Don’t get me wrong – when working with important customers in recording and editing no other system can compete with PT – especially the stability of a rig.

But the markets have changed dramatically in a short period of time and Avid didn’t react in the way they should.

Why I’m being forced to buy a HD system just to mix in surround or get ADC?

I know ’bout the nearly-zero-latency mixer on the DSP cards and all the stuff that says “yes, HD rig”, but unfortunately neigher the budget our customers will pay nor the amount of jobs would recoup this investment.

So I’ll use Logic for more and more jobs and hit Apple+S more often than under PT.

I agree it’s not an easy market to be in right now. Every week stiff has a post about another plug-in manufacturer offering another special discount. We’re all under pressure in the music biz. I’m only making grumpy comments about Avid because I love their product, Pro Tools, and don’t want to see it go under.

The main problem for Avid is that their principal rival is Apple – a computer manufacturer. When Apple bought Logic they made it Mac-only, halved the price, and made it easier to pirate. This would have made no business sense when Logic was a standalone software company. But Apple realized that, for Logic users, the copy protection system was now the Apple computer itself. The Logic DAW drives sales of Apple computers, just as the iTunes shop drives sales of iPods – though, admittedly, at a lower level.

In the UK the BBC is now investing heavily in Final Cut Pro – another Apple rival product to Avid. And the consequence is, the beeb are buying thousands of Apple computers for their staff.

I really don’t know how Avid can compete with that. I’d hate to see Avid bought by Microsoft, for instance, with the Pro Tools staff reassigned to work on something like Songsmith.

Very worrying.

It’s certainly an interesting time to be alive. Stay tuned! Music production and music consumption is transforming so substantially and so quickly that it can only be called revolutionary. It’s just: a revolution towards what end? That’s the question, isn’t it?

If I were an investor, I would not invest in Avid. The trajectory does not seem to be going upwards. I don’t see how it can. But I’ve been wrong before.

- c

In the pop world, the most important customers for DAWs are the new generation of emerging writer/producers. My impression is that these people are now choosing Logic over Pro Tools by a substantial margin. Two reasons. First, price. Second, it’s an all-in package. With all its excellent soft synths and samplers, Logic contains everything you need to make music and write songs from the second you get it home. You don’t even need an ilok. In a recent Sound On Sound interview, Greg Kursten said he produced Lily Allen’s first single for her new album on just a MacBook Pro running Logic 8, using nothing but the free bundled plug-ins. The Air Group have been doing a lot to make the Pro Tools package more appealing to those potential new buyers, with a whole range of new virtual instruments. To compete with Logic 8 they’ll have to give all of them away for free as part of the package, including Eleven and Velvet.

Avid have to wake up to the changing market. Please, Avid, don’t blow it.

Not something we need.