In a recent online article we saw written; “It’s commonly believed that professional studios only use Avid Pro Tools but that’s a dated idea.” We can only assume the author doesn’t spend much time in professional studios.

There are regular prophecies online about the end of Pro Tools and the death of Avid, but in the words of Mark Twain when a newspaper wrongly printed his obituary “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

Despite a pretty awful period under their previous CEO, where they seemed to botch every product launch possible, including the transition to subscriptions, Avid came back fighting under the leadership of Jeff Rosica.

Given the almost suicidal period Avid went through for several years, anyone remember Avid Everywhere? The list of PR missteps over those years were longer than our arm. At the worst point the Avid Facebook page had comments on almost every post that one would expect to be aimed at those who torture puppies, it was carnage.

After all that, Avid seem to be stronger than ever and Pro Tools dominance as the industry standard in the professional studio world remains stable.

Industry standard, has never meant that a product is the best selling, the most feature packed, the most up to date, or the cheapest, or the most cracked for that matter. What industry standard means is that it’s the most used by professionals in professional studios.

Go to any audio college or university and check out what DAW is used for preparing students for working in a professional studio and guess what you’ll find in over 90% of them? Yep, it’s Pro Tools.

There are many DAWs that offer far more features, free updates, are more stable, but walk into 99% of professional studios around the world and you’ll still find Pro Tools - this is the same in both music and post. Are there other DAWs on those premises, quite likely, but Pro Tools is the one you’ll find most used.

If you are already frothing at the mouth and hate what you are reading and ready to put your keyboard through the desk as you type a furious riposte in the comments, just wait one second. If your argument is your DAW has more features, that’s irrelevant. If it’s that all your friends use X instead of Pro Tools then that’s not an argument either, Pro Tools is still the industry standard.

Several DAWs have more users than Avid has with Pro Tools, in some cases by several hundred thousand, but it’s still Pro Tools that owns the professional studio space. Still don’t believe us? Go do a search here and see how many studios that don’t use Pro Tools.

Ahh, but you say, X magazine has a best DAW of 2022 and it’s not Pro Tools. It doesn’t matter how many of those articles you read, Pro Tools is still the industry standard. You might find plenty of people who hate Pro Tools in forums or on social media, but you’ll also find plenty of people who love it too.

However much that fact might stick in your throat because you have an unbridled hatred of Avid, or an unbreakable love for your own DAW, it still doesn’t change the fact that Pro Tools is the industry standard.

Taking all this into account it does beg the question, is there anything that can break the dominance of Pro Tools in professional recording and mixing?

Our team use lots of different DAWs, the BEST DAW is the one that works best for you, but that’s not the question we’re asking… Pro Tools is the industry standard and that seems unlikely to change anytime soon.

Given all the difficulties that Avid has faced with Pro Tools, and survived, is there anything that could make the tide turn?

Discuss.