Review Time
I started using pro tools at my college because its the, industry standard, supposedly. I quickly learned this was not the case. Back when I bought pro tools, it was still pro tools standard, not studio. Right from the start, there where things that didn't work, or where all sorts out of wack, or simple but crucial features that where just available for hd or ultimate users, things which, other daws come with by default, writing the parameter's value for automation comes to mind. Unless you had pro tools ultimate, you had to do the automations by hand, something which, when your blind, as I am and you just work via the use of the keyboard, no mouse, but just the keyboard, as this is how screen-readers work, via the use of the keyboard, rarely if ever using the mouse, manually doing automation for a parameter just via the keyboard takes up a bunch of time and passes just to get it right, and makes for a slow, and tedious workflow, where you spend way more time than necessary on something you could do in seconds, but you cannot since said feature, requires you to pay for it, apart from the $600 you already payed for a, supposed, professional, piece of software. I bought a perpetual license for pro tools standard, and when I learned that some simple, but crucial, features, such as being able to write in the values of a parameter for automation where only available for hd users, and you had to pay another $1800 to upgrade your license to pro tools hd for access to this feature, and that after researching other daws, they already came with this feature by default? I was highly disappointed, and frankly, felt ripped off. To be clear, if I had bought the subscription for pro tools standard instead of the perpetual, I would've still felt ripped off, because again, I would've had to waiste even more money just to get simple, crucial, everyday features that already come in other daws by default. The control surface support is not good at all, Unless of course, your using a avid console, and even then, i've seen pro tools crash. A lot. I own a faderport 8, and when it comes to working with pro tools and the faderport, plugins in particular, there is no way to remap stuff, some parameters get assigned as buttons when they should be assigned to faders, and vice versa.After avid said we're doing away with perpetual licenses, and I saw the price to, stay current, was $350? I said screw it, i'm moving to another daw. I Moved on to reaper, and have never looked back, and uninstalled all avid stuff from my system. Pro tools, Sibelius... Everything. The fact avid takes forever to update software just to make it compatible speaks volumes. I mean, 2 years to make it fully compatible with m1. 3 years after mac os catalina was released dropping support for 32bit, pro tools still relied on 32bit components to bounce as quicktime format, despite the fact apple had been warning about this since mac OS mojave, avid did nothing even after 4 years had passed. This is unacceptable for a software your literally paying hundreds of dollars for.Don't go for this company, the way they conduct business, take forever to update their software and how they treat their customers when it comes to support, says it all. Avoid this company at all costs if you can help it. The behavior avid has is not at all what a industry standard company should have. Furthermore, i'm a blind sound designer and composer, and I can assure you, avid has been excluding, or is excluding many blind musician's and sound designers from using pro tools, why? Because while pro tools is accessible on mac, through third party software, I might add, keyboard maestro and flo tools, a set of macros which enhance the workflow to the point that working without it in pro tools is a nightmare, I mean you can use pro tools without flo tools, however what would take you one step to do with flo tools, without it you'll do the same thing in 4 steps, as a example. So if you want a speedy workflow you have to use flo tools if your visually impaired in order to be efficient.. If your on windows though, and your blind, and you need pro tools? Simply put, your screwed. On windows accessibility for pro tools is nonexistent for blind users; so if your visually impaired and need to use pro tools, its, mac, or bust, do to the inn-accessibility of pro tools for blind users who aren't on mac.Since pro tools standard became pro tools Studio, the typing in parameters for automation got added into it, and its not just exclusively a hd feature. however too little; too late.I cannot and will never recommend pro tools as anyone's first daw, and honestly i'm glad to be away from it and on to a better daw which is accessible across mac and windows, is flexible, and which doesn't force you to stay locked down to one OS do to lack of accessibility on other OS's.
After months since reporting a crippling automation bug I have still not had a resolution. Lots of video clips of issue uploaded to the case, lots of emails back and forth Avid just let it sit. Seems it stumped them so they just ignore it. Considering I mix and deliver at minimum a movie a month to network TV it's a pretty major hurdle. My work around slows down the mix considerably. I wish I could migrate to a different software.
Appalling online service. Downloaded Sibelius first music writing program and was never sent an avid I'd key which enables use of app. Sent on loopy loop, the 30 second 'help' videos gave relevant in micro seconds which didn't cover my prob anyway. Bot answer to queries useless. Chat with human unavailable. Sibelius need to find another link company for their digital products. 4 hrs trying dif access and help routes and got nowhere....👿👿👿👿👿
Terrible. I have opened a case to ask a very very simple question. They have given perpetual users a chance to reinstate their license again in Dec 2021 until the end of the year. BUT the option is in the "Move to Subscription" box and my old license now states "crossgraded to subscription" which I do NOT want but the new licence still states "Perpetual" which I DO want. It is so confusing. I figure they are using the subscription mecanisum as a one-off for perpetual buyers. Their marketing talks about reinstatement but the thing you buy doesn't and their marketing states a 1-year upgrade but when you buy it is called Annual Upgrade and Support Plan. They use 3 different terms for the same thing. It is so confusing, it is the least joined up company I have every had the displeasure of dealing with. I raise a support case and I have asked them to do something which will take them about 1 minute to do and they just close the case as a duplicate but it is not a duplicate. So now I am having to ask he same question again which they will probably close as another duplicate. Nice work, I have now created a sales query to see if someone there can contact support and ask them to do their jobs. When you pay for support plan and upgrade you're really only paying for upgrades because they do not do real support.
The WORST company for customer service I have ever encountered. I've been using their software for years- I am a long time industry professional and their software is great but but every aspect of their customer care system is a disaster. The website is badly designed and poorly communicated. None of the links work and none of the online forms work either. The online customer account feature is incomplete and error strewn. The subscription auto-renew options don't work and have failed for the last four years in a row. This is always followed by the almost impossible task of getting hold of anyone at avid either from customer sales or technical help. The only reachable contact is a useless web page bot which just tells you no agents are available and gives you a link to a form that doesn't work. The technical phone helpline is utterly useless and the support code system is the worst in the music industry. Truly shocking service all round from a company that is obviously too mean to spend any money supporting it customers whom it seems not to value at all.
I don’t understand why an industry leading company that charges as much as it does keeps getting away with providing it’s customers with f£ck all support when their products glitch and fail. I have audio projects that I’m going to lose money on due to my pro tools license not working and not being able access it. There’s no support on online chat or their phone number. Joke of a company, but of course we’ll keep buying their products and the cycle repeats 🙄
What a useless bunch of negative reviews. Complaining of being charged to use a industry leading set of software. I've used Avid for 25+ years and their support forums are the best there is. Go to community dot Avid dot comTry getting support from Adobe. Great software. A great support offering. No it's not freeware.
Atrocious support. Im a long time professional and love the software but the customer support is some of the worst I have encountered anywhere. Avid/Sibelius you ought to be ashamed of how bad it is. I cant even get in touch to sort out issues with significantly large payments of my own money. Its frankly unnacceptable in 2021.
Claim your business profile now and gain access to all features and respond to customer reviews.
Avid Technology is an American technology and multimedia company founded in August 1987 by Bill Warner, based in Burlington, Massachusetts.
