Who would have thought the guy that registered protoolssucks.com would be using ProTools all the time now? I think it came with the ability to use 3rd party interfaces with PT9? Just before PT9 came out I started using PT8 a lot more since a lot of the tutorials I was watching were using ProTools and more of it made sense to me.

Unfortunately I waited to take the PT9 plunge until September 2011 and October 2011 PT10 was released. Grace period of October 1st. See? ProTools does suck. PT10 brought 32bit float, and I’d been using that in Digital Performer exclusively since I learned what it brought to sound files. I had to have that with PT10.

As I upgraded to PT9 from PT8 via eBay, I also did PT9 to PT10. Saved money each time and I’m convinced this is the only way to go. In fact, the PT10 I got would have worked from PT8 as well, but I didn’t need that since I’d already had the PT9 crossgrade on my iLok.

While ProTools runs fine on my late 2008 2.6GHz C2D MacBook Pro w/4G RAM, I definitely see the need for a more powerful machine as I’m getting more creative with bigger sessions utilizing more processing power. I have no Avid hardware and I’d kinda like to keep it that way. So far so good using the StudioLive for the system’s I/O … The only thing I could see myself doing is going to a Native card, but that’s still a lot of money that if spent I’d rather spend on microphones or monitoring options.

Still, the biggest gripe is real time bounce. While this makes sense if utilizing Avid hardware and outboard gear, it doesn’t make sense for a totally ITB mix. I miss this ability in DP7 … Especially working on a project of a CD that may have 5 to 14 tracks that all need the same tweak.

Second biggest gripe is Input Monitoring. HD has the “I” on each channel to toggle, but nonHD has to deal with this in different ways depending on the latency. I’ve used the free MuteTone plugin, and I’ve also done some creative routing, but that’s only in the case that the artist doesn’t need to hear prior takes. MuteTone started going wonky with one of the updates and now can easily hang a ProTools session requiring a force quit.

Complaints aside, the workflow and editing just can’t be beat. Because mixing goes hand in hand with tracking, it makes sense to track in ProTools as well … I can see tracking in another program and then moving everything to PT, but why go through the trouble? I’m also getting to the point where I don’t think maintaining current releases of the other DAWs is worth it to me anymore. Getting to be quite expensive and again, I’d rather put the money into mics or pres.

The ProTools mixer seems more analog to me now and loading up DP (which I liked a lot) doesn’t do it for me anymore. I have to be using ProTools. Here’s hoping PT11 won’t be thousands of dollars and I’ll have a beefier machine by that time. I am thinking of going the hackintosh route; again to save money. I can build a hack that outperforms (let’s be honest, blows away) the cheapest Mac Pro at less than half the price.