There’s been some discussions going down recently regarding Avid’s latest announcements, most notably the Avid Pro Tools Support. As part of these discussions it has been suggested by some people that Pro Tools Expert has an agenda.

Of course we have.

It’s the same agenda we’ve had since we started as the AIR Users Blog over 5 years ago. It’s not even a secret or indeed hidden, go to our information page and it’s there in black and white, that’s because we are proud of it.

“The site has a single aim; to be the number one Pro Tools support community on the web, giving up to the minute Pro Tools tips, tricks, news and advice.”

To be clear it also says “We’re independent and are not affiliated with Avid or their associated companies.”

For those who want a little more clarity then let us spell it out. Avid have millions of dollars and a worldwide team for marketing and PR, so we’re not here to help them do it, although over the years Avid have reached out to us for our opinion on products and plans, which we’ve always been happy to give where we think we can make a contribution.

Our user community doesn’t have millions of dollars or a global marketing and PR machine, but they have invested their lives and their business into Avid products and workflows.

Our user community doesn’t have millions of dollars or a global marketing and PR machine, but they have invested their lives and their business into Avid products and workflows. Many of them think they have no voice, or remain unheard, so we do what we can (within reason) to help them have a platform to share their concerns. We’re not the only platform, there are plenty of forums like the DUC for them to support one another, but if we get asked for help then we’ll do what we can with the influence we have.

But isn’t all this recent coverage anti-Avid? Are the Pro Tools Expert team against Avid and Pro Tools?

Well let’s think about that question for a moment.

It’s unlikely that any other organisation outside of Avid (paid or unpaid) has done more to promote Pro Tools, support users with free advice and tutorials or support the transition to Pro Tools 11 and AAX, fact.

Some would even suggest we’ve done more to encourage the use of Pro Tools than even Avid themselves.

We do this because we LOVE Pro Tools, but loving Pro Tools is not the same as agreeing with Avid or always liking what they do - some express it as ‘love Pro Tools, hate Avid.’ We wouldn’t go as far as using the word hate but right now we’re bothered by Avid’s current plans and the tone of their approach, it unsettles us, it may not bode well for the Pro Tools community.

We do this because we LOVE Pro Tools, but loving Pro Tools is not the same as agreeing with Avid or always liking what they do - some express it as ‘love Pro Tools, hate Avid.’

Over 5 years this isn’t the first time we’ve not agreed with Avid, we’re guessing it won’t be the last.

We hope Avid continue to have the same kind of innovative breakthroughs that birthed Pro Tools in the first place, they changed the recording world forever. We will be the first ones to celebrate their successes as they occur. For those with short memories you’ll find plenty of posts on the blog where we agreed with Avid and on those occasions some accused  us of being stooges or fan boys. You learn to develop a thick skin, that’s the nature of blogging and with the size of the community we’ve created we’re unlikely to make everyone happy all the time - that became impossible when we reached two fans.

In conclusion we don’t expect everyone to agree with us, our views on Avid and their current plans could be spectacularly wrong, it is entirely possible.

But then again we could be right.

Thank you all for your continued support, we never take it for granted.

Russ, Mike, Neil, James, Eric, Marcus, Mike A, Julian and the rest of the Pro Tools Team