The guy(s) claiming the shit toy DAWs out there are somehow 'better' at anything (but midi or loop/clip based shat music) are way off base and shouldn't be even working music. I don't mean you have to use PT to work in music, but you're so misguided thinking ableton, or even logic is a genuine powerhouse of RECORDING, mixing and audio editing that PT HD/ultimate is. As others stated, I too have used almost every DAW through the years and settled on PT after Audio Utopia's generous gift of 2015... and NOTHING has touched it since for rapid, well thought out power mixing and editing. It's so logical (don't judge it based on some old ass engineers using gaudy colour palletes and not knowing the key shortcuts - they could make any daw look clunky), you can make PT look smart, it has some of the best waveform drawing clarity, it has hands down the best hardware controllers (Dcommand, S6 etc) that ACTUALLY allow you to mix like on a console instead of stupid 8 fader back general purpose thing like a giant novelty mouse....

But really, knowing and using pro tools as well as us fans of it do, it has NOTHING to do with it being ubiquitous and everything to do with it getting the best results faster than other DAWs. many of us work with audio, real instruments or converted midi to audio, and vocals - more than hundreds of midi tracks (go cubase for that)... and nothing is as easy to mix with than PT thanks to that big overview edit window that gives you rapid access to everything... even Studio 1 with it's once novelty speed features of drag drop and all the stuff it does for you (which is cool but ultimately pointless cos all that's done in a template in PT anyway and ALSO has shortcut keys to do just the same thing but with far less mousing)... well, it's just amazing, seriously, and that's why 99% of the world's top mixers (and producers) still use it. To say it's useless for production and that you 'must turn to ableton or FL' says more about the shite-for-music you're putting out than the brilliance of PT. No you don't need that shit, you hit record, you record, you edit, you mix... PT is the best there, everyone fucking knows it... all the other daws are flawed as fuck in one area or other - logic has terrible editing, S1 has terrible mixing (the mixer pane is woeful and you can't see all from the edit window), cubase is bloated and windows all over the place, reaper is a nerdgasm of over the top idiosyncracy that apparently offers 'freedom' in exchange for lack of focus and PROVEN results in the industry... reaper is far more over-rated than PT anyday.

I've used 'em all, and had my past faves (cubase, nuendo.. then Studio one).. Heck I even used cakewalk audio back in the 90s.. and before that music x/bars n pipes on the AMIGA (non DAW obv)... there's little I've not tried, but for me PT is the ultimate, but it's not for 'dumb' people, and it's not for EDM jockeys.

Also.. to the PT fan who claims clip gain line is pointless, you couldn't be MORE wrong, it's utterly essential to good work and is used without fail on every mix and on most audio channels, a compressor is not what clip gain is - while both can get similar results in different ways, that difference is IMPORTANT to what you're doing.

Lastly HEAT is far from 'just saturation', no sat plug-in alone can add what HEAT does at the audio engine level in between tracks... same as console shaper in studio one and no doubt the neve shit in luna.. (and of course the crap in harrison mixbus) difference is HEAT is the ONLY one of them that sounds actually fucking awesome.. thanks Dave Hill.. he knows his stuff. Also it's effortless to use, everyone using PT that has HEAT should use it and mix through it... it really is a big leg up on the digital vs analog battle for a full energtic mix. Though I also have stuff like SSL Fusion hardware that takes what HEAT does and improves further.. EVERY stage counts, from gain staging to heat, to sat plugs, to outboard (and obv recording - I record through neve gear mostly).

I could work in any daw and they all have nice stuff, that mostly turn into novelty after a while and in no way as essential as the basics that PT nails in execution, speed and reliability.

 

I mostly agree on the things you said, but could you please elaborate a little more on this:

As far as I know it's "just saturation" plugin embedded into tracks. I am not aware of any magic happening elsewhere. Do you have any reference for this claim?

 

I've been using the AU 12.5 for ever now, and only just recently discovered HEAT, I can't say it's "special sauce" or anything like that, if I want saturation, there's plenty of fish in the sea for that.....IMHO

 

Zealot much????

 

It's just dynamically and frequency-depended saturation, it was something special 12 years ago. I think "the audio engine level in between tracks" is just a fancy way of saying pre or post inserts.

 

Maybe if it was calibrated to -18 dbfs it would make more sense to use it in the chain with other emulation plugins.