ConquistadorFits very nicely into the track inspector! Superb. 8)
Conquistador@hitman8081 wrote:
podium also from what ive seen has stability like a rock.
You noticed too eh? 🙂 Totally solid, smooth and gap free. A great effort from a single developer.
Probably the hardest single thing to do in Podium is find any bugs in it! 8)
I think someone somewhere is looking to make a move for Podium at some point. But if it happens it will be a nice reward for Frits for his hard work on a great package.
Some heavy marketing will really highlight the strengths of Podium and bring in more users. In any case there is plenty of fun to be had with Podium between now and then! 8)
ConquistadorWhile the current system is fine once you get used it, I certainly welcome the automatic storage of presets.
At least for now the yellow warning icon really helps to remind a user to set up a new preset if necessary.
I have forgotten at times so that has been very handy. The new system will eradicate that possibility. One less step to take. Looking forward to it. 😉
Conquistador@Zynewave wrote:
I just wondered if you might develop a built in sampler for Podium with support for say 16,24 and 32bit files at least?
I probably will. It would be ideal to use the sound objects in the project as sources for the sample player plugin. The Podium sound editor is also suitable for editing waveforms used e.g. in a wavetable synth.
Great. Looking forward to that!
Not the first one I’m planning
I think a separate plug is a better idea anyway. Take as much time as you need. 😉
I also think that $299 is not an unreasonable amount but there are few gaps that would need to be filled before you could reasoanbly get there. Here are few:
– midi export (at first I didn’t think much of this but when collaberating with someone remotely it sure is hand to just export the midid and send it.
– fade in/out cross fade (I think this one is pretty important. I’ve looked at grouping capabilities in other daws, and while that’s kind of neat the ability to do fades at the object level could be a showstopper)
– rewire (while I haven’t needed I do understand the requirement)
Yes, agreed, I forgot about the fade/ fade out feature that would be nice to have in Podium as well as midi export and rewire. I think they are all on the list already anyway so they should appear in Podium at some point. 😉
Conquistador@Zynewave wrote:
There’s an idea for another plugin: zPectrum.
Yes Suges suggestion is a very good one!
I intend to raise the price some time this year. It will probably happen when the Podium guide is completed, and a few more z plugins are available. The next pricepoint could be $150.
That is not a bad starting point for a price increase.
Although I would prefer selling e.g. one license at $500 rather than 5 licenses at $100, I just don’t feel I can charge that much money for a download only application. If you pay $800 for a product, I assume most people would want to have it supplied in a box.
I think getting more money for each license is the ideal set up. I don’t think you are too far off being able to charge up to $400 – $500 for Podium.
As for your views on not being able to charge $500 for a download only application…maybe so maybe not. Sony have a few packages that are boxed and can be downloaded. Price wise ACID pro 5 for instance http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/shopping/item.asp?PID=279&cid=109 can be downloaded for $299. I doubt your download installer would be close to ACID’S 84MB! Not really a problem with so many people with faster connections anyway.
While maybe selling Podium as a download only application at $500 could be pricey, I think certainly up to $299 or maybe even more could be possible. I guess it depends on the the Podium feature set in future, or by the time you decide to raise the price.
Just as an example Podium IMHO is not exactly trailing ACID by a great deal…
1.CD burning.
2.Video Support
3.Time Stretching
4.Rewire
That is about it in my opinion as far as key features go. While ACID’s media manager is very useful Podiums List view can achieve almost the same thing but just without tempo sync.
ACID ships with a few NI plugs and a large loop collection. But while nice to have they are not part of ACID.
Podium has the following that ACID does not.
1.Considerably cheaper price, about $200 cheaper (the first consideration for most buyers anyway so a very big deal)
2.Tiny install foot print. If I am not mistaken it does not not even make changes to the Windows registry but even if it does, there is very little change for such a feature packed product.
3.Far more advanced Piano roll than ACID 5 and equally capable compared to even V6 IMHO.
4.Instruments can be inserted into a project in real time without stopping the audio engine. ACID will stop playback for this. Real time or Live usage is one of the big Ableton buzz words. Podium is it’s equal when doing anything in real time and better than ACID5 here. Few people know this.
5.Support! (not that ACID does not have any but…)Frits has really kept his word about this “Software updates are released frequently and are planned with the involvement of the user community.” For years now he has done exactly what he promised and implemented many user suggestions along the way (including mine).
As someone who works *strictly solo* he can respond far quicker than a larger set up.
6.Cutting edge features, Podium was one of the first hosts to offer 64 bit file support, and dual core support. Remarkable. (Edit: yes ACID has cutting edge features as well but Frits efforts as a one man band in this area are superb).
7. Simple download, no activation required. Simple and easy.
I have used ACID as a comparison because it can be bought as a download at present even though it can also be bought boxed. So there is not a great deal of difference between the two downloadable products. But the price difference is great.
ACID and Podium are both great products anyway. The comparison is not a criticism of ACID. Of course there are more ACID features and even Podium features not mentioned here.
Certainly as more features hit the Podium spec sheet $299 would not be unreasonable for a downloadable product IMHO but rewire would be expected. Any more than that price wise and notation might come into play as even Cubase LE and Cakewalk Music Creator (£19 download and £25 boxed) have notation features with rewire support. Cakewalk Music Creator has video support as well.
Also if you do offer a boxed product in future a fully written manual would have to make an appearance. I suppose a getting started guide could be enough with the current full PDF guide/manual.
SUGGESTION TIME…
Frits you mentioned a synth some time ago, I don’t think you gave it a name (not sure) but you did describe it as fun so maybe zfun was an initial description for the plug? 😆
Anyways…Tracktion has a very simple Sampler, really simple I just wondered if you might develop a built in sampler for Podium with support for say 16,24 and 32bit files at least?
Literally thousands of samples are given away with Computer Music, Music Tech Mag, and Future Music every month (I have quite a few) It would be nice to at least be able drop one sample into the Zsampler (he he) and be able to play it across a keyboard.
Live 5 has a very similar sampler to Tracktion, more advanced but the idea is the same. Drop a sample into it and you are good to go. Quick and easy. I have considered getting Kontakt 2 or Independence but the cost, patches, bugs, dongle (independence) e.t.c have put me off the idea.
I would prefer a built in and very simple sampler that can over time of course, have other key features added to it. Less can be more. Certainly when it relates to productivity.
Some synths have sample support built in, so the synth you are working on could maybe have sample support? The sampler idea is a very simple one, so possibly a simple separate plug may be a better idea.
Simple samplers can be very useful and it would certainly raise the value of Podium and make it even more self sufficient.
New users trying out the demo for instance could load it up with their own samples e.t.c.
What do you think Frits?
Conquistador@suges wrote:
I think the entire suite of plugins should have AWEsome signal processing, lots of features, and be Podium-only so that, once you get them all done and get Podium rounded out, you can jack up the price to like $800 and start selling it as a pro tool.
While I agree that Podium shipping with the Zsuite is defintely worth more than £60 I think if the price soared to £400 a direct comparison will be made with Sonar5 and CubaseSX3. While Podiums engine is as solid as Live 5 in my opinion the only area that users and magazines will expect to see immediate development in will be good old Rewire, especially at that price point.
Everything from EXT (£27) to Nuendo has rewire. It’s ok now for a relatively small number of Podium users, but with a £400 price tag, rewire would be a bit of a surprise omission for many.
But if your marketing position is more “a high quality, inexpensive sequencer”, then I understand all the decisions you’re making.
I think this may be more in line with Frits thinking for now. Of course he can speak for himself, he may completely disagree! 😀
If you haven’t made any decision about your marketing position, then the time to do that is NOW since you’re starting to work on “value-added features” (the plugin suite)
.
It’s a very interesting time for Podium. To have it’s own suite of plugs is a pretty massive achievement. 😉
Conquistador@Zynewave wrote:
Also, I’ve extended the zPEQ with a feature that allows Podium to reduce the plugin CPU usage when the plugin is processing silence.
Very good idea. That will be very useful, especially in larger projects.
ConquistadorMy guess is Frits is probably 99% down the line with the EQ plug anyway. I could be wrong though…
Conquistador@Zynewave wrote:
You said they will not offer advanced processing. What do you mean exactly as they already will be 2.4 compliant with 64 bit processing or is that just the EQ?
What I mean is that the plugins will be based on existing DSP technology. I will not spend time on trying to invent new stuff, until I have the bases covered with the z plugins. Currently the zPEQ is based on the public domain RBJ cookbook filters, which I suspect is used in a large number of freeware and commercial plugins.
Ahh. OK. Thats fine. I thought you meant something else. 😉
ConquistadorHO HO! Frits you have done it again! Play down your timeframe for features and then *zap* out of nowhere 🙂
This is great work! The EQ looks like it has always been there in a strange kind of way. I guess the fit is that good.
It supports VST 2.4 64-bit processing which was added to Podium recently.
Ohhh it gets better… 8)
How do you work with mono/stereo plugins? Should there be two separate plugin dll files?
I think they should be separate. The Kjearhus GEQ plug has three variations Mono and Stereo are two of them. Giving people options is always a better idea IMHO. Everyone is happy that way.
How should the plugins be installed? Should they be included in the Podium installer, or be available as a separate zip download? Note that since the plugins will not have native editors, the size of each plugin dll file is only around 100 KB.
I think if you talking about such a small size I would have to say why not just include them in the Podium installer?
Should the plugins be free (i.e. included in the Podium demo installer) or should they only be available as a bonus for Podium license owners?
As a fully paid up owner of Podium 8) it would be nice to have the plugs as a bonus. However…I think it would be far more beneficial to add them to the Podium demo as this of course would be a major step towards elminiating the perception of difficulty people have with Podium. Surely they should be added to the demo. The plugs will help get users up and running with the Podium demo song/s. As Podium owners we would get the plugs anyway. Errr…right Frits? 😀
If getting new users is important (which of course it is for the future of Podium) then by all means add them to the Podium demo download I say.
I plan to make a small suite of simple plugins (zDither, zComp, zChannel, zReverb etc.) which will provide a good starting point for many users. It does not offer advanced signal processing, but it integrates well in the Podium UI.
Clever stuff with the z theme. I totally agree with your choice of plugs as well, all the key areas are covered. Very nice. You said they will not offer advanced processing. What do you mean exactly as they already will be 2.4 compliant with 64 bit processing or is that just the EQ?
Conquistador@malcolmj wrote:
So how do you actually access the RMX or Atmosphere browsers from within Podium? I can’t seem to find out how to do this in the manual. I tried double-clicking on the device from the “devices” page, but all this loaded was a list of outputs. How do I access the VSTi plugin interface?
Cheers,
Malcolm.
Hi there,
You have to activate monitoring in Podium first. The big button bottom left of your screen. When you do that a small E icon will appear on the same track that Stylus is on, next to the x button, click on the E button and…Stylus will appear! Works for all VSTi’s.
I too was confused about this when I first started using Podium. Easy once you know how though. 😉
If there is another way I do not know it. This way works every time and is simple enough. Of course once Stylus is in view simply access the browsers within Stylus.
Hope that helps. 🙂
ConquistadorHi kellyrobertmartin,
Podium is very stable. You noticed the forum mood here as well then! It does stand out for sure.
From my experience here Frits will only add features that he can fully maintain. So the product you will be using is fully tested and ready. In the highly unlikely event you actually find any bug at all…it will be fixed in the very next release. Seriously.
Just tallking from experience on this forum and as a user. 😉
Conquistador@Zynewave wrote:
I know one Podium user that has the Stylus RMX. I’ve contacted him by email to hear if he also has a problem with the presets.
Yes, that would be me! 🙂
Hi malcolmj,
Well I have used Stylus RMX in Podium on many occassions and never had a problem. I assume you mean the problem you have is trying to access the RMX multis/lelements from Podiums preset browser? If that is the case then I don’t think the presets (multis/elements) can be used from there.
THe RMX presets can only be accessed from the built in RMX browser. I also have Samplitude Pro and can also access the mutlis/grooves/suites and elements from within the RMX browser while using Samplitude Pro but not from anywhere else.
I assume your problem is actually trying to reach the RMX multis, elements e.t.c from within the RMX browser/s while working in Podium?
If that is the case I have not had this problem before and you might try re loading the plug in Podium or starting a new test project and see what happens when you load up RMX in Podium.
Failing that, a simple restart of you PC may help. 😉
Conquistador@Zynewave wrote:
After the next 1.49 release I’ll start optimizing the disk streaming. I don’t think its the actual file loading routines that is to blame, but rather the preload scheduling that could be improved.
Thanks! I know you have your hands full with 1.49.
Thanks again Frits. 😉
ConquistadorWhat are the bit-resolutions of your sound files?
32bit
I can see in your project file that the sound files are are located on a Q: drive. Is this an internal drive?
Well spotted…yes it is. I have two other USB drives but they are *not* used with Podium. Purely for storage.
Why Q? I have partioned both of my internal hard drives. I have used Tracktion and Live for instance and had no problem using files from this partition.
FWIW the computer I run Podium on now is a new one and not the PC I had last year the last time we spoke.
It has plenty of ram on it as well. Pentium D.