Am I the only one who wants a Protools Hard Copy Reference Manual?

[Mr.Ed]

Am I the only one who wants a Protools Hard Copy Reference Manual?

I cannot believe that a $15,000 system does not have a hard copy manual included or available by request.

The $400 MOTU interfaces include a nice paperback manual.

Am I the only one who feels this way?

[smfelton]

No you're not alone, I like having a paper copy of the manual.

[Craig F]

I would but it probably got "green engineered" out
by not printing the 1500 page + manuals it can be counted as a resource reduction

[Emcha_audio]

Originally Posted by Craig F

I would but it probably got "green engineered" out
by not printing the 1500 page + manuals it can be counted as a resource reduction

And cost reduction, cause unless you sell them (which there would be no certainty that they would sell enough to cover the cost of the production) you still have to pay for a certain quantity to be made readily available.

[Kasper]

Of course, it should be included.

Change of heart - it should be an option at the very least.
And it should be at no charge or reasonable. $50 is not reasonable (postage, maybe)



kasper

[1m1]

I don't care about a paper manual. Much easier to find what I need in a PDF, plus I always have it with me when I need it.

[ggegan]

I have all my manuals in PDF format on my iPad and my iPhone. That way I have them all with me all the time. Saves shelf space for things that actually make noise.

[Kasper]

Ok, good point, the search-ability of a PDF is a great aspect.

But I still like a real manual.
My eyes get tired of screens after a day on the computer. And it's a lot easier to toss in a bag, take outside, etc.

It should be available, at least. Only 9 is in the store.

kasper

[originalscottyg]

With the speed that software changes these days, I think it hardly makes sense to waste the resources on hard copy manuals. I can understand it for hardware, especially consoles, but software? Remember when pro tools came in a large box with 4-6 paperback manuals, reference guide, what's new, getting started, expanded systems guide, etc. Multiply that times 6 rooms, then the accumulation over time of all the different versions of pro tools, it gets kinda ridiculous. When pt11 comes out, the pt10 manual will be at least somewhat obsolete. I definitely understand the desire to have a physical book in your hands to flip through, but I just don't think it's practical anymore. Just my 2¢.

[Emcha_audio]

Originally Posted by Kasper

Of course, it should be included.

Change of heart - it should be an option at the very least.
And it should be at no charge or reasonable. $50 is not reasonable (postage, maybe)



kasper

It really doesn't work that way unfortunately.

The more copies you have printed at once the less expensive it is, but then you have to make sure you sell a good portion of them else you don't recoup. So what then? Print less, which is more expensive, which means you have to make sure you need to sell a bigger percentage of the books to recoup on the production cost, which in the end means that you have to sell it at a higher price to the customers, because you didn't produce in big quantities.

So either you produce a lot, costs less, sell for less and risk high if you don't sale the minimum required to recoup on the price.

Or

You produce little, costs more, sell it more expensive to the customers, and need to sell a bigger amount of them to recoup on the cost.

It's not a question of being a bean counter, just actual management / production knowledge (that applies to many fields including cd pressing production of an album ). It's really a juggling act of how much to produce vs cost, vs what you sell it for the customers. And quite frankly, not really worth it today. Cause when you think about it, you need the team to write it (1500 pages tech manual ain't going to be written by 1 person, and which already exists for the pdf), the layout team, remember a pdf format is different than paper format, same people could do both, but then that's more hours to pay up which comes up to the same. The QA person before printing/after printing. So right there, that's resources (money) they save to higher other more needed personnel... like either more CSC agent, engineer, programmers, the lists goes on.

And giving them for free only means that the software is going to come up costing more to make, which means more expensive to the customer. So there's no choice to sell them separately else there's going to be even more grippe about the price