Extended until Friday - We're listing a fire sale of top plug-ins from the world's favourite iLok licence transfer people, Happyland Studios*. All limited quantity and on a first come first served basis; the list is shown below. There are some serious bargains to be had for users of all versions of Pro Tools.

• If you have any questions about the deals check out the FAQ here.
• Worried about buying a deal, then read here.

All prices include the $25 iLok transfer fee. Please remember to include your iLok user name in the Paypal notes when ordering.

• Moogerfooger Bundle v4 $30
• Cosmonaut Voice $30
• TL Everyphase $30
• Voce Bundle v4 $30

• MC-77/BF-2A Bundle $35
• Hybrid 1.5 $35
• McDSP Chrome Tone LE $35
• McDSP CompressorBank LE $35
• McDSP Synth One LE $35

• McDSP Filter Bank LE $40
• Tel-Ray Variable Delay $40
• BF-3A $40
• McDSP ML4000 LE $40

• MPTK Track Expanders & Multi-Track Beat Detective $50.00
• Hybrid 1.6 $50
• Smack LE $50
• McDSP Revolver LE $50
• McDSP Synth One Native $50

• Structure LE Complete with Sound Library $60
• McDSP 4040 Retro Limiter $85 

• McDSP Revolver Native $115.00 ($349.00 MAP!!)
• McDSP CompressorBank Native $115.00
• McDSP FilterBank Native $115.00
• McDSP MC2000 Multi-band Compressor Native $115
• McDSP Analog Channel Native $135

• Smack! TDM $65 BUY NOW
• Reverb One $75 BUY NOW
• Pultec Bundle v4 $60 BUY NOW
• Impact $45 BUY NOW
• Focusrite d2/d3 $95 BUY NOW

All McDSP LE Product can be upgraded to Native for $69 more here

* All product sales on the blog are promotions for sellers, the AIR Users Blog does not sell product but supports dealers around the world. This excludes items in the Structure Sound Library and Transfuser Loops.

I've just been given the head's up from one of the team at Avid HQ that all Pro Tools 9 Amnesty emails went out last Friday, November 12th 2010.

If you were expecting one and do not have it then we suggest you check you junk and spam folders.

As a last resort should you still believe you should have one and do not, then contact Avid Customer Support.

Open Labs are now offering Pro Tools 9 support, in their own words;

'Open Labs is now offering AVID's Pro Tools 9 software on our NeKo, MiKo, and Soundslate instruments.  The option to have Pro Tools software fully installed, integrated and supported by Open Labs engineers provides producers and musicians with industry-leading studio recording software running seamlessly on Open Labs gear.  You can produce a track in Pro Tools right out of the box on all GEN 6 Products.  Proprietary AVID or M-Audio hardware is no longer needed to run Pro Tools 9.

Click to read more ...

Rebirth is one of Cult of Mac's must-have apps for this week.

Watch the video

More here

Find out how to use Elastic Pitch to make cool new guitar effects and harmonies in Pro Tools.

The last seven days were a great start for Avid audio culminating in the Pro Tools 9 announcement. My concern now would be for Avid to think that enough has been done and to sit back and relax - I'm sure they won't, there is too much at stake.

The Pro Tools 9 announcement was certainly a great finale to the recent spate of Pro Tools related product launches. However my fear is that the long-term downtrodden audio team, obviously and rightly buoyed by the recent 9 launch, may go all giddy about this relative success.

One complaint I've heard a lot on the past, sadly also in some recent emails from those who visited the Avid stand at the 2010 AES, has been the sense of arrogance that some Avid people display. From what I know by talking to many in Avid is that the events of the last two years have knocked any arrogance out of most of the Avid Audio team. A reminder that there's more money made in the fresh tomato industry than the entire pro audio sector, should earth anyone who still thinks they are anything special or who confuses the fact that making the equipment that stars use makes them a star. How many famous people do you know who sell fresh tomatoes?

Click to read more ...

The gang over at IK Multimedia have launched the iKlip, a cool way to have your iPad on stage.

In their own words 'IK is proud to introduce iKlip, the mic stand adapter for iPad. Musicians and presenters alike can now take their iPad with them to the stage, the studio or school, making it easy to support and operate their preferred music and presentation apps on virtually any microphone stand.'

iKlip is the perfect live accessory for the iPad:

More here

Find out how to use Elastic Pitch to make cool new beats in Pro Tools 8.

• Watch it here

Oh dear, it took me a double take, but then I realised that Focusrite pulled a fast one on Avid and the introduction of Pro Tools 9.

It's funny and clever, of course it's British. Discuss...

We have been a bit snowed under since the Pro Tools 9 launch, but we haven't forgotten there's more dance synth sounds to come, so head over to the Structure FREE sounds area and find them there.

Normal service resumes soon!

First Moog on the iPhone and now Korg on the iPad with their keyboard legend, it looks like making music on the iPad is getting serious.

KORG iMS-20 is an analog synth studio; a complete recreation of the Korg MS-20 analog synth, an analog sequencer, a drum machine, a mixer, and even Korg's Kaoss Pad technology. Plus, you can share your songs online via the SoundCloud network!

More here

Hi Everyone,
I'm happy to share (again) that Avid will offer a promotional cross grade to anyone who purchased and activated the $149 (USD) Pro Tools LE software upgrade between October 4, 2010 and November 4, 2010.

Eligible customers will receive an email containing a serialized code good for one-time use on a promotional cross grade offer discounted at 60% off MSRP($99). Emails are expected to be delivered the week of November 7, 2010.

Click to read more ...

If you missed the live event for the launch of Pro Tools 9, then you may not know where the $99 4th of October Amnesty deal has come from. Dealers have no idea what Avid are talking about, speak to certain Avid people and they have no idea what we are talking about.

What we are talking about is that at 1:04:00 into the presentation Max Gutnik jumps in to correct Paul Foeckler who had earlier promised free upgrades of Pro Tools 9 to those users who had purchased hardware after 4th October 2010.

Max corrected him and said that it was actually $99 and that the free upgrade was for Pro Tools HD native purchasers from that date. Watch the video here

Since then that information has gone AWOL leaving users confused - perhaps a mistake?

Whatever it was or wasn't, I'm sure the new Avid will be good to their word - won't you Avid?

Find out the why and how of ADC (automatic delay compensation) in Pro Tools.

• Watch it here

You would think that Avid have put a gun to buyer's heads and told them that they must buy Pro Tools 9 or they get it! I have checked, not with official Avid sources to be fair, but from what I can tell Avid are not forcing anyone to buy anything and are not using threats of violence.

I wrote recently that a new trend has developed which seemed to be confined to Apple product releases, but now it has extended into a more general habit. If you think it's cool to be the negative person when a new product is released, it isn't, it's fast becoming a cliche.

It was bound to happen, Avid release Pro Tools 9 and before the ink can dry on the press release there are Twitter feeds with lines like; 

• 'rubbish, what a rip-off'
• 'Pro Tools 9.0 gives me nothing new'
• 'It doesn't work with my Commodore 64 - what the f*ck Avid, what about me?'
• 'Why are you not supporting Windows 95?'

And the stream continues... the trouble with Twitter is anyone, however sane, interesting, or drunk can send their latest missive out into the wide world.

The general concerns from the Pro Tools community were;

• No ADC in LE - Fixed
• Avid hardware is needed to run Pro Tools - Fixed
• I want to use the hardware I choose LE or HD - Fixed
• MP3 should be free - Fixed
• Track expansion should be free - Fixed
• OMF should be free - Fixed

So I don't think anyone can accuse Avid of not listening. They may not have listened to your individual concerns, but that's not the same thing and an entirely unrealistic expectation. I'd like my MacBook Pro to be gold and for the screen to be square, but it ain't likely to happen in my lifetime.

I think some people are confused; if you want Avid to write software just for you, then you need to buy the company not just the software.

If you think I'm some kind of Avid fan-boy, then I suggest you read this blog in some detail, we've perhaps been the largest public critic of some of Avid's decisions, but credit where credit is due.

If you think I'm an LE user and don't understand the plight of HD owners who invested in HD, then wrong again - in March this year I invested £15,000 (about $24,000) in brand new HD3 systems.

Do I think Avid or Pro Tools are perfect? Of course not. Do I think there are some questions to be answered about Pro Tools 9? Yes and we are asking them. Do I think that users should be free to express genuine concerns? Yes again, the blog has done a lot to make sure that genuine user concerns are addressed - for example with the Structure bug fix issue.

So contrary to the rumours, if you don't buy Pro Tools 9 no one is going to kill you.

If you don't like it or need it then don't buy it!

We've been getting questions in from those wanting to move to Pro Tools 9, but who are confused about some of the aspects such as the $99 amnesty deal and the MPTK rumour.

We thought we would collate them all, send them over to Avid and then post all the answers in one place. If you have a question that you can't find the answer to either here, at Avid.com or on the DUC AFTER YOU HAVE CHECKED - then post them here and we will get them answered.

Thanks.

We've created a new Pro Tools 9 desktop wallpaper in 3 different sizes, 1920x1080, 1280x720 and 1024x768.

They are FREE so click here to get your Pro Tools 9 desktop wallpaper.

Focusrite are one of the first to explicitly throw their hat into the new Pro Tools 9 world, with RTAS MixControl.

In their own word; 'In 2000, Digidesign chose Focusrite as their hardware partner to deliver what was to become the most successful Pro Tools interface ever - the original Mbox.

Now, with the introduction of Pro Tools 9, Focusrite interfaces are once again the best choice for Pro Tools users.

Our unique RTAS MixControl plug-in will bring the flexible monitoring of Saffire MixControl, right inside the Pro Tools 9 environment.

At Focusrite, we believe that sound quality is everything. That's why every interface we make combines our award- winning mic pres with best-in-class digital conversion and clocking to ensure you capture your sound - entirely.

Combining an uncompromised sound philosophy with our unique Pro Tools integration, Focusrite's Saffire Range is the best choice of interface for Pro Tools 9.

A full list of approved Focusrite devices are here

Russ shows how workflows can be speeded up using the new track creation feature on Pro Tools 9.

• Watch it here