r/protools

Hi all, I've been working in the box for a couple of years now and would say I have a comfortable expertise over shortcuts to bridge the limitations of not having a control surface in front of me.

That being said, I've still been feeling that lacking a dedicated fader is my sole limiting factor for smoother and more natural automations.

The S1 and Dock are obvious choices for what I want, however in tandem with the price I'm a big believer in not buying more than I need. While the S1 are supported and current gen products, from researching what they offer I don't see them offering anything over what I can more quickly achieve with my shortcuts and macros, aside from the faders obviously.

This led me to explore HUI options, such as the Icon P1-M. 10bit motorised touch faders at half the price of a S1, with good reviews on the quality of the fader as well as additional macro buttons, it seems like a "no brainer" for me. That is, if HUI wasn't a depreciated and unsupported kit that could potentially break with the next update. Given my rather specific use case (really only needing one/multiple fader/s), is HUI viable?

The alternative to HUI, per the post title, is to use an older Eucon surface like the Artist Mix. I can find them used for 550 AUD (~380 USD) and it seems like a solid buy for me, as it focuses almost exclusively on the faders. However, people have said that the faders aren't that amazing, and it's also in the same boat as the Icon as it's officially marked as Unsupported and could potentially break in the future.

I realise and fully understand the expected response to this post will likely be "go with Eucon/the S1" for the integration and support, I just wanted to see how much wiggle room there was. I also wanted to get a sense for people's experience, and if anyone had any insights.

Many thanks, sorry for the long and somewhat rambling post.

Just like the title says, I purchased a perpetual license quite a few years ago with a student discount when I was in college for audio engineering. It’s version 2020.5, which only works on OS Catalina or earlier, and my poor lil 2012 MacBook is nearing the end of its life. From looking into it, it seems that I’m only able to upgrade if I’m still a student. Can someone confirm if this is the case, or if there’s any workarounds besides paying full price for a brand new license? Is there any way I’m able to purchase a perpetual upgrade at full price and have it work?

Avid rake in so much cash with this software surely? This is really a sort of standard thing, being locked to 1080p in what’s meant to be the industry premier music production software feels absurd, even accounting for the vast amount of technical debt a programme as old as this must likely have.

All I can find online are a few ancient threads from employees suggesting it’s in the works, but nothing more. Is there still no word?

Hi folks,

does anyone still happen to have ancient 002/003 10.3.3 driver for Mac,

specifically:

002_and_003_Driver_10_3_3_Installer_78629.dmg

of what I understand it's the last version fully compatible with ProTools 10.3, right?

thanks in advance :)

* Mac Studio (2022), Apple M1 Max, 10-core CPU

* 32 GB RAM

* macOS Sonoma 14.8.4

* Pro Tools Studio 2024.10.3 (also crashes on 2025.12.1)

* Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd gen

* Arturia KeyLab Essential 49 mk3 (MIDI)

* Session drive: external USB SSD (Crucial X9 1 TB, APFS)

I don't use surround, Avid Link, video — none of it. I just want to make music.

It crashes every hour, on the most basic stuff, no rhyme or reason:

* Save and Close Session

* Trim Regions

* Dragging track height

* Midi editing

Sometimes it crashes straight to the desktop, sometimes it's the spinning beachball. It's not the typical errors I'm very familiar with.

What I've already done:

* Cleared preferences and plug-in folders

* Created a fresh Mac admin account

* Bypass Focusrite and run it on Mac's internal soundcard

* Clean reinstall of Pro Tools

* Completely **factory wiped the Mac** and started over — clean macOS, clean Pro Tools, native AAX plug-ins only

* Opened an Avid case and sent dozens of crash logs and videos. Their answer is basically "upgrade to the latest version". They haven't identified the problem, or solution

Has anyone on Apple Silicon + Sonoma dealt with random crashes like this and actually fixed them?

Anything that worked for you would be hugely appreciated.

Hey so I need someone to help me with my I/Os on pro tools because I can't get my CL1B to work. So if someone have time please let me know. Thanks

This is potentially a dumb question, so bear with me. I’m not super knowledgeable about this part.

I was put in a position where I was forced to get a new computer. RIP my trusty Mac Mini. I hate spending money on old technology and so I got a new M5 Pro MacBook Pro. I’ve been doing this for quite some time…I KNOW you should never upgrade (well change anything in your rig really) without checking compatibility. I was in such panic mode that my dumbass didn’t even think about checking. We have officially established I have made a dumb decision. Cue the walk of shame through the city. We’ve gotten that out of the way.

Can someone explain to me why Pro Tools would not be compatible on new chips and why it takes months to establish that compatibility?

At this point, I’ve accepted the fact, so now I’m genuinely curious about what changes that causes the incompatibility. Like the chips have to have a different software structure? Or? Thanks in advance!

EDIT FOR CONTEXT: I have tried using pro tools on the new machine and sometimes it runs great and sometimes it’s really bad. It’ll freeze. It’ll give me cpu overload errors and tell me up the buffer. The system usage window will be at 100% bright red and stay there. Critical video engine errors. Sometimes it’ll freeze to the point i have to full on force restart. It’s bad. I can edit 4k footage in DaVinci Resolve with color correction but I can’t run pro tools…

Hi, I continue to have the same problem with some specific audio clips that are clean in Premiere Pro, but distorted in Protools. The transfer has been done everyway you can imagine. As a last resort I have subscribed to Premiere and had the actual picture edit sent to me. I have done some test AFF exports, removed attributes, simplify et al, and even imported one of the clips into protools, from the premiere session folder, and still the clips are distorted. Its really annoying, and preventing me starting the project.

I did eventually find a work around by exporting one of the clips from premiere, splitting the file into the individual tracks, saving, and then importing it into Protools. I would like to know why it worked, and hopefully find a solution that i can utilize for the entire project.

In Protools the meters are in the red but when i reduce the clip gain it is still distorted, and nowhere near as clean as the original clip in Premiere. I guess i should open the files in another sound program also. The evels are definely hot in premiere but not distorted.

Are there some ways of investigating the actual clip, or something in Protools i could try as an solution. Also what about the preferences?

Anyone using this setup without much issue? The latest update for faderport 8 fried multiple units, so I'm switching brands. That $500 price range is what I can afford, so I'm looking at the X-Touch Universal. Any issues with windows 11 users?

PT version 2026.4.0, Sonoma 14.5
Someone please help me. The Bounce Mix option is grayed out in the File menu on all of my sessions and the keyboard shortcut isn't working either. I've restarted ProTools and my computer and tried every single one of my sessions, including ones that had the option available earlier today. Nothing is making the Bounce Mix option available.

Please help me as I may be going mad.

For years I have used the keyboard shortcut of clicking on a fade in or fade out and then using Option-Up or Option-Down (on Mac) to cycle through the curve types.

For some reason this morning this doesn't work in Pro Tools.

Have I misremembered the shortcut? Is there a toggle or option somewhere in Pro Tools that enables or disables this shortcut?

It's something I do hundreds of times a day and suddenly it doesn't work.