Need help with upgrade decision from 11HD to 12HD

[TrentWilliams]

Hello everyone,

I'm in the middle of the hardest decision of the month, hands down.

At the minute I'm running 11.3.2 HD on OS X Yosemite, and it's rock solid. Haven't had a crash in a month. But now I'm in the 'upgrade to 12HD before Dec 31 or face the consequences' boat. After reading some articles and your comments on posts in this forum in dubious whether I should indeed upgrade.

I need some guidance on how stable v12.3 HD is, and what OS you all are using And whether your upgrade path us been successful.

Thanks,

Trent

[zedhed]

Hi Trent,

Are you a home studio user or a professional studio outfit?

[mesaone]

Let's think outside the box for a moment. Instead of looking at what 12HD can do for you now better than 11HD (which is not much aside from track commit and track freeze) let's look at where you'll be in 2017.

What about your computer? If your machine is starting to show its age and you may plan on getting a new one in the next few years, you should definitely do the upgrade. Why? Well, when it comes time to get that new machine, it's not likely that PT11 will be supported on the latest version of OSX. And when you buy new machines from apple, they come with the latest OSX and often cannot be rolled back.

So here's the deal. Upgrade this year and the next, that's $998 ($599 + $399). If you don't upgrade this year (letting your support plan lapse) but you decide to upgrade in 2017, that's still $999.

[Southsidemusic]

And let's not forget you get PTHD 10/11/12 in the bundle and then you can keep using HD11 should you want to until you have tested the HD12 setup on a separate partition for example.

Atleast you have upgraded and have the same licenses you have today along with HD12 and updates so really no loss at all.

[TrentWilliams]

Thanks for your responses.

I'm a contractor for film post, my work ranges from assistant to head-of audio post depending on the job.

My main machine is: Late 2013 iMac 27", 3.5Ghz i7, 32GB Ram, NVIDIA 780M 4GB

My main qualm is upgrading OS. Once one thing becomes out of date, that's when compatibility and stability come into play as software components start to outdate each other, I have found that is usually the main reason for crashes. Since all aspects of my software workflow have been up to date I haven't had any issues.

The update will cost $919 NZ for me, if I choose to do it next year it will cost $1450.

My main 'want' is not all the frivolous perks that come with the update, but mainly to stay current and maintain a rock solid system.

Basically, should I update before Dec 31st. Or use that money on some sweet BlackFriday deals? What would you do?

[albee1952]

As with any update, HAVE A BACKUP PLAN! Mine would be to clone the system drive, pull the original and install the fresh cloned drive, and then perform updates on that. If it goes well, great. If it goes badly, I swap the old drive back in and go back to work. I would much rather fuss with a bad update at my convenience, instead of frantically trying to get my rig back up and running(and NEVER update anything in the middle of an important project)

[fork-media]

hey trent - hope its not to windy on welly!

this is totally my dilemma too.. only I am on 10 and mountain lion - and I'm goin real steady on it..

I might switch over to a laptop for convenience - but right now I am on an i7 quad mac mini..

If I decide I do need the laptop ( missus wants us to go to welly for a few months see some friends and family - then the laptop is a must! )

I think the bounce feature in 12 might work for me.. cos I hate the head scratching to ouput stems for my TV gigs.. the hold down control to send a channel to a few differrent places is crap really! especially when your tired hahahaha

I think thats the only major thing in 12,,

I think I would go for the perpetual license tho.. altho I got to go thru upgrading all my plugs to AAX ( still havent bothered - just had kids few years back - so priorities changed..... )

so I might avoid the space plug in etc that are 'bonus' - what a bunch of tight wads! ( famous for it tho )

[Extreme Mixing]

It would be nice if Avid gave credit for the plugs that I already own, like Space, Reverb One, Revibe, Pro Compressor. Not going to happen. It feels like volunteering to be robbed. But I guess I'm going to jump into this in the next few days. 11HD has never worked for me. It's just not acceptable performance. Crashes, loud noise bursts, lots of issues that I have NEVER had to deal with in Pro Tools. At least not in the 15 plus years that I have been in the game.

From what I've heard, Avid is finished with 11. To leave me in this predicament seems out of line. But I'm a pro and I need for my system to perform without distracting me. I need to work without restarting two or three times an hour. This had better work, because I will NEVER AGAIN make this leap of faith.

So Avid, if you're listening, you had better come through. I'm smart enough to learn another system if it comes to that. I'm putting my money where my mouth is. Time for you to do the same.

Steve