Pro Tools 7 Upgrade: Is it worth it?

A few months ago, I was exclaiming how much better Mac's are compared to PC's. Mac's seem to run smoother, have been operating systems, are virtually impervious to viruses, and generally look cooler than PC's. And then, I upgraded to iLife '06.

iLife '06 seemed like a cool thing. It would allow me to format video clips for video iPods. Also, it offered advanced features for iMovie HD and iDVD. One of the services my studio provides is basic video editing.

The problem was, once I installed the required OS update (10.3.9) and the new iLife '06 software, things started to not work. Namely, the iTunes and Quicktime elements.

When I contacted tech support for my system, I learned that there was no way to undo the damage other than to upgrade my operating system to 10.4, commonly known as Tiger. And, since I was upgrading to tiger, I might as well upgrade my Pro Tools from 6.4 to 7. Ugh.

Now, I think it's a good idea to stay current. I mean, I would probably have to upgrade to Tiger and PT7 sooner or later. The thing is, I wasn't given the option of staying with my current settings.

In looking at the disclamer for iLife'06, it does say in black and white, clear as crystal, "10.4 recommended." What it doesn't say is that "your system will not function properly unless you upgrade to Tiger." That would have been more helpful, Apple. Thanks.

On the bright side, one of the benefits to all of this is that I'll actually get to use all of the features on iLife '06. It would be nice to be able to use iTunes again, especially because that's how I encode mp3's for client's reference mixes.

A second benefit to the upgrade is that I get a Pultec EQ bundle included in my Pro Tools 7 package. This is exciting because these are really expensive plug-ins, or virtual "boxes" that I can run signals through.

And yes, I am aware that there is an undo upgrade that will take quicktime back to 6.something, but, FYI, that doesn't work with digidesign core audio components. My computer just looked at me and said, "Yeah, right, like that's really gonna happen."

Is it worth it? I don't know. I'll let you know what I think.