I have no idea how good HEAT sounds but, I am frankly a bit saddened by this and the direction that AVID is taking with Digidesign. My sentiments are shared by many on the DUC. I would pay twice what they are asking for Pro Tools 8 HD if it was without bugs. Instead of adding features that many users don't need and introducing new bugs and inconsistencies, they need to do a thorough rewrite of Pro Tools without adding any features.

New features don't interest me if they make the program crash. It doesn't crash for me in 7.4 so that's where I will stay until the next 'stable' version is released.

I still love Pro Tools, I just wish they had more accountability for stability and made that a priority.

Not much help i can give, but there is this thread on (on? in? at?) gearslutz As usual you have to dig trough the BS, hope there's useful information in there

It sounds HOT!

(Please disregard this answer.)

I agree with bpert.. I think that Pro Tools is a great software.. And I think that AVID should take more care about Digidesign products..

I've recently bought an Mbox 2 Mini and I couldn't be more disapointed. I wasn't expecting anything great.. but nor I was expecting that it was so bad.. I'm a digidesign user since 001 and I had a few digidesign interfaces.. this one is so far the worst.. and I had the Mbox (one).

So.. I get really sad with the ex-digidesign path..

Oh! Sorry for the deviation on the question! :X

In my opinion it's important that digi provide new solutions to their users.. and that includes new "built-in" plug-ins.. so.. that's a postive point! :P