Upgrade to Pro Tools HD for Students?

[TheMattHadder]

Hi guys, I'm not sure which forum would be the best place to make this request but I am fairly new to the forum so please bear with me.

I'm the class rep/president for our Sound Design program at my school (Vancouver Film School) where the classes use 9HD and/or 9+CPTK licenses at school to teach Pro Tools for film and video games etc.

Many of our homework assignments involve long hours of editing and so many of us students have purchased PT 9,10,11 vanilla but our exams and projects focus almost squarely on HD functionality especially for automation.

As future industry professionals we would all greatly benefit from an upgrade path to 10HD/11HD software with an EDU price structure as many of us can't afford the hardware to access the HD software features we will be tested on and working with in larger studios.

Where would we make a request like this to appeal to Avid to help us students get a leg up on our Avid learning?

Thanks in advance guys, I really appreciate all the info I've got from this community so far!


2012 15" MacBook Pro
• 2.6GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB GDDR5
• 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x8GB
• 500GB Samsung 840 series SSD boot drive
• 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm in optical bay
• OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion

Software

• Pro Tools 10/11 EDU w/ MBox 3
• Logic X
• Reaper
• NI Maschine MK1

[nigelpry]

Check out previous threads in which i and others set out in detail the situation that students are often in regarding needing HD features.

Despite a vigorous campaign, Avid is not prepared to provide edu licensing of HD. It is also not prepared to provide edu upgrade pricing to 11HD for people who previously bought CPTK at edu pricing. Avid asserts that CPTK was never sold at edu pricing. Documentary evidence to the contrary was provided to Avid but so far they have not relented.

Avid has clearly decided its the end of the road for students so far as accessing HD functionality at a sensible price point.

[TheMattHadder]

Thanks for your reply Nigel. Ive read many of the threads related to the upgrade path for students and non-students. I certainly don't share your opinion that Avid has elected to discontinue student support indefinitely. I believe they are in the midst of a transition of both their product line and their company as a whole.

While this year and product cycle has so far been an overwhelmingly complex set of releases both developmentally and in the realm of public relations, I firmly believe they will offer education institutions and students the opportunity at some time (soon) to train on the HD level software at a discounted rate. I only want to reflect that sentiment in the right thread so that my vote can be counted amongst the other positive hopefuls.

[nigelpry]

Well of course you are entitled to remain optimistic.

However, all existing students who had previously bought CPTK at a discount 'educational' price point, have been offered no discount on the cost of upgrading to HD to retain the HD functionality previously provided via a CPTK license, and Avid deny that CPTK was ever offered at educational pricing despite being provided with docmentary evidence confirming that it was.

The evidence covered discounts obtained via the old Digidesign Educational Store, and edcational discounts offered right up to this summer by educational suppliers such as Studica.com

Avid says they never authorised Studica and the like to offer CPTK educational discounts and has avoided commenting on availability via the former Digidesign Education Store.

I have been in extensive communication directly with Avid, at their request, as part of which I supplied scans of documentation demonstrating purchase of CPTK with educational discount. In other threads in this forum, I and others have described in detail the ramifications of Avid's decisions in relation both to CPTK's withdrawal generally, and spcifically how those decisions impact upon edcuational establishments and students.

So, while you are perfctly entitled to remain optimistic, I see no grounds for such optimism. Avid has made it 100% clear that they do not see any requirement for students to be provided with any facility to buy HD software at a discounted price.

In fact, unless you already have a CPTK licence, (which along with a PT9/10/11 license you can use to upgrade to 11HD software only), or are able to acquire one second hand, you can only buy 11HD software as part of a hardware/software bundle. The only way to get a discount on that is to buy M-Box Pro, 002 or 003 hardware second hand, for which Avid provides a discounted trade up facility to HDN hardware, and an 11HD licence comes with it (or a higher spec HD system that you can use to get a discounted trade up to a new HDX system).

Also, bear in mind that if you acquire an 11HD software licence second hand, it will never 'belong' to you, as Avid does not allow 11HD licences to be transferred to another iLok account (unlike CPTK and PT9/10 licences, which can be transferred). So it will remain tied to the original owner's iLok account and your ownership of it will not appear listed in your Avid account.

There is every likelihood that you will be unable to upgrade it in the future, unless you keep in touch with whoever the original owner was and persuade him/her to upgrade on your behalf. Likewise, you'll have to get them to download any software updates for you, because the links to do that are now via your avid account, and PT11 won't be listed in your account. The only other way to get an update is to wait until Avid releases an updated trial version. Previous download links were freely available (for PT10 and below), but now with PT11 they are only accessible via your Avid account, and then only if you have PT11 registered in it.

Finally, bear in mind the backlash that they would unleash if, having created a situation in which students with CPTK have had to pay full price for the upgrade to 11HD to retain the same functionality in the new version as they previously had, Avid belatedly changed their minds and began offering student discounts for HD software purchases, AND allowed them to buy it without having to buy HD hardware.

All in all, I'm afraid your optimism is unwarranted. Sorry to burst that bubble.

[TheMattHadder]

I can tell you have been witness to quite a bit of history involving this scenario and I appreciate your reply man. So thank you

I was aware of some of this history, like the previously provided educational CPTK discounts etc. It makes me wish I had bought the CPTK before buying PT 11 so I could have bought the software at the discounted rate (even though my educational upgrade to 11 was only $99)

No educational facility worth its' salt is going to only provide PT vanilla variety to its' students for training. But the way Avid has discontinued CPTK support to new facilities almost places it out of reach for Edu institutions (our school has over 100 licenses) as well as out of $$$ reach for the students.

Also, this confusing approach for upgrading places PT 11 out of reach for most facilities also as it eliminates an upgrade path to HD software only by giving up the existing CPTK licenses.

Hopefully they cook up some new plan before 12 rolls around.

[Craig F]

Originally Posted by TheMattHadder

No educational facility worth its' salt is going to only provide PT vanilla variety to its' students for training.

not true, USC Cinematic Arts runs about 80 plain to 26 HD rigs

[nigelpry]

The educational establishments I have been involved with in the UK have HD rigs in their studios, CPTK rigs in their edit suites, and a mix of CPTK and vanilla rigs in classrooms.

The point, as has been made ad nausiem, is that a) CPTK's withdrawal has made upgrade costs significantly more expensive and that b) the complete lack of any prior warning about its impending withdrawal prevented any budgetting for those increased costs.

The net result is that these establishments are not in a position to upgrade, as they don't have the budget, and so are sticking with V10. In the meantime, the new intake of students will buy V11, creating additional problems for teaching and support staff dealing with student confusion over feature differences between what the students have and what the establishment provides.

Avid's total silence on the subject despite vigourous explicit an descriptive commentary on the subject, has amply demonstrated its lack of interest in this sector of the market, incredible when we are talking about educating the next generation of power users.

I'm still gobsmacked!