New Pro Tools Subscription Tiers Arrive: How Do They Impact Your DAW?

A free taste of Pro Tools is a thing of the past. However, Avid is betting that their new subscription tiers put their ubiquitous Pro Tools DAW within reach of a big starter market — and will still represent a smart investment for everyone else.

Today, the company announced there will be three subscription-only offerings for Pro Tools, with the most affordable, Pro Tools Artist, starting at $9.99/month. Pro Tools Studio for more serious audio engineers and music producers will be $39.99/month, while the highest-end Pro Tools Flex subscription bundle for professional audio post and music facilities will be $99.99/month. Annual rates at a discount will also be available for each tier.

Pro Tools is now available in three new subscription tiers: Artist, Studio, and Flex.

Significant new capabilities and content, including new virtual instruments and strategic partner solutions, are part of each offering. Meanwhile, all current Pro Tools and Pro Tools Ultimate customers with active plans will have access to the newly introduced software enhancements introduced.

Details on each plan follow:

Pro Tools Artist ($99 annual or $9.99 monthly subscription) –  a brand-new offering from” Avid specifically designed for emerging music creators looking to get into studio-quality music and sound production, including beatmaking, writing, recording, and mixing. The universality of the Pro Tools session format should clear the way for these users to collaborate with a wider range of producer and studios. Thousands of instrument sounds and loops, 100+ included plugins, intuitive MIDI tools, and well-established editing and mixing workflows are intended to make pro-level music production accessible and affordable.

Key stats include 32 audio tracks, 32 aux tracks, and 32/64 instrument/MIDI tracks, all of which represent improvements over the now-discontinued (free) Pro Tools First.

Pro Tools Studio ($299 annual or $39.99 monthly subscription) – geared towards more serious music creators, producers and engineers working on larger projects. Pro Tools Studio builds on the current Pro Tools offering with enhancements including increased track counts (512 audio tracks vs. the previous 256), surround and support for Dolby Atmos mixing and advanced automation features – both of which were previously only available in Pro Tools Ultimate.

Current Pro Tools subscribers and perpetual license customers with active plans will automatically transition to Pro Tools Studio. They will receive all software enhancements, enabling the creation of spatial mixes and bigger productions than previously.

Pro Tools Flex ($999 annual or $99.99 monthly subscription) – for high-end music professionals, as well as audio post and music facilities, which require Pro Tools’ maximum power and advanced workflows for the most complex projects. While track counts remain level at 2,048, aux tracks have been doubled to 1,024, while native I/O increases 16X from 16 to 256.

The Pro Tools Flex subscription bundle includes an enhanced version of Pro Tools Ultimate software, plus additional content and third-party software, to deliver the DAWs’ highest performance.

Active Pro Tools Ultimate subscribers will receive the full Pro Tools Flex subscription bundle, including the latest version of Pro Tools Ultimate. Pro Tools Ultimate perpetual license customers with active plans will receive the Pro Tools Ultimate software enhancements.

To sum up the signal path, all Pro Tools customers on active subscriptions or perpetual maintenance plans will automatically migrate to the new offerings, including the applicable software enhancements and content, as follows:

• Pro Tools customers (subscription and perpetual) will receive Pro Tools Studio
• Pro Tools Ultimate subscription customers will receive Pro Tools Flex subscription bundle
• Pro Tools Ultimate perpetual customers on an active update + support plan will receive Pro Tools Ultimate software

New Pro Tools Virtual Instruments: GrooveCell and SynthCell

Avid is also launching introducing two new virtual instruments, Pro Tools | GrooveCell and Pro Tools | SynthCell. Bundled content from Avid’s strategic partner SoundFlow is also included to enhance workflows for beatmaking, music creation, advanced editing, spatial mixing, and monitoring.

Pro Tools | GrooveCell is a virtual drum machine and sequencer for Pro Tools for intuitive beats and drum pattern creation. Pro Tools | SynthCell is a powerful and easy-to-use virtual dynamic polyphonic synth. Both of these virtual instruments are bundled with all three Pro Tools offerings, both subscription and perpetual.

More on SoundFlow for Pro Tools

SoundFlow is an advanced workflow automation platform that enables Pro Tools users to reduce complex, multistep tasks to single keystrokes or presses on a touch surface.

SoundFlow Cloud Avid Edition is included with all annual Pro Tools Flex subscriptions, providing access to over 1,600 prebuilt macros and commands for Pro Tools that can be custom assigned and triggered by keyboard shortcuts, MIDI controllers, and HID devices. Bouncing stems, navigating plugins in large sessions, and triggering complex workflows are all examples of where SoundFlow is intended to save Pro Tool users significant time and maintain creative flow.

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