Pro Tools 2023.9 and... perpetual licenses are back

[elxsound]

This is great news!

It's funny because I just signed in yesterday. My last perpetual license was 12, but found replacements once I realized my "perpetual" license wasn't eligible for bug fixes without subscribing. That one pissed me off... because what was the point of a perpetual license if I need to subscribe?

Not sure If I'll upgrade. Don't really need it now.


EDIT: it's the same weirdness they had with 11, but explained better now.

So basically this is Bitwig, except that Bitwig seems more generous with critical updates. With PT, you'd still need to subscribe to receive updates.

My upgrade price from 12 to Pro Tools Studio is $199, but if I want software updates for the year, I would need to pay $299.

If I thought I needed this, then this would be great. I don't need it (thankfully).

[lfm]

Will have to see if trial is available to check out if quicktime is needed or not.
- could be whether to render to video, which I don't use
- just use for preview and then render audio and move to video editor and line up

Avid have never done trials. You can use Intro for free, but that doesn't support video so you're best option is to rent Studio for one month @$30.

Thanks, but I did PT11 long ago as a trial for whatever 14 or 30 days or similar.

I first bought Avid FastTrackSolo with iLok key and and PT Express 10.4(buggy as hell and Avid support said they would never fix. Metronome did not take asio buffers into account, so completely useless out of sync).

Then I could do PT11 trial. No purchases and refunds or anything.
Don't remember what turned me off.

EDIT: seems they do trials still
https://www.avid.com/pro-tools/comparison

To the top right, buy or try free. Do Try Free and you get a dialog about iLok account.

For those that want to try it due to new perpetual license policy.

[jens]

But we were, admittedly, missing one important piece of the ‘complete’ workflow—the one that’s required for creating music and sound and ideas from scratch.

https://www.avid.com/de/resource-center ... ols-sketch

Wait, what??? I am not at all against Ableton-style clip sequencing, but that claim is wholly ludicrous.

But dude (silly hipster pic and all) - mind you, one of their lead developers, so it figures - has his head firmly up his own arse anyway, since he also states that:

Pro Tools is, in my biased opinion, the most full-featured audio editor on the market. And while the Pro Tools application is incredibly deep with lots of hidden power features

[noiseboyuk]

Pro Tools is, in my biased opinion, the most full-featured audio editor on the market. And while the Pro Tools application is incredibly deep with lots of hidden power features

You can make a case for it in audio, but not midi. Pro Tools is massively better than Cubase when it comes to audio, and of course post workflows. Cubase is massively better on midi. I've taken to exporting channels and stems from Cubase when everything is locked down, then work in PT for the mix / master.

Although I have zero interest in Sketch personally, I can see it makes total sense strategically. To this day seemingly everything ends up on Pro Tools when it comes to delivery in the pro sphere. Joining the dots to have a free Albeton-type plugin for everyone and their cat which automatically integrates with the full PT seems smart.

[revvy]

(Attracted by the headline, not the product)

The idea that companies would TRY to go subs only is obviously not “for the birds”. The fact that in some cases it generates backlash which might subsequently be effective doesn’t change the companies’ initial goal.

Anyway, great news for PT users.

[noiseboyuk]

The idea that companies would TRY to go subs only is obviously not “for the birds”. The fact that in some cases it generates backlash which might subsequently be effective doesn’t change the companies’ initial goal.

That looks like my misquote. What was always for the birds is that this was the direction that everything would inevitably go in. Sure developers can try, but it was never going to work for the market as a whole.

(also worth stating that Pro Tools never went full sub, strictly speaking. They stopped selling new permanent licenses, but encouraged those who have them to keep their support packages up to date and even did deals to do so. Maybe this stopped the PT user base collapsing. It was like they always knew 100% subs couldn't really work)

It is interesting that no-one has made it stick since Adobe. They seem to be a unique case.

[jamcat]

I would absolutely hate a subscription only model for my DAW (it would be the worst business model for me, as I haven't upgraded my DAW for over 5 years now). That said, it would be interesting to see how many people sub, and how many buy a perpetual license (considering Studio One offers both).

I've owned every version of Studio One Pro since v1.x. Since it is my forever DAW, doing a sub wouldn't make a lot of sense. I've already bought all the MixFX plugins, and don't want or need any of the other Studio One+ offerings. So I spend about $105 every 2 years on my Studio One Pro upgrade. That's a lot better than $180 per year on subscription fees.

One area I see subscriptions being very useful is when you need short-term access for a collaborative project. If I'm working on a song for a few months with someone else, they will need to open my project file in Studio One, and also have access to the 3rd party plugins I use, and I will need access to theirs. A few subscriptions will get us temporary access to anything we don't own ourselves, for a small monthly fee as needed.

This also actually makes a strong case for using plugins from only a few well established developers that offer subscription options, such as Universal Audio, Plugin Alliance, Eventide, and Waves. So I'm actually all for subscriptions, so long as they are just one option, not the only option.

[chk071]

Nonetheless, I would say that a sub makes more sense if you are, in fact, buying every new version of your DAW. While it doesn't make any sense if you are still on Studio One version 1 (to give an extreme example).

I think Studio One+ is more expensive than buying perpetual licenses every 2 years, because you simply get more content. So, it would be the choice if you buy every new version anyway, AND you want to have all the features and content Presonus Software provides for Studio One.

I don't quite get what most people would do with the additional Studio One+ features like "Exclusive Masterclasses", "Monthly live streams", "Expert Chat", or the "Community" features. Rather sounds like some stuff they added as features to make it look even bigger than it is.

[lfm]

I wonder how many daw users that find
- yes, this new version has this new feature I always needed
- so they upgrade
- it happends, but how often?
- Cubase had this new metronome with custom patterns, and felt inclined to upgrade
- Reaper 5 had VST3, ARA, VCA faders, official Waves support, nothing I needed
- Reaper 6 notation and video editing, used other software for that
- Reaper 7, is there even something major to add to a daw?

Daw makers run out of ideas, kind of.
- Bitwig focus on loads of modulation options onboard

Most of us probably hope for and look for bug fixes and do annual upgrades.
- but I am old school, not into the last of the latest

Otherwise if all is working - nothing to fix- and you stay put.
- this is why vendors like subscriptions
- nothing added, still new money coming in, or customer is halted to a stop
- you rent access to some resources they offer

I can imagine large professional studios even more look at if all is working
- don't fix it, upgrades always create some problems and lost hours of productivity
- probably why Avid wanted subscriptions
- but too many stayed on what they got instead
- so they try perpetual again to get a rush of new money coming from those that stayed put as new owner want action and cash flow

I've used Cyberlink PowerDirector a good while now, and they started to also have subscriptions 3-4 years ago
- all discounts moved to subscriptions
- never discounts on perpetual versions from then on
- but pricing is still 1/4 compared to ProTools Studio as one, so not so steep if wanting it

[dellboy]

So I thought I would try Pro Tools intro,but they want to have administrator privilege for my computer? Did I read it right? Do Protools users actually allow this for their computers?

[noiseboyuk]

I can imagine large professional studios even more look at if all is working
- don't fix it, upgrades always create some problems and lost hours of productivity
- probably why Avid wanted subscriptions
- but too many stayed on what they got instead
- so they try perpetual again to get a rush of new money coming from those that stayed put as new owner want action and cash flow

That sounds about right to me, except I don't think new owners and emergency cash flow need to be invoked. It just makes business sense to not fight your customers the entire time. Faced with the reality that many customers will never go sub, what was the alternative?

The best thing that's happened to Pro Tools in years is that they let Marianna into the DUC support forum a few months ago. She's been brilliant for years with Media Composer customers. Eddie Jones is great in EuCon. But Pro Tools never had an advocate who was human and could get things done. Now it does - Marianna goes out of her way to try and solve problems (a couple of other Avid employees help now too).

As a result, I think there's a genuine shift to focus on important bug fixes and hear the most popular feature requests.

So the news on perpetual seems to fit in - it's like old adversarial Avid has been replaced by an Avid that thinks maybe it should listen to its customers. Crazy days.

[lfm]

So I thought I would try Pro Tools intro,but they want to have administrator privilege for my computer? Did I read it right? Do Protools users actually allow this for their computers?

Yes, I came across that reading instructions and videos for install and such.

Seems really an outrage to demand that, I assumed that was an option, not mandatory?
- so you can go and get a coffee and when you come back install is ready for you?

You cannot install by instructions on screen by yourself?
- many boots in between or something

But Windows updates do that just fine, as some other software I use.

Maybe new install of online iLok stuff is more complicated from install point of view.

One would think that you can temporarily change pwd for an install be performed, but it sounded like for future updates to work as well.
- something is off regarding that

[chk071]

I don't get it. You mean admin rights for the installation, or for the use of the DAW? For the installation, that's absolutely normal, because some software needs to write into folders which require admin rights to write into. For the use of the DAW, that's not so common, but, could be necessary as well.

[dellboy]

I don't get it. You mean admin rights for the installation, or for the use of the DAW? For the installation, that's absolutely normal, because some software needs to write into folders which require admin rights to write into. For the use of the DAW, that's not so common, but, could be necessary as well.

I did not pay enough attention, but it was at the download stage while logged into my account. I probably read the warning incorrectly,but it seemed like they were asking for admin rights to the whole computer before they would install Avid Link. I naturally said no, to which I was informed that I would have to install everything manually. Anyway, it went head and installed Avid Link even though I had denied it. I have ended up with Pro Tools 2009.3 instead of the latest version,and it will not allow me to log into Avid Link.

[lfm]

You are logged in as admin as you start an installer, that is normal.
- you do this manually
- follow instructions
- done

But here you should give admin login to the installer program under the presumption it should make install ready for you.
- go and have a coffee....

Just seems so off if you cannot opt out that and do it yourself.

So got the impression that updates will be automatic in future "for your convenience", but that is an assumption I am not sure of.
- Avid got your login anyhow

I will see if I find that info again...

Go here and run video for ProTools activation....
https://www.avid.com/pro-tools/learn-and-support