Student to HD license upgrade?!

[TheGrobinson]

I've been trying to sift through the piles of threads describing what I can do, can't do and otherwise general advice when it comes to upgrades, cross-grades, "waiting it out", and switching to different daws.

Here's MY situation. Two or so years ago I became an owner of Pro Tools 9 with a student license. I enjoyed a price break, and since the details behind the different coincidental releases of any version of Pro Tools are always a mystery, I unknowingly was afforded free version upgrades for 4 years. How about that. I have since graduated from my institution of choice and I want the full versatility of the HD software (Specifically VCA groups, ram cacheing and input monitoring.)

Recap:

I have Pro Tools 10/11 via a 2 year old student license (NO CPTK)

I want HD features.

Is there an option for me to upgrade to 10HD/11HD without paying full price and having to buy HD hardware?

Would I just have to suck it up and spend upwards of $5000?

I don't want any new interface, thunderbolt box or PCIe cards because my 2009 MacBook Pro doesn't have thunderbolt and and obviously can't support PCIe. Im content with my Saffire 56. I'm surprised I haven't seen any Non HD to HD upgrade options with this version.

[Southsidemusic]

Hi

The only route to go HD is either get a second hand CPTK and upgrade your PT10/11 with the CPTK to 10/11HD at $599 or you will need to go the expensive route buying the Hardware package and the cheapest way into HD would run approx $4500 and you get an OMNI (Which sounds really superb). You need to practise caution if you want to buy the CPTK or a second hand HD license as the HD 10/11 licenses are not transferable without the hardware attached to it and you need the iLok2 it is located on along with the Avid account in order to update/upgrade later on to HD12 aswell as updates for PT11HD.
It sounds like a risky move and there are a bunch of threads here on the forum about this and I would advice not to jump onto anythng second hand without due diligence.

Sorry that the news are dire but atleast you know that just "buying" a HD license option from Avid doesn't exist and have never existed so I wish you all the best and please be careful and read up on some of the outcomes here first.

Best
Chris

PS. Welcome to the APAC forum. Just a sidenote: no need to put large colored letters in order to get help as it doesn't look so nice. Just a thought and again Welcome to the forum

[JFreak]

HD10/11 bundle can be stored on ilok1 but if you do so, you can only use HD10 software. It is HD11 which requires ilok2