Totally in favour of this.
We've been using our ProControl set-up since 1999, which arguably is a pretty darned good run for a tech product, so personally we're not in the "Avid are heartless, profiteering b@$#@&ds" camp.
In our particular case, we're about to finally upgrade our entire digitial audio system, having held off for years on the principle of "if it ain't broke don't fix it", and we've been looking at the available control surface options. Although there are undeniably some cool features out there, nothing in our opinion inspires the same kind of confidence that ProControl does in a purely physical sense. It's something sturdy that you can lean your elbows on and not flinch when the drummer jabs at the buttons right after doing a take. And, aside from an exciting episode involving a power supply and a lot of smoke, all four of our units have behaved themselves impeccably for 15 years.
In fact, our plan to go for a PT 10 + third-party thunderbolt hardware system rather than a PT 11 HDX w/Avid hardware system is based largely on the non-availability of any comparable, compatible control surfaces on the current market. There's fiddly, flimsy gear, and there's big-budget fancy gear, but not a whole lot in between.
As to the economic viability of Avid allocating resources to writing a driver patch for a 16-year-old product... my guess is that if they could, they likely would. But the reality is usually that development teams are already stressed enough trying to chase the bugs out of
new product by the time it ships, without adding legacy support to their workload. No company can afford to be behind the cutting edge, so there's immense pressure to get new stuff out the door before the competition does. So it's not surprising that support is often dropped sooner than the user would like - it's just the economics of the market... we can't expect to have both cool new stuff AND perpetual support for our old stuff... something has to give. I'm not saying that it's a
good thing, just that it's not surprising.
Having said that... every now and then, a company will come up with a product that is exceptional in some way, and if, sixteen years later, that product
continues to be exceptional, arguably the smart thing for that company to do might be to make the most of the fact - it's something to be proud of!. To have created a product that is still in widespread use long after the rest of the field has faded speaks volumes, and conveys a kind of message that conventional marketing struggles to. Longevity is a rare and beautiful thing in digital audio technology for obvious reasons: the dramatic improvements in functionality and performance of new gear soon makes the previous generation obsolete. I would argue that ProControl is one of the exceptions to the above, perhaps for the following reasons:
- The job description for a DAW control surface hasn't changed that much in sixteen years, so ProControl is as functional today as it was in 1998, or at least would be, given compatible drivers. Offhand, I can't think of any aspect of it that could be said to be obsolete.
- In comparison to functionally comparable, currently shipping products, ProControl is built like a
tank, with a metal case, "proper" buttons, alphanumeric displays that won't fade after a few years, and many user-serviceable parts.
- Visually, its form follows function, not fashion - it still looks professional, understated and classy.
- A whole bunch of people seem really keen to keep using it.
So it seems to me, naively, that it might well be worth considering restoring at least basic support for ProControl, on the grounds that the continuing presence of a ubiquitous, dependable and long-serving product - albeit an inherited one - makes a positive contribution to the brand image and reputation of the company that made it.
And of course it would make
us happy too!
