Eleven AAX shipping free with PT 12

[nige108]

Originally Posted by nigelpry

I guess that's fair enough, in terms of why did I bother.



Sorry if I've caused upset, I'm just struggling to understand why people think this promotion should operate in any different way than promotional offers the world over.



Now if the topic were about value for money in general, for example, then I agree wholeheartedly with comments about the overpricing of certain Avid Plugins, Avid software in general, the lack of composition tools including a wider range of FX and virtual instruments, and limited MIDI functionality.



I also use Logic, and Cubase (my preferred DAW for MIDI work), and those guys have lots of extra features over and above what Pro Tools provides. However, there does remain somethng about PT's GUI and workflow that more intuitively fits with the way my brain works, and that's speaking as someone with 30 years experience with Cubase (if we include its ancestor Pro24) and only a relatively short 8 years experience with Pro Tools.



Anyway, sorry, I'm rambling, I've had plenty of criticism of Avid over the years, but this is one case I just don't understand ... it's a promotion, presumably designed to make a purchase of Pro Tools 12 more attractive to people who haven't yet bought or upgraded to it.

I agree that this maybe a promotional offer and that's fair enough, but how would any purchasers of this promotion feel if they were to part with their cash only to find that the Eleven plug is "coming soon".
What has rattled me is that they misled people into buying 12 believing the collaboration feature was included. This was not the case and still isn't! Yet here they are giving away free stuff to new customers when they haven't delivered to their existing customers yet.
But I suppose this belongs in one of the many other threads of dissatisfied customers posts.
No offence taken.
Besides we can't have two Nigel's fighting

[nigelpry]

Originally Posted by nige108

I agree that this maybe a promotional offer and that's fair enough, but how would any purchasers of this promotion feel if they were to part with their cash only to find that the Eleven plug is "coming soon".
What has rattled me is that they misled people into buying 12 believing the collaboration feature was included. This was not the case and still isn't! Yet here they are giving away free stuff to new customers when they haven't delivered to their existing customers yet.
But I suppose this belongs in one of the many other threads of dissatisfied customers posts.
No offence taken.
Besides we can't have two Nigel's fighting

I'm with you 100% regarding the 'coming soon' shenanigans, although much of what is alleged to be coming soon is of little interest to me (track freeze aside).

I wish that some of the things on my wish list were coming soon, but Avid obviously thinks 'Everywhere' and 'cloud collaboration' are the next big thing, although I've yet to meet anyone for whom these are particular attractions.

What makes laugh is that Eleven apparently has a $499 value. I'd love to know how many people paid that for it. I'm betting that there are a lot of owners, like me, who got it as part of the Music Production Toolkit or Complete Production Toolkit, or some other bundle, and, even more importantly, would have bought the relevant toolkit whether or not Eleven were included.

That's certainly true in my case .... I initially bought MPTK and later upgraded it to CPTK. Of course we only got the LE cutdown version as part of the bundle, probably with Avid hoping that would generate upgrade sales to the full version.

Don't get me wrong, Eleven is an OK plugin, but I wouldn't have spent money specifically to get it. I'm glad it came in my bundle, but if it hadn't I wouldn't have missed it.

I am grateful that when Avid introduced the AAX version if the plugin, they did away with the LE and 'full' versions, and just released the full version. Avid also decided that the LE version licence would authorise the 'full' AAX version, so those of us with the cutdown LE version who had never been tempted to upgrade ended up getting the upgrade for free.

I can imagine how people who paid for the full version might well feel when their premium version was freely given to those who'd paid for the cut down version.

[jchan]

The thing that's annoying about this promotion is that they give away something worth of $499 to new customers while nothing yet has been delivered in terms of new features to those who jumped on the boat first.

[nige108]

[QUOTE=nigelpry;2289219]I'm with you 100% regarding the 'coming soon' shenanigans, although much of what is alleged to be coming soon is of little interest to me (track freeze aside).



I wish that some of the things on my wish list were coming soon, but Avid obviously thinks 'Everywhere' and 'cloud collaboration' are the next big thing, although I've yet to meet anyone for whom these are particular attractions.



Ha ha you just met one person. I recently emigrated to Australia and I write and record stuff with my muso friends back in the UK. We have been using Dropbox and still are at the moment. We all purchased 12 for the collab feature hoping it will make things a lot better for us all.
I understand that it's not on everyone's wish list but it's what appealed to us. I know there is a lot more pushing issues that need addressing for the professional users and I feel for them when it's their bread and butter. Good luck to all. Maybe things will get cleared up at the webinar.
Maybe not

[nige108]

Originally Posted by jchan

The thing that's annoying about this promotion is that they give away something worth of $499 to new customers while nothing yet has been delivered in terms of new features to those who jumped on the boat first.

Exactly my point.

[Jay_uk]

Originally Posted by jchan

The thing that's annoying about this promotion is that they give away something worth of $499 to new customers while nothing yet has been delivered in terms of new features to those who jumped on the boat first.

+1

I think this was a lame attempt to respond to Logic coming out with Alchemy included. Y,know .. must be seen to be doing something.
I think Avid are spent of of new stuff. They keep recycling everything, whether it be cascade or other means.
I hope i am wrong and they show us by the end of this year…we will see.

[nigelpry]

Well, in the release of 12.1 they gave away HD features to 'vanilla' license holders, while giving nothing new to HD owners, that might be considered 'annoying' too, if you are a HD owner.

As for cloud collaboration, unless new information has come out recently, we still know very little about how it will work in practice, other than it is non-real time, so it is a bit like dropbox, except it is managed inside PT. I did read somewhere a while back that the data sent remotely for collaboration purposes might be compressed, to cut down on data transfer volumes, but I've not seen any info on whether bit rates, and hence sound quality, can be set by the user, or if it is a fixed compression amount.

I also don't think there is any released information yet on cost ... do you think it will be free, or do you think it will have a fee payable for the data storage/transfer facilities? There has been speculation regarding fees, possibly per megabyte, and/or for length of time stored on the server, to allow files to be synced to 'collaborators' but nothing concrete. I do hope, when all is revealed, that it proves to be both suitable and palatable (price wise), otherwise you will have a lot more to be annoyed about.

That last point is, I think, an area where Avid is potentially digging yet another big hole to undermine its customer relations, which are already at an all time low given everything else that has loyal customers riled.

I have a horrible suspicion that cloud collaboration will not be the free and simple to use yet amazingly beneficial tool that people like you are hoping for. I do hope I'm wrong.

[nige108]

Originally Posted by nigelpry

Well, in the release of 12.1 they gave away HD features to 'vanilla' license holders, while giving nothing new to HD owners, that might be considered 'annoying' too, if you are a HD owner.



As for cloud collaboration, unless new information has come out recently, we still know very little about how it will work in practice, other than it is non-real time, so it is a bit like dropbox, except it is managed inside PT. I did read somewhere a while back that the data sent remotely for collaboration purposes might be compressed, to cut down on data transfer volumes, but I've not seen any info on whether bit rates, and hence sound quality, can be set by the user, or if it is a fixed compression amount.



I also don't think there is any released information yet on cost ... do you think it will be free, or do you think it will have a fee payable for the data storage/transfer facilities? There has been speculation regarding fees, possibly per megabyte, and/or for length of time stored on the server, to allow files to be synced to 'collaborators' but nothing concrete. I do hope, when all is revealed, that it proves to be both suitable and palatable (price wise), otherwise you will have a lot more to be annoyed about.



That last point is, I think, an area where Avid is potentially digging yet another big hole to undermine its customer relations, which are already at an all time low given everything else that has loyal customers riled.



I have a horrible suspicion that cloud collaboration will not be the free and simple to use yet amazingly beneficial tool that people like you are hoping for. I do hope I'm wrong.

I don't believe it will be free neither. But we are willing to pay a fair price if the system is up to scratch. But like you, I have a feeling it will be not without its problems and limits.

[jclark5093]

True, the promotion is fine, and in fact I do hope it brings some potential users on board. I don't think it will, I mean, I don't think anyone who was going to NOT buy it now suddenly WILL because of Eleven being thrown in...

I was the one who steered the conversation in a more general direction about how this is a perfect example of AVID not selling themselves through value. I wish they would, though, because as much as its "the industry standard", I have many friends and colleagues that I cannot share projects with because they are composers or "producers" so have no reason to use PT (midi editing notwithstanding: if it were competitive on value, there would certainly be a broader user base).

That is all.


Sorry for the detail! I hope anyone who gets Eleven and uses it finds it useful and enjoyable.

Sincerely