Well. PT9 has hit the “online shelves” and folks have bought it up in what seems like a bit of a frenzy. A stack of love from LE users world over for the key feature requests (ADC in LE, unlocking from hardware, more tracks, TC ruler, digiT, MP3 amongst others) but the HD users and post guys on the forums – maybe the verbal minority – just cant seem to find the silver lining.
I think I made it abundantly clear in my last post that I for one am very grateful for this release. Less shannanigans moving projects from home based studios to pro studios and a more common feature set for all.
The main gripes and whines are things like “but whats in it for HD users?? You’re hitting us up for all this money for PT9HD upgrade and what do we get for it? Bugger all”. Simple answer: don’t buy it! You have backwards compatibility with PT8.1, you have Snow lepard support, if you dont see a good reason to buy PT9 HD, wait for the next release…
Whats that you say Brent? A NEXT RELEASE???
Yes folks, I can (sarcastically) confirm (from my own conjecture and suppositions) that Avid are NOT ceasing to develop the ProTools brand and PT9 will NOT be the last release of this software system ever. Yes, there may even be FUTURE FEATURES IMPLEMENTED.
It seems like a bunch of post and HD users are ignoring this simple fact. Its a single release – more will come. Did your parents not ever bash into you to have some patience? That “all good things come to those who wait?”. I don’t have a clue for sure what will come next, there’s much conjecture of some sort of HD DSP card replacement (all well and good without Motorola DSP chips to power it) but I DO have some faith that the guys at Avid will continue working, they are obviously listening to client requests and trying to meet them as this release makes bloody obvious and I for one am very happy with PT9 and what the future holds.
/me endeth rant
/me lies, it continues
So – Post features? I saw some guys whining about the Media composer interop features. Great, you work with FCP, did you forget that with PT8 you got support for Decklink cards for HD QT playback from your beloved FCP clients? This time around, the home team gets the advantage. I for one see not-insignificant time savings when communicating with MC editors now that we can share RTAS plugin settings and memory locates. The vast majority of film and TV clients in Australia work on Media composer, so I’m grateful.
Handles from mixed frame rate Avid sequences. That, for some, is a huge deal. Yes, it reminds users we dont have handles when we process stuff with Audiosuite, but you know what? Just a guess, I reckon Avid knows about it!! Maybe, just maybe, in a world suffering from the global financial crisis, with less programmers than they had 3 years ago, with a streamlined company structure, maybe they cant just wave a magic wand and invent this stuff overnight? MAYBE it will come in the fabled hypothetical NEXT RELEASE? Who knows. I dont see the point in whining about it now though.
AAF improvements – they are STILL fixing things and addressing bugs and making their interop more stable, with every release. Yes, lets snub our collective noses at that one. Thats no achievement is it? Especially since they have thrown away the revenue they were making with DigiTranslator to keep those programmers employed, oh wait, they still have jobs and Avid are paying for these fixes without that revenue now. I want to whine about that don’t I? Somehow thats a bad thing? Oh yeah, I bought DigiTranslator 5 years ago and now you’re giving it away for free?? I’m outraged. It’s AUS$800. The average post room books for AUS$100 an hour. Thats a days work. It’s been 5 years. Maybe try a different business if that’s a concern. Did you know you can claim some equipment purchases, like software, back on tax?? For crying out load!!
Last I checked some car companies were including air con with their cars at no extra cost. I bought a car with aircon 3 years ago and paid for it! I’m outraged!! I’ll write to Holden, AND ford! They’re all doing it! The EVILLLLLL!!
On top of that, you remember the IO setup changes in 8.1? Now, with PT9 everyone can talk the same language and we can move sessions around without radically moving our outputs around all the time. Not a feature of PTHD9, but a byproduct of compatibility that the PT9 release begets. THAT is a good thing and not mentioned by Avid in this release.
/me really endeth the ranting now
So yeah. 
quit your whining and get off the forums and go mix some stuff and make a living so you can afford to buy whatever software you want. If you dont want PT9, fine. Don’t buy it. I for one am all onboard and taking advantage of the timesavings to get my jobs done faster and move onto the next project.
Avid aren’t the perfect company and don’t always get it right, but don’t the people who work there deserve a little gratitude and thanks for this release? I think so, and if that makes me uncool, so be it.
That’s probably enough emotionally laden blogging for this year. Back to tutorial videos next time…lol Who would have thought having a blog could be so cathartic?
Regarding the HD users shouting, “what’s in it for me?” This was my response as well until it was explained that a v9 HD license also doubles as a PT9 with Complete Production Toolkit license as well. Thus, you pull your iLok from your main system and stick it in your laptop or home computer and BINGO – you’re good to go with PT and all the extra software trimmings on a new system with no hardware required.
It’s a pretty good deal if that feature appeals – if not, as you say, maybe sit this one out.
Exactly Michael – don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this release is so bad to skip it, I’m saying “if YOU think this release is so bad, skip it and stop whining about it!”
But my gripe is that you can now buy a system that has nearly all the features that in Pro Tools 8 were HD only for a fraction of the price that I have invested in my HD rig. Yes you are right that I should be getting a return on my investment built into my business plan. However from now on someone can buy Pro Tools 9 for much less than my HD rig set up and because of reduced overheads can undercut me. Now I know it is more than just rates, there is your personal reputation as well but in these tight financial times there are and will be clients that will go with the cheaper option.
On the session format issue, anything that makes session portability and compatibility has to be good news.
There’s a bunch of issues here really Mike. Your objection seems to be primarily that its cheaper to get into a more pro rig, true. So a new business has lower overheads, BUT less goodwill and less experience, as you also agree.
Isn’t it the nature of gear and technology to become more affordable and accessible? This is what happened with the 001 and then the MBox. They were moves by Avid/Digi seen as terrible to pros but in hindsight, not so dire. Most pros have an MBox and this release actually make that moot – from now on, you own a HD rig, you get a full featured mobile rig with it for free, as an ilok auth that works both ways.
Doesnt this also make it easier for existing businesses to expand in a tight economy? Growing business, grows the economy, good for all…
I don’t have all the answers and I’m not here to defend Avid, but in my own opinion, how can more accessible, more affordable professional DAWs, that we are purported to be experts in, be a bad thing? Wont those new businesses need to collaborate with more experienced pros? Wont they need training and mentoring?
Its a change in the landscape, yes, but with every change and evolution there are those who adapt and evolve and find opportunities, aren’t there?