M-Audio Air/Pro Tools First - I feel duped!!

[Bassic_desires]

@KCBass434 If this was happening in Australia, I wouldn’t think twice about reporting the matter to the State Fair Trading Department as well as to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. I dare say your country would have equivalent government agencies.

 

[mambo4]

Audacity - here I come!!

audacity is a poor replacement for ProTools
Reaper is what you want. Does everything the big boys do at a fraction of the price. Free to try, no registration for spam or anything.
My day job's audio team switched to reaper over ProTools, because it had some features that Pro Tools did not.

 

[drumvsbass]

Avid sucks. Period.

 

[KCBass434]

Thanks for all the input, feedback and tips. I'd already set up Audacity prior to purchasing my audio interface, just to try it out and it was very simple to get up to speed with. However, I then started using the PT full version that was on free trial. (Now expired). I didn't find PT to be very user friendly but then again I'd only had it for 30 days. Audacity is now playing up after a software update yesterday, so I am now starting from scratch again with Reaper....

 

[KCBass434]

@KCBass434 If this was happening in Australia, I wouldn’t think twice about reporting the matter to the State Fair Trading Department as well as to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. I dare say your country would have equivalent government agencies.

Not sure it's worth the bother, Peter. As the guys on here have pointed out, an issue with a non-functional bundle between two separate company's would just end up in a finger pointing exercise. I bought the audio interface from M-Audio but the software is provided by AVID. The audio interface is working fine. My OP was really just a heads up to warn those like me just starting out and wondering what to buy...

 

[Basslice]

Thanks for all the input, feedback and tips. I'd already set up Audacity prior to purchasing my audio interface, just to try it out and it was very simple to get up to speed with. However, I then started using the PT full version that was on free trial. (Now expired). I didn't find PT to be very user friendly but then again I'd only had it for 30 days. Audacity is now playing up after a software update yesterday, so I am now starting from scratch again with Reaper....

@KCBass434: Have fun with your future efforts. Check back in here to say how it is going. At this point I don't have anything else to add to this thread and it has started to devolve into a "Avid Sucks" discussion which doesn't really interest me personally.

 

[KCBass434]

@KCBass434: Have fun with your future efforts. Check back in here to say how it is going. At this point I don't have anything else to add to this thread and it has started to devolve into a "Avid Sucks" discussion which doesn't really interest me personally.

Thanks for your help Slice! I understand you are a PT fan, as is my buddy, I just don't forsee me doing a large amount of home recording and need something cheap and simple right now

 

[Kevorargh]

Reaper FTW. I switched over after AVID starting making PT plugins non-VST and I was being charged up the wazoo for every update. With that said, I was sad to move because Pro Tools was good. Reaper does a bazillion things I will never need it for but I like the basic uses of it.

 

[KCBass434]

UPDATE! Downloaded Reaper on Wednesday, found some good start up tutorials here and imported the audio files for the first song from my buddy's project and we're off and running already....thanks again for everyone's positive input!

 

[Basslice]

!!!! They have a strong community. Make sure you subscribe and follow their forum.

REAPER Forums - Cockos Incorporated

 

[J-Mags]

I tried Reaper 10 years ago and found it useful. It cost $60, but you can use it for free initially. I paid. I didn't record much in the interim. After looking into other DAWs, I downloaded Reaper again. Again it was nagware (useable for free if you're willing to feel bad about yourself), and again it cost $60. The $60 takes you through the first major upgrade, plus a few minor upgrades after that, and once again, failure to pay does not make it impossible to use the product.

I find Reaper to be intelligible with a large community of users who are capable of explaining things to you, tons of YouTube tutorials and stuff like that.

My only real complaint about Reaper is that it's too easy to do edits directly on the track displays, to the extent that I periodically find that I've performed edits without trying. I've gotten a lot better at identifying these quickly and fixing them, which isn't hard if you notice them early. Otherwise it's a pretty fast and forgiving DAW. I'd give it a go and not have to deal with AVID or any other company whose business model is to make a whole ton of money off of each individual customer.

UPDATE! Downloaded Reaper on Wednesday, found some good start up tutorials here and imported the audio files for the first song from my buddy's project and we're off and running already....thanks again for everyone's positive input!

View attachment 4508072

Ooops, I didn't notice this. I'm glad it's working for you! I think it's a good answer to complaints that people's DAW company is ripping them off. I'm not sophisticated enough to know about workflow problems for the pros, etc., but Reaper's payment model is easily intelligible and affordable and seems fair, and the software seems to work nicely, with only minimal quirks (which seem to be no less numerous in other DAWs anyway).