A few days ago we ran a straw poll with the Pro Tools community asking them 'Pro Tools 12.3 What Are Your Upgrade Plans? This followed on from Avid, the makers of Pro Tools, announcing Pro Tools 12.3 with various features added. You can read more about what's new in Pro Tools 12.3 here

On July 4th we asked a similar question 'Pro Tools 12.1 Poll - Has It Made A Difference?' and so we are also presenting the result of that poll.

When that poll was conducted Avid had announced Pro Tools 12.1 and announced that it would now include the following features for owners of Pro Tools 12 native:

• 128 audio tracks
• 512 instrument tracks
• Input monitoring
• Copy to send feature for fast set-up of headphone mixes
• Native support for HEAT when used with HD licence
• Solo tracks in PFL or AFL

Then on the 2nd of September Avid announced Pro Tools 12.2 with the following additions to the deal:

Pro Tools 12.2 Vanilla

• Now includes the Avid Space convolution reverb and the 16 stomp box plug-ins

Pro Tools 12.2 HD

• In addition all HD users will now get all the Pro Series plug-ins
• Pro Compressor
• Pro Expander
• Pro Limiter
• Pro Multiband Dynamics
• Pro Subharmonic
• Revibe
• Reverb One

Avid also announced a reduction in the price of plans meaning that many Pro Tools native users could upgrade from as little as $99 per year.

Our friends at Sonic Scoop said this about the price adjustments when they were announced

"Will the reduced pricing help to increase the popularity of the Avid Everywhere program? What do these adjustments say about the reception so far for Pro Tools 12? Presumably, demand needed a spark – if expectations for sales were being met, prices could be expected to stay level or even increase."

Pro Tools 12 Upgrade Poll Results Compared

Summary

The numbers speak for themselves, the total numbers have effectively flipped from two thirds not intending to upgrade and now with two thirds intending to upgrade to Pro Tools 12. However on closer analysis it seems that native owners have been more willing to make the upgrade to Pro Tools 12 at around a 66/34 split in favour, whereas the HD owners are indicating that they are less likely at a 56/44 split in favour. This is perhaps the combination of the higher related costs and the lack of perceived value for a HD owner to make the upgrade.

On the whole the new numbers will be welcome news for Avid, who have been finding Pro Tools 12 a hard sell since its announcement. Throughout the year they have been doing a lot to try and offer Pro Tools 12 as better value by unlocking HD only features, offering free stuff, reducing prices and now in 12.3 offering some meaningful additional features... just imagine if all this had been in place when Avid announced Pro Tools 12 in the first place? There's a sobering lesson for Avid to consider about how to handle product rollouts both in terms of their technical and communications execution - a new product should be a cause to celebrate, Pro Tools 12 for many has been anything but that for both Avid and users alike.

If you've changed your mind the tell us why? Some of you are still sticking with earlier versions of Pro Tools or moved to other DAWs, so we'd be interested to know why you have not been convinced by the Pro Tools 12 message so far.