What happens to those who bought voice packs?

[originalscottyg]

Originally Posted by EdgarRothermich

I found it strange that Avid release the increased voice counts without having figured out the details. Accounting didn't know about this technical feature? The release notes should include the procedure of what to do with discounts or not so the users who previously bought the voice packs don't have to wonder or waste their time on asking and trying to figure out (and now wait) what will happen.

Avid always has to deal with the "nickel and dime" image and charging for additional voices did not help to fight this image. This would have been a perfect opportunity to be proactive about this situation and they blew it. Again, I don't understand that because it is not like a bug that suddenly pops up. Did they expect that nobody brings that up, really?

I agree completely.

[JFreak]

I think those voice packs were just a stopgap solution to a problem that could not have been solved with this hybrid mixer at that time. Which is why it sounds nice that Voice Pack customers should (?) get some kind of compensation.

[Obsidian Dragon]

I don't own any voice packs so I don't have any skin in the game. I thought about this last night and suggest Avid do right by their customers that spent good money on voice packs. Perhaps offer them a credit towards purchase of other Avid products. It can be 75% of what they paid towards the voice packs (or an appropriate percentage that makes fair financial sense). This will be a win-win situation.

1. It shows good will for folks that invested in the Avid ecosystem, but software releases rendering their investment worthless through no fault of their own. Turn that negative situation into a positive customer relations effort.

2. It helps these users reinvest their expenses into additional useable Avid products. Honestly, the voice packs don't do any good for anyone now.

3. Avid benefits by moving more products. This may motivate someone to buy something that they hesitated due to cost concerns. (ie. Someone may be eyeing a new Carbon interface but put off by the price. The credit may be just enough to bring the cost down to an acceptable price point for the user's budget.

Avid already got their money from the voice pack sales. Leverage that to generate additional sales and profits.

[off the wall]

Originally Posted by FilterDecay

Im happy everyone gets 2000 voices but what happens to those of us who spent $1200 or more on voice packs?

How about those of us who bought AudioMedia II cards, NuBus/System accelerator cards, NuBus DSP Farm cards, PCI System Accelerator/Farm Cards, d24 PCI cards, MIX Core and Mix Farm cards, HD Core and HD Process cards, HD Accel cards, and HDX Cards? Not to mention all the interfaces and software.

Life progresses... :)

[Obsidian Dragon]

Originally Posted by off the wall

How about those of us who bought AudioMedia II cards, NuBus/System accelerator cards, NuBus DSP Farm cards, PCI System Accelerator/Farm Cards, d24 PCI cards, MIX Core and Mix Farm cards, HD Core and HD Process cards, HD Accel cards, and HDX Cards? Not to mention all the interfaces and software.

Life progresses... :)

Those all represent hardware product that cost Digidesign/Avid R&D and material costs. They also had long service life-spans delivering the benefits commensurate with the value invested. Hence it would not be reasonable to expect credit for these. The voice packs have minimal R&D and zero material costs. The short life-span (I'm not sure how long they were offered) meant that those who purchased them probably did not realize full value before they were made obsolete by the increased voice count in Protools 2021.6. I get what you are saying...life progresses, but we are comparing apples to oranges.

[originalscottyg]

We can discuss whether Avid should or shouldn't offer compensation to those who purchased voice packs as much as we want, but since they already said they will, the question to me is what is the compensation and when will we know?

[noah330]

They got me for the toolkit and then for Heat. What can you do?

[FilterDecay]

So I tried to open a ticket asking about this. I got no response for over 2 weeks now so i assume we got fleeced. Just another prick by the monolith.

[cqd]

Originally Posted by FilterDecay

So I tried to open a ticket asking about this. I got no response for over 2 weeks now so i assume we got fleeced. Just another prick by the monolith.

You seem surprised..Are you new to pro tools?..

[FilterDecay]

no. But looking back we got exactly 25 months of use out of the product. I did not expect such a short shelf life.


also things like the complete production toolkit had a upgrade path. This is just a dead end.