The story of 2015 in the pro audio industry has been dominated by Pro Tools 12 and the new subscription, upgrade and support plans. It all started when Avid Announced - Free Copy Of Pro Tools - Avid Pro Tools | First at NAMM 2015 as well as Pro Tools 12 which seems to add very few new features and so we asked Avid Pro Tools 12 - Is it Just Pro Tools 11 With Cloud Collaboration & Marketplace Added?
In February we got New Information On Avid Pro Tools Subscription Service and the confusion started....
In March Pro Tools 12 Went On Sale In The Avid Store and we took a Test Drive on the Pro Tools 12 Subscription Plan - Read This First
In April we ran a test Pro Tools 12 Versus Pro Tools 11 - Start Up Times Compared and asked you Have You Got Pro Tools 12? What Do You Think? We announced the poll results Pro Tools 12 Upgrade and Pro Tools 11 And Pro Tools 12 Upgrade Poll Results Compared. Finally in April, Dolby Announce New Partnership With Avid which has still yet to come to fruition.
In May we asked Where Is Avid Pro Tools First? as it had been 4 months since Pro Tools First was announced and it still wasn't available even though Pro Tools 12 had been released.
By the end of June Avid announced Pro Tools 12.1 Release Coming Today with Input Monitoring For All Versions And More giving us the the first release of PT12 rolling some of the HD features into Pro Tools Native.
In July we asked Pro Tools 12.1 - Has It Made A Difference? and With The Release Of Pro Tools 12.1, What Do Avid Need To Do To Win Back The Confidence Of HD Owners?
With the ongoing confusion over upgrade and support plans Avid Tried To Clear Up Confusion Over What Happens To HD Users Not Signing Up to Upgrade Plans.
Finally at the end of July Avid Announced Pro Tools 12 Live Webinar With Q&A On August 5th 2015 which Avid Had To Reschedule To September 2nd.
In August we finally started to see Pro Tools First appear and we asked Pro Tools First - The Free Version Of Pro Tools - Survey: Have You Tried It?
With the ongoing confusion over the upgrade and support plans we asked Pro Tools Software Updates - How Often Would You Like To Get Them? Avid also decided to Revise Their Pro Tools HD Upgrade Plan Policy.
At the beginning of September we saw a welcome change of direction with the long awaited Q&A webinar and immediately afterwards we shared a Summary Of Announcements From The Avid Live Q & A Webinar.
Avid also announced A Load Of Plug-ins Bundled Into Pro Tools 12.2 HD and even More HD Features Now Made Available to Native Users In Pro Tools 12.2
This led us to ask Pro Tools 12.2 - Recycled Free Stuff Is Not Innovation. Then there was the confusion over 11.3.2 with Avid Appearing To Be Releasing 11.3.2HD Into Pro Tools 11 Users Accounts.
In better news, Avid Released Update For Free iPad Control App as well as announcing pPro Tools 12.2.1 and so we asked Is There A Fix For The VCA Bug? We also covered The Full List Of Bug Fixes In Pro Tools 12.2.1 which was very popular.
Into October and we asked Pro Tools HDX Owners - What AAX DSP Plug-ins Are Missing For You? Avid released 12.3 with new innovative features What's New In Pro Tools 12.3 - Commit Track, Batch Fades And More on the software front. While on the hardware front Avid Announced New Pro Tools Dock For iPad and so we asked Does Pro Tools 12.3 Change Anything? Our Verdict in which we gave 12.3 our covered Editors Choice award for the $99 upgrade option for Pro Tools Native.
Moving into November we compared the upgrade polls Pro Tools 12.3 Upgrade Poll - The Results With Comparisons and saw how your views had changed and we produced our own Pro Tools 12.3 - Drag MIDI To Commit - The Ultimate Guide.
Avid announced Pro Tools 12.3 Now Qualified For OS X El Capitan 10.11 but without compatible drivers for their native interfaces. Avid also quietly announced changes to their hardware trade up deals and so we asked Should You Upgrade Your Pro Tools HD Hardware Before The End Of 2015? We Do The Sums.
In December we produced our own Free Tutorial: Using Fade Presets & Batch Fades In Pro Tools 12.3. Avid announced Pro Tools 12.4 With The Much Awaited Track Freeze and we were produced our own guide Everything You Want To Know About Track Freeze In Pro Tools 12.4.
So there you have it, the story of 2015, the development of Pro Tools 12. In Podcast 199, as a team we discussed how the story had 2015 had left us feeling and how it has impacted on Avid's reputation. What do you think? Has the development of Pro Tools 12 been generally in the right direction? Or have you had enough of Pro Tools? Maybe like Dan shared in Podcast 199, are you planning to stay of Pro Tools 11 and skip a version? Do share your thoughts in the comments below...