“Shares of Avid Technology fell more than 14% on Tuesday, after the company, which makes editing products for digital media, said its audio business was struggling during the third quarter,” R.M. Schneiderman reports for Forbes. “The reason: a sales dip of its Pro Tools HD editing software.”
“In early August, Avid said it would release a version of Pro Tools that is compatible with Apple’s new Intel-based Mac Pro. Avid expected a drop off in its older version of Pro Tools, which is based on Apple’s G5 Macintosh computers,” Schneiderman reports. “On Tuesday, however, the company said in a press release that this slackening has had a greater-than-expected effect due to ‘the significant improvement in the price/performance of the new Intel-based Mac platform.'”
Schneiderman reports, “The Intel Mac Pro version of Pro Tools has been available since Sept. 18, but new orders have not sufficiently offset the sales declines of the older product.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, what are you guys and gals buying instead, Apple’s Logic Pro?
The interface of Logic is a dog’s breakfast – honestly, it is just so counter-intuitive … and windows – how many do you need?! Everytime I have the misfortune of using Logic, I am overwhelmed by the unnecessary complexity of the GUI. It may be good in other ways, but when I have invested years in the ProTools interface and it “just works” for me, why would I change over …?
I’m reminded of the PC to Mac switchers dilemma …
Logic is simply the most un-Mac-like piece of software Apple produce. It needs a radical overhaul in terms of GUI and intuitive design.
I agree with bom619’s comments re. ProTools … The MBox and The 002 are like crack – they get you hooked – next thing you convince yourself you need to go HD, but the main reason is you need the features that are held back from the LE version … and why Avid persist in denying users the ability to run multiple audio apps simultaneously is beyond me … I just love that “hardware is in use by another application” message …
I think Apple will eventually overhaul the Logic interface. it is simply horrid. but they did inherit it.
Garageband and SoundTrack seem to be the direction.
Both products are great. If you are a professional and work at professional studios you’ll see more of PT than you will Logic. Part of it has to do with the hardware options available for PT. The fact that Avid also owns M-Audio gives them a bit of an edge. However most studios also have Logic. If you use a lot of software instruments or you are a one man band Logic/Logic Express may be a better choice. PT is also cheaper.
I spoken to people that work at Apple and they are working on a new interface for Logic. The current interface is a bit cumbersome and not up to par with other Apple UIs. Having said you must realize that Logic is a beast of a product and wasn’t developed by Apple. I think eMagic was the name of the company which Apple acquired several years back. Despite of its interface shortcomings it gets rave reviews from magazines.
Expect some exciting things for Logic next year.
We have Mac Pros + Xsan, Xserve + RAID, Final Cut Studio + Shake and Logic from Apple. We only need Maya and Renderman + Expanded ProTools|HD 2. It would be good If we could ditch the Digidesign. I would love it. They are rather expensive especially their hardware. We can´t do it though. ProTools is still the way to go.
I use ProTools, Digital Performer and Nuendo of the three for editing to picture I find Nuendo to have the best interface, especially for editing to picture.
everything in the industry is changing
people can make fantastic music on way cheaper software and alot more people are getting into recording. This has changed the way we buy our software. OK there are plenty of old school hard core PT users but the new gen is using different packages and doing new inovative things. They do it at a greatly reduced cost and in different work flows. Cakewalks Sonar is doing extremly well not that I am a PC user at all. But I have been very impressed with it and programs like Ableton Live which mature at a very fast rate and alow people to be very creative from a song writing stand point.
So basically things change and PT has alot more competition these days. Maybe not in the standard way of doing things but more in the way alot of new people choose to work.
It is amazing what people produce on some of these cheaper packages and lets face it anyone one with a dect computer and a bit of hardware can record music that is technically better that any recoding from 10 years ago.
(maybe not as good an actual song though)
I use Ableton Live on bot a G5 and a powerbook – no complaints or issues for years. If you have not tried it, you should consider it. It does just about everything, and handles all vst and au plugins if you need it. Most of all, it uses less resources than Logic, but learning curve is a little steep. Once you get going, you wont need any other DAW
abelton live is a great sketch pad, but it is missing 80% of what it needs
to work as a real DAW. live in combo with a real daw is killer though.
< beta 6 tester