Pro tools First Free

[Greg Lambert]

Any one using this software? I just downloaded it and it seem pretty good so far , especially the price.

[John Gould]

I used it a couple of time to open someone else's file

[Ian Rae]

It came free with the Focusrite interface I just bought.
Also included was Ableton Lite which was quick to install and which may well be sufficient for my needs, at least to begin with.

But if there are significant advantages in using the Pro Tools program I'd be glad to hear them.

[Follow-up 28th May:-]

Well since no-one's urged me go through the business of installing Pro Tools, I've stuck with Ableton for now and it's brought me luck!

I use the Sibelius score-writing program to generate tracks, and it's designed to work as a ReWire device. The various forums are full of people with most of their hair torn out because it's useless even when it works etc. etc. so I tried it and it's fine!

Ableton doesn't actually launch Sibelius as it claims, but if I launch it manually it comes up in the correct mode and runs nicely in sync. So now I can do things like replace the computer's bass with my own.

It's nice to be able to report something working exactly as it should for a change!

[Tony Prior]

Ian probably nobody urged you because once any of us learn the DAW in front of us, it just gets down to preference, or an argument such as, WHICH STRINGS ARE BEST ! and of course many will reply with "REAPER is the best .

Every DAW allows for use and import of WAV and MP3 files into a session. Then we build a song, track etc . Its a beautiful thing.

There are some very advanced features that a program like Pro Tools ( others as well) offer which in many cases nobody will even know it's part of the feature set until it is needed, if at all.

For typical recording, adding an instrument track, adding processing or an effect etc... "regular duty" stuff, each DAW is probably very similar if not the same. Its a Cassette Recorder stuck inside a PC .

I happen to run PT 8 and PT 12, (over 10 years now) I can count on ONE hand the number of times I have had to dig deep for a "tool" when I was in trouble, BUT, it solved the issue, saved the session, saved the performance. In MY world losing a session or performance is not a big deal, but in the RETAIL world its a HUGE deal. VERY HUGE . The A team has left the building and the recorded tracks are..uhh..not responding or worse...The latest version of the session is not responding... I just paid 3 guys over $3000 for the day... Now what ? Dig deep.

I recently read a horror story from a Pro Tools retail studio where the completed session, multi thousands of dollars in performances and work hours, went belly up. Well the story goes, Avid stayed on the phone with this studio for over 10 hours to a happy ending, a restored session . Things happen , its electronics, its PC's its all sorts of stuff that we do not plan on.

What is sufficient for your needs is really the key. Thats the determining factor, not WHICH DAW is best. The one that works for YOU is best !

[Gene Tani]

https://www.rrfedu.com/blog/2016/09/19/ ... s-ableton/

I've seen some blogs describing why ableton is different but can't find them. Ableton has a different workflow (and I think Bitwig is similar, coming from ex ableton people), it's great for managing sound design, synths/samplers, VST's, sequencers, all the things you see in EDM. A lot of people have learned subtractive synthesis using ableton's builtins.

Pro Tools and Logic are more intuitive if i want to record some backing tracks and then practice steeling or if i ever join a band or start putting up youtube vid of me playing. For home practice, Garage band works just fine. I used to have a friend to ask PT questions, he probably knew as much about it as any human being but that was 5+ years ago

[Ian Rae]

5 years is a long time in computers.

I read that on top of Pro Tools First being somewhat involved to install and register, if you then upgrade to the full version you can't bring your existing projects with you.

As I shall only ever do simple things I shall stick with Ableton Lite for now, even though it's limited to 8 tracks. That's enough to split my Sibelius backing into a few different elements and stick myself on top.

[Tony Prior]

Nahhh... all Pro Tools projects can be saved with audio files to be used in another version. Its called "MAKE a COPY" of the session, not Save or Save As. When you do this you will get a bunch of questions such as "save audio files " etc which are imperative.

Many DAWS save audio files separate to the drive in separate folders when saving a session. When you call up the session, it knows where the audio files are and grabs them.They are linked to the session. If the audio files are not present on the PC to be GRABBED, the session will be blank , searching for the audio files. I suspect more than half of DAW users don't realize this and just think Save or Save As is the golden key.

Just look at the saved session file size, its rather small. But if you dig deep you will find the saved AUDIO files which are friggin huge ! When we Save a Session File we are basically just saving the latest " LINK " to the most recent audio files. The session audio files must be present on the same drive as the SAVED SESSION. This is why it is recommended to SAVE sessions to a LARGE EXT drive rather than an internal PROGRAM drive. It can and will fill up rather quickly !

The only thing that MAY happen from some PTs versions to others is some processing and effects may not come with the audio files and thats because newer versions are using a different effects format. The audio format is consistent, the effects formats may not be. Its not a big deal. Its the audio that matters.

As far as registering is concerned, this is considered to be a nightmare, but it is a two headed beast. IF we follow the instructions, registering takes 5 minutes. IF we don't we may never get it registered. On the plus side, if we are registered and have a full blown PC crash and burn, you go back up to the AVID site , grab your registered copy and download it to your new pc. No questions asked, the site knows you own it. This is in leu of sticking a CD into the new PC and it reports that you have already used it !

Hope this helps

tp

[Ian Rae]

It certainly does - thanks, Tony, most informative

[Jim Cohen]

I think I heard that PT First Free has a limit on the # of tracks you can use (12?). If you need more, you'd need to bounce to fewer tracks to open more up.

[Ian Rae]

It's a built-in incentive to upgrade, although a limited number of tracks focuses the mind.

When I was a studio engineer back in the 70s I was so excited when we got our first 8-track!

[Tony Prior]

It's a built-in incentive to upgrade, although a limited number of tracks focuses the mind.

When I was a studio engineer back in the 70s I was so excited when we got our first 8-track!

I was excited to get my Sony 350 - Reel to Reel, with Sound ON Sound !

[Asa Brosius]

The free version of pro tools is completely adequate for most of what I do for distance recording- open a master track, mic an amp, mic a dobro, record direct,light edit, export the file. It's limited to wav format, 3 full projects, a certain number of tracks, and the few proprietary plugins it comes with- you can't use anything else you might have, i.e.third party verbs/eq/amp sims, etc...Notably, you can't import a full pt session. If you're getting your feet wet with DAWs, it's totally adequate, and a good way to learn, if/until you run into it's relative limitations. If the 'free' aspect is appealing, the next logical move would be to a free full featured program, such as Reaper.
Just a note on what's been written- full pt sessions won't necessarily open in all paid full versions of protools- there were some head-scratching decisions made at some point in it's evolution not to support previous files- it can be done, but takes a lot of non-musical work.

[Jack Stoner]

I had a Pro Tools 9 years ago. I also had Sonar. PT9 was supposed to be compatible with other vendor's recording interface units but that was iffy so I stuck with Sonar that was compatible with any Windows compatible recording interface.

I can get PT First as its offered with some hardware I bought but I don't have any need as I still have Sonar, now called "Cakewalk by Bandlab" and it is now free. Cakewalk is full featured and equivalent in capabilities to the higher versions of Pro Tools or other DAW's such as Studio One Pro versions.

[Tony Prior]

What Jack is saying about Pro Tools 9 and higher is correct, from that point on the interface was irrelevant, pick the one you want and use it.

I moved to PT in 2009 with PT 8, but used PT8 M ( MAudio) it was an optional PT8 version. Any MAudio interface was compatible , still is ! It's still running on XP and with a 2x2 MAudio Interface Every now and then I fire it up and drag an old session over to PT12 . I still have another MAudio 4 x 4 in a box around here somewhere too. The PT12 system is running Win 7 with an MAudio Delta 4x4 PCI Card interface. The drivers are old but it runs just fine, I experience zero latency. The only thing that didn't load was the stand-alone MAUdio Delta control program, but its mirrored in Pro Tools so who cares, I would never use it anyway .