried Harrison Mix Bus which sounds good but felt clunky in comparison, Live is cool for somethings, but Logic and the upgrades Apple have made is very compelling - it’s just quality.

If you could stand UAD Luna could be interesting and cross platform (I think)
 
I moved to Logic about 3 years ago from Pro Tools and I totally dig it. I have also considered Studio One and Cubase as both seem like really good DAW's but ultimately I just don't really have the time to do an in depth evaluation. My late night youtube watching I've observed some really cool demo's but I'm wow'd by anyone that really knows a DAW inside out. I'm a pretty casual user but Logic has served me well.
 
At first, coming from Pro Tools, trying Logic (9) it seemed to me to be very basic, almost gimmicky like Garageband and passed on it. Then, when I got sick (as you) from Avid's antics I've decided to give another chance to Logic (this time now on version X) and while I took me some time to getting accustomed, now I'm absolutely in love with the workflow. I use SSD 5, Kontakt and Waves plugins almost daily without any trouble until I finally decide to pull the plug on a new M1 system (hopefully an upcoming M1 Pro Mac mini).
 
I'm on Windows, Studio One, dig it, it's very good.

I use lots of plugins from various folks, notably Waves, Plugin Alliance, Native Instruments, Valhalla, others too. Plan to be on the lookout for Black Friday and end of year sales, those are definitely your best deals, including S1.
 
I use all the major DAWs regularly, so I'm quite familiar with their strengths and weaknesses. I could write a lengthy comparative analysis of them. But, in the interest of brevity, I'll just say: when AJ Vargas provides a recommendation, do yourself a favor and follow his suggestion :).
 
Hi

I know what you mean - subscriptions are the pits!
Have you had a good look at Cubase? It's changed quite a bit in recent years and is still a 'Buy' purchase (rather than rent)
Thanks
Pauly

JasonE said:
Well, Avid has finally angered me for the last time. I evidently have more money than sense. They raised the license price and doubled it and I didn't catch it last year. This year I spent more money in December and paid more attention to my credit card statement and caught the increase. I am not going to continue to pay the price they want every year so it is time to jump ship. This whole situation really ticks me off. I just spent a ton of money upgrading my hardware and drum plugin because the Mac OS upgrade I did made a bunch of things not work anymore.

I don't really use third party plugins. I didn't want to go down that expensive rabbit hole so I learned how to do everything I wanted to do in Pro Tools using their plugins. The only third party thing I use is Steven Slate Drums, which I may now also have to replace if I can't move that over. I just upgraded that. I want the new solution to be as all inclusive as possible. It needs to cost me less than $199 per year to use it. I really don't want to have to pay every single year to have a DAW. Solutions that get me away from that will be preferred. I am running this on a Mac. I had thought about moving to Windows but that would cause me to have to buy a new large monitor as part of that move.

I have used Reaper and Studio 1 in the past. I have until December of this year when my license expires to find a new solution. What else should I be looking at?
Click to expand...
 
I absolutely love Logic.

Waves doesn’t charge for licenses, but it does charge for the updates after a year. If you‘re the type that downloads every new OS update, you’ll want the updates. I refuse to update my OS unless I absolutely HAVE to and don’t have to worry about losing all my plug-ins for a month while the plug-in company creates a patch.

Waves has AWESOME deals all the time. They have a 40% off deal for what seemed like a year straight and I scooped up a ton then and they almost always have a buy 2 get 1 free deal. Logic’s stock plugins are really great and if you watch MusicTechHelpGuy on YouTube, he has some great tutorials often using the stock plugins. Logic’s Stereo Delay is still one of my favorite delays of all time. The Channel EQ on each channel strip is awesome as well. I used to load an SSL E-channel in every track until I realized the channel EQ was even there. Not sure what you’re recording, but while the Chris Lorde Alge plugins get some slack from the guys over at gearsluts, I use them all over the place. LOVE the CLA-76, CLA-Vocals and the Echosphere/Epic.

I’ve got a Plugin Alliance and Slate Plug-ins subscription and use a lot of EQ’s and compressors from those, but still use a ton of Waves stuff. They’re what I learned on so they feel like home.
 
Piing said:
Since Cakewalk was taken by that Singaporean billionaire to offer it for free, the upgrades have raised it to an unbelievable level. Worth enough to replace the Mac with a versatile PC
Click to expand...
++ 1 ^^

I got around it very quickly working with Cakewalk. Use it the most simplistic way I guess without plugins. I just record guitar using backings on several tracks with audio leveling and it sounds good.

Guitar -> AFXIII-> usb -> Windows pc

Cheers
 
Bottom line:

The answer is to play with demos or at least watch some tutorials for any DAW that you're interested in. They all work a little differently, and some will work with how you think better than others. If the tutorials make sense and don't seem to have you jumping through hoops, that's what you should seriously consider.

Is there anything that you absolutely wouldn't be able to live without? Some feature or quirk that you'd have to replace? That might narrow it down.

If you like working with hardware control surfaces....DAWs implement different features for them. You might end up having to decide based on how you want to work.

If you need specific editing features, they don't all implement the same ones, or they may make you jump through hoops to do them.

If you want to work with MIDI certain ways, the feature sets aren't all the same.

If you need a lot of channels of conversion (e.g., for analog summing or a lot of outboard gear), some of them create limitations (mostly Luna and PT).

But, IMHO, the differences are mostly about how you work with them. There hasn't been a significant difference in sound quality in a long time.

Some further comments: (I woke up early for no reason and am bored)

Luna is Mac-Only. AFAIK, they have no plans to make a Windows version.

Live is great and the only thing that really works like it does. For all/mostly ITB or a MIDI-based production studio, there are very good reasons to use and stick with Live. Licenses are perpetual, and Push 2 is amazing for what it does. Check out some videos to see if you like that way of working. The way it integrates with time-stretching audio is awesome. Maybe it just makes sense to me, but I'm not aware of anything else that does that particular thing as simply and in such a straightforward way.

FWIW, I really like Reaper. The interface looks a little gimmick-y/toy-ish compared to Pro Tools, and it has its quirks. But, it does basically everything very well. If you're an individual or small business, it costs $60 for (I think) 2 full versions (a few years). If you're using it professionally and make enough money, it's a couple hundred bucks for the same amount of time. Minor updates come out very often with improvements. Release notes are easy to read. And in several years, I have never had a Reaper update break anything. Every plugin works. Every session opens. All the time. And skipping updates for several minor versions and then installing another one works without going through all the steps. A windows update has never broken it. A plugin update has never broken it. YMMV, but IMO it's a totally different world from Avid.

Waves does sell perpetual licenses, but their licensing can get weird. If you change computers (or reinstall the OS, etc.), you have to deauthorize your plugins first. You can only recover them once a year. Their bundles are very cost-effective, though.

There are other all-in-one things or bundles that also work very well. IMHO, some of them also give you a more modern way of working that might work better with your head.
 
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