Pro Tools Issues

Published 2020-03-01. Last modified 2023-06-12.
Time to read: 1 minutes.

This page is part of the av_studio collection.

Third-Party Plugins

I purchased an Aphex Aural Exciter and Big Bottom Pro Bundle Full License from Avid. The product is made by RØDE in Australia.

I was unable to install it using the Avid Link app. Avid does not have good support for anything web-related, including download issues. Their engineering department does not seem to have the necessary skills, and they tend to overcomplicate things without any consideration for user experience. The support team is disinterested and does not even pretend to care. I give Avid a big fail on all things web-related and everything customer-related.

When I tried to manually install using the URL provided from Avid Link, I discovered that Avid's download link was corrupt. Eventually, I realized that the problem was caused by uBlock Origin, so I disabled it for avid.com and cleared the browser cookies for avid.com as well. After that, I was able to download and manually install Aphex_Systems_Bundle_18_8_Win_104307.zip.

Documentation Not Provided

Avid offers no documentation for this product. The product has virtual knobs and dials, but there is no explanation of what the controls do. RØDE's tech support sent me the manual (Aphex_Plugins_Guide_v80_56069.pdf).

Pro Tools

RME TotalMix input gains on the microphone are fine–no clipping, strong signal–but Pro Tools seems to amplify the inputs a lot when displaying the meter levels (the recorded signal is fine).
Trashing preferences can solve intractable problems. I bought Trasher 3. It works well.