PT 10 launch at Turramurra

[Manning]

For the Sydney folks, Turramurra are having a Pro Tools 10 Launch on Wed Night (ie. Nov 23, 2011). Details on their website.
http://www.turramurramusic.com.au/pages/Home.aspx

I've already booked my spot, as has Marc Vass (my business partner). Anyone else going?

[Linear]

launch? i've had PT10 for a week or so. I even bought it locally!

I have to say it's a great upgrade. It's been flogged for the last week and hasn't missed a beat.

Chris

[Manning]

Am I the only one going?

They're giving away a copy of PT10, so it's worth it just for that (plus I only live 10 mins from Turramurra Music).

[jeep]

How was the launch?

[Manning]

Really good - you can read all the articles in the world but nothing beats seeing it in operation. I'm still not convinced about the pricing, but the software itself is just fantastic - a HUGE advance on PT9.

Of course the absolute coolest feature (disk caching) is only in PT10HD, not PT10. (You can buy the "Production Toolkit" for a mere $2K extra which also gives you these features). Disk caching essentially makes the performance of your hard drives irrelevant - you could even run a session off a USB stick or a Wifi drives if you were so inclined. Watching him load up 112 simultaneous tracks and then jump around instantly made me envious.

The HDx card is also impressive. It's officially equivalent to a "minimum" of a HD5 (in the presentation they claimed lab results equivalent to a HD7). So on a dollar basis that's a huge advance in performance.

The presenter did a good job, but he couldn't avoid the fact that PT10 might as well be called "PT-temp" - it's clearly a stepping stone to PT11.

Clearly Avid are gearing up for the move to true 64bit. That move is really going to hurt because basically EVERYTHING we use today will be made obsolete, blue boxes, TDM, HD cards. (They're 32 bit, and Avid won't be making room for them in the new world.)

Still as painful as this is, imagine the chaos that would have happened if Avid simply released a 64 bit platform without giving us a year's warning. Avid have also made a decision to force people to abandon the 32 bit legacy devices. They only stopped selling the 192 I/O in August 2010, so anyone who bought one then has grounds to be irked. (See the relevant Hitler video I posted elsewhere).

The main thing I didn't like - all of the standard jargon is being recreated using video language. We no longer have "regions" but "clips". (There were other examples but I can't remember them). I never deal with video people, but for post and ADR guys I can see how it might be good.

The coolest benefit of the night was winning the Door prize of a free copy of PT10 (not PT10HD sadly).

[reddirt]

After the honeymoon guys..... how's PT10 going particularly in the reliability stakes and what O.S. are you running.
I need to upgrade from 7.4 as I want to run a UAD satellite ( it requires Snow Leopard or Lion which won't run 7.4) so clue me in please if it's reliable or whether I should go for PT9 (or 8) ?
I'm on LE/003
Cheers, Ross

Ross Muir
Alice Springs

[jeep]

After the honeymoon guys..... how's PT10 going particularly in the reliability stakes and what O.S. are you running.
I need to upgrade from 7.4 as I want to run a UAD satellite ( it requires Snow Leopard or Lion which won't run 7.4) so clue me in please if it's reliable or whether I should go for PT9 (or 8) ?
I'm on LE/003
Cheers, Ross

Ross Muir
Alice Springs

If I were you, I'd go to PT9. I upgraded to PT10 in the first week it came out (I know not to do this but was just too excited about a few certain features) and have kind of regretted it ever since.

PT9 was a lot more stable than 10, to the point where I can no longer play any mixes I was easily running on 9. I keep getting 'CPU Overload' and ''Hardware Buffer Size' errors, sometimes when my session only has 1 track! The only reason I can think of as to why this is happening is that PT10 is still full of bugs, and unfortunately there are no CS pack upgrades as of yet...

There are some fantastic new features in PT10, and the ones I found most useful were:

- Input monitoring on every individual track (like HD)
- More Delay Compensation
- Clip Gain

For me, the cons outweigh the pros, and so I would not recommend PT10 just yet.

Oh and just so you know I am using the latest MacBook Pro which has been fully upgraded to the highest specs, running OS Lion 10.7.2.

Best,

[Manning]

I'm with Jean-Paul (and I got a free copy of PT10)

We've also decided to not do anything for at least 12 months, and then do a wholesale upgrade including HDx card and the new I/O modules. Even without the software instability there are just way too many unknowns.

In 12 months time...
- the plugin vendors will have (hopefully) completed their upgrades to AAX format,
- the PT software will (hopefully) have stabilised,
- we'll (hopefully) know what's happening with PT11 and
- we'll (hopefully) know what Apple are doing with their Mac Pro.
- the 3rd party I/O vendors will have (hopefully) made their forays into the PT10 compatible market

As far as Ross's question, there are very cheap copies of PT9 floating around, well worth picking one up. Despite really wanting the new features of PT10 I still love PT9.

[HA_DA_JA]

I think if you upgrade to version 9 you have to go to 10.7 on a mac.
If you stay on 10.6.? with Pro Tools 9 you will have midi problems.
I have stayed on ver 8.03 with 10.6.4 on digi 003R with no problems.
I am debating whether to continue with Pro Tools as I will soon have to do a major upgrade with PT versions and plugins formats and OS system which I dont necessarily wanting to be doing every 2-3 years from which I derive a limited amount of income from.
Logic is looking very enticing or is this "the grass is always greener" on the other side scenario?

[Manning]

Dale

Having spent some time recently with friends who are running Live and Cubase on Windows machines, I am now having a real struggle trying to remember why I went onto the Mac platform to begin with.

For all of the propaganda about how "Macs are far better for audio, etc", I'm seeing people have trouble-free upgrades, cheaper hardware and stable software on their Windows platforms.

Meanwhile my Macs crash regularly, and/or fail to operate properly when not actually crashing, plus require constant vigilance about which version of the OS is being run, etc. Add in the rumours that Logic and the Mac Pro are about to be killed off...

[HA_DA_JA]

I follow Avids/Digidesigns compatibility list so I dont have any crashes or midi problems or any upgrade problems.
I am sorry if I gave you that assumption. I have had no crashes with Pro Tools on my various Macs for quite a few years now.
The midi problem is one that has been made known by other people who have upgraded without heeding Avids/Digidesigns known bugs/problem lists. I was just listing this for the poster in case he was using MIDI.

As for upgrade prices in software for Macs I have no need to purchase these as I adhere to replacing my computer every 3 years when the warranty runs out.
I then get the OS version which I can upgrade for free as it goes through its transformations for example 10.6.1 - 10.6.2 - 10.6.3- 10.6.4 These are all free until it reaches a new version e.g. 10.7 upon which I decide then whether to pay the $50 for the new OS. Generally I get away with only $50 for the whole 3 years.
The considerations that then come into play is how "the dance" between the new software, the Audio program, and my personal choice of Plug ins and the personal choice of Software instruments and external hardware come together in "the dance."
I count myself very lucky that I have chosen well over the last 15 years of putting together my personal rig for my personal tastes.
I am just now coming to the realisation of this day and age of the limitations of where this equipment will take me if I still choose to throw small amounts of money into my hobby.
I continue to struggle with the concept of applying more of myself and my funds into todays culture with very little returns. And sometimes there are very hazardous results and collateral damage that can occur to others who are just as important like immediate family and other important relationships. Who wants to build up a nice little business then loose it all to a failed relationship.
We all know of people who have poured a lot of time and resources into projects that come away with no money no posssesions and no relationships. I do not want to become another statistic.
So hence I always stuggle with keeping the balance of "the dance" going for me and my family.