Avid Technology Reviews 200

really outdated and rigid software. I feel very sorry for them. If they don't change their interface to a more intuitive one, DaVinci will poach all the editors

I was notified by e-mail of an update product release for Sibelius so I went about trying to download and install the software. The instructions to download and install the update were so convoluted I quickly became stuck and contacted Avid Customer Support with a request for help. To their credit they got back to me with a set of instructions to execute with quite frankly belong in the last century! Check this lot out below...really! All credit to me I made it through to Step 7 but failed to complete because, get this, a web link provided in Avid's own software could not be found...really! So back to Avid customer support and they suggest a real time session to help me through the theirs which became mine) problem. Inconveniently their customer support appears to be based on the US West Coast so the time available was 08:00 - 16:30 Pacific time, nevertheless less I took a 16:30 GMT +1 slot and was advised that Jean would send me some joining instruction 10 minutes before our appointment. 16:20 came and went, 16:30 came and went, 16:40 came and went and then I went! So having deleted all the licence files according to their instructions and unable to go any further installing the update because of their gross incompetence I am left with an unusable icon lingering on my desktop. I will spend this evening looking for a more reliable product and company!

For Mac:
1. Close Sibelius and Avid Link if it is running *Make sure that the triangle Avid Link icon on the upper right corner of your screen is not present
2. Click Finder
3. On top of your screen, click 'Go' then choose 'Go to folder...'
4. Type in /Library/Application Support/Avid
5. Delete Licenses folder
6. Open Common folder and delete all files inside it
7. Empty trash

Open Avid Link and follow the activation steps below.
1. Open Avid Link
2. In Profile tab, sign in using your Avid account email address
3. Go to 'Products' tab and check if your license is being activated

If it didn't activate your license or it is just stuck in syncing, just follow the steps below.
1. Sign out of Avid Link (Do not sign back in)
2. Reopen Avid Link then go to Products tab
3. On the right hand side of Sibelius, click the drop down button then select License
4. Enter your system & activation IDs then click Activate

STAY AWAAAAY. this is by far the worst and most ridiculous company in the audio business - even though pro tools is a standard in most big studios. It has turned into an evil business - they won't talk to you if you haven't bought anything from them AND you did so within a year so you still have "valid support". But even then they take 6 months, if you're lucky, to respond to your mails. It's an absolute joke. Look at their ratings 1/6 out of all reviews together. Go with reaper, ableton, logic instead. anything else really.

Ever since I’ve downloaded feee version from Avid’s website I’ve had nothing but problems and issues with my iMac and I’ve spent two days dealing with their stupid Avid App that I have no use for ALL I wanted was the most recent version of Sibelius and now I’m spending more time trouble shooting issues and slow downloads because of them. Can’t get anyone to help you and now my iMac is all f**kd up. For Christ sakes I could’ve gotten the project I was hired for finished with Notion on my iPad with all the time I’ve waisted sitting here watching my the spinning wheel of death slow down my entire work flow. So far NOT happy whatsoever with this company.

The most horrible licensing system ever seen, intrusive and disfunctional.
Having lots of problems with a copy of Sibelius I had the stupid idea to purchase years behind. They try to push customers to purchase the upgrade to the newest versions by making it hard to use previous versions of the software (I needed to ask someone from the customer service to send me a copy that could work with my license, as the version I could download from my account on the website was not working !!!!!!!!!).
Also, if you by chance have a hardware failure or a malfunctioning pci-e component, the licensing system will make the software unusable, as it will detect a hardware change. To reset it, you need manually to delete files from hidden folders.
Anyone who has not yet fallen into the dark pit of Avid should stay away at all costs.

can't contact them, software isn't working, don't really want to continue paying until December - contact page has no send button. Have always had trouble contacting this company - software is great until you have a technical or billing issue. I don't want to read your 3 million articles, I want to speak to a human, and when you're paying that amount a month I think it's a basic right and very poor service.

The worst music distributor I have ever worked with. Distrokid is 10x better tbh. You can't get paid with avid link and sometimes you can't even upload, so what's the whole point? Will immediately be switching distributors! Specifically made a trustpilot account just to let everyone know and hopefully help somebody out.

Terrible, I pay for it, and it keeps asking me to reconnect with Avid Link. The whole experience is essentialy broken.

Avid support is really poor and incompetent ! I have never received real support or concrete solutions and I am very dissatisfied!
The Avid policy is to speculate money with an annual subscription and then give you software and an app full of bugs and slow updates !!
I will definitely abandon Avid as soon as possible! They believe and feel unique and indispensable ...

This morning I had a debit from my account in over $300 from AVID, and automatic annual subscription I don't remember signing up for. I've looked for 2 hours online to try and get a phone number and speak to a human being about billing.....There doesn't seem to be any way to do it...just chat bots and online case sign ups.....but not even a real chat person..... Anyone have any suggestions?

I try to get customer help, but they aren't able to answer! So shame…this customer care will break you down soon!

I've been dealing with Avid for a long time. My first experience came when I bought ProTools in 2005. The program was awful. I had a new Mac, and the specs matched up fine. The program didn't run as well as native Apple software. Crashes were the norm. Avid was no help, and they made me jump through hoops to use software I had paid to use. My go to program as a composer was Sibelius, which I started using on university computers. I've been using it since it first came out. How terrible it was when I learned that Avid acquired Sibelius a year after my terrible experience with ProTools. What a nightmare?! Again, they punish their paying costumers, because there are pirates out there. You jump through hoops over and over, and then there are times it just doesn't work...because one of their hoops is malfunctioning. Their costumer service is non-existent. Why is it that every other program or plugin I buy works fine without continuous hoop jumping? One of the absolute worst companies in existence. They stay afloat, because their costumers are held hostage by programs that are industry standards. Of course, I use Logic as a DAW and would never touch ProTools again. I wish someone would come out with a notation program to compete with Sibelius. After almost two decades of this, I'm beyond fed up. I left Sibelius for a few years while I used Finale, and I prefer Finale as a company. I'm just faster with Sibelius, and this is really thanks to the original developers of the program not Avid. I came back to Sibelius for speed in 2019 hoping for change, but it's just more of the same. They've honestly done very little for the development of the program itself. The program is easy to use, because it always was. Avid cares very little about its costumers, and it shows this continuously. Let's face it. Most people don't come to Trust Pilot to give rave reviews on companies, and that's to be expected. However, Avid has 95% of the reviewers giving 1 star, which is even bad in terms of Trustpilot, and you know what's amazing? I don't think the people making decisions at Avid are bothered by this. These reviews pretty much all say the same thing I'm saying. Costumers don't enjoy paying for a product and then putting a ton of time into jumping through hoops to use it. We want to create with as little hassle as possible. Some of us make money writing music (as surprising as that might seem), and in this industry time is money. It's that simple. I need to write music...not jump through hoops. I wish Avid would respect its costumer's time. I've been wishing this for a long time, so something tells me this won't change anytime soon.

It's so bad the server keeps crashing down a lot of times while editing the title based on real experience.

This is the worst company in the world to own the rights to a brilliant music programme.

Avid created various tools to become a cornerstone of modern music creativity. But there was a problem. They had now made musicians' lives too easy. Where was the pain? The misery? The sheer suffering that musicians need to create great art?

Avid have spent a lot of money to solve this problem with Avid Link. Day looking straight-forward? You've paid for a service and now you expect to be able to use it? No way. The sheer grinding agony of knowing you've paid for something, and that money was spent on building the Avid Link system should send you into a frenzy of agonised creativity. Of course, you can't note any of it down because you don't have access to the tools you need.

Avid Link: It's Why We Still Have Paper and Pencils.

I love Pro Tools from old age, but the customer support, the new iloks, licensing are all really bad vustomer experience!

So expensive, so full of bugs/glitches, non-existing customer support. Avid's disrespect towards the whole industry will destroy this company in the end.
It's insane really..

A great product (Media Composer) but absolutely TERRIBLE customer support.
It is as if once they have you money they do not care about you at all.
I would seriously advise againts buyng any Avid product... not because they are badly designed, merely the complete lack of customer care.
Disgusting

Awful process to download, install and 'use' the software.

I had to download three separate apps to try and use the program: Avid Link, iLok and ProTools.

iLok is some sort of licensing program which I had to sign up for just to validate the software - but it says there's no license linked to my account. So it refuses to open ProTools. When I check 'My Account' on Avid's website, the license shows up fine, and even has the same email address linked to it.

So I'm sat here unable to do any work, with a deadline approaching, wondering what the heck to do!

Pro Tools Support is $200 yearly but you will "Not" get any support. The software crashes more than a 1yr old trying to ride a mountain bike. Avid does not respect customers but they certainly respect certain types of papers.. It's also the most expensive software but the least reliable! Well, I put together all of my documentation over the last few months and now I'm ready to move forward.