M-powered pro will end ?????

[YoRugMan]

Merging sounds ok, all they would need to do, as Ludia suggested, is incorporate all the M-Powered interface support into LE - wouldn't they?

My understanding is that MP and LE are basically identical - it's HD that has noticeable differences.

[kippertie]

I haven't yet seen anything to suggest that M Powered is going anywhere just yet. I would however like to comment because this has been a pet subject of mine for quite some time.

Does it occur to anyone else that M-powered existing at all doesn't make any sense? It confuses the product line. If I want to buy my first PT system what should I buy? (this is a question I get asked a lot as I am a pro tools tutor at a college). M-powered can seem to offer better value for money compared to LE but not by much, the two versions differ, but not by much (if you only work in music the differences really are relatively minor). The pricing makes it less than straightforward to compare the two. The whole thing looks like a product lineup a marketing department would object to as it confuses potential customers - Why is it like this?

I asked one of the Digi guys why this situation exists at LIMS two years ago (I do know who I spoke to but I'll keep names out of it). He explained that M-powered was only devised to allow Digi to access a pre-existing M-Audio user base and extend Digi's penetration into the home user market (remember at the time Digi bought M Audio we were a long way away from PT8 with all its pretty eye candy and MIDI toys and was still regarded as rather weak for MIDI). Even then I got the impression Digi felt they had created something without having a clear idea how they would move these new customers on from M-powered to LE/HD. M-powered was only ever supposed to be an interim product.

The introduction of PT essentials probably gives a clue as to where they perhaps should have pitched M-powered but the reaction as far as i can tell seems to have been that PT essentials is rather too cut down to be taken seriously especially considering M-powered exists!

When I read about Mackie's M-powered compatible driver I thought the idea of a jailbroken M-powered might focus Digi's attention on this issue. We'll have to wait and see...

Digi's experience with the hacking of Pro Tools free all those years ago and the fact that tying software to hardware has proven so successful at preventing piracy (which is after all the single biggest threat to this business) suggests to me that the LE model will always be preferable to Digi and given that there isn't a good reason to offer two products which effectively compete with each other I have to say that although M-powered's time isn't necessarily now that time must surely come.

By this stage the student wanting a yes/no answer has usually left...

What do you all think?

[JChance]

I have a feeling something is coming as well. Notice that the new Digidesign Eleven Rack (an LE interface) is advertised all over the M-Audio site.

Plus, I noticed when I updated to 8.0.3 last week that now both of my Macs have some type of Eleven rack driver installed in my system preferences.

I have no insider knowledge... But small clues seem to point in a merger of the two lines, IMO. Either that, or they are going to re-design the whole lineup.

[YoRugMan]

Well, you definitely answered your own question in a way kippertie, as you stated the guy from Digidesign told you why M-Powered came about - and I'm one of them.

I was one of those who assumed that Pro Tools would be out of my reach, as much as I wanted to get into it, purely because of the costs associated with needing to buy new hardware. I started to prepare myself to become a Sonar user instead.... when all of a sudden I read about M-Powered, and how it fully supports my Audiophile 2496 card.

I was ecstatic.

Since that day, I went on to further support Digidesign and Avid by purchasing LE with the Mbox 2 Micro for my laptop.

Needless to say, I mostly disagree with the underlyings of what you're saying - as a result of M-Powered being released, I have become another Pro Tools advocate.
If it weren't for this, I most likely wouldn't have been.

[kippertie]

Thanks YoRugMan. I'm pleased that it worked for you. PT rocks etc.

For a potential customer who already owns an M Audio interface M-powered is a no brainer and it is exactly that market it was aimed at. For a new customer buying a first system would you agree things are less straightforward?

You say you disagree with the underlying stuff in my first post. Does that mean I give the impression that I want Digi to pull m-powered? I didn't think I said that. I did however say that the current product lineup is a mess. Would you agree?

[YoRugMan]

I don't agree that it's a mess - it's surely just a matter of doing a little homework.
I was only stating that, understandably given where I started from, what you said was a bit of a downer, that's all.

However, knowing what I now know, if a new customer came to me for advice, without any initial hardware, I would recommend LE.

That's because LE feeds a Pro Tools user's aspirations to one day own an HD rig more than MP does.
This is one of the most exciting things about the Pro Tools experience.

[frantik]

LE and MP seem like almost the same product. the differences are very minor in PT8.. you can't use one of the production toolkits or something, and a few other random things

it would make sense to me for Avid to merge MP and LE, then they would have a much clearer product line:

HD for high end
LE for prosumer
Essential for newbies

Even as a new user, having the choice between digidesign interfaces and maudio inferfaces for the LE level product would be very nice

as long as they keep supporting my maudio interface with mp/le level versions i will be happy :)

[justus1900]

"That's because LE feeds a Pro Tools user's aspirations to one day own an HD rig more than MP does" Great Quote!!! I think everyone on this section of the forum "Pro Tools M-Powered & M-Audio on Windows" truly wants a Pro Tools 8 HD3 system with a ICON board. back on topic. IM sure if Digidesign/Avid does end the M-Powered Pro Tools IM sure all it would take is a small software update the make Pro Tools 8 be able to use the old (Legacy) M-Powered audio interfaces until they could be fazed out for the regular LE interfaces. Pro Tools M-Powered was designed to give you a low budget taste of Pro Tools and make you want to upgrade and now Digidesgn/Avid has Pro Tools Essential to do that.

[koolaidman]

Originally Posted by kippertie

For a new customer buying a first system would you agree things are less straightforward?

I agree with this 100%. Not too long ago I was a new customer buying his first system, and I can tell you that it was FAR from straightforward.

In the end, the differences are pretty small, but a comparison sheet between LE and M-Powered would have helped a lot. I definitely think LE should be merged with M-Powered.

[pipeorgan]

Originally Posted by kippertie

........For a new customer buying a first system would you agree things are less straightforward?

"Less straightforward, I'll say it is!". It took my some time to figure out the difference between the 4 pro tools packages. The only thing that kept me going was that I am a very satisfied Sibelius 6 user and I thought that it would make sense, for the future, to go for pro tools but I wanted to try it out first but could not find a demo package.

I recently bought an Audiophile 192 as the next step only to find that the pro tools demonstration package included was of version 7 not 8. This was most frustrating and annoying and it was only the Sibelius connection which kept me from purchasing Sonar. However I eventually took the plunge and purchased pro tools M powered 8 and am very pleased with my decision. It will take some time for me to fully understand how to use all the powerful facilities in this wonderful package and for any newbie like me I would recommend the purchase of the Pro tools 101 official courseware book and disk. This is very well written and helps no end to climb the steep learning curve.

Pro tool 8 rocks!