Trade Secrets

Interesting . . . I guess these days you have to allow for a multi-million-dollar advertising budget to keep the buzz happening. And you have to bundle your product with whatever junk is hot at the moment. Meanwhile, you are supposed to release numerous updates (even if each new one is chuck full of bugs from inadequate time and testing), like certain other DAW makers.

I once commented that it was a tad quiet around these parts, meaning the lack of fresh daily posts by the dozens on this forum. But soon after writing that I realized how much I enjoyed the calmness here. It’s a breath of fresh air when I need a work break. It’s too much like a feeding frenzy on some of the other forums. You have all these know-it-alls posting constantly — even when they have nothing of any value to share. It makes me wonder how they find time to record any music or do any production. In fact, I’ve come to the conclusion from the amount of time some of them spend on the forums that they actually aren’t doing any creating, rather spending hours each day yacking away in the Lounge or boasting in the gear and software threads about how many expensive toys they have (yet nothing to show for it, rarely if ever posting any stinking tunes).

Turning back to the OP’s assertion, I don’t see any indication of death, morbidity or even a grim prognosis for Zynewave Podium. As much as I also like using REAPER, my slave and backup DAW. I’ve learned to wait at least a couple of weeks and check the bug reports before installing any new releases from them. There have been some real issues with the last several, depending on one’s setup, needs and supposedly compatible software used with it. By comparison, Podium’s releases are much more seldom, but they contain about 1% of the bugs I find in REAPER releases, which is saying a lot. I’d much rather have fewer but much more reliable releases than have to fool with another shaky one every two or three weeks, and waste hour after hour, trying to rectify problems created by other people. I have enough of my own, even with things working perfectly as they finally are these days.

Naturally, I would want to see a talented software designer such as Frits do well with his business, but I want to say very bluntly that, personally, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass if 95% of all recording musicians are totally oblivious to a wonderful system as is Podium. After years and years in the music business I have accumulated a sizable assortment of what can accurately only be called “trade secrets” — everything from little-known facts about guitar picks to knowledge about certain amp tubes and amps to major playing techniques. I really consider Podium to fall into the trade secrets category. In the short time I’ve started using it as my main, I’ve saved dozens of hours and lots of hassles I used to get on other systems. It also inspires me to produce, rather than cuss all during a session and end up with a splitting headache, like some others used to do.

Ever since first picking up a guitar in my teens, I started with zero knowledge and usually had to learn everything the hard way and mostly by myself. Unless it’s been in the context of teacher/student during paid lessons, I am pretty careful about sharing things I’ve learned while paying my dues. There’s just no good reason for me to share all I’ve learned and all I use with every jerk on the internet. Now and then I’ll come across some kid who seems truly deserving and unable to figure some issue out, and then I’ll open up and cover the topic well. But I have to tell you, some of the goons I’ve run into on forums are just so nasty that you couldn’t pay me to reveal anything to them. The attitude among musicians these days — in particular the younger ones — is the worst I think it’s ever been. Why explain the virtues of something like Podium to people like that? Heck, without a serious overhaul of attitude, none of them will ever go pro or be in the business in five years anyway.

I’m quite serious when I include Podium as yet another trade secret. It’s one more great addition to my arsenal. I could say about the same for the plugins I’ve boiled things down to — I’ve kept about 100, both effects and instruments all together, after tossing out another 200 or more for various reasons. Now, on a quiet and usually very civil forum like we have here, I may go into things about them and Podium itself. But there are forums — the guitar forums are a perfect example — where I won’t say a word anymore. I’ve had it where I took loads of time to carefully explain some playing technique or guitar tech solution, knowledge attained from decades of dealing with issues, only to have some snot 17-year-old kid who has been playing maybe 3 years, if that, chime in and tell me that everything I took that time to explain was BS. These days I say, let ’em hang. It just ain’t worth it.

You know, even if Frits decided to close up shop tomorrow, I’d simply save a few installs of Podium and Nucleum and just go on using them. I put in a short list of Feature Requests here, and I gotta tell you, it’s short because I only want to see perhaps a half dozen mostly small changes and then, that’s it! I think most DAW software has gone about as far as it needs to go. There just ISN’T that much more anyone can improve with these setups. No one can tell me that Podium, as it is right now, isn’t fully capable of producing a top-10, Grammy-winning album. (Easier said than done, I know, but there you have it.) In fact, any decent and current system out there has all you need. Sure, adding something like time-stretching would be great, but there are workarounds for all the finer features. I’m using several.

So, is Podium dead or dying? No . . . and far, far from it. I think the better question to ask is something more like: Will thousands and thousands of recording musicians ever stop being fooled and dazzled by the hype and inflated claims of the Big Three (or Four)? Many players buy based on name only and never look enough at the quality until they’ve had the item a while and started discovering shortcomings — missing features, terrible customer support and/or downright user-UN-friendliness of the thing.

Hey, try this: Tell Frits you have a serious problem with something and see how long he takes to hop on here and try to resolve or fix it. Okay, now try the same over at Steinberg Cubase. First of all, expect no response ever from anyone who actually works for Steinberg; second, in a few days you may get some user who will actually try to help, but first you have to put up with a few arrogant musician-star-wannabees who will run you in circles or insist you buy a MAC or $2k PC or, hey, just forget it, dude. They’re too important to help you (they’re all big shots, you know).

Of all people on this earth, I fully believe that we musicians are the goofiest, most fickle and most easily conned and fooled group. Add to that the fact that many of us have become convinced that it’s the gadgets and the software that are gonna save us somehow, make us play like Hendrix or sound like Led Zep or the Beatles . . . or even the whiny sound of Coldplay!

Nothing could be farther from the truth. People will prove you wrong time after time. Just give me any $50 guitar and a tube amp that won’t blow up, please. And give me about 3 minutes to prove my point.

So maybe let Podium be the unique sleeper that it has become. If Frits is happy with things the way they are, that’s fine with me too. Not everybody goes into music and music-related enterprises to make a zillion dollars or become as famous as Lady Ga Ga or Justin Beaver. I went into playing guitars simply ’cause I liked playing guitars. Then I discovered I liked singing. Then I discovered I liked entertaining people just as much or more. The money is fine, too, but that consideration came later — much later, as it turned out!