Since I was mentioned, and the writer/producer is a talented sombitch, I shall respectfully steal link to the blog post Mike Santos recently did about his transition to Pro Tools.  I will post the link and excerpt below but here are my 2 cents.  You will see he had issues getting his system up and running.  This is something I ran across when I built my first Pro Tools machine.  It would appear that he may have had a few more frustrating problems than I, but problems none-the-less.  It is pretty tedious that MANY people run into a variety of issues when getting a pro tools machine up and running.  For example I had random error codes pop-up when I was recording.  I could bounce down, import audio and many other regular tasks with no problem.  But recording audio was a headache.  Good thing you don’t do much of that when producing audio…

I learned that there are so many little tiny hardware conflicts that can happen it was worth it to have a machine specially built and checked by people who know what you are using it for.  The machine I currently use I had built by a company in California.  I didn’t want to spend a ton but I also knew that the potential issues you can run up against aren’t worth doing it yourself.  So I found a company that knew how to make sure there were no driver/hardware conflicts and also would not install a ton of third party bloatware crap.  BUT I did not spend the $2K or so some audio companies might charge.  I spent about $650 on the box which after 2 years or so is still working great.

Another thing I will mention that some people may not think of.  NEVER use the machine to go online.  DO NOT open a browser of any kind.  I have found this to be a universal cause of headaches on Pro Tools based PC’s.

NOTE:  I mention PC because I have never used pro tools on a mac.  (Well I did get a hand-me-down mac laptop which I installed pro tools on to use on the road – It was old and free so I tried it out)  I am aware that the issues we PC users do not exist on Mac’s near as much.  I have many reasons to remain a PC user.  I don’t want to debate “PC vs Apple” with anyone.  Go to a forum and spew there.  I have no beef with Steve Jobs or Apple users.  Except the fact that identical hardware with a little piece of fruit on the front would have cost about $1400 more and, as I said, my machine works great.  But if you have more money you can go the Mac route.

Mike’s Blog post can be found here…

FTA

It’s always a topic of conversation: which is better? Adobe Audition or Pro-Tools? There are loyalists on each side and would defend their choice to the bitter end. Up until about a year ago, I had been on the Audition side of the argument. I didn’t feel like I needed to learn PT to get the job done and to be perfectly honest, I haven’t had to. So what changed? Why the sudden urge to go learn the ways of the “enemy”? Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. It probably any one thing, but as of two weeks ago, I’ve officially become a PT user.