[Peter Baird]

Let me paint the picture.

While I'm still very active in television production, the explosion in the availability of post-production facilities and my own indifference to marketing myself means that post work for me is now somewhat rare. Truth be told, most of my Pro Tools work is for myself--I do recording and mixing for various friends and clients, and use it to flesh out song ideas and microscopically advance my abysmal guitar skills.

This is a far cry from when I was deep into simultaneous production and post-production that went from around PT5 to PT9. After that I had a lovely interval with a D-Control and PT11 completely ITB doing music for a late night show. Now, however, not so much. The system might get used daily for 2 or 3 weeks, or it might sit for a like amount of time.

I'm coming up to my renewal deadline in November. My personal renewal nut for Ultimate is $400, and while that isn't a huge number it isn't a small one either.

On the plus side, Ultimate continues my relationship with all my present HD hardware and software. I'm used to the way Midi works in PT, and while it can be slow, I can be slow as well. I'm particularly addicted to the place existing song on timeline/get tempo close with click track/warp song to grid workflow. And PT still seems to be the most comprehensive package of audio production tools.

On the negative side Avid seems somewhat stuck in place with a relatively old chunk of code that has only gotten buggier as more capabilities are added. I really detest 9096 crashes (and yes, I do all my due diligence on versions and optimizations), and it took an unconscionably long time for EuCon to stabilize.

I've recently started a relationship with Studio One, and I like the idea of not being on a renewal plan, but I still seem to open PT whenever I start a project. Of course I keep my perpetual license if I stop renewing, but it would really feel like the end of era. Anybody want to weigh in?

Peter