Avid Announces Restructuring, Lays off 10% of Workforce
Avid confirmed today in its quarterly earnings call that it has undergone a restructuring, laying off approximately 10% of its workforce in the process. With a headcount of 1,944 employees as of today, the move affects about 200 Avid employees. The cuts were across “all areas of the business”, excluding sales and marketing positions.
Avid's latest restructuring carries varying degrees of shock value.
The announcement was part of an earnings report that observed a GAAP net loss of $8.0 million dollars for the third quarter on revenues of $165 million for the three-month period ended September 30, 2011.
Depending on your viewpoint, this news could either come as a big surprise, or just be what was expected next from this major manufacturer of digital media content tools.
Or it could be both.
Days After a Major New Product Announcement
Surprised? You’re not alone. The timing is highly unexpected, especially to everyone in audio. Thousands watched a live pre-AES 2011 Webcast last Thursday from New York City as Avid’s corporate brass and top developers unveiled Pro Tools 10 and the new Pro Tools|HDX DAW, describing the dawn of an entirely next-generation system.
As usual, Avid’s declaration of bigger-better-faster was matched just as quickly by user concerns over the cost and timeframe to upgrade. And also as usual, Avid had to start dealing immediately with large-scale ill will over forcing a near $10,000 upgrade cost – minimum – on its HD customers, the fact that they would have three years to manage it notwithstanding. Forums are already in flames, and Avid’s Facebook page is seething with angry comments.
A game-changing product rollout, on the eve of the industry’s biggest tradeshow, is generally not a harbinger of restructuring and job cuts. But Avid’s executives may have known the latter were imminent that Thursday night, even as they played out a well-rehearsed routine.
All this came just one year after an equally landmark 2010, when Avid’s near-annual restructuring came in the form of a major rebrand for all audio products. First, Euphonix was acquired in the spring to beef up the work surface sector of the market. Then the poisoned Digidesign name was jettisoned for good, Pro Tools 9 was released, and three new HD interfaces (HD I/O, HD Omni, and HD MADI) were introduced, along with goodies like the Dave Hill-designed HEAT mixing plugin.
Improved customer service, support and overall empathy were also meant to be a part of the program for the industry-standard DAW. In a related development, Avid also simultaneously made it known through the Digi User Conference forum yesterday that it was offering a free 14-day Pro Tools 10 and Pro Tools HD 10 trial, starting next week on the Avid Website. Additionally, any customer who currently owns Pro Tools HD 9 is eligible to purchase the Avid Standard Support Plan for $599, which will qualify them for a free upgrade to Pro Tools HD 10.
The program effectively lowers the cost of an upgrade to HD 10 by several hundred dollars. It addresses post haste some of the heavy flack that Avid caught for the weighty upgrade pricing that accompanied last week’s release of Pro Tools 10.
The Continually Shrinking Avid
For anyone who has followed Avid Technology as a company (NASDAQ: AVID), however, today’s restructuring and staff reductions are, unfortunately, a logical turn of events.
This is a corporation that laid off 120 people in 2010, and 410 employees the year before that – 15% of its staff at the time. It was all a part of five rounds of Avid layoffs that took place between 2006-2009 alone, and a reflection of the company’s overall declining financial health.
Don’t forget that Avid’s product lines also span essential video editing and finishing systems (DS, Media Composer, Symphony Nitris). The VENUE live consoles are in the mix, as are a raft of popular audio brands that the company acquired over the years, notably M-Audio, System 5, and Sibelius. Clearly, none of these lines have been making enough of a difference to stop Avid from its ongoing advance in the wrong direction.
What the Future May Sound Like
Obviously, an additional restructuring is not a black hole from which there is no escape. But no one knows today how their relationship with the company will be affected – many of their connections were with the myriad talented media industry professionals who are now contemplating pink slips, and their families’ well-being in a troubled industry.
And how will Avid handle a probable tsunami of customer inquiries in response to this latest development? If you thought people had questions about their Pro Tools 8.5 educational license/HD crossgrade to PT 10 and HDX, along with compatibility of their RTAS plugins with the new AAX format (or vice versa) …well, imagine their curiosity now about ongoing support for their current and perhaps future systems.
But unless Avid has also simultaneously hired an army of phone- and Web-support know-it-alls – somehow trained in the US or overseas on every possible scenario that accompanies this latest SEC-mandated announcement – who’s going to answer everyone’s questions? Is a new, incredibly helpful Website with pages of FAQ’s going to be launched tomorrow?
200 people are gone. That’s a lot of phones going into permanent voicemail, potentially leaving the user base and their livelihoods in a slowly onsetting limbo, with increasingly serious questions about the future viability of their main audio infrastructure provider.
Ripple Effects
Within audio’s already fragile ecosystem, the impact may not stop with Avid’s now ex-employees (and the overworked ones that remain).
Dozens of software developers were happy to be invited to Avid’s AAX plugin format development party as early as possible. But many of them make plugins for Pro Tools and nothing but Pro Tools – if consumer confidence in their primary platform is further shaken, what does this bode for these developers’ future sales? And if they can quickly diversify the DAWs they plug into, who do they place their bets on first?
On that note, it’s interesting to think which of Avid’s audio competitors might benefit most from the company’s latest setback. If studio owners, producers, engineers, mixers, audio post facilities, and artists want to hedge their bets and switch to the other leading software/hardware audio platform there’s…well, there’s nothing that compares.
Apple may want to take a rare pass on industry domination.
Logic, Digital Performer, Cubase, and SONAR are all fine DAWs, but at and above a certain professional level, they’re serving as a front end for a Pro Tools system that hums efficiently in the background – one more extension of Avid’s category killer.
Indeed, should Avid continue to struggle or even one day disappear, one of the other DAW’s may emerge as the new crowned king.
But, like the U.S. Presidency, does anyone in their right mind really want that job? Avid doesn’t seem to be hacking it even with a highly evolved, fully integrated software/hardware industry-spanning solution. Maybe it’s better to just be part of the chaotic swirl of sequencing software and interfaces that would reign, sans Avid.
What’s Next?
Remember, Avid isn’t gone. It’s just grown smaller still. But things may feel a tad more nerve-wracking in the months to come, the next time that Pro Tools system suffers a big crash.
Until things grow clearer, expect everything in Avid’s signal path to have extra noise.
— David Weiss
Please note: When you buy products through links on this page, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Blah
October 27, 2011 at 10:42 pm (13 years ago)The extra noise is much deserved.
danander11
October 27, 2011 at 11:18 pm (13 years ago)On top of this, Max Gutnik is now online at the DUC, (Digidesign Users Conference), a forum for and by Pro Tools hosted by Avid, spruiking a one year service plan that offers a fee update from PT9HD to PT10DH, at half the cost of the upgrade. How on earth can they say a product is worth a given amount and no reduction in that price is necessary, turn around and say you can have it AND one year of free unlimited service help for HALF-PRICE! when they’ve just terminated most of their US technical service department? Avid has shown itself to be absolutely out of touch, (regardless of their marketing spiel), with the music side of Pro Tools users. They are a confused, overworked and musically clueless group of people running this company into the ground. Pro Tools itself is a great product, but the company that sells it is gasping violently.
Anonymous
October 28, 2011 at 6:47 am (13 years ago)Great article David but I’m not sure where you got your info.
Jobs did go in marketing and sales
David Weiss
October 28, 2011 at 2:19 pm (13 years ago)Russ, hi, thanks for reading and leaving a comment. I listened to Avid’s 3rd quarter investor
call yesterday, and one of Avid’s executives said that the job cuts were across
the company, excepting sales and marketing.
Dick
October 28, 2011 at 6:37 pm (13 years ago)Avid is the “only game”in town at this point for Recording Studio technology!
The next year will be a “retooling year” for the whole industry….. which puts
Pro Tools 10 in the spotlight!
There have been many facilities “on the sideline” waiting for the next
wave of technology to appear…..Pro Tools 10 will change the industry
standard……
Apple and other smaller companies cannot compete in the Pro realm……
2012 will be Avid’s year to grow and shine!
digustedWithAvid
October 28, 2011 at 9:07 pm (13 years ago)Dude. Rose colored glasses working out ok for you then?
Anonymous
October 29, 2011 at 7:34 am (13 years ago)Well then they were not telling the truth, or let’s be generous, we’re mistaken.
I can introduce you to some of the sales and marketing people who were fired this week.
David Weiss
October 29, 2011 at 3:15 pm (13 years ago)Hi, Russ, thanks for your additional note. In the Q&A portion of the call, Avid Chairman/CEO Gary Greenfield, in response to a question about where in the company the cuts took place, said, “They were cut in many areas
of the business. The area we are
investing is — we do believe that we should continue to invest in sales and marketing.
In the absence of sales — and the marketing to
support it — cuts were
across the business.”
The full call can be heard on the Investor Relations section of Avid’s Website, at http://ir.avid.com/eventdetail.cfm.
Thanks again for your input and helping us to provide additional clarity!
David Weiss
October 29, 2011 at 3:15 pm (13 years ago)Hi, Russ, thanks for your additional note. In the Q&A portion of the call, Avid Chairman/CEO Gary Greenfield, in response to a question about where in the company the cuts took place, said, “They were cut in many areas
of the business. The area we are
investing is — we do believe that we should continue to invest in sales and marketing.
In the absence of sales — and the marketing to
support it — cuts were
across the business.”
The full call can be heard on the Investor Relations section of Avid’s Website, at http://ir.avid.com/eventdetail.cfm.
Thanks again for your input and helping us to provide additional clarity!
Anonymous
October 29, 2011 at 3:42 pm (13 years ago)Sorry David, I think you are misunderstanding me. I do not doubt either your understanding of the call, or indeed your article.
However, I can categorically state that Mr Greenfields statement is untrue.
I suggest someone asks Mr Greenfield to give a full list of all losses, including positions across Avid this week.
AVoID
October 29, 2011 at 8:29 pm (13 years ago)You must work for Avid and/or a shareholder, yea? If you think that Avid is the “‘only game in town”‘, you are crazy! Poor management decisions are making PT the worst game in town! Pro tools 10 is not going to change the industry standard. There is nothing special about it. I guess you haven’t seen it yet……Also funny you say that 2012 is the year to shine. They just laid off 10 percent of their staff. Many of them that have been contributing to PT for years. How do they expect to make good products, when they lay off all the people that helped create it?
Maybe I just can’t see it your way because i just got laid off 😉 It is a shame to see fellow friends and employees go to waste. Upper management is the problem. They probably have never even launched pro tools. I bet Gary G doesn’t even know what an mbox is (not joking)
Blah
October 29, 2011 at 9:42 pm (13 years ago)So you share the same ideals as Avid execs, look how that plan turned out?
Failing to see the current market and the needs of your entire user base, instead of restructuring the company into what is now an post A/V niche market.
This new rapid upgrade plan with minimal features, has people questioning why Avid seems to be pricing out the home studio user?
Maybe they realize the take over from other more modern DAWs, such as Logic, Cubase, Reason, Studio One, Sonar, Reaper and Nuendo, etc.
Which explains their cancellation of the 003 line and the lack of concern to the “bottom” of the totem pole verses their profit margins.
Also forcing a new AAX plugin format that ultimately is trying to discontinue your current library of RTAS and TDM plugins worth hundreds, some thousands. In order to get you to buy more plugins, which they think will increase profit margins.
I think they are admitting their “industry standard” label is shrinking and the industry and standards have changed. Maybe that is all that is left for them. Tthe post A/V and larger type projects requiring their prehistoric architecture.
Crisis
October 29, 2011 at 10:48 pm (13 years ago)All I have to say is, Dick, your name suits you well… If you think that Avid is the “only game” in town then you must live in a box. It’s those types of comments that add to the anger and frustration towards Avid. Avid not only needs to rethink it’s customer service policies and prices before it’s too late but they also need to try to shut the VERY FEW arrogant engineers supporting this non sense up because they’re not helping the company at all with their arrogant comments unless they’re buying multiple copies of Pro Tools 10 and a bunch of Avid hardware to keep the company from folding, WHICH THEY’RE NOT! Avid needs the MAJORITY of it’s customers who are not happy to stay alive not the FEW engineers that did buy the upgrades. There is way more project studios and home studios then there is major studios. And guarantee the “Big Names” promoting Pro Tools 10 most likely got complimentary software and hardware to promote the product so technically they’re not helping Avid either. The stock just keeps on falling. The people have spoken and will continue to speak. Numbers don’t lie!
Chalmsworth Bentley
October 31, 2011 at 5:18 pm (13 years ago)You might want to check the facts a little closer – the minimum upgrade path to PT10HD is $999, BEFORE the Avid Standard support plan. You can buy a PT10HDX bundle with an interface for less than $10k (list price).
AvidYourWay
November 1, 2011 at 5:31 pm (13 years ago)I work for Avid, and russhughes is correct.
Ewillhelm
November 3, 2011 at 6:17 pm (13 years ago)The thing that’s been amazing ME since PT9, and even before that if you want to get technical, but I just LOVE how ProTools is the only DAW that can add features ten years after everyone else and act like it’s an exciting new feature worth charging money for. As one poster on the DUC perfectly put it: “The DAE, if it’s been rewritten, isn’t some ‘new feature’, it’s a
big ‘bug fix’ that should have been done years ago. I don’t quite
understand how a ‘disk cache’ is some innovative new feature. A whole
lot of programs have used disk caches before. Don’t get me wrong,
it’s great. But finally having the ‘engine’ behind ProTools work right
isn’t a new feature! The old DAE has been a weight on ProTools for some
time. I’m thrilled they fixed it. I’m not thrilled that they’re trying
to ‘sell’ it to me as something other than an update that we should have
had many years ago.
And also, why on earth would you limit this to HD users? This isn’t some
extra feature. This should be core functionality. And it should be in
EVERY version of ProTools.
Fade Files going away? Only about a decade too late. It’s about damn time, but I certainly shouldn’t be PAYING you for it.
Ability to user Interleaved Files? Again, this is not a FEATURE. This is
something that every other audio editing program I have ever seen was
able to do. And you’re trying to charge me $1000 for it and these other
things?
Clip based gain? Great. About time. Again, nothing new. You’re finally
catching up, that’s great. But come on, ‘a giant step forward’. More
like a ‘long time coming step from way behind the competition which gets
us up to the plate again’. Maybe. There’s still a lot to do!
Oooooo, 24 hour timeline. Heck, that’s worth a grand :)”
Jazzyswan
November 3, 2011 at 6:39 pm (13 years ago)Just as AVID announces their new HDX PCIe Card, APPLE announces that they’re on the verge of doing away with their MacPro Desktops. What will happen then to AVID’s HDX Cards……..GEEZ !!
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/10/31/despite_new_cpu_options_apple_reportedly_questioning_future_of_mac_pro.html
Jazzyswan
November 3, 2011 at 6:48 pm (13 years ago)Welcome to AVID Protools Tech Support 911 Line…….
If your Protools system crashed……. Press 1
If your AVID I/O’s are F$%ed Up…… Press 2
If you have no idea what’s wrong…… Press 3
Thank you for calling AVID Protools Support, your call is very important to us, please wait while your call is transferred to a technical support representative.
Your call being transferred now…….you’re call will be answered in the position that it was received……….you’re caller number 7………..your estimated hold time is…….
196 Minutes………….
Rick Slater
November 3, 2011 at 7:59 pm (13 years ago)At this point, Dick is correct about “Recording Studios and Pro Tools”. And by this I mean the commercial facilities and not the project studios. The big picture however is that big commercial studios are becoming highly endangered in the current recording climate. As much as we need them for certain tracking and possibly certain mix situations, the economic model by which they run is not viable for most.
What this means for Avid is a shrinking of the upper end market and the need to sell more at the lower and middle level markets where they are already behind the competition. I see the same phenomenon happening with SSL. As the company geared more to the project studio, the kind of attention to detail and immediate service I experienced at large commercial facilities has disappeared. A lot of this I feel is due to the laying off of experienced individuals who had not only a wealth of product knowledge but a good deal of inter-personal relations in the audio community.
It won’t be long till we are either working in a small handful of large facilities or our bedrooms. Either way it doesn’t bode well fro the state of audio as we know it.
Rick Slater
November 3, 2011 at 7:59 pm (13 years ago)At this point, Dick is correct about “Recording Studios and Pro Tools”. And by this I mean the commercial facilities and not the project studios. The big picture however is that big commercial studios are becoming highly endangered in the current recording climate. As much as we need them for certain tracking and possibly certain mix situations, the economic model by which they run is not viable for most.
What this means for Avid is a shrinking of the upper end market and the need to sell more at the lower and middle level markets where they are already behind the competition. I see the same phenomenon happening with SSL. As the company geared more to the project studio, the kind of attention to detail and immediate service I experienced at large commercial facilities has disappeared. A lot of this I feel is due to the laying off of experienced individuals who had not only a wealth of product knowledge but a good deal of inter-personal relations in the audio community.
It won’t be long till we are either working in a small handful of large facilities or our bedrooms. Either way it doesn’t bode well fro the state of audio as we know it.
Dana Solomon
November 3, 2011 at 10:11 pm (13 years ago)Listen, the ONLY reason I had considered migrating to a Pro Tools HD system about 3 years ago, was because of the low latency& turn key integration a PT system brings you. However, I would’ve bought into PT with a USED system of of eBay, not brand new. I can’t afford $10,000 with the hopes that my pre-production ideas will pay off my PT investment immediately.
As it happened, I went ahead and upgraded from Nuendo 2.x to Cubase 5/ Windows Vista 64bit, and couldn’t be happier. I took a LITTLE money and updated my computer’s motherboard to an Intel Quad Core, with 8gb of ram. Not a problem at all for any arrangement I need to knock.
And, even though I am currently using a Tascam US1800 usb audio interface, with the power of my PC, realtime audio recording and overdubbing is extremely low. The only thing that would have a lower latency would be something like an RME PCI-E card, or a PT HD system.
But you already know which one would be cheaper of the two to invest in! And really, having a PT HD system doesn’t give you any unseen advantage over anyone else. If I produce a project in the comfort of my home studio, I simply bounce down 24bit .wav stems for them to import. Problem solved.
AVID has pretty much shown for at least a decade, that the people that really matter to them are the ones that have big money. But have you guys at AVID been paying attention to technology in the past 5 years at the least? Microprocessors are getting way more powerful, and way more cheaper. I mean, I can go and purchase a HD quality camcorder for less than $300 now! In other words, the average Joe could make a movie with HD quality for pennies now.
So what do you think that means for the direction of audio recording trends? This isn’t 1990 or 2000 anymore where you HAVE TO book time at the HIT FACTORY in NY for $125/hr to get a top quality song or album recorded and produced! Are you guys at AVID that totally oblivious to the worth of people’s money in their pocket today? $3,000 is a lot of money to a person today in 2011, let alone $10,000!!!!! And when a program like Reaper lets you do EVERYTHING a pro DAW can achieve with a beefed up system, for less than $100, you have to be completely ignorant to not adjust and account for the price/performance ratio with a Pro Tools investment. Your name means nothing anymore by itself. That’s why MAJOR recording studios are going under.
Yeah, I’m glad I went with my gut instinct and didn’t invest in an HD system, cause I’d be FUMING right now with what AVID is doing…. Just sayin.
Dana Solomon
November 3, 2011 at 10:18 pm (13 years ago)@jazzyswan:twitter – Wow, I never considered that Apple would like to discontinue the Mac Pro line. My question then would be, do they still have as much care for Logic? Not that I care, I’m a Cubase pro. But even though I moved from the Mac platform to the Windows DAW, I still think the competition is needed in the audio industry just for choice. And I KNOW for a fact that there are going to be a LOTTTTTTT of ticked of film composers in Hollywood if Apple gets rid of the Mac Pro platform, opting for an iMac as an only alternative.
That would almost recreate the heartache film composers felt with the demise of Gigasampler, if not worse!!!!
Tim Prebble
November 4, 2011 at 9:35 pm (13 years ago)Would be interesting to compare the (current) size of the development team behind ProTools vs other DAWs, just to give a scale to alternatives…
Hartmixer
November 5, 2011 at 7:34 pm (13 years ago)I’m a long term protools user, around 2000 when the system went 24 bit, it did become the pre eminent system world wide. I went through every upgrade since and they usually were around $10,000. I was also always working out of world class facilities where a major upgrade could cost you a half a million dollars. $10,000 might get you the latest reverb unit which (with a few exceptions) is worth nothing now. My protools rigs have recouped their investments 20 times over per year.So what is $10,000 when you are talking about your career?Borrowing from Dana Sullivan below, let’s see if I can address his comments.So what do you think that means for the direction of audio recording trends?
This isn’t 1990 or 2000 anymore where you HAVE TO book time at the HIT FACTORY in NY for $125/hr to get a top quality song or album recorded and produced! If you were getting the Hit Factory at $125.per hour you were getting a good deal, my facility still gets $125 per hour, not always busy like the old days but there is some business in that arena. And in general the audio quality and production value in 2011 is about a quarter of what in was 1990. When you bought time at the Hit Factory, or The Record Plant or any other major studios you were buying the skills of trained professionals with solid backgrounds in audio and client services, now, you buy time (and I make a sweeping generalization) from people who think illegal downloading and cracked software is fine. This is what is killing commercial facilites, not the cost of Pro Tools upgrades. Are you guys at AVID that totally oblivious to the worth of people’s money in their pocket today? $3,000 is a lot of money to a person today in 2011, let alone $10,000!!!!! Remember that 1990’s $10,000 is worth about $2500 now, and why do people think that professional development and technology advances should be cheap? It costs a fortune to continually redesign and improve software and hardware. Investment in yourself and your craft is mandatory for professionals, in any profession. People need to be paid for their work! I’d say an 8 million dollar loss in Q3 is not indicative of gouging the customer base.And when a program like Reaper lets you do EVERYTHING a pro DAW can achieve with a beefed up system, for less than $100, you have to be completely ignorant to not adjust and account for the price/performance ratio with a Pro Tools investment. Sure, Reaper works, and so do a bunch of other nearly free apps, but you are wrong, they are toys compared to Pro Tools, or a few other major DAW players) or a Neve, SSL or whatever. There is no intent for the Reapers of the world to be a professional tool, just a cheap toolYour name means nothing anymore by itself. Don’t quite get you here, but, your name and and your reputation are everything.A $50,000 pro tools rig now does what costs 1.5 million 15 years ago, I call it progress
Andrew
November 19, 2011 at 2:08 pm (13 years ago)I run a media production company – Your analysis misses the various jokers in the pack – namely tiny companies that produce software that is every bit as good as Protools and Media Composer, but do not have (or need) the hardware. The next generation of audio and video software will use touchscreens and require no hardware and no cards to be put into computers.
The rules of the software game are changing.
As quickly as Avid cut costs, turnover continues to fall. Greenfield may have kept a very steady hand on the tiller and like any competent CEO, has managed to keep a healthy cash flow going at all times. So, as much as he has proven to be a safe pair of hands, this is all turning into a race to the bottom. Perhaps ‘safe’ is not the best place to be – perhaps ‘safe’ ain’t safe no more!
Back in ’96, Sony sold hardware and Avid wiped the floor with them? Remember that? Remember how Sony was in every recording studio and video post room on Planet Earth and how the (more profitable and important) domestic semi-pro market was dominated by them? And then Avid and others came along and Sony was out on its collective ear, remember that?
Well, it’s happening all over again – only this time (ironically) its happening to Avid.
Turnover has halved over the past four or five years. The bread-and-butter budget / home / bedroom stuff has more competition now than ever and it is taking turnover away in spades.
At the same time, the economy is heading South for the Winter and we all need to be lean, mean profit machines and wrap up warm. Greenfield has managed to stem some of the worst excesses in expenses, but they are still spending twice as much on sales, as on R&D.
This ain’t that sort of market no more!
The video people I work with all use Final Cut or Premier. Apple looks like it is dropping the Mac-Pro and the last time I walked in on our video people, they were all using laptops or iMacs. Yes, whereas before, they needed a massive 1TB Mac Pro and a 10 TB server, they now have 1 or 2 TB laptops and iMacs and stuff their stuff onto portable drives. We have to have Adobe CS anyway, so Premier is right there.
i.e. no cards!!!
And no cards possible either!
Into a market that is rapidly leaving big boxes that can take cards away, Avid are launching products that require cards.
But there is worse news to come – Last week, we desperately needed to alter the time base of piece of audio in mastering and we do not have ProTools in mastering. I tried Reaper, a free download from a tiny Oakland company.
It not only worked, but it worked well. And quickly! The customer was overjoyed and assumed that we were some sort of miracle workers! I tried to tell them that it was just clever software, but in the end, let them go away with the impression that we employ geniuses.
Hells – bells, we could have done that in anything, especially Protools, but then and just yesterday, I tried ‘Dynamic Splitting’ in Reaper and it works better than Protools – seriously. I kid you not! I hate to think what else this software has got hidden under the hood!
Now, we all know that the name of the software game is to get your package onto as many PCs and Macs as possible and by doing so, become the standard. This is, after all, what Microsoft did with Windows and Office and what Avid did with PT.
But now Avid’s main competition is things like Reaper (a free download, so every kid and geek gets to learn how to use it) or Presonus’ Studio One, which bundles every possible feature on Planet Earth into one very cheap package. And then there’s Logic – just password protected, so anybody can ‘borrow’ it. And that’s the game that Microsoft played to kill-off Word-Perfect, Lotus and all the others and put Office on every computer on Earth!
Now you see what I meant, when I said that it ain’t that sort of market no more!
One last thing – It’s not just the price of the next upgrade, but the shear confusion – I could not tell you whether the next Protools will cost $500, $5,000 or even which version does what. The company is in a dreadful mess and now has to employ one full time member of staff, just to delete critical postings on their help forum.
Damian
December 2, 2011 at 4:06 am (13 years ago)I use REAPER and Sonar Producer X-1….I leave the mixing and mastering to those who know there stuff as the pros that they are…..They all have mixed feelings about Protools…….
Andre Hemker
August 5, 2012 at 9:32 pm (12 years ago)Maybe some people will finally spend 5 minutes to take a look at Samplitude and realize what they missed all those years.