In the Pro Tools Expert 10th Anniversary Competition we offered the chance of winning a one-year subscription For Pro Tools HD Standalone software worth $999, as one of 18 great prizes on offer worth over $28,000 in total. We can announce that Miroslav Delev is the lucky winner.

What Is The Avid Pro Tools HD Standalone Software Subscription?

There are two ways to buy Pro Tools software...

• Buy a perpetual license, which will always work, and then take out an upgrade plan so you always have the latest version.

• OR

• Buy a rental subscription plan which includes an upgrade plan which will only continue to work as long as you pay the rental subscription fee.

What's Included?

• Software/plug-in installers and user guides

• 1 GB Collaboration Cloud Storage

• 2 GB high-quality loop library

• 60 Virtual Instruments & Effect Plug-ins

• 25 bonus plug-ins, including all Pro Series plug-ins, Space, Stompbox Emulations and Eleven

• ExpertPlus support through Avid Customer Care

There has been some discussions about the cost of the Pro Tools HD Standalone software at $2499 or to be able to rent it for $999 per year, so I thought it would be helpful to do some analysis over 3, and 5 years to see how the costs plan out.

A Comparison Of Rental With Perpetual & Upgrade Plan Over 3 Years

After 3 years it is still cheaper to rent the Pro Tools HD Software rather than buy a perpetual license with an ongoing upgrade plan saving $8.33 per month.

The breakeven point is around 4 years. After 5 years the scales tip the other way and it becomes cheaper to buy the perpetual license with an upgrade/support plan, as you save $15 per month.

But that isn't the only criteria.  Rental is good for shorter periods and with the rental option you do know exactly where you are and it is the same amount every month, with the Perpetual/upgrade plan option you have a larger outlay at the start - $2499 and then payments of $399 at the start of each subsequent year. But you can plan for either model and build those into your cashflow projections. 

Consider Cap-Ex or Op-Ex

For those bigger facilities managing budgets, you will know exactly where you stand. You can choose whether to fund it from capital expenditure with the perpetual route or operational expenditure with the rental subscription route.

For smaller, one person operations, going down the rental option means it is an operational expense and can be recharged to the client.

Why Get The Pro Tools HD Standalone Software?

The standalone version of Pro Tools HD introduced at v12.6 enables you to get all the advantages of the HSD software like surround and immersive audio track formats without having the expense of the Pro Tools HD hardware. As long as you have an interface with enough I/O for your needs then you are good to go.

Miroslav Delev Wins Avid Pro Tools HD One Year Subscription Worth $999

In the Pro Tools Expert 10th Anniversary Competition we offered the chance to win one of 18 great prizes worth over $28,000 in total. Miroslav Delev is the winner of the Avid Pro Tools HD One Year Subscription Worth $999.

I work as a full-time Sound Engineer/Mixer in a production company based in Markham, Ontario, Canada. On the weekends I often freelance as Sound Designer/Mixer.

As a full-time employee, my day to day duties include all aspects of sound and music post-production, such as dialogue location recording, location and studio concert recording, sound editing, design and mixing. I could say that almost every day I find something new and challenging in the tasks I am performing from recording taiko drummers to mixing full-length documentaries and also having to be sure that all the client`s requirements are matched in the shortest amount of time.

As a freelancer, I am usually hired to do sound design for short and animation films, acoustic music recording, as well as everything that I have mentioned above as part of my full-time job. I have Windows-based small home studio using Antelope Discrete 4 audio interface which I recently got after watching James Ivey's Discrete 8 review on your Production Expert YouTube channel.

Winning Avid Pro Tools 12HD Annual Subscription will help me to expand my home-based studio, and to be able to take on bigger and more complex projects. Avid Pro Tools 12HD will open a lot of new possibilities for me thanks to features like more simultaneous audio tracks, the improved advanced video editing, automation and audio editing, surround mixing and most importantly the new clip based fx engine, which for me as a sound designer will be crucial.

Thank you one more time and keep up with the great work on Pro Toos Expert and Production Expert on YouTube!

If you would like to win a prize like the Avid Pro Tools HD One Year Subscription Worth $999 then go over to our Win Page and see what prizes we have on offer.