kim_otcj.
The TelenatorI’m posting here because it will be another day or two before I can find time to get the licensed edition. I’m still learning to get my arms around the unique approach Zynewave employs to handle music in Podium, but this has all been a truly fresh breath of air in the DAW world. I got so excited and ahead of my reading of the Podium Guide that I had to go ahead and do a couple of tunes using mostly just instinct and relying on the intuitiveness of Podium. I was extremely happy with the results.
kim_otcjYes. It was pretty much the same story for me.
I’d already ruled out Sony Acid and Cubase, and it came down to a choice between Reaper and Podium. Well, Reaper looks pretty impressive on the surface — it certainly has more features than Podium — but in the end, when it came to actually using the programs, Podium won hands down. It won it on UI and workflow alone.
The Telenatorkim …:”when it came to actually using the programs, Podium won hands down. It won it on UI and workflow alone” (my emphasis)
EXACTLY. I’m still going to get a licensed copy of REAPER, at some point, too, if only because it’s inexpensive, and I appreciate their efforts, and it gives me a backup and something to play around with.
Meanwhile, I’m telling my story about all my troubles with Steinberg and Cubase; for one, because anytime someone brings these sorts of problems/issues up on Steinberg’s Forum, they get met by an arrogant response and beat down. Half of what lost my business with Cubase was the kind of attitude I faced when I had a problem. Newer users actually feared posting on forum, ’cause they respond as though you’re stupid or accuse (falsely) of it being your PC’s fault.
CDLMonline@the telenator:
what exactly do you mean with that:
@The Telenator wrote:
Their entire licensing setup is NOT industry standard — never was. I always felt that the legitimate users were being punished when meanwhile dozens of cracked versions are flooding the internet.
I’d really like to know more precise about this… thanks 😀 !
I am reallly delighted that there are even people coming from an expensive software like cubase to podium and even say that podium is really much better for them…
Because I am someone with very low budget… First I was thinking about buying one day cuebase for a very expensive price…
But now as it looks like I’ll definetly get my licensed version of Zynewave Podium!! (but still have to save up!!) And I really love podium…
It has got everything I need and does not has this many unnecessary extra things like other sequencers like Cubase…
So everyone can download his samples & vsts for his own personal style 😀
The only things missing are:
– MP3 support (sometimes I just like to load in a track as a comparison.. & some samples are only available in mp3… not many but some..)
– Time-stretching feature…. could be often an important thing!
– my personal problem: my midi keyboard does not work… but fortunately there are some people in this forum trying to help me to get a solution for my issue!
The TelenatorI am brand new with Podium . . . still learning but much faster than 3 months of pure study needed to master Cubase before you can even record a pro-quality project! Never again! I got two pro acoustic guitar-and-vocals demos done in 3 hours with Podium over weekend. See posted on PODIUM POPPETS group on SoundCloud — and I had only read 14 pages of Guide at that point.
The TelenatorOKAY . . . more about your MP3 concerns.
Windows 7 Audio Media player and Aktiv recorder and many more, some free like Aktiv, will convert or record into or out of MIDI. I would turn ALL into a good .WAV, then throw them up on Podium.
Remember, MP3 is a LOSSY format. Good @320 for decent use with iTune players and fast upload to music players and websites. BUT it is crap to pro sound recording people. 32-bit float 44.1 .WAV is industry standard for editing and is KING.
CDLMonline@The Telenator wrote:
Please note that aside from $50 for Podium, you really need NOT spend a penny more. Do not bother with 64-bit plugins and then forced to use bridging. The best freeware plugins are still 32-bit marvels.
With Cubase, the license, even the newest edition, is a fickle old grandmother, and you live in fear it will suddenly have a seizure and lock you out during height of intense project. Now they have added the dongle to carry license, that thingie like thumb drive (cost $30 and a two-day’s of headache when you lose it —
I got two pro acoustic guitar-and-vocals demos done in 3 hours with Podium over weekend. See posted on PODIUM POPPETS group on SoundCloud — and I had only read 14 pages of Guide at that point.
You got MP3 problem? Most DAWs did until last couple of years, but there are various tricks. Do you know about freeware lame-enc.dll? Also, it took my a horror of searching but there are a couple freeware converters on Web, and some really good $20 ones, which, if you must use MP3 constantly then might consider. I only export/render to 16-bit 44.1 192kbs (yea! Podium likes 192kbs), and then I do my conversion later if/when needed via Windows 7 mostly.
Yeah I know that I only have to pay 50$ … + 35$ per year If I want all updates… But I am only 16 years old and I am not getting a lot of money!! I am DJing too and I do not even have the required equipment! I am also buying all the tracks I get (I keep away from illegal software or music).. So I cant just get it right now.. I have to save up!
About Cubase: I think I’ll never buy an expensive DAW ever because I think that it is much better and even cheaper with Zynewave as it seems..
I am already in the soundcloud group but I have not uploaded anything yet… But I will still do that soon when I’ve got something…
I will also start reading this edited Podium guide.. I think It will really help me 🙂
With the MP3s:
I don’t need to convert anything into MP3… except my completed tracks when they are done for uploading them somewhere.. but for that I have got already good freeware.. (Free Audio Converter)
And I DONT want to use MP3 samples for producing! I always use wave samples!!
Actually I only like to load in a track as a reference to my track…
I don’t like to copy anything but just to hear if there is still missing a lot or the structure is crap in my own track…
And it is much more handy if I can do this direct in my DAW than having to minimize my DAW & open up Winamp …
Thx for telling me about lame_enc.dll
I knew it already but I did not think that I could play MP3s with it in a sequencer like Podium.. I’ll try that out…
The TelenatorGlad I could offer some help. Wasn’t sure what your full needs with MP3, but you might be surprised how many know nothing about the format itself, so thought I ought to mention.
I think I first heard about lame_enc.dll when having fun with Audacity 1.3, and it said I needed to acquire and place in folder that dll if I had any hope in dealing with MP3s. Audacity — some fun freeware DAW good for stream capture via Stereo Mix among other things.
You may not fully understand just how broke so many of us long-term musicians also are. I almost make a sport of seeing which gadgets/software I can do without. and there’s the ongoing hunt for great free stuff, like the VSTs I told you about. Podium is an incredible value, and I haven’t quite figured out yet whether to do the $35 every following year. Might just do every other? Time will tell.
At the moment, I’ve been focusing on getting it all set up while still in freeware edition. I had a lot of drum tracks and newer projects to move out of Cubase and into the .pod format.
Was watching all the tutorial videos yesterday, and I’m really impressed how well Podium handles the normally more complicated things like linking tracks for pitch correction (e.g., GSnap) or slicing.
I can’t wait until end of the week. I expect by then I’ll feel confident enough to set most study aside and get to the business of regular recording and production work (and will be licensed by then!!!).
YES, the indexed version of the official Guide is just awesome. I’ll be keeping a shortcut on my screen for quick look up and reference.
CDLMonline@The Telenator wrote:
Glad I could offer some help. Wasn’t sure what your full needs with MP3, but you might be surprised how many know nothing about the format itself, so thought I ought to mention.
I think I first heard about lame_enc.dll when having fun with Audacity 1.3, and it said I needed to acquire and place in folder that dll if I had any hope in dealing with MP3s. Audacity — some fun freeware DAW good for stream capture via Stereo Mix among other things.
You may not fully understand just how broke so many of us long-term musicians also are. I almost make a sport of seeing which gadgets/software I can do without. and there’s the ongoing hunt for great free stuff, like the VSTs I told you about. Podium is an incredible value, and I haven’t quite figured out yet whether to do the $35 every following year. Might just do every other? Time will tell.
Haha 1 year ago I did not care about audio quality.. I was even always looking for low quality to save up space LOL 😀
But now I only get the best quality possible in MP3… I don’t get wave tracks.. because they are really to big… but of course only wave samples 😀
about lame_enc.dll …. can I use it in podium too? or only in audacity?
I am looking everyday for free stuff too 😀
I’ve only got free VSTs… & there are only a few VSTs I would really buy because they are so amazing..
My samples are also all free samples… and there are GIGABYTES of legal free samples out there 😀
And my track library for DJing also consist of almost only non-commercial tracks from netlabels 🙂 … there also hundreds of netlabels out there which are having their releases every other time 😀
Ah and you’re right.. 🙂 It won’t be absolutely necessary to get the updates every year 😀 maybe every 2nd year…
kim_otcj@CDLMonline wrote:
I am reallly delighted that there are even people coming from an expensive software like cubase to podium and even say that podium is really much better for them…
Because I am someone with very low budget… First I was thinking about buying one day cuebase for a very expensive price…
The reality of it (at least, for someone like me and the kind of music I compose) is that the DAW itself doesn’t have a lot of baring on the quality of my output. The quality comes from my AD converters, my preamps, my microphones, and all the other stuff I put into the front end of my recording setup.
Of course, quality also comes from the VST instruments and effects. The more expensive DAWs try and sell themselves on all the plugins they include. But commercial plugins often try and justify the price by cramming as many features in as possible. Personally, I find that really annoying. I much prefer simple, no-nonsense plugins that do one thing, and do it well. Many free plugins fit that description. I’ve built up my own collection of VSTs already, so I really don’t care about what comes bundled with the DAW.
So really, I’m mostly judging a DAW on the workflow issues. It’s a shame that Podium misses out on some of the more esoteric features, like time stretching. That bothered me at first, until I looked back and realized I’ve only used time stretching twice in the last 100 or so songs I’ve recorded. Maybe it would bother me more if I used a lot of loops. But then, over the years, I’ve discovered that working with loops is a lot of hassle, and it’s quicker and better to just play or program stuff using midi and VST instruments.
So, yeah. Some of the kool kidz might not want to be seen using anything that doesn’t have a big price-tag or a fashionable brand-name on it. But I see absolutely no reason why you couldn’t create good and well-recorded music with something like Podium.
The TelenatorHey, CDL. Kim makes some very valid points. I had to laugh, too, because I hadn’t said anything about the plugins and HALion instruments that came with my Cubase. I really thought most of their effects sucked and only a couple of their VST instruments were any good. I’m not talking about their grand symphony package that is out now, but personally I didn’t care for their standard issue stuff.
Thanks to you, I went ahead and wrote down all the plugins that made the cut with me and that I will still use. All free and easy to search on the Net.
CDLMonline@kim: exactly what you said is why I am not going to buy any expensive DAW.. I realized that it depends more on other things… and thank god there are sooo many very good vsts & samples for free out there.. and every producer can choose the best from it out 😀
@the tenelator: thanks for your vst list… I’ll check these plugins out..
About WAV: I know that there quality is lossless… but I did made a test one time… and converted a wave track into mp3-320kbit/s, mp3-192kbit/s, mp3-128bit/s & mp3-96kbit/s
I took a really precise listen to every of this tracks…
And my result was that mp3-192kbit/s track had really remarkable worse quality than mp3-320kbit/s…
Then I compared mp3-320kbit/s with WAV…
And the result was that WAV is better, BUT the quality is really slightly better and you cannot recognize it really because you can only hear it if you concentrated on the tone of one single instrument… you could hear the instrument just a little bit more detailed…
All together my conclusion from this test is that you cant hear the difference between mp3-320kbit/s & WAV if you’re not extra looking for the small slightly difference..
So for me it is really not worth using so much space for WAV tracks & of course if you buy tracks WAV is really increasing the price for average 40-50%…
For samples I’ll always keep on WAV in every case…
Because at producing exactly this slightly more details of every instrument can make a big difference to a track without this details…
The TelenatorCDLM, your observations of .WAV vs. Mp3-320 are very good. I am actually NOT an expert on Mp3 matters, but I have learned from two who are top audio engineers. They tell me that there is (or could be, if you are using much of those frequencies in your music) a very noticeable loss in the deep bass and also the ultra-highs that provide things such as presence, definition and “air” to your works IF you use anything less than 320kps in your Mp3 music.
kim_otcjI recognise a few of the instruments the Telenator mentions and they’re all worth checking out. For VST effects, have a look at these two packages:
Antress Modern Plugins: http://antress.blogspot.com/
Melda Free Plugin Bundle: http://www.meldaproduction.com/freevstplugins/Melda
I also keep an eye on KVR to see what’s available: http://www.kvraudio.com/
The TelenatorI use a few of them. I think they offer some 30 of all sorts.
The Antress I’ve heard of but can’t recall anything. For all I know I’ve used or have something produced by them.