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kimball492
04-07-2015, 02:24 PM
5 Things Worth Knowing About Pro Tools First

We've had Pro Tools First, the free version of Pro Tools for about a week now and as you can imagine we wanted to put it through its paces to see what is and isn't possible. So here are 5 things we've learnt about Pro Tools First.

1. It Has An Idiot Proof Audio Interface Set-Up
PTF-Ensemble.jpgPTF-Apollo.jpg
Anyone who has used Pro Tools for any length of time will have experienced what happens when you switch audio interfaces. You often find that the I/O is all screwed when you go to track something, you've opened Pro Tools with an Apollo and it still thinks it has an Apogee Ensemble connected. It can be infuriating to say the least and means a trip to the I/O settings to sort it all out. Not so with Pro Tools First, if you change the audio interface Pro Tools correctly allocates the I/O without you thing to think about it. Hooray - it may be idiot proof but this idiot likes not having to think about the I/O. Avid should consider an 'Easy' audio engine mode for those of us who don't need to go tinkering around and another option for those who do need complex routing in all versions of Pro Tools. In my opinion for an out-of-the-box experience the way Pro Tools First handles the I/O is a winner. Pro Tools first allowed us to set our interface from 44.1Khz to 96Khz, this means you can work at higher sample rates and indeed bring in audio of higher sample rates, which leads me to my next point. The audio engine doesn't have all the usual stuff to set up, simply an option to have the buffer optimised for Playback or Record.

2. You Can Work Without Being Connected To The Cloud
Once you have launched Pro Tools First and signed in then you can pull your connection to the web and carry on working. We've tried this extensively to the point where we kept tricking Pro Tools First over a period of time into thinking it was offline and every time it didn't insist we login to open the last project sitting in the cache. We are not sure if the not logging in option times out after some time, but we did not find ourselves locked out of Pro Tools First at any time. It's worth remembering though that you can only access the project in cache and it seems to be the case that you need to be connected to the Avid Cloud to create another of the 3 projects. You can of course simpye scratch the idea by deleting all the tracks and start again, if that's what floats your boat and you are in desperate need to record without access to the internet.

3. You Can Have Pro Tools First And Pro Tools On The Same Machine
You can have Pro Tools and Pro Tools First installed on the same machine without the install or the iLOK assets getting their knickers in a twist. You can't have both open at the same time as far as we could determine. One thing that does happen is that if you have Pro Tools First and Pro Tools on the same machine then Pro Tools First insists on scanning your entire plug-in folder each time, which if you have GAS is a problem. In reality no one (except testers and reviewers) is likely to have both versions on their machine at the same time, so all the aforementioned is purely theoretical.

4. You Can Move Between Pro Tools First And Pro Tools

One thing that has perplexed many with Pro Tools First is that is does not open Pro Tools files and you can't open a Pro Tools First file in Pro Tools presently. However Pro Tools First allows you to consolidate your audio and export it en masse just like a regular Pro Tools session. Furthermore you can export MIDI from the session, we also found that the plug-in presets we created in Pro Tools First are stored in the same place as the presets for regular Pro Tools, so we could open the same plug-ins and use them with them same set-up. So if you are determined you can get the audio and MIDI both ways (the MIDI can contain the session tempo too) as well as any presets from a mix. Yes it's a workaround but if you are determined enough you can move from Pro Tools First to Pro Tools without being connected to the cloud

5. You Can Use Any Virtual Instruments
The inclusion of ReWire in Pro Tools First allows you to use stuff like Ableton Live and Reason, however it also allows you to use an app like Bidule to use virtual instruments not purchased in the Avid Store that you may already own. Watch our video here

In Summary
This is not a review of Pro Tools First, simply a summary of some interesting things we have discovered whilst putting Pro Tools First through its paces. A review of Pro Tools First is coming, so stand by.

DrNomis_44
07-07-2015, 04:48 PM
As I'm going to be buying myself an Avid Eleven Rack soon (it comes bundled with the Pro Tools software), I saw this thread and decided to put myself on the downloads list, going to download it and try it out on my new laptop I bought recently.

kimball492
07-07-2015, 10:16 PM
Dr Nomis hows the new laptop going .When you getting the Eleven rack .Try and make sure you download the latest editor and drivers for the eleven rack as the old one's won't be compatible with pro tools 12

DrNomis_44
07-07-2015, 11:41 PM
Dr Nomis hows the new laptop going .When you getting the Eleven rack .Try and make sure you download the latest editor and drivers for the eleven rack as the old one's won't be compatible with pro tools 12


The new laptop's going great, I had to download some driver updates and a Bios update from the Dell website yesterday (Tuesday) since I got notifications about them from the Dell Update app installed on the laptop, but apart from that I haven't had any major issues, I'll hopefully be putting the Eleven Rack on layby next fortnight so it'll probably be home in a couple of months, I'll make a mental note about downloading the latest driver and editor, cheers.


I also had to renew my McAfee antivirus subscription too as the demo subscription was about to expire.


Oh yeah, there were also some VST plugins that I had to re-install and authorize as well, then, when I launched Cubase LE 7, I got a notification from Steinberg about an offer for a discounted copy of Cubase Elements 7, which I ended up buying and downloading too, I'm just waiting on a little Usb to Firewire adaptor, which I bought on eBay, to arrive in the post, the adaptor will enable me to use my Saffire Pro 40 with my laptop.

kimball492
08-07-2015, 03:32 PM
Good to hear your happy with your laptop . A couple of things you'll need to know when using Pro Tools ,disable your virus and internet connections and setup your optimizations for windows.

DrNomis_44
08-07-2015, 05:43 PM
Good to hear your happy with your laptop . A couple of things you'll need to know when using Pro Tools ,disable your virus and internet connections and setup your optimizations for windows.


Good point, what I could do is set up a new user account (I'm currently set up to log on as the administrator) with all the optimizations in place and run ProTools in the new user account.

kimball492
08-07-2015, 07:48 PM
That's a great idea Pro Tools 12 isn't as fussy as 10-11 but it is one of those softwares that you just have to optimise everything or you'll get the dreaded buffer errors

DrNomis_44
21-07-2015, 04:05 PM
That's a great idea Pro Tools 12 isn't as fussy as 10-11 but it is one of those softwares that you just have to optimise everything or you'll get the dreaded buffer errors


Yeah, those pesky DAE errors, I'm reasonably familiar with them from my days playing around with an earlier version of Protools, sometimes they can be quite frustrating to resolve.


I'm going to be upgrading the OS on my laptop from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 in another 8 days, will be interesting to see how well Windows 10 works on my laptop.

kimball492
29-07-2015, 01:51 AM
Hey Dr Nomis Yeah interesting let me know how Windows 10 goes

DrNomis_44
31-07-2015, 12:10 AM
Hey Dr Nomis Yeah interesting let me know how Windows 10 goes


I've just done the upgrade to Windows 10 and so far all the software that I was able to run on Windows 8.1 seems to run fine on 10 with no issues, probably cause 10 is built on the same technology that 8.1 was, Microsoft have definitely got things right with regards to the Start menu, when you log onto your computer in Windows 10 it goes straight to the desktop rather than the Start menu like Windows 8.1 did, incidentally, the Windows 10 Start menu looks like a cross between the Windows 7 Start Menu and the Windows 8.1 Start menu, but it behaves like the Windows 7 Start menu, also, the various items in the Control Panel seem to be laid out a lot more logically, I backed up all my wanted Data onto an external hard drive before I did the update but fortunately I did not lose anything.

DrNomis_44
01-09-2015, 12:49 PM
Okay, I signed up to get the ProTools First download and it's been a good few weeks and still no email from Avid about when my download is ready, are they still doing it or have they decided to discontinue it?

wokkaboy
01-09-2015, 01:04 PM
hey Dr Nomis,
I registered and got a link a while ago
see if this works for you. Mine was sent to the promotions tab of my gmail account so have a look there if you registered with a gmail account.
http://www.avid.com/protoolsfirstactivation?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRojuK %2FNZKXonjHpfsXx7OwvUaa2lMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4HS8pq I%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFS7TMMbdmwLgLXBc%3D

DrNomis_44
01-09-2015, 01:33 PM
hey Dr Nomis,
I registered and got a link a while ago
see if this works for you. Mine was sent to the promotions tab of my gmail account so have a look there if you registered with a gmail account.
http://www.avid.com/protoolsfirstactivation?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRojuK %2FNZKXonjHpfsXx7OwvUaa2lMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4HS8pq I%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFS7TMMbdmwLgLXBc%3D



Cheers for that, looks like I'll have to do more waiting.

wokkaboy
01-09-2015, 01:38 PM
Dr Nomis try and register using the link. You will need the email address you registered with so worth a try. If you forgot the email address try and re-register.
I haven't had a chance to download it yet, need a crowbar to pry me away from the workshop

DrNomis_44
01-09-2015, 01:51 PM
Dr Nomis try and register using the link. You will need the email address you registered with so worth a try. If you forgot the email address try and re-register.
I haven't had a chance to download it yet, need a crowbar to pry me away from the workshop



Had already registered myself before, I ended up having to use my gmail account to re-register myself a few minutes ago because,for some strange reason, I couldn't log myself in using my Hotmail account, which is the account I used to register myself before, even tried re-setting my Avid Account password but the password they e-mailed me wouldn't work, hence the reason why I created a new account with my gmail account.


Maybe it could be something to do with Windows 10's Edge Internet browser?, hmmmmmm.....


The problem is, Avid hasn't emailed the actual download link to download the software, the links that Avid have emailed me were just for signing up for the download, maybe I'm doing things the wrong way, don't know, I'm sure I filled out the online form correctly though.

wokkaboy
01-09-2015, 01:56 PM
the link may have had my registration details embedded, who knows.
Keep an eye out for the email in the promotions tab in Gmail

DrNomis_44
01-09-2015, 02:00 PM
the link may have had my registration details embedded, who knows.
Keep an eye out for the email in the promotions tab in Gmail


Will do mate, and will let you know how it goes....cheers.....

kimball492
01-09-2015, 09:03 PM
Guys I put a link to download the free version of pro tools in the
Great Resource Page For All Your Daw Software

DrNomis_44
02-09-2015, 05:10 AM
Guys I put a link to download the free version of pro tools in the
Great Resource Page For All Your Daw Software


Cheers, I'll go check it out....., hmmmmmm....I can't seem to find that page, maybe I'm looking in the wrong section?.....

kimball492
02-09-2015, 07:55 AM
There you go DrNomis
http://www.avid.com/protoolsfirstactivation?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRojv6 jMZKXonjHpfsX66OwlUKSwlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4AScplI% 2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFS7TMMbdmwLgLXBc%3D

DrNomis_44
04-09-2015, 08:29 AM
Well, Avid finally emailed me the download link for downloading my free copy of ProTools First, I'm downloading it now, the file size is 823.02 Mb.


Update:



Just finished installing Protools First and have experienced my first major issue with it, basically, when I try to launch the Protools First software I get a "Sign-in to ProTools was not successful" error message and it asks me to enable cloud support, then when I click on the ok button the software closes.


Update 2:


Okay, I finally fixed the problem, not sure how but ProTools Free is launching now, but, I still get some error messages about some plugins, on the upside it recognises my Scarlett 2i2 USB Audio Interface and is happy using it.

kimball492
04-09-2015, 10:09 PM
What errors are you getting DrNomis

DrNomis_44
05-09-2015, 12:26 AM
What errors are you getting DrNomis


Basically certain plugins not found on my system, and there was one error message about one plugin not being a valid 64 bit plugin so it wasn't available, it gave me the option to rent or buy the missing plugins.

kimball492
05-09-2015, 12:52 AM
The best thing You can do is download all the latest plugin versions, this will remove some of the errors.The other errors are showing you that you have expired plugins for those you'll need to rent or buy as you stated above. Also make sure the shortcut for pro Tools on your desktop is run as administrator.

Run as Administrator

This can help with various launch issues as well as a variety of MIDI issues (i.e., no MIDI output or control surface communication) and using the Avid/Digidesign hardware driver in third-party DAWs.

Right-click on the Pro Tools icon on your desktop.
If using a third-party DAW, right-click on that application's icon instead.
Choose Properties.
Click on the Compatibility tab.
Check the box that says "Run this program as an administrator."
Click Apply and then OK.

DrNomis_44
05-09-2015, 01:14 AM
The best thing You can do is download all the latest plugin versions, this will remove some of the errors.The other errors are showing you that you have expired plugins for those you'll need to rent or buy as you stated above. Also make sure the shortcut for pro Tools on your desktop is run as administrator.

Run as Administrator

This can help with various launch issues as well as a variety of MIDI issues (i.e., no MIDI output or control surface communication) and using the Avid/Digidesign hardware driver in third-party DAWs.

Right-click on the Pro Tools icon on your desktop.
If using a third-party DAW, right-click on that application's icon instead.
Choose Properties.
Click on the Compatibility tab.
Check the box that says "Run this program as an administrator."
Click Apply and then OK.



Cheers, I'll give that a go tomorrow and see how it goes..

DrNomis_44
21-10-2015, 04:28 PM
Update:

I've just tried launching ProTools First, selecting "Run As Administrator" and I get this error message:


c:\Program Files\Avid\Pro Tools First\System Plug-Ins\Elastic Audio.aaxplugin\Contents\x64\Elastic Audio.aaxplugin could not be loaded. Please contact the software publisher for support using this software.

Error details:


import DLL iZotope_Radius_XForm_x64.dll cannot be loaded.



I click on the ok button and then a window appears with the following message:


The following plugins failed to load because they are not valid 64 bit AAX plug-ins:

Elastic Audio.aaxplugin



It then asks me if I want to move the plugin to the "Plug-ins (unused)" folder, I click on "Yes" and then I get another window with the message:


Error occurred while trying to load the controller personality "EUCON".

kimball492
22-10-2015, 05:06 PM
Ok reinstall the elastic audio plugin if you can.But before that restart your Windows try restart.The error ref isotope I hope this helps.
http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=338436.i don't think eucon is win 10 compatible yet DrNomis. Sometimes just uninstalling and reinstalling the isotope plugin may sort it.