I have been using Protools for over 10 years and I have spent thousands of dollars on the software, upgrading buying plugins and more. I just don’t understand how it can cost around $400 to upgrade for existing customers… loyal and supporting customers!!, and for only $300 more you can buy the software out right. What! so someone that has never used the software before can buy it for not much more than I have to spend to upgrade. WTF, where’s the logic in that. I just don’t understand.

I recently bought Pro Logic because I really felt betrayed by Avid. Their pricing is all wrong. So I bought Pro Logic because I was doing sound design on a documentary ‘Discovering the Icebergers’ and I needed to bounce track quickly. Protools 9 and 10 did not offer that. So for less than the the upgrade to Protools 10 (which did not offer off-line bouncing anyway) I got a full version of Pro Logic. Insane! I must admit, I still like working with Protools, but that might be because I’ve been using it for so long. Well, I never really gave up on Protools. I was waiting to see what PT11 would offer. And finally, offline bouncing was included. But why did it take so long? And should I be paying so much money for this and a few other features? Obviously 64bit architecture is very appealing. But this will also be a headache getting all my plugins to work. what a dilemma.

So what will it cost me to upgrade from 9 to 11? Well, Avid want to charge me US$499. That’s what they tell me. However, I looked on Ebay and noticed you can buy PT10 with an MBOX3 for around $599 and get a free upgrade to 11. So for an extra $100 I can buy another version of Protools and get an Mbox3 (which I don’t need) and I will still have my existing version of Protools, that maybe I can sell? Its very confusing, but I cant help feel like I’m being ripped off by Avid. I wonder if many customers feel the same and how that will Avid in the long run.