The Telenator's Forum Page

Greetings Frits,

I didn’t mean to suggest that my edition of Podium had become un-workable since the license period had run its course. I was only saying that I like to keep current on any/all of my software licenses. At the moment, there is nothing in the most recent release that I cannot live without.

For previous feature additions, let me just say that there were indeed some that were wonderful new items. That Mackie capability is a true blessing — among other things I can hit one bank button on my keyboard/control surface and jump up 8 tracks at a time to change their settings. I’ve also noted and appreciated several of the less noticeable upgrades in the last couple of years.

I fully understand the time constraints you face when it comes to intensive changes that might be made to Podium. If it is any consolation, I am much more critical of certain DAW makers who boast large and skilled dev staffs — virtual armies of people or entire wings of buildings — yet seem almost totally incompetent when it comes to making the simplest of improvements. On a lark, and because they were practically giving the thing away, I bought Mixbus a few months ago. This Harrison Consoles ‘mixer page’ addition/add-on to the open-source Ardour DAW has proved to be a horror story I don’t even like to discuss. Similar, though, could be said of a few of the more established DAW companies, outfits that appear block-headed, obtuse or at least dreadfully slow in satisfying professional and casual users’ needs.

Whatever the case at present, I have to insist that Podium is truly the most visually attractive DAW of all-time, a true beaut of a creation, and very good and solid at the things it is built to do. I think it still boasts the best-looking and most functional of all MIDI editors out there, also, and if nothing more I still drag files into it whenever I have major editing to do, and I work on them there.

I hope I was clear about the routing issue(s). Naturally, I have been spoiled rotten through use of Reaper, but beyond that some devs have resolved track inflexibilities in their DAWs by ‘shimming’ in what is sometimes termed a ‘hybrid track’. I thought of this, short of some complete rewrite to much code. Cheers!

Greetings all,

So, I’m in a bit of a spot here. My Podium license is up for renewal, don’t really need the Warmverb addition or any of the latest or upcoming changes, but probably would like to keep my license current and active.

Thing is, we all came together over a year ago and considered just a handful of various features we truly wanted and/or needed. They were maybe 6 or 8 in total. These were both ridiculously small features, such as a Pre-Roll/Count-In added to the metronome, to larger things, such as some users’ request for full Time Stretching and others’ (including me) requesting significantly improved routing abilities.

Insisting on a couple of measures of ‘click’ before the recording starts may seem like a silly thing, but it makes all the difference in the world between keeping Podium a modern up-to-date professional DAW or having it left in the past.

And although I fully realise that the routing features (or limitations) are hard-coded deep within Podium’s structure (meaning a much harder thing to fix, certainly), the lack of being able to route MIDI, use MIDI FX, route audio easily from any input or source to any place, and similar, makes Podium unusable for me on at least half of my projects. I’m constantly being rewarded by some red warning notice that I can’t do this or that when I work. Even dropping a few MIDI clips, each in a separate track, below the group head track containing a drum VSTi gets me a red warning on each MIDI track. Yet the whole thing works just fine when I solo and audition each clip into the drum machine. What’s far worse, however, is the red warnings at too many turns when things are simply no-go. Podium is critically limited in track flexibility. If the coding is too hard to change, could a new ‘hybrid’ track be added in to fix this? A third kind of track that will accept anything inserted on it?

Naturally, like others, I’ve tried numerous workarounds — almost always resulting in a total fail and using up far too much of my time and energy. I’ve gave up on those notions long ago. At present, I am nowadays using Podium solely for its editor screens, both MIDI and audio. They are quite good, so I sometimes work on clips from other DAW projects there before returning them.

I have always loved Podium and would have liked to keep it as my go-to or only DAW, but the limitations and (for my needs) lack of just a very few modern features have made this impossible in the last year or so. I could easily pass on a request such as time stretching — it was not even a feature I asked for, but the few other things I find indispensable. Grouping and send/returns are a start but still too restrictive. Try running a Sequencer instrument into a VSTi — you can’t have two VSTi work together. You actually get a false statement about “this track processes audio but the other does not” — not actually the real case. Too much of this going on and not enough work being done has made me back off.

Sad to hear about Slomo’s passing but thank you for informing us, shaun. I never met him either, but he used to be a regular on various forums and around here. I remember well the article and its excellent title in RedShark News that you mentioned.

Just happened to see your response in my mail as was leaving the net, so thought I should put in another word. Podium is one of those DAWs that does not like to find multiple .dll’s of any plugin. Now, I haven’t tried the renaming trick that will work in some hosts, but I’ll guess it wouldn’t be too keen. So, if you will, let that be a layman response to GetName/String and all that. Some hosts will ‘see’ multiple copies, other will only get the first it reads. Some you can ‘fool’ with naming and such.

Let me just put it simply: Podium is a very ‘precise’ system. Bet you can feel it. It doesn’t like funny stuff or trick fixes. It’s like you can tell Frits thought through every possible iota of every aspect when putting it together. Operates very precisely and just how it is meant to. DAWs like Reaper will do all sorts of crazy things at times, will run with all manner of files missing or lost, post a complaint message, and then go on running! Podium doesn’t like BS. So, I certainly wouldn’t leave other files and copies belonging to ZASF floating around anywhere Podium might read them. Give it one good version with presets or whatever just where its support folder is supposed to be located, etc.

Some details, of course, are in the Guide for smooth operation. The Preferences, Audio/MIDI settings are all rather sparse affairs without a lot of extra options/controls, but just make sure everything is set up correctly and the connections, especially, are right. Yes, Podium is one of those DAWs that will want to lock up on you if things aren’t 100%. I have a folder in x86 right near VSTPlugins that I drag plugins and things I don’t want hosts to see — extra copies, altered versions, etc. Hope this helps!

Yes, it gets everything from its .INI and plugindatabase in Roaming, so, yes, I keep those proper and always make copies of them to store away. I tend to test potentially buggy plugins elsewhere first, too. Must say, once you get the ‘zen’ of Podium it won’t give any further trouble.

Didn’t know ZASF was open source but did hear a user option to make a DSSI out of it, I guess for Linux use. That did make me wonder. So, hack away!

I’ve never bothered to search the registry for anything about Podium, but it would be easy, using Zynewave and then Podium in the FIND entry. I suspect there isn’t much in any case. The overall footprint elsewhere is pretty minimal — a folder in Roaming besides the regular file.

I don’t know about at the moment, but ZASF used to be a very popular instrument, used to get mention quite a lot. Of course, lately, there’s just so much happening and loads of new things all the time. I just remember people having issues with it here and there.

In case you are still searching for answers, I hadn’t been by the forum much until now and will offer my 2 cents on your problem, as I have experienced something like it long ago in Podium AND other DAWs. First, it must be emphasised that this is not a feature limited to Podium. Locked up drivers occur with all DAWs. Second, I also want to stress that it is almost never the DAW that is at fault — DAWs do not truly ‘lock on’ to ASIO drivers — the other way around might be a more acurate description. I have even seen the quite common result of the driver holding on so stubbornly that, if you open your Task Manage on your PC, you will see what is called a ‘ghost incidence’ of your DAW still supposedly up and running sometimes many minutes after you have closed the true version (or it has crashed). This is an example of what the best of these often dodgy drivers are capable of doing.

There is more that could be said; however, since drivers, even today, still vary so much in quality and performance, that I must skip some comments. Might I suggest, if this issue continues, that you ‘pull the plug’ literally on your driver by removing the input cord that the driver is connected with, before then closing down the DAW? This is only one of several tricks, but in some cases we learn not to do a lott of ASIO settings changes as well while operating. Try to change things only when you must, and check to see that such changes ‘took’ and all is continuing to operate accordingly. As odd as this sounds, one almost has to treat the ASIO as a badly spoiled child and attempt to be firm with it, almost to the point of ‘training it’ to function as you require. The next step if continued troubles, of course, is to switch to one more reliable.

Of more that could be discussed, I’ll just end by asking whether you have ever installed and run any audio software that could have damaged or corrupted your sound stack, such as the infamous NCH Software and its products such as SoundTap? If so, I can tell you that I have had to fix a little over a half dozen machines from stupid shims left behind after uninstalls and related corruption. These can seriously interfere with the proper operation of you ASIO and any DAWs you use. If NO, then dismiss the mention. Cheers and best wishes getting things sorted! -Tele