Topic: Technology preview: Podium running on iOS & Android

I’m new here….. how do I vote? I don’t see a voting platform in Firefox.

Right. Thank you.

I can´t see much sense in using full Podium app in my android smartphone. On mobile device I can imagine one would like to compose song, but of course NOT mix/master it! So I think some simple yet effective and ellegant app for composing song is really good idea, but full DAW should stay on PC/Mac.

In and of itself, I have no problem with Podium being adapted for use on a tablet or even a phone. What I do take serious issue with is the the fact that with dev time and efforts reduced to the point they are now at, and with several basic DAW features missing that EVERY other DAW contains as standard features, I fail to see the need or the importance of creating an app for a tablet that almost no one is requesting and just as few intend to use. Are the rest of us who use Podium on computers better designed for serious recording supposed to sit back and wait forever for critically needed features during the development of Podium as a tablet toy? I am still waiting for any kind of real justification for this diversion of work from Podium upgrades and improvements. The features missing from Podium now in its PC DAW form will still be missing from the app too, right? So, if people are unhappy with Podium now, what makes anyone think users will be any more content with these missing features when it is in toy version on a phone or tablet? Or is this to be marketed to children and teens who aren’t as well-informed in DAW performance and features?

Edited to add: Since I can’t drag along a real synth, keyboard or instrument on a plane, etc., I tend to write down my musical ideas or sing the notes into a tiny hand-held digital recorder. Both methods work just fine. In fact, the paper and pen method has worked fine for centuries without problems.

“Something that isn’t really causing me grief”?!?!

druid, I do think I’m the better judge of that, since it affects me personally. SO FAR I’ve had to purchase — and learn mind you — another DAW, since Podium is a true paraplegic in various departments: no pre-count, had to buy a MIDI keyboard because no on-screen keys like every other DAW has, need REAPER because the routing in Podium is deplorable. How is that for starters? Grief enough, indeed!

Further, I am not asking for the sun and moon here, as I have had to explain to you and others some dozen times before. I am only requesting that Podium have the same standard set of features that every other stinking DAW has in the year 2012. Is this unreasonable? No, what is unreasonable is being left hanging without improvements, why, without even a clue and up river in a canoe without a paddle.

Look here, I understand Frits has had to take on outside work, and it’s not an issue, although I think the 1st page of the wiki still states he is full-time here and that upgrades are quite frequent and user-driven. None of this is any longer true. Aside from starting upgrades with the simplest and easiest to add, such as that metronome precount and perhaps an on-screen keyboard for the newbies and younger musicians who come to Podium broke and short on equipment, I think we dedicated, paying users are fully due some kind of a road map. Further, I have been in business both in music and various related REAL businesses for decades. In business, what is going on here (or perhaps I should say what is NOT going on here) is complete and utter crap. THIS is how businesses fail. This barely qualifies as a planned and organised hobby at this point. Sometimes blunt words are needed, such as, “Hey, stop shooting yourself in the bloody foot; that’s daft! Hey, get a clue! Show your following and the market you have your act together!”

Music, recording, performing — these things are businesses. What we have here is BUSINESS SOFTWARE. Yes, it is inexpensive, but we did indeed pay for it. We are invested in the product and its future, as it figures into our own futures most likely.

It is inexcusable that I should have to explain and then justify myself yet again. Let me make one thing very clear at this point. I am not anti-tablet; however I do not want one. Moreover, I know full well how much storage, memory and processing can be crammed into that tiny space. Even gauging future compatibility and compactness, these things will NEVER be able to function as full-blown true DAWs. They will exist somewhere between DAWs and audio editors and very fancy cell phone apps. Yes, one can do some recording, but these tablets are TOYS, druid, very expensive toys. You need to understand their limitations.

Also, are all the basic missing standard DAW features going to suddenly appear once Podium is installed on tablet? Well, they bloody well better, or you are going to have all your potential users pass Podium by for the app that will be more complete. Are you pretending there will not be competition? Are you blind to the fact that Microsoft, not Frits, has total control of Podium’s tablet fate? Better open your eyes to reality here. If this DAW is half-arsed here and now, it is going to be an half-arsed app on a tablet. Or are you employing magical thinking to solve this dilemma? Magical thinking will not produce successful business models; it produces fairy tales instead. I accept that there may be some market out there for Podium on tablet, but let’s note that virtually NO ONE here is requesting it, neither are we awaiting it with wringing hands and sweaty brows.

This is truly becoming the proverbial ‘putting the cart before the horse’. Granted that if Frits can wholly circumvent anything to do with that dodgy RT nonsense on tablet then he can save himself doing a massive recompiling from ground up. Still, he will be bringing a currently second-rate system from PC to tablet.

Have you noticed how Microsoft has been so careful to do everything perfectly and correctly in its launch of the Surface tablet? It’s because they are unwilling to allow any handhold for failure. In fact, they have been rather harsh with suppliers and contractees. That’s called ‘business smarts’, druid, and someone needs to start applying some to Podium before it becomes just one more bit of abandonware and a footnote in the history of digital recording.

Now, you need to come off your high horse, because the flawed logic is in your camp. I’ve been extremely successful in every business I’ve operated. I essentially retired at 48 officially, not needing to work any longer unless I choose to do so, which I still do. If I am harsh at times it is because of a few very good reasons. First, this is a business, not a school dance. Next, we users are lately greeted with a wall of deafening silence and no answers, real plans, guidance or response to our considered and thoughtful requests. And if nothing else, we were asked to make our voices heard, and then we were summarily blown off. And you question why my tone is serious? You really ought to be questioning why I haven’t simply said ‘screw this’ and walked off, just like the other last several dozen of former Podium users. You might better question why I even bother to respond now or advocate for BETTER. I assure you, my time is very valuable. No matter how it may appear here in my forum posts, all of my actions are prioritised and allotted as needed — I don’t have any of what you call ‘free time,’ as none of my time or efforts are free in any way.

BTW! You are entirely correct about your concerns over that posted link. Microsoft will certainly move to this new scheme, forcing devs to upgrade, reconfigure, etc., on demand and to their tune whenever they so please. Their way or the highway. They can snuff an app for any reason and at any time. Frits will have no rights and no recourse should Microsoft suddenly take any other course.

I see comments relating to comments I never made, Telenator. 🙂 (otherwise known as twisting words, or taking out of context)

All I’m saying is, while you can predict how much non-use tablets will be for seriously creating music, you can’t guarantee it, but you talk as though you can. I would agree that, currently, people who want to do this are in the minority, and I certainly wouldn’t make that business decision based on me, who can’t find much time to do anything these days, forget about music.

I think you’re drawing some of what I said out of context. I am specifically referring to your inability to accept touch interface and tablets as a serious working alternative to some of the technologies you yourself use (and by the sounds of it, got used to only recently, I think I recall you posted about that?). Those technologies, a lot of them, were scoffed at by many people when they were new. That doesn’t justify a new technology, and only time can tell that. You don’t have to like them. Everyone has different opinions. I don’t think you should dismiss them so easily, and also talk as though they are a waste of time, as if it is multiple professional music maker’s opinions (I mean as if it’s a majority, and I know you don’t know the majority of music makers in the world), and not only your own.

I think you would need people to specifically post to prove that. I am inclined to agree with you, but your statements talk more of objectiveness, when in fact it’s subjective.

That’s all I’m saying. I’d like to just see a little more humility in what you say about it, is all!

I certainly understand the frustrations you have, I really can, but the way they are expressed .. I can understand that, too, but I can’t agree that it’s the right way to go about it.

Part of this is in effect responding to alex too.

Anyway, the way I interpret your text is maybe stronger than you intended? I don’t know. I can only interpret it the way I can, as you can only interpret mine the way you do. I just hope I can successfully get my point across, instead of failing to do so and causing only irrelevant pointing at particular quotes that may or may not be the central point being made. I often can’t, and if I have failed once again, then I apologise for wasting your time.

Toodles!

Ok, I understand your points.

I’m telling you that tablets are ok to use for productive music creation. This is something you have contended several times, and of course you are welcome to your opinion. I only wanted to put to you that there are plenty of people out there (who may still of course be in a minority) that WOULD get use from it, and it isn’t the useless form factor you put it up as.

That’s all.

You’re telling me that other things need fixing first in Podium. I think I could certainly agree with some of the things you think are missing, and should be worked on first.

Those are two separate points and don’t necessarily go hand in hand. I’m not disagreeing with your points. Sure, I don’t believe time should be exclusively to add such things in and I think some creative use of time is a positive thing, so perhaps I’m a little less strict feeling in that sense…? Maybe? But, that wasn’t my point. I’m talking about the tablet form factor, not Podium itself (though I think it could be good on that). You have, several times, referred specifically to the form factor in general, in addition to the intended direction Podium will take to it.

Am I making sense, or am I still confuddling this?