Pro Tools 12.7.1 to Pro Tools 2018 Questions

[robert-morton]

I am the "tech friend" for the Pro Tools user here (Rob Morton), and after a year of him doing no upgrades (Mac OS or Pro Tools), I hope in one visit to bring him up to being as current as possible.

Pro Tools 2018.4 and 2018.3 are both available for him via his Products Page (Perpetual Product, though I think just Pro Tools 12.7.1 - not "HD").

Question 1: How similar does the "Ultimate" software look and function to PT 12.7.1? Should a brilliant musician (Rob) but more-hesitant-computer-guy (Rob) be able to adjust? He does have a tech friend (me) who can assist via screen share to figure some things out when need be...

Question 2: 2018.4 is really new, so is it typical to see people finding bugs in these forums? Perhaps safest to go up to only 2018.3?

Question 3: I'll be bringing his Mac up from OSX 10.12.3 (Sierra) to High Sierra, but it is true I should upgrade only to OSX 10.13.3 (current is 10.13.4) since OSX 10.13.3 is the newest Mac OS blessed on the Avid compatibility charts, right?

Question 4: (Hopefully just a dumb question!) Is Pro Tools 2018 backwards compatible enough such that his piles and piles of "songs" will reload via the .ptx files and behave just fine?

Thanks for any feedback!
Rich Apple (for Rob Morton)

[albee1952]

Question 1: looks very similar, but added a fair number of new features to learn.

Question 2: I'd probably go right to 2018.4(but see the next question)

Question 3: Don't update the current system drive. Clone it(preferrably to a fresh SSD with Trim enabled)>Install the cloned drive and update that. (if anything goes sour, you/he can swap the old drive back into the machine and go back to working 12.7.1) You/he CAN also choose to rename 12.7.1 and then install 2018.4 alongside.

Question 4: 2018.4 should have no problem opening any older .ptx or .pts, as long as audio is in Wave or AIFF(SD II files don't work past PT10 on Mac)

[robert-morton]

Dave (as in... Dave),

Thanks for your answers. 1-Learning the new features would no doubt be worth it, and I find two "What's New In..." downloadable documents (2018.1 and then 2018.4) that should help make that work for him.

3- There's no SSD involved on the year old iMac, so would probably clone to a Mac Journaled external - I know of "Carbon Copy Clone"r... That is a good idea for safety. But while the second part of your answer sounds intriguing (rename 12.7.1 and do a parallel install of 2018.4), the Pro Tools compatibility charts look like that couldn't be... Hmmm. He's been at OSX 10.12.3 this entire year and according to that compatibility chart for Pro Tools, his 12.7.1 isn't supposed to work on that OSX version, 10.12.2 being the newest blessed OSX. Hmmm.

4- Well that aspect should be a-okay, then!

Again, thanks for your advice!

Rich (for Rob)

[robert-morton]

Originally Posted by robert-morton

Question 1: How similar does the "Ultimate" software look and function to PT 12.7.1?

I should clarify, Rob does not have Pro Tools HD so no, the upgrade will not be to the Pro Tools 2018 Ultimate. Just Pro tools 2018.4 (unultimate).

A bootable backup image is unfortunately a luxury that won't be happening. A half day window prevents a bootable clone, but if I can't get it all there, I will have done a Time Machine backup just before doing anything and could revert to that if need be.

Rob does have 2018.3 (so was their March release?) in his Downloads too, so I might look more at 2018.4 bug reporting a bit to see if it might be better to go with 2018.3 and walk him through less dramatic upgrades remotely. OSX 10.13.3 is blessed for both 2018.4 and 2018.3 so we'll go with that for the OS upgrade...

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

Originally Posted by robert-morton

Pro tools 2018.4 (unultimate).

This is now the new name for regular Pro Tools... Pro Tools UnUltimate.

[The Weed]

Originally Posted by robert-morton

A bootable backup image is unfortunately a luxury that won't be happening. A half day window prevents a bootable clone, but if I can't get it all there, I will have done a Time Machine backup just before doing anything and could revert to that if need be

Instead of a clone make an image, takes a lot less time. Avid used to recommend SuperDuper. Many here use Carbon Copy Cloner.

[robert-morton]

I think I should add some sort of Epilogue since I did get some good advice and help here. As the “tech friend” who helped the Pro Tools musician (Rob), I should not overplay that “tech” part. It all turned out okay that I skipped the Carbon Copy Cloner step, but in retrospect (and having created a bootable via CCC for my own Mac Mini), I’m guessing it wouldn’t have taken much more than an hour. But skip it I did, and no, I didn’t need it. (Good idea to create one my next trip down, though…)

I planned to upgrade to only Mac OS 10.13.3 because Avid and Apple are still working on some problems with 10.13.4, but after finding downloadables for 10.13.3 and 10.13.2 etc. that were not full upgrades (requirements were the OS being at the prior 10.13 version), I somehow thought then that just upgrading the OS via the “App Store” would bring it up from 10.12 to 10.13.0 and then offer further upgrade steps to get to 10.13.3. Of course, nope. The Apple OS Upgrade via the App Store went through it all automatically, and landed at the latest/greatest - OS 10.13.4.

That said, Pro Tools 2018.4 “UnUltimate” is working fine for Rob at OS 10.13.4, so perhaps his hardware interface for Audio isn’t in the Avid problem pile they are working on. I do plan on us doing whatever upgrades come next (2018.5 blessed for OS 10.13.4? The next OS 10.13.5 making the Mac side all better?) remotely and keeping him up to date. He’s getting into more virtual instruments and that must mean pushing the CPU more, etc.

I should offer that the more I’ve looked over Rob’s shoulder (Screen Share) to help here and there with Pro Tools, the more I am impressed by it. For my own minor music stuff I do use Logic Pro 8 (don’t hiss and boo!) on my old Mac Pro “Cheesegrater,” which remains at the Mac Snow Leopard OS because of lots of older software…

Thanks,
Rich