Renew Avid Upgrade plan?

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alexdingley
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Renew Avid Upgrade plan?

Post by alexdingley » Mon Feb 29, 2016 8:01 am

I just got an alert from Avid, that my first year of the Avid upgrade plan is coming to a close. I'd bought the PT12+1yr upgrade about a year ago.

Honestly, I haven't even installed PT12. I'm still running 11, because I only use PT for tracking, and this was a 'rebuilding year' for me; bought a house, just finished building the studio space.

So, anyway ??Avid is offering $99/yr for this upgrade/support plan & they're giving away the Avid '11' plug-in (guitar amp modeling) if I upgrade before the end of March.

Does anyone see any major benefits to keeping on their upgrade plan? Can't I just join the upgrade plan later if/when there's a new PT version that i want?

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Post by kslight » Mon Feb 29, 2016 8:36 am

I am on the same upgrade plan, I believe mine expires next month.

I personally believe that PT12 is leaps and bounds better than every version I've used before it...including 11. It just seems to run a whole lot better, even on an old 2010 Mac Pro system like mine.

I have no reservations about sending Avid another $99.

Though its tough to forecast the future of Avid and Pro Tools in general, given their recent history (cutting jobs, etc). But they have held their end of the bargain with updates since I have been on this plan, so I have reasonable faith that they will keep it updated.


I already have the '11 effects (all those plugins became available for "free" sometime in an Update to 12). I haven't used them yet. Apparently if I don't update I will lose access to them. Not a big deal probably. Everything else is supposed to function as normal.

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Fair

Post by alexdingley » Mon Feb 29, 2016 2:36 pm

That's helpful... Yeah, I bought the upgrade plan right when 12 was announced (or thereabouts) but I tend never to install a .0 version of PT (because who does that???)

...and then I never got around to it. I suppose I will do it next week when I finally christen the new studio space.

Thanks for the input! I'll probably pony up.

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Post by kslight » Mon Feb 29, 2016 3:17 pm

I agree about installing x.0 versions, but it's now 12.4x and its rock solid for me. And performs very well.

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Post by Nick Sevilla » Thu Mar 03, 2016 2:15 pm

I am enjoying 12.4 on my mac laptop.

Will renew my subscription as well.

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alexdingley
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Re: Renew Avid Upgrade plan?

Post by alexdingley » Thu Apr 07, 2016 3:39 pm

This has been a really bad experience with Avid customer care... I'm really frustrated by the scenario.

When I bought the plan, I purchased through a vendor... so not directly through Avid. I didn't keep exquisite track of my purchase date / didn't set a reminder to punch in a credit card in the avid master account page.

I never saw any emails from Avid about making sure to renew during my year since the purchase. The emails I was recently getting (that prompted me to post this question on the TOMB) were, unfortunately, not telling me to make to renew BEFORE my year comes up... but they were actually encouraging me to renew EVEN THOUGH my year had expired. Though... they weren't worded that way.

The emails used the phrase: Renew your $99 yearly support plan...

But since I'd already missed the anniversary (and apparently the few week grace period) I am not eligible to renew for $99. I'll have to pay $299 just to opt back in for this year... then, subsequent years will be $99.

I went back and forth with customer care who didn't budge or even really seem genuinely sympathetic... Also, they keep insisting multiple renew emails go out during the first year (which I'd genuinely expect to be true) but I keep all promo emails from Pro audio dealers in an email folder... and it contains no avid emails about renewing.

So I'm basically out in the cold unless I feel like ponying up a "back in the club" ransom. I definitely own my part in not setting a reminder / being more proactive... but I've never been on either side of a customer-service request that was this inflexible. I'm saying "hey ???I want to give you this money" and I'm getting shut down.

blergh...

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Post by kslight » Thu Apr 07, 2016 4:04 pm

I bought my original plan from sweet water, and between Avid, Sweetwater, my sales rep, and the Avid License Manager software that's always running on my computer...I had no shortage of reminders. I ended up renewing a couple weeks ago, through Sweetwater again, as mine expired 3/31.

Don't know who you bought from but no way would I want to pay $299...which was a good motivation to pucker up for $99.

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Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Thu Apr 07, 2016 5:36 pm

Is there really any level of new functionality in there that makes it worth updating every year? I'm basically running PT as a tape machine with editing capabilities. My mixes almost always happen out of the box and I'm not a heavy plug in user. At this point I feel like the only thing that would make me want to upgrade is having my computer die and being forced to upgrade because of compatibility issues.

It's a weird thing. I want to think of software as just another piece of gear but with the exception of routine maintenance every other piece of gear I own keeps trucking along just fine without me needing to shell out money year after year. I have pieces that are older and in better shape than I am.

It just feels like a cash grab. Am I crazy?

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Post by kslight » Thu Apr 07, 2016 7:01 pm

Yes, PT12.5 is way more functional than 10 or 11. It's not like Microsoft Office where they change the menu all around between upgrades but still 99% the same as Office 97 or whatever.

12.5 is much faster, not crash prone, unlike versions 8-10... and there are a great deal of new features that I use every day... I think it's fantastic being able to see waveforms overlap each other when doing edits, for example...or offline bounce...or being able to right click on a group of tracks or a buss and bounce that...indispensable for film

I wouldn't send Avid money otherwise because I rarely care about having latest or greatest...my Mac Pro is quite old...

But I guess I can see how if you never tried it you might see it as a cash grab.
Last edited by kslight on Fri Apr 08, 2016 4:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Renew Avid Upgrade plan?

Post by sdelsolray » Thu Apr 07, 2016 7:52 pm

alexdingley wrote:I just got an alert from Avid, that my first year of the Avid upgrade plan is coming to a close. I'd bought the PT12+1yr upgrade about a year ago.

Honestly, I haven't even installed PT12. I'm still running 11, because I only use PT for tracking, and this was a 'rebuilding year' for me; bought a house, just finished building the studio space.

So, anyway ??Avid is offering $99/yr for this upgrade/support plan & they're giving away the Avid '11' plug-in (guitar amp modeling) if I upgrade before the end of March.

Does anyone see any major benefits to keeping on their upgrade plan? Can't I just join the upgrade plan later if/when there's a new PT version that i want?
Keep in mind that if you let your subscription lapse, you can still use PT 11 or 12, but any further upgrades will require you to buy the product again, like at $699 or whatever the then current price is.

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Post by JWL » Thu Apr 07, 2016 10:48 pm

Crap like this is the biggest reason I will never understand why Pro Tools remains so dominant in Pro Audio.

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Re: Renew Avid Upgrade plan?

Post by kslight » Fri Apr 08, 2016 4:34 am

sdelsolray wrote:
alexdingley wrote:I just got an alert from Avid, that my first year of the Avid upgrade plan is coming to a close. I'd bought the PT12+1yr upgrade about a year ago.

Honestly, I haven't even installed PT12. I'm still running 11, because I only use PT for tracking, and this was a 'rebuilding year' for me; bought a house, just finished building the studio space.

So, anyway ??Avid is offering $99/yr for this upgrade/support plan & they're giving away the Avid '11' plug-in (guitar amp modeling) if I upgrade before the end of March.

Does anyone see any major benefits to keeping on their upgrade plan? Can't I just join the upgrade plan later if/when there's a new PT version that i want?
Keep in mind that if you let your subscription lapse, you can still use PT 11 or 12, but any further upgrades will require you to buy the product again, like at $699 or whatever the then current price is.

Wrong, it's $299 to restart a lapsed plan.

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Post by mrc » Fri Apr 08, 2016 5:44 am

Simply blackmail. I'll never go beyond 11. Presonus Studio One 3.2 and Logic will do nicely. If everyone refused to pay the ransom, it would go away across the board.

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Re: Renew Avid Upgrade plan?

Post by alexdingley » Fri Apr 08, 2016 7:16 am

kslight wrote:Wrong, it's $299 to restart a lapsed plan.
So, do you mean that no matter how many years lapsed, it's only gonna be $299??? That might be helpful, if I don't feel compelled to upgrade for 2+years... which is totally feasible. I'm not running a commercial facility.

When I made the original post, I thought I was still within my year ??which was incorrect. I had my dates mixed up. As mentioned, I totally own the part where I let it lapse, but 3X the yearly fee for a lapse is highway-fucking-robbery. If it were $149 to opt back in, then subsequent years back at $99, this wouldn't be something that bothered me so terribly much.

They're just ruthless about this stuff, because they don't feel like they have to bend on anything. To the point made by MRC???it's us who let this stuff happen, by paying the prices they charge.

Right now I'm at v12.4 (i think)... so not having future upgrades certainly isn't keeping me from recording. I do plenty of work in Logic (still running v9) so, it's not like I need to be on the most current version at all times. Just hate to be left in the dust eventually.

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Re: Renew Avid Upgrade plan?

Post by kslight » Fri Apr 08, 2016 8:32 am

alexdingley wrote:
kslight wrote:Wrong, it's $299 to restart a lapsed plan.
So, do you mean that no matter how many years lapsed, it's only gonna be $299??? That might be helpful, if I don't feel compelled to upgrade for 2+years... which is totally feasible. I'm not running a commercial facility.

When I made the original post, I thought I was still within my year ??which was incorrect. I had my dates mixed up. As mentioned, I totally own the part where I let it lapse, but 3X the yearly fee for a lapse is highway-fucking-robbery. If it were $149 to opt back in, then subsequent years back at $99, this wouldn't be something that bothered me so terribly much.

They're just ruthless about this stuff, because they don't feel like they have to bend on anything. To the point made by MRC???it's us who let this stuff happen, by paying the prices they charge.

Right now I'm at v12.4 (i think)... so not having future upgrades certainly isn't keeping me from recording. I do plenty of work in Logic (still running v9) so, it's not like I need to be on the most current version at all times. Just hate to be left in the dust eventually.
That's the way I understand it.

It's really no different than if you were like me before...and only bought major upgrades every few years at $299 or $399 or whatever, except now it's being amortized to $99 a year, and updated a lot more frequently. The difference between 11 and 12.5 is bigger than 6 and 10, IMHO.

I'm not saying it's right or wrong or fair or unfair for every individual, but I had a one year subscription (created out of a promotion where I updated from 9 to 11 which included a free update to 12 and a subscription through 3/31/16 for $299) and I was satisfied with how Avid handled that year (really ended up being 1.5 years or so), so $99 for another year like this last one I thought was reasonable. Ask me again in 2017 if it's still worth it.

When you consider that many other top developers believe $29 month is the magic number, I would rather pay $99/year. I mean, yeah, I'd rather not pay at all, of course, but given my choices...

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