I may be using D-Live and Avantis desks this summer and I’m wondering if there’s a way to purchase the Pack and use it when the local supplier doesn’t have it installed on their boards.
Just to be clear, there are no “addons” for the DLive. Every DLive already comes with every FX, plugin, and Dyn8 active. That being said, it is possible that older Mixracks might not have the new RackUltra FX card installed. If it doesn’t have the RackUltra card, then those new FX won’t be available due to the extra processing power that they require, but there is no additional licensing cost to get the FX, plugins, or Dyn8s working. They all come “standard” with all DLive systems.
Unfortunately, the DPack license for the Avantis is tied to the console. There is no way to move a license from one console to another. So if your rental doesn’t have the DPack license already installed on it, there is no way to access those addons without someone (ie the rental house) buying a license for it.
If you question is; can i purchase it for a rental desk:
Yes: however it is non transferable. it may be a good investment if you use the same desk all summer long.
If you were hiring the Avantis for a long time, then it might be worth it, as Stefan said, but I would be inclined to try and cut a deal with the rental company regarding it.
Since the pack is $1600 ex.VAT, you would want to be getting that amount off the hire fee for sure.
Thanks for clarifying… Unfortunately I cannot always use the same rental company, at least for the tour I am on now.
That’s the problem…the tour I am on now is running on a tight budget, therefore the mixers I require are provided locally for each show, including other brands.
As replied earlier to previous suggestions (all very much appreciated), this tour cannot afford to tour with the same rental company and I cannot even think about renting a dLive or Avantis and carrying it throughout the entire tour, otherwise I would definitely purchase the pack myself and get it paid pack through my fee or have the cost knocked off of the rental fee. I just have to hope that someone along the road will have the pack installed. Thanks for your input.
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Then rent an SQ5/6/7 and use liveprofessor 
spend the extra money on plugins.
Thanks for the suggestion, but naaaah…I prefer having the promoter pay for the equipment. I am pretty flexible on mixer choices, so I can go from Yamaha to A&H to Digico to Midas, so once I start advancing the gig, I’ll tell the promoter what I require and see what the sound company has to offer. When I mix live, I use whatever processing is available on board and ever since the introduction of the first digital mixers, whomever has listened to my live mix has never complained…unless the artist expects me to replicate the original recording, which is hardly ever the case. When I started back in 1979, everything was analog and the more I had in a rack, the more I’d be inserting and controlling. This is ok when you’re on a tour, with the same artist and the same show…but for one-offs, the less I have to connect, tweak and troubleshoot, the more I can concentrate on what is coming from the PA. I’m an old school lazy guy
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How about sticking with dLive then. The difference in rental cost between an Avantis + GX4816 and a c-class surface + DM32/48 can’t be all that bad.
I definitely prefer a dLive S7000 instead of smaller surfaces, but again, I don’t always have the luxury of demanding the desk I want…but the show must go on.