Is the Digi 003 still necessary for upgrades?

[De93]

I needed the serial from the Digi 003 interface to upgrade to Pro Tools 8 and 9, which I did in October and received a free upgrade to PT10. But, will I need the information from the 003 to upgrade to future Pro Tools versions since the 003 is no longer supported?

I have a young friend who wants a 003 despite it becoming unsupported, and I would rather upgrade to a 3rd party interface. If I can upgrade PT without the 003 serial, then I'll pass it along and check out what other interfaces are out there.

[Marcel Risberg]

I believe the 003 serial was needed during your software upgrade because prior to pro tools 9 the pro tools license was tied to the pro tools hardware, or your 003, and AVID needed the hardware serial as some form of proof of purchase/license ownership. But ever since pro tools 9 the pro tools license is stored on an ilok USB key and AVID only needs to check future upgrades against ones ilok account.

I was not asked about any hardware serials when I upgraded my pro tools 9 license to pro tools 10, or 9/10 (combo license which is default).

~~ Marcel

[BradLyons]

As Marcel stated, pre- PT9 required the 003 serial number because technically speaking, the PT license was tied to that hardware unit. As of PT9, Pro Tools is separate license in itself now. However if he is going to use your Digi003 unit with PT9/10 then you will need to purchase a NEW ProTools license with whatever hardware you choose to purchase. With that said, this would still be a worthwhile upgrade for you as there are interfaces out there that are a lot less money than the Digi003 that have many more features, better converters, and micpre's. By AVID opening up Pro Tools to work with third-party interfaces, they didn't necessarily make it more affordable or expensive, but to give YOU the choice.