Avid Technology Reviews 200

charged a $99 annual subscription for a PERPETUAL (supposedly permanent) license without informing me

so their perpetual license doesn't actually grant you permanent access through a one time $600 purchase, you have to pay $99/yr on top to access it

WTH???

As other reviewers pointed out, you're better off using a free software. they do the same s--- anyways

Apple silicon has been out for two years now and still no native support on Pro Tools, rendering many of my favourite plugins (mostly by Acustica) useless. I have just paid for another year's subscription after an entire year of waiting aimlessly for m1 support. You decided to change the names of everything again. Put that energy into actually making your software modern and good! If it's not sorted soon you'll have lost a lifelong customer forever. There's only so much people can take. Your reviews on this website say it all.

Completely and utterly sucks balls. Can’t get an answer to my question for crashing software. Super difficult to break the code for opening a ticket.

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 having a horrible experience installing installing Pro Tools 2022 on my work computer on Thursday and Friday, today I attempted to install my old copy of Pro Tools 12 on my home computer.

First up I went to 'my products' in my Avid account. A Pro Tools download appears there but when I click on it nothing happens. I managed to find a download elsewhere and install PT 12, however when I attempt to open it it asks me to enter my ilok login (which I did) then says I don't have any licenses (which I have). If I try to login to Ilok manager it crashes so I have no idea how to proceed with this.

Avid offer Zero support on this unless you pay extra for it. I understand that they might expect you to pay for someone to walk you through the install process but if you buy a product and it doesn't work I believe it should be their responsibility to fix it.

I'd urge any young engineers or producers to use a different DAW, there's nothing in the least but special about Pro tools, I only use it because it's what I'm used to and it would take too long to learn another DAW. The only reason I periodically pay for updated version of PT is that I'm forced to update the OS on my computer and the old versions aren't compatible. the new versions of PT offer nothing that it of use to me and I end up going though this nightmare of installation, losing business and delivering work late.

Seriously Avid, you suck.

I used ProTools and Sibelius. Both are terrible.

i use AVID as a benchmark for the Worst Company I have ever dealt with in my life.

Everything about their licensing, sales, marketing, customer service... is almost designed to be so unbelievably bad, that it's a Simpsons-level parody of what greedy and uncaring corporate culture represents.

There are just too many things to list, that mentioning a specific issue would downplay the magnitude of issues.

But basically, it is impossible to have any interaction with AVID without feeling like it's actually just a prank or sabotage. Like, they've gone out of their way to be aggressively bad *at* you. It's so exquisite, I'm not even mad.

But seriously, I am basically in a long-term abusive relationship with Pro Tools. The problem is, leaving will cause me more problems than staying, so I am forced to stay.

Anyone thinking of starting out would be wise to avoid AVID like the plague, and don't make the same mistake I did.

Pro Tools should no longer be industry standard. I'm fluent across multiple DAWs, and PT is by far, the worst. It's glitchy, temperamental, and the shortcuts are horrendously over complicated. In fact, if you don't have the right keyboard, you can't even use some of the shortcuts.

I moved off of it about a year ago thinking, I don't care how the industry judges me for this it's utter garbage, only to reluctantly re-download it today. Well folks, it won't even launch. Troubleshooting everything I can, but this is just so unbelievable.

Actually, that's not true. I should have expected I'd have problems right from the start. It's just typical.

I hope this DAW fades into oblivion soon.

I have been using sibaleus 7 on a MacBook since 2014 very happily. My new MacBook needs sibaleus but is not compatible with version 7. I have been trying to purchase the software from the website and have given up after many attempts, the website is confusing and sends you in circles, the page I want does not exist 'room 404' flashes up instead. I managed to get sibaleus ultimate in the basket once, I started to get excited that it might actually happen but no...after I had verified my teacher status and clicked on the link to buy my basket was once again empty. Customer service never available and the bot is no help. Reading all these reviews I have had a lucky escape by the looks, I just dread the day my old MacBook no longer works!

Absolutely the WORST customer service in history - mostly because there IS NONE! I just paid $80 freaking dollars for a one-time code that doesn't work!!!
I have an AUTOPAY monthly fee of $34 to ensure I have a perpetual license. Out of the blue tonight - in the middle of a recording session - it says my license has been canceled! WHAT???
And there is NO customer service number that works. So, after researching for an hour, I realize I have to pay $80 dollars for a ONE TIME code that I can't freaking use b/c the automated phone numbers will not accept the code! No live chat on their website for assistance. I've spent a MINT on AVID hardware and software, and this is how I'm treated as a customer?
I swear to god - this is the absolute freaking worst customer experience I've ever had in 53 years of living on planet earth. GET IT TOGETHER AVID!!!!!!!!

They automatically renew subscritions for their products without informing you and do not accept refunds or returns, which im pretty sure is illegal but apparently its part of their terms of service. Overall pretty shady and their product (sibelius) is extremely overpriced when you consider its main competitor (Musescore) is free. Dont buy from them lol

Trial software scam, they don't clearly show mark subscription pricing and hide true costs from new users. I hate companies like these selfish low ballers.

I have been a fan of Sibelius since it started. I knew very little about computers but got to grips with the original software fairly quickly. In those halcyon days you were able to call (phone) a real person. They all had single-syllable names (no women!) like Jim, Dave, Ben, Mike, etc and they were nearly always available. The Finn brothers you sensed were very close to this most wonderful computer-age 'music typewriter' and each fresh release had good improvements. The brothers insisted that Sibelius would never be available as a PC download (the speed of that first binary software on my Acorn was terrific).



But of course the PC Sibelius made us have to abandon our BBCs and embrace the Microsoft world. Help was now much less accessible, but I struck very lucky. I came across the expert I had to have to keep my system afloat - I do not have the kind of computer knowledge to repair software malfunctions - and through TeamViewer I had expert repairs online which were always completely successful. He was brilliant and always arranged a remote repair session shortly after my cry for help.



In 2015 I asked him if he would build me a future-proofed, dedicated music computer which I would never use on-line. By now I had composed over a hundred substantial works (contemporary classical) and I couldn't see any advantages to becoming enslaved by Avid control. I also used the EastWest Sound Libraries, introduced and installed for me on the massively powerful computer that was shipped across the Atlantic by this wonderful computer expert. He was (is still?) one of the chief creators of Soundsonline so my computer was absolutely wallowing in all that I required to continue composing without internet interruption, without internet rigid controls, seemingly the best of all possible worlds (as Candide would have it).



I still had to access help, as in the past - in fact the only external contact that my computer had was a dedicated link to its US creator. It is extraordinarily sad that, mid pandemic (second lockdown) when I emailed for help - something wrong with the graphics making it very difficult to input notes - he emailed me to arrange a session, and left me with a different remote access software program to install. But I was not able to get past the Firewall. It required a password. I had never had to install anything since I was not the Administrator. I communicated this back to my expert American helper. To cut a long story short, he had forgotten the password, the Administrator's password. We tried dozens to no avail. Since he texted that he was very busy at that time I suggested waiting for a few weeks before trying again.



But when I did try contacting him, many weeks later, I did not received any replies. This is when I began experiencing a complete nightmare with Avid. I had to factory-reset my no-longer future-proofed computer (even after doing this, my now absent expert is STILL my computer's Administrator!). I have had to purchase all new software (Ultimate, EastWest and so much other inexplicable bits of software). I have had my supposedly lifetime iLok licenses transferred to somewhere else, and I still, many months later, have not managed to make the two software systems (Sibelius + EastWest sounds) work! I tried all helplines, over and over, but am left with the feeling that there is a black hole in-between the two. I'm also left feeling helpless, stupid and pretty depressed. The IT knowledge that it is clearly assumed folk like me should know just isn't anywhere near the level of understanding that is needed to sort it all out.



So here I am, 68 with Parkinson's, owner of a terrific computer, the most fabulous software, completely stymied by a lack of access to the most obvious need when selling complex software - expert, remote technical assistance. Instead there is help available, but it is not easy to find how to access it, and the help is one-sided. None of the helpers know enough of the all-important links required to make EW & Sibelius work properly. I've given up composing.

It's just dreadful, every time! I've been a Sibelius user for over 20 years. I'm now prepared to completely learn a new programme than have to deal with Avid to get to use Sibelius. It's extraordinary that a company puts so many barriers in the way of customers accessing their products!

Avid Pro Tools issues!

First off I’ve worked producing products in the music industry and have partnered with Australia’s biggest music products distrobution company, to big to mention here! So I have experience in standard practices of the industry.
I’ve also done 2 tours to the NAMM festival for products I’ve worked on in the music industry.

Now regarding my Avid pro tools issues…
I’ve spent more than $15,000 on pro tools/hardware/software, in the past and own all my pro tools plugins and pro tools software.
My resent experience with avid has been so bad it’s unbelievable.
After buying a S1 and unfortunately breaking the network port myself, avid told me it was going to be 60% of the retail price to fix, well that’s not the worst thing ever, and sometimes that is the case, so I sent it to them.
Turns out they then wanted close to twice the NEW unit RRP price, to provide me a used second-hand unit!
At this I was shocked, they later tried to bargain with me to offer me a second-hand USED unit, for the brand new RRP retail price with no complete warranty!

At this I told them I would go straight to Australia consumer affairs to make a formal complaint… to which after several attempts by ACCC, Avid didn’t even reply!

I would never buy any hardware from Avid again!!!

Also my experience in the past is that the lifespan on their hardware has never been great quality either for the investment, which is something to consider when spending that kind of money on hardware.

Avid Software can’t really have these issue, so software has been all good.

Also I’ve personally reached out to avid so many times and they never responded properly. I’ve had a feeling from others in music biz over years, that they could be like this in situations, but now I know, it’s true and absolutely terrible well beyond a joke, I actually at times thought someone stole my email address that’s how bad their so called hardware service-team were, - somewhere in Mexico I believe, not sure, but I think outside the U.S.A.
It’s just clear when you deal with them they aren’t speaking or understanding, with the normal communication skills required by the western clients, which is where their products are sold into!

You cannot make this stuff up, it’s well byond ridiculous!

using a uni based subscription its now a month later still cant install their products and use them only one month left on the uni course as well, youd think they would look after the next generation of editors for their own commercial interests. They dont, they send links for their tec team, they dont work, they dont ring when they say they are going to. you can see why other universities have gone to premier pro as they do respond.

I feel personal anger towards this company. Despite paying an insane amount of money for a perpetual license for Sibelius (a fairly simple program....) nearly every time I open it, I am told that I need to log in again to renew my license, or something to that effect. I then have to open avid link , which mostly does not work and does not sync, and then I have to restart everything and sometimes wait hours for the account to sync and allow me to use the software that I have paid for. they dont care about their customers. at all.

Bought a perpetual license. Forced to sacrifice it for a monthly subscription to upgrade. What is the point on paying for a lifetime subscription if you dont get to keep it for life.
The customer service is abysmal. Avoid this company at all costs.

AVID Customer Service SUCKS Rip Off Merchants
I've been with Protools for at least a decade I think and every year, it's the same old same old, getting it compatible with current software, Losing my Music Schools Status an d lastly, effectively losing my Perpetual License That is if I want it to work at all. It's #catch22 situation. I can either buy a brand new Perpetual license at nearly £1000 or Give up my existing so called 'Perpetual License' and move to subscription. I run a small Not for profit Music School and in the main my work is focused around Disabled People and or people in need and have never made money off the back of anyone benefitting from music as a form of therapy and simply cannot afford hundreds of pounds every year.
AVID, not only has the WORST industry wide reputation in the Customer Service field but is now also SHAFTING/SCREWING all is customer base by making it completely unaffordable and, effectively STEALING from us by rendering our Perpetual Licenses useless citing they are incompatible with the likes of BIG +SUR and MONTEREY.
I doubt anyone at AVID gives to £$%^s about this review, especially given all the negative reviews I've read on TrustPilot and videos on YouTube and that Nothing has improved for the End User.

If I could give less than 1* I would. Shame there aren't minus scores.
Never in my life have I come across a company that puts so many blocks and barriers to actually getting help.
However, as others have said, their performance in regularly taking your money is way more than 5*
If my son wasn't so wedded to Sibelius, it would give me more pleasure than I can ever imagine to cancel the subscription and write the mother of all complaint letters to their MD.