Most economical way to upgrade from PT 12.5 for use with High Sierra

[ThisIsNotMe]

Hi there, I’ve been using Sierra for years with 12.5, I’m old school and actually bought PT years ago, but 12.5 was the latest version I could use with Mac OS Sierra on my 5,1.
Now though I have a few things that only support High Sierra upwards.
So, I’m sure I read that you can purchase a subscription for a year, download the version of PT that works best with your OS, then stop the subscription. You won’t get any updated versions but that wouldn’t bother me.

So the big question is: which is the best version of PT to use with High Sierra (10.13.6?), and what’s the cheapest/ best way of getting access to that version without paying a yearly subscription ?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated,

Mac 5,1 96gb ram, 3.33ghz
Mac OS Sierra 10.12.6
PT 12.5

[Darryl Ramm]

You might have some more decisions to make, and we need more info to explain your options (like are you using HD Native hardware/Digilink). And at the risk of over complicating things I'll mention the ecosystem things like the Apple Silicon transition and HD Native/Digilink slowly fading away.

And no a subscription is a subscription, when it stops you are left with nothing.

But if all you end up wanting to do is upgrade the HD license to Ultimate, that's easy, it just costs some money... Avid recently made it easier to update Pro Tools perpetual licenses, you can purchase a perpetual update/support plan and that gets your Perceptual license up to date and gives you updates for 12 months. That's $399 to update Pro Tools HD to Ultimate (BTW it's $199 to update Pro Tools standard to Studio, but no you cannot use the $199 update with your Pro Tools HD license... but that $399 price is a *lot* better than some past options have been). You can keep paying that fee yearly if you want all updates and access to support, or you can let it lapse and buy again later when you want to update. Or so it is now, until Avid changes the licensing yet again.

That updated version should let you run anything up to current releases, you might need help from Avid support to get particular older installers.

As for what is supported on what you need to be able to work that out for yourself: https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...tibility-Chart

The best version is almost always the latest version supported. There are benefits to being on 2019 era or later Pro Tools. More new features and AAX processing performance improvements in one of the 2018 releases.

MacPro 5,1 can with a little work, run recent macOS versions, lots of info out there on the web about doing that. I love the old Cheesegraters, and messed around with NVMe SSD in them etc. But it's a diminishing game as Intel Macs will run into end of macOS support at some time. And Apple Silicon just looks so nice. You need to decide if you keep spending money captive on the Cheesegrater, maybe you want to do one last final update on that and just keep it going as lone as possible. Or do you focus on moving to Apple silicon, or do you focus on some interim moves on the Cheesegrater ready for later moves to Apple silicon. In multiple of those scenarios I'd likely see myself tying to upgrade the Cheesegrater macOS to a recent version and then getting on something like Pro Tools 2023.6/.9. But that's me, you will likely have different goals/reasons to do stuff.

When you say you are running Pro Tools HD Native are you actually using Digilink interfaces? If so that locks you into Pro Tools HD/Ultimate and higher costs. And given that Pro Tools Studio has gained many, but not all, of the features of Ultimate you might want to move to Pro Tools Studio, maybe selling your HD license with your HD Native hardware. You might want to consider that HD Native hardware is all end of sale life, and Avid has had some struggles with HD driver issues for a while. All that would tempt me to third party USB or Thunderbolt interfaces (or Avid's own MTRX Studio with Thunderbolt 3 interface.. but your Cheesegrater does not have Thunderbolt -- still there are some great USB interfaces, cough RME, out there). Prices of HD native and Digilink gear will likely only keep decreasing so there may be some reason to look at selling sooner than later.

In any transition/upgrades I'd be careful to mimimze risks, especially if you are running HD Native hardware. I would do a full clean new macOS install on a new volume (buy a new SSD if needed), install Pro Tools and other stuff on that and test, leave your current boot volume alone so you can boot back to it if there are any problems (and of course have backups as well).

[ThisIsNotMe]

Hi Darryl, many thx for your reply.
Yes you’re right, I still run a digilink cable with an HD Native card! ��
Ok so it seems PT Ultimate is the right solution for me atm, money-wise.
You say the latest supported version of PT is always the best, but I wonder what was the most stable for High Sierra?
Thx again, really appreciate it ��

[Darryl Ramm]

Without knowing any difference I'd start on the latest release supported officially on any earlier versions of High Sierra (macOS point releases/updates don't typically matter), and test and see.

Other folks here might have some specific recommendations.

At a minimum I'd clone the existing boot volume and test the install on the clone. Just don't burn any bridges.

Make sure all your plugins are up to date/as up to date as you can get them and be compatible with Pro Tools and macOS.

How you do this upgrade, how carefully you check plugins etc. can have more impact on stability than what specific release you run.

[Darryl Ramm]

BTW if your account is set up correctly on Avid.Com and you log into that account and look at your Pro Tools HD Product section you should see a "Pro Tools Update" or simmilar purchase option for US$399 or equivalent. You should be able to just purchase that item.

[Obsidian Dragon]

Originally Posted by ThisIsNotMe

Ok so it seems PT Ultimate is the right solution for me atm, money-wise.

Just to make sure that an important detail is not overlooked, you probably want to get a perpetual reinstatement for Protools Ultimate instead of a subscription for Protools Ultimate. If you stop paying (monthly or annually) for the subscription, you can no longer use Protools unless you pay again for the subscription. With the perpetual license, you get one year of upgrades and the option to continue annually or not continue and be able to use up to the latest version that was available before your upgrade/support play lapses. You will then be able to continue to use that perpetual version as it does not expire like a subscription.

At this time, you may get either a perpetual license or a subscription license. Choose wisely.

[Darryl Ramm]

^^^ that's all kinda already covered above, and to avoid adding to the confusion, there are no such things as a "perpetual reinstatement" that somebody can purchase. They don't exist any more there are only "updates" aka perpetual license updates/support plans -- and now they can renew current update/support plans or reinstate previous lapsed update/support plans or start an update support plan for qualifying products that were never on an update/support plan (like in this case).

[ThisIsNotMe]

Brilliant thank you both, I’ll look into the perpetual version.

[ThisIsNotMe]

Soo, slightly confused now, if I stop the annual £399 payment I can still use the latest version that I’d installed locally yes ?

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by ThisIsNotMe

Soo, slightly confused now, if I stop the annual £399 payment I can still use the latest version that I’d installed locally yes ?

Yes it's a *perpetual license*. Buy the $399 Update for Pro Tools Ultimate perpetual.

e.g. you are looking for this: https://vintageking.com/avid-pro-too...petual-renewal

Do you see a $399 equivalent update option in your Avid.com account MyProducts section?

If still not clear contact a local authorized reseller., talk to a sales rep there. all this just changed and some web content/stores may not be fully updated with the latest info.