Not only is there a brand differentiation problem here (not helped by the merging), I find it hard to be compelled to answer: “Why Pro Tools? What sets it apart from the rest?” And perhaps that’s even the wrong question for the now. It doesn’t help when I’ve asked this question several times before, existing Pro Toolers treated me arrogantly — while they’re not representative of the larger community, Digidesign hasn’t combated this perception, either. One can be proprietary without seeming like a walled garden. (Good thoughts, Corey.)

On the other hand (not a direct parallel, but lessons to to be learned), witness Ableton with their continued extended reach with Live. Viva la marketing chops backed up by a superb product.

I say stand out now and give an answer. For if there is no face there is no voice.

But – honestly this all seemed to start happening when Avid acquired Digidesign in the first place. Here’s a company used to being a proprietary majority leader acquiring another proprietary majority leader. That’s all well and great until technology catches up, and the mindset of new up-and-comers no longer match up with their business model.

People these days are becoming more and more “open source.” They like stuff to work with everything, and keep them connected to everything. Look at cellphones – everyone has one, and most spend more time on anything BUT actually making calls on them (ie: texting, social sites, games, etc.). It translates to all areas. People aren’t wanting proprietary closed-box things anymore. And yet, what does Avid continue to do?

There was a time and a place for that business model – unfortunately it isn’t here anymore. The GPU in my PC can outperform an HD6 in terms of sheer processing power on its own, and pretty soon I’ll have access to let it do just that. And seriously, marketing products against themselves doesn’t work anymore. Microsoft needs to learn this, and so does Avid.

Focus on giving us one SOLID piece of software, it will free up even more time to focus on your $200,000 consoles…

btw : http://www.pinkus-mueller.de/gifs/brauerei/flaschespecial.jpg

Or are they simply restructuring the entire corp structure and philosophy, with the hopes to sort of emerge as something inventive and fresh? Well if so, then to that I say, “STOP DOING STUPID THINGS TO TICK OFF YOUR PT CUSTOMERS”. Why do we need three or four MBoxes? Why do some fail to support PT8? I hate it that they come out with new interfaces, charge and arm and a leg, offer a laffable upgrade price path, have ten zillion “bundles” with varying degrees of compatibility, etc. I think they need to stream line their products, stop breaking compatibility to force you to upgrade, and maybe even allow for Pro Tools to operate with any audio interface (Gasp!)

All that being said… I still think Pro Tools is the best of them all, but they sometimes do stupid elitist things that take advantage of their customer base.

Nack does a great job as the “face” of Adobe.