ProTools vs. Ardour. Why spend the money 775

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I understand your frustration with the next version of name your hardware or OS breaking all kinds of things. Regardless of your OS, applications or hardware the user is always faced with the choice between upgrade chaos and the desire for some new feature they can only get by upgrading. If you move to Open Source stuff, then somewhere down the road you'll make a similar post in a Windows newsgroup about whether going that route will solve your troubles.

Having seen Windows, Linux, and Mac stuff in use. It seems to me that Linux and Windows users have about the same amount of work to do in order to get their systems to work. My Windows friends seem just a bit more frustrated than I do; I use Linux. My Mac friends seem more satisfied than either the Windows or Linux crowds. In fact, every studio I've seen that uses PT has is on a Mac. Why wouldn't you consider moving to a Mac first?

Having said all that, I just tied for the best recording of my drum tracks that I've ever done in about 2 decades of recording. The recent recording was done in my home studio with a SoundCraft board, Behringer and Symetrix compressor-limiters, an M-Audio Delta 1010 "card", Ardour 0.99.2, and the LADSPA plugins. The recording that I tied was from about 10 years ago when a band I was in paid for recording in a 24 track, 2" analog studio (that used ProTools on a Mac for mastering). The caliber of that studio was that the lobby was lined with gold records and gold CDs, and their rates started at US$80-hr for their apprentice engineers.

So, it is possible to do a good job with Linux tools. Whether that fits your business needs and working style remains up to you. I'm a hobiest musician in a hobiest studio with a limited budget. I also have really good Linux skills already, so Linux for music is a good fit for me.

G'luck...

-- PLEASE post a SUMMARY of the answer(s) to your question(s)! Show Windows & Gates to the exit door. Unless otherwise noted, the statements herein reflect my personal opinions and not those of any organization with which I may be affiliated.