PRO TOOLS 12 SUBSCRIPTION UPDATE
PRO TOOLS 12 SUBSCRIPTION SOFTWARE
PRO TOOLS 12 SUBSCRIPTION SERIES

You’re almost better off buying the software through a retailer like Sweetwater and depending on them for help. I had to call several times to get a simple answer back. Just be warned, even though tech support is being paid for, it is still painfully slow.

PRO TOOLS 12 SUBSCRIPTION UPDATE

Similarly to the Waves update plan, Pro Tools Standard (non HD) and HD can now be leased and tech support can be accessed during the duration of the lease. The biggest change in the Avid business model has to be the “All Access Plan”.

PRO TOOLS 12 SUBSCRIPTION SERIES

Since Everything Recording has not reviewed the DAW since HD11 (Review Link HERE), we will focus this series on the changes of 12 all the way up to the current 12.7. Either way, it seemed someone started bailing water out of our metaphorical ship. Avid claimed this new streamlined method of rapid releases was due to the new subscription model. Press releases starting showing off improvements and versatility much quicker than in the past. Just when it looked like the Avid ship was sinking with version 12.1, subsequent releases started firing off updates left and right – each with major changes to functionality and features. Even I was looking over the hand rail judging just how bad this jump was going to hurt. It had seemed that the Pro Tools ship was starting to take on water, with users jumping overboard. The phrase “I’m going to Reaper” started popping up on various forums. As time had passed, other DAWs had popped up, most of which started offering features that were making many long time Avid users feel the “itch to switch”. At first, nearly no changes were offered as far as functionality other than a few new I/O enhancements and an updated Application Manager. Two years ago, Avid kicked off Pro Tools 12.0 with more economical changes than operational and the subscription based service scared some users until pricing and perpetual licenses were announced. I did however have one more version of Pro Tools out there to try, so I figured, “What do I have to lose”. Part of me didn’t want to switch due to the years of experience and familiarity but the other part could not handle another day on a system that embarrassed me in front of clients and doubled the time mixes should have taken. After 14 years of being a die-hard Pro Tools user starting with Pro Tools LE 5 and updating to nearly every major version ending up in HD11, I was at the end of my rope. I was left sitting in the studio with my cursor hovered over the “Buy Now” button of Logic. Countless calls to tech support from both Avid and Apple subtly suggesting the other is at fault offered little help.

After all, I had the latest and greatest retina MacBook Pro running HD Native through a Sonnet Thunderbolt chassis. The hardware I was running was hardly the problem. The DAW in question was Pro Tools HD 11.3. So here I was, sitting in front of a DAW that was constantly locking up and spitting out “AAE Error -9173” within 10 seconds of pressing the space bar – even on moderate sessions. Each week, a new part will be released, leading up to the overall review in part 5. This is part 1 of a 5 part series that both explains Pro Tools 12’s features and reviews the software.

Pro tools 12 subscription