I got to play witha pro-tolls righ when I did a recording gig for some folks at streeterville studio in Chicago a couple years ago.
It was a mix/24 system I think.

I remember the plugins being real nice, but it didnt impress me enough to rush out and sell my PC, dump samplitude and buy a pro-tools rig.

It didnt crash on me, but then neither does samplitude.
The hardware was solid, but then so is my RME HDSP card and my DA7.

I didnt see anything about Pro-Tools that justified the cost difference between it and a native system.
I know, I know .. the PT systems have thier dsp cards but really.. with the cpus as fast as they are now I cant remember the last time I added enough plugins to bog my system down.
But then I just record rock bands, not orchestras.
And I realize that every violin and cello in an orchestra needs to be compressed and have it's own 4 band para-eq and reverb on it.

In my opinion, if you want to belong to the "I own a pro-tools rig" club.. then buy a pro-tools rig.
But if you can get just as good of results with a "pro-sumer" rig then get the pro-sumer rig and spend the extra money on more mics, or your childrens college fund.

The software and hardware are just tools after all.

FWIW I have A pro tools HD2 rig and a seperate DP rig with TC and UAD cards.

The pro tools rig was given to me by a commercial client (to be platform compatible with thier files for the work they outsource to me) so I have zero invested in the system. I'm not sure how that colors my opinion.

I prefer the DP set up and only use the Protools set up when forced to by outside pressure. For the work I do (primarily editing, mixing and overdubs on projects tracked elsewhere) I find DP to be a much more flexible system and sonically at least the equal of pro tools.

Then again I'm thinking of dumping all my gear, cutting the soles off my shoes and sitting in a treehouse till I learn to play the lute...................

Justin, I of all people certainly haven't missed your point that add-on DSP + native is always going to be more powerful than just native, and of course Pro Tools is a standard. But you're wrong to believe that many other tools on the market aren't equally good in different contexts.

It's no longer as simple a choice as you're making it, and I say that as a big fan of Pro Tools. Three years ago, yes. Not today. I'm sure even the people at Digidesign would agree.

It really depends on what you're doing. Pro Tools is a multitrack production program, as I said. But what if you're doing MIDI + overdubs production? In that case you're using dozens of VIs and don't need lots of plug-ins. Or what if you do and are happy dealing with the latency you get with a TC Powercore or UA card?

And TDM has low latency if you're recording, but its latency with VIs isn't as low as a MOTU or RME card! So even the hardware isn't always the best for everything.

By the way, Hans Zimmer said in an interview that he wishes Ableton Live were the dubbing format for film music instead of Pro Tools! I understand that completely. But Hans Zimmer is only one person. Lots of top people use other DAWs for all kinds of production.

Similarly, Paul, telling someone not to by Pro Tools LE because of what you can do with DP is missing the point. DP is a different program.

.

Ahhh, Man, what is that from? And isn't it a flute? arrrrgggh it's gonna drive me nuts all day!

Well, yes I have a day job, Train Operator making about 47-50K a year. But even if I didn't have a day job, I would make MORE dough at 35-50 an HR than charging people some crazy number they can't afford. Not only THAT!!!, If you charge 125HR, you BEST BETTER have a FAT mix with NO excuses AND be ready for "It just doesn't sound the way it should, can we redo that this and the other, do I have to pay for this and that?" I don't do HIGH POWER clientel because it's not in my interest and time.

Let me tell you something that you take for granted. By the time you finish reading this, you've used 10 minutes of time you will NEVER get back. So the question is (unless you're gonna live forever, HERE), was it worth your time?
Well, to my clients, it's worth it to spend that time and money with me, STRESS FREE. They get in and out with a project they love and have enough cash to COME BACK for more. You may not see that 125 client for another week or two.

Now back to PROTOOLS, I would LOVE to use DP, but my opinion it's apples and oranges in a way. I use digital to get into PROTOOLS bypassing the DIGI002 micpres and analog path all together. I would do thew same with DP, or Logic...they both use DIGI002. my path is either MICPRES (with or without comp), to ISA220 digital out into PT, OR the same A-D into WZAD96, ADAT into ProTools.

Kelly's my baby, cause she KNOWS, it's in the outboard gear, NOT some computer configured number crunchin PLUGIF!! Once again, no matter what interface you use, bring as much OUT of the DAW that you can and process with the REAL GEAR, leave the other tracks in. Use the busses to process multiple tracks with the plugs and you with NEVER go wrong. J, HOW MANY PLUGS DO YOU NEED!!!!!????

ALSO, I leave midi sequenced tracks MIDI!! I use an AKAI MPC-2000XL. Protools start the MPC. BOOM BAM!! I don't record those into the DAW, saving tracks and processing those tracks OUTSIDE of the box.....all for 35 an hour for HIPHOP, 50HR for everything other music. Most HIPHOP and R&B come into the studio with the 2 TRACK MIXED down already. All I have to do is record vocals..that's the way it's done right now........35HR...............YEH!!!!

RaJ.....................Out...................1

Thanks Nick, that's the other point I wanted to make. Whether you use PT or DP, the DIGI002 would be an effective way to get audio in and out.
I don't think it the BEST..RME hardware or Apogee is the way I would go. But the WZAD96 or a pre as I'm using, Focusrite ISA220 with A-D takes care of the tracking and recording with quality.

RaJ.................Out.......................lute

Living in Southern California and haveing to swap sessions with a lot of other studios around from the big L.A./Hollywood to the small home studios, I rarly get asked for anything but Protools. I'm recording/mixing an album now that we will take to Sound Castle in Hollywood and pull up on there protools rig run through there SSL J9000 with tons of outboard goods, and then run back to protools sterio 24-96 so that I can master it. This artist www.tyronewells.com wone an Orange County Music award on the last album we did and one of the songs was on WB's One Tree Hill and he just wone UCLA's 'spring sing' which is an old tradition that bands like Maroon 5 and many others have also one. I have a Mac G4 dual 1.42, a digi002, all the waves plugins and a few others, and Record to Tascams DA98's with a da7 to monitor back. I'm chargn' about 35 an hour like the produca and my phone rings DAILY with people wanting to book time. Its all how you handle the biz but my two cents it Protools is it!
sam

Ya know, for once this thread as been really civilized and not become a Protools flamefest (thanks Jeremy for not posting - just kidding).

While it's true I have a strong biased in favor of Protools I totally respect and have high regard for the innovative solutions each one of you has come up with. I agree with Pat's comment -it's not the tools but how you use them. Garbage in, Garbage out definately applies. I also agree that great mics, mic pres, AD conversion and monitoring acoustics play a big role.

We live in a thrilling time for computers and recording. You just know the best is yet to come. Features added to software, power added to processors, bigger/faster memory and storage, and high speed internet are still vast, open frontiers.

Look at what computers do in other industries. They help doctors be more accurate. They have revolutionized the commercial printing business. I think of a computer as giving me the ability to analyze sound using precision instead of relying 100% on what my ears tell me. I think we'd all agree this makes the process easier and more fun. We can all dive into our labs and make great sounding music. All we need is the will to do it.

K, off my soapbox. Everyone, go record.

If you live in the Los Angeles area and are doing lots of work for Film as well as righteous
Record Dates including editing and swapping your crap around town it might be real smart to get yourself ProTools. If not that at least have a system like Nuendo or any other that you can easily swap your format with the ProTools format.IE a removable drive system that you can ferry anywhere. Other than that..who cares what the F you use.