Pro Tools 12.5 Student Subscription - HD Driver Installer?

[Adrian Wall]

Hi everyone,

First time posting here, and I really have no clue of Pro Tools beyond v7.4!! That is the last system I bought before now, and it worked great. So until I recently went back to college, I had no reason to upgrade.

I've just signed up for a student subscription to 12.5, after buying a 2012 Macbook Pro, and have a couple of quick questions that I'm hoping someone can help with:-

The installation package includes a HD Driver Installer. Will this work natively on my machine? My interface is a Steinberg UR44.

Also, is there a Complete Production Toolkit with PT12.5 Student? I've noticed a feature or two not working when doing some college projects involving audio post for video. Video nudging will not work, for instance.

Hoping that you'll all excuse my ignorance - there is a huge amount of documentation to sift through, and I've been struggling to find this info. Moving straight from 7.4 to 12.5 feels like going from "expert" to "novice" overnight!

Many thanks

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[nigelpry]

Originally Posted by Adrian Wall

Hi everyone,

First time posting here, and I really have no clue of Pro Tools beyond v7.4!! That is the last system I bought before now, and it worked great. So until I recently went back to college, I had no reason to upgrade.

I've just signed up for a student subscription to 12.5, after buying a 2012 Macbook Pro, and have a couple of quick questions that I'm hoping someone can help with:-

The installation package includes a HD Driver Installer. Will this work natively on my machine? My interface is a Steinberg UR44.

Also, is there a Complete Production Toolkit with PT12.5 Student? I've noticed a feature or two not working when doing some college projects involving audio post for video. Video nudging will not work, for instance.

Hoping that you'll all excuse my ignorance - there is a huge amount of documentation to sift through, and I've been struggling to find this info. Moving straight from 7.4 to 12.5 feels like going from "expert" to "novice" overnight!

Many thanks

ad

The HD driver is only used if you are using Avid HD hardware and Pro Tools HD software, it's irrelevant in your case. The PT installer package is a single package for both standard and HD versions, so includes things that are irrelevant to you.

Complete Production Toolkit, and th concept of what it did, was shamelessly abandoned by Avid when they developed the 64bit version of Pro Tools, so the last version it works with is Pro Tools 10.

Some functionality that used to only work with HD software, or with Complete Production Toolkit, has been cascaded down to standard Pro Tools 12, but other stuff is now HD only. If you look at the feature comparision chart you'll see what the current differences are, and if you know what Complete Production Toolkit used to unlock, you'll see what has now cascaded down to Pro Tools standard.

Note: That includes some stuff that didn't exist at all in Pro Tools 7.4, but was introduced as HD only in PT9/10, and is now in PT standard.

[Led]

I believe the hd driver is only needed if you are running pro tools hdx, hd or hd native.
There's no CP Toolkit anymore. You either have PT12 (known as Vanilla) or HD. Only HD has the functions that used to be added by the CP Toolkit. It sounds like you have the Vanilla version, not HD?

[Led]

Beat me by a minute...

[nigelpry]

Originally Posted by Led

Beat me by a minute...

Ha ;-)

[Adrian Wall]

Thanks everyone,

Yes, the startup screen definitely doesn't say "HD" anywhere. But it's all quite confusing, since the installer instructions say that the HD drivers will work on a Mac with any device that uses Core Audio or ASIO drivers.

Also confusing is that the regular (non-HD) Pro Tools 12 subscription seems to come with a larger suite of included plugins than the student version, so I'm wondering whether we're getting an even weaker flavour of vanilla with the student subscription? I was expecting a little more with the student version, based on Avid's own marketing.

Which begs the question, am I missing out on some features simply because I'm not using an Avid interface?

[nigelpry]

Originally Posted by Adrian Wall

Thanks everyone,

Yes, the startup screen definitely doesn't say "HD" anywhere. But it's all quite confusing, since the installer instructions say that the HD drivers will work on a Mac with any device that uses Core Audio or ASIO drivers.

Also confusing is that the regular (non-HD) Pro Tools 12 subscription seems to come with a larger suite of included plugins than the student version, so I'm wondering whether we're getting an even weaker flavour of vanilla with the student subscription? I was expecting a little more with the student version, based on Avid's own marketing.

Which begs the question, am I missing out on some features simply because I'm not using an Avid interface?

If you look in the installation section of this knowledgebase article ....

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...12-5-Downloads

It clearly says to install the HD driver if you have Avid HDX or HD Native hardware. It also allows you to use that hardware with other DAWs and audio apps that need core audio or asio drivers.

It's a driver to enable you to use Avid HD hardware with Pro Tools and other DAWs. Not a driver to use with any other interfaces.

The only Avid interfaces that give access to more features are HD interfaces, which come with Pro Tools HD software. Otherwise you get exactly the same features in Pro Tools whether you use Avid or third party interfaces.

Pro Tools itself is exactly the same whether student or standard subscription. Also, the bonus plugins are the same whether you get a student or standard subscription. Only the cost of the subscription is different. I'm not sure what has made you think that the suite of plugins is different. There are a few extra plugins that dome with HD, but I don't think they are anything to be fretting over.