Topic: REX and ACID file support.

@Zynewave wrote:

I doubt that I’ll add REX support. Partial ACID file support may be possible.

I’ve contacted both z-plane and iZotope about licensing details. The licensing costs are too much for me at the moment. Need to get a more steady sale going before I can justify the expenses. Until then I’ll try to roll my own. Quality may not be as good, but at least I can work out how to integrate time-stretching feature into Podium. Incorporating a licensed algo later on should then be easier to do.

That sounds like a sensible plan. There is no point spending money on 3rd party additions if the funds are not there. Besides your own time stretching algo based on your description, should be more than workable both from a developer point of view and from a user point of view.

Having seen your work with the zReverb in particular (I think you said you had no prior experience of developing a reverb plugin) I think trying to develop your own algo might actually be a very good option. Your efforts so far with things you have had no prior experience with are pretty impressive.

Even if as you said the quality might not be as good as a 3rd party option I guess it could always be improved upon at some point in future anyway. 😉 at least it will keep your costs low.

Is time stretching really all that important?

Yes. Not for everyone of course but yes it is important.

1. Other products in Podiums price range or close have support for time stretching in one form or another. Sonar Home studio, Tracktion 3 , Reaper for example. Podium will at some point need to have something along those lines (if not exactly the same) to compete in this particular area.

2. Creative use of existing audio files through time stretching is not a new thing. It has been popular for some time now. Ableton Live all the way back to version 1 is a good example.

3. When a host gets to a point where it pretty much does all we would really need (based on workflow or feature preferences) it still has to look to add more features anyway. It is the reality of the commercial DAW market. No product can stand still.

In general..

I think Podianer said it was likely that many beat readers use loops and would be interested in Timestretching, that is another example… the market is out there, Podium as an audio + midi sequencer may have met many existing user needs but not certain other types of needs. Notice I did not say every but certain types of needs.

Frits is one man. Justin (Reaper) Frankel is worth $50M, Cakewalk clearly have deep pockets and Mackie are quite happy investing in Tracktion.

Frits cannot compete with that line up. Likely never will, but he can at least try to provide a cheaper and different approach to audio + midi sequencing (I think he has achieved this) but…still he must add features to compete even at the lower end of the market. He is trying to make a steady and sustainable income out of it, lets not forget that. Ten years of work.

Frankly IMO. I could use Podium in it’s present state for 2 – 3 years or more especially once Podium has full Vista support.While that is a comforting thought for me it will not bring in more users for Frits

So…

Podium must appeal to more users not every (does any host appeal to all?) but more, definitely yes. Only more features will address that need.

Amazingly for the first time some people are commenting on Tracktion becoming bloated. You just cannot please everyone. Mackie must make money from Tracktion so what happens…they add more features.

Sonar is probably the most feature packed host out there, what else do you add to that kind of host…well Cakewalk have to keep adding features or quite simply their user base will go elsewhere. Welcome to the VST host market place!

Are many hosts too feature laden…it depends, will todays lean, and clean host be tomorrows feature laden host…most likely. Why? It might take 5 years for Podium to get there or 10, maybe 2 years but Podium will surely have to have more features to continue to compete. That is the reality of the DAW market.

IMO feature laden does not necessarily mean bloated. If anything Frits has shown how many features (Podium is no bare bones host) can be implemented and not get in the way of a users workflow.

Another reality of creating a host in the current market is that certain users will be happy with certain types of features, others will not. It cannot be escaped as we are all different. One mans basic feature is another mans needless addition. I guess this is why so many hosts add more and more features!

While as Frits said “Podium does not have and will never have the broad spectrum of features that they have managed to stuff into Cubase over the years.” of course he still will add features to Podium.Not that many and not in that way. I think read somewhere that Steinberg said the pre SX1 code had become like spaghetti!

The difference is exactly what, how fast, within what timeframe and how Frits implements features. But more features are on the way. That is just the way it is.

So far so good though. I see the current pace and process of implementation sustaining the current stability and reliability easily, however many features Frits adds or not in future 😉

I also doubt Frits Podium code will ever resemble Bolognese or any other type of Pasta! 🙂

@haiku wrote:

Anyway, sometimes i think “wow, I bet that cool rhodes thing would sound cool here” and throw it on top of a project I’m working on – and time stretching makes this much easier to do.

Exactly. Yes. 😉