Band leader wants to subscribe to ProTools ($300/year)

[dsteinschneider]

We’ve been using Cakewalk with good results but someone who spends a lot of time mixing us thinks we should use ProTools. He doesn’t know it well but the arena filling band he manages uses it. We might benefit that he can have their audio engineer load up our mixes to look them over. Otherwise I would push for Studio One. Any thoughts on this would be welcome.

[bapu]

Is there only one copy of Cakewalk being used to do all recording or do many members use individual copies and then the tracks are combined for mixing purposes?

Since I’ve used Cakewalk, Studio One and ProTools I would say a Cakewalk user would have an easier transition to Studio One than to ProTools.

My name is Ed. I Am still bapu though. My Studio

Virtual Bands: Citizen Regen, The Forum Monkeys,  Fizzy Pickle, The Coffee House Band

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[dsteinschneider]

There is just one computer running Cakewalk in the physical studio. We’re using the AudioMovers ListenTo plugin (works  very well for reasonable subscription) in the master channel to stream the mix to his remote computer while he connects using JumpDesk.

Setting up duplicates of the plugins on other pc’s would be a lot of ongoing work. There is some irony here. We happened to snag a free copy of UAD’s LA-2A compressor on the studio pc (from Deals forum!), I didn’t bother getting a copy for myself because I have IK’s version but now if I load up a copy of the mix I have to replace it everywhere.

This latest request for ProTools came after a Cakewalk export to two track wav was missing tracks. Even I find the export UI confusing.

I’ve never worked with ProTools, the only positive thing I’ve heard about it is pros know it.

[dsteinschneider]

I’m using Reaper for tracking and midi track recording/editing and Mixbus 10 for mixing

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[dsteinschneider]

I’ve done a lot of reading on ProTools and downloaded ReaTooled which is a collection of SMS scripts and Reaper theme customizations that streamline audio work in Reaper that’s inspired by ProTools workflow. I have tried many themes and toolbars in Reaper but usually revert back to the default theme with my own toolbar customizations. ReaTooled is the first customization of Reaper that I think I will stick with for a while. The author/developer, Brenden Patrick Baker, does a lot of voice over editing so there are very good shortcuts for working with items in the track view.

This 7 minute video gives a good idea of what it offers:

 

 

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[superabbit]

Hmm, I dunno. If it’s the export dialog that’s tripping you up, maybe spend some time woodshedding it. Call up a simple project, ask some questions on the forum, read the Reference Guide.

If it produced unexpected results in the heat of battle and you found a fix for it, it’s easy to forget exactly what went wrong and how you solved the problem.

What is proposed, switching to a different DAW, is sure to result in a lot of downtime just figuring out how to do basic stuff. Pro Tools, like CbB, is a venerable beast that’s been added on to for over half of my life. Studio One is younger and more coherent, but still, an entire new DAW to learn.

At this point, it sounds like you’re comfortable doing everything you want to do in Cakewalk except for a single feature. Learn that single feature or learn an entirely new DAW? A rather pricey one at that. Studio One is not as hard on the wallet, but still, if one or more bandmates decides they want to record an overdub at home, you’re either into it for another license or you’re exporting tracks from Cakewalk. Again.

-Erik
___________
superabbit.bandcamp.com

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[dsteinschneider]

We visited a commercial studio recently and the owner who has co-produced with Phil Ramone told us that they run both ProTools and Logic. He and his engineer recommended Logic for our situation (mostly recording our own band). I agreed with that because an IT partner of mine moved to Logic after years of Cubase on PC’s and enthusiastically recommends it. I’m usually anti-Mac because of price and because I don’t like the OS but, in this case, I’m good as the 16GB RAM 512GB SSD M4 Mac Mini is only $600 and Logic $200.

BTW, ProTools was 33% off until tomorrow – $200/year. I wouldn’t be surprised if they offer that every December.

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