The TelenatorThe TelenatorWelcome to the world of Zynewave, Alex.
To be honest, it’s been long enough since Podium Free that I can’t recall what else is involved besides ReWire and multi-core usage, BUT let me add that the free version is always several upgrades behind whatever we licensed users are able to record with right now. There was recently a big Mackie control surfaces upgrade in a recent release — which I am making huge use of suddenly, having bought a very full-featured MIDI controller keyboard. Basically, the license is so cheap that it’s rather hard not to end up buying it before too long. You are not missing a tonne of features with the Free, though, so the choice is strictly personal needs.
kim was correct about most of what he posted, except that one can set Podium to process everything in 64 float internally, if one wishes. I do — and it does add to quality some, though at a CPU price hit. If there was no value in using internal 64, then I would ask, Why then do so many plugin makers have their VSTs do everything internally at 64 bit? Hmm?
I can’t answer all, but interfacing at 24 is what I and most DAW users employ — worlds better than 16 and plenty good enough. These ones on some forums who insist on using very high rates such as 196 to record rock and pop make me laugh and roll on the floor. It’s not a symphony by Ravel! Oh, also — Podium does not have any dithering of its own onboard, regarding your mention of it. Podium can only reduce your bits without that, SO . . . you can import RDR or the mda dither (both free) as plugins for this task, or you can do what I and some others use — drag your files into the free AUDACITY 2.02 open-source audio editor and do it there with Audacity’s even better onboard dither. I suggest you install Audacity in any case, because it handles various other file conversion tasks (many formats!) Besides, having and having used Audacity used to be a sort of ‘rite of passage’ in the realm of digital recording. It sets up in a flash and is also particularly good for capturing streaming audio from the Net and converting your old tapes and vinyl to PC files. I digress.
Perhaps check into the freeware ASIO driver called ASIO4ALL. It has a new beta version lately that I’ve tested and found even more stable than the last one. Even if you stay with purchased driver, it is good to have a spare ASIO lying around. Anyhow, it will do 24 bits, if you need this. BTW, when you make 24-bit into 32 float it should not truly be considered a ‘conversion.’ Think of it more like adding more breathing room or a higher ceiling to a too-tiny apartment dwelling by throwing 8 bits in the basement, etc. I have had big problems with Podium freezing up on certain other commercial drivers, so this is another reason I mention ASIO4ALL.
Cheers and Best Wishes with getting going here. I’ve put Podium through some rather intense extremes to say the least. I’m usually pushing the envelope these days both sonically and digitally with these DAWs when I’m doing my own projects and not recording other artists, and I haven’t quite killed Podium yet. At the very least, let me say that Podium is a truly unique DAW and quite unlike any other you will possibly use.
P.S. [Edited to add] Alex, I, too, am a plugin junkie, but I’ve found a really nice 12-step group to help with that!
The TelenatorWell, tubby, if you really want to know what my opinion is of forum posts on the Net and the unwritten ‘rules’ that some apply, I’d have to say that the whole thing is one entire stink. The pseudo ‘hipness’ of responding and being obscure within users’ posts is more of a waste of time to me than someone who takes the time and effort to be detailed and very clear about what point is being made and the support for it.
There’s nothing ‘hip’ at all about the inability to read, comprehend well and focus one’s attention on a matter for more than 15 seconds. I don’t live and communicate in sound bites. I won’t elaborate too much here, either, since I know it’s so hard to read more than a few lines. George Burns yacked on the Telly ceaselessly every time he was on. Part of his humour was his ramble, a half mumble at times.
I’d laugh out loud if it wasn’t such a sad reality, but in regards to the general public and their use of the internet, it hasn’t seemed to make the public smarter. No, nowadays nobody can spell, no one can write a full grammatical sentence, no one actually writes letters to close friends anymore; in fact, people hardly send email of any real substance anymore; instead just tweets and phrases. God forbid you ever have a real problem about something on a forum, because it’s 50/50 that the responses you get will be clear enough to understand and apply.
This and more has been said mostly of the generation of what are called The Millennials, a generation of ignoramuses, and many lazy also. I find it odd that the PC, invented partially to free us up and make life easier, has, like so many other inventions similarly touted, in the end turned around to enslave us.
I rarely bother sharing any tips, wisdom, discoveries, etc., anymore on forums. Why? Simple — one jerk will flame you, another’s a troll, another whines about length, another misses the entire point no matter how clear, another simply shows up with a bad attitude and no manners. Either way, one ends up a target. Screw it. I know many others with my length of time in music who don’t share on forums anymore. It’s easy to see why. That’s a loss to all the young snots with little or no experience. They’ll just have to learn the hard way, if at all. That’s just tough, isn’t it? And if this post is too long, well, that’s just tough too.
Brevity in a highly technological age is a recipe for disaster.
The TelenatorI have it now but haven’t had time to try it. What are the limitations of the unlicensed version of it?
The TelenatorThe TelenatorThe TelenatorWow, thanks, Trancit, for your help on all counts! Fortunately, they still offer the XT in the older edition, and I just looked over the MuTools website. I hadn’t been to that one in a long while.
As for the rest, I’m afraid it was a combination of factors with multiple outs on plugins. I came to Podium spoiled rotten from a couple of other DAWs and recently REAPER only made things worse. Except for those few plugins that will not divulge their In and Out information to a DAW, these other automatically set everything up when scanning the plugins. Also, although I’d read the Guide twice and checked out most of the tut videos, the Guide left me half confused and, worst of all, I think I somehow missed that one crucial video of those three that really explains things for numbering outputs and so on.
Here’s how easy some make this process:
(drop-down menu) Insert VSTi to New Track?
(click) Yes
(dialog opens) Do You Want This Multiple Output Plugin set up for Mono, Stereo, or all 16 (or whatever it has) Outputs?
(click) Yes on 16
(result) group folder with device at top and 8 child tracks for each stereo pair of outputs — ready to go!
It just took me 10 times as long to write that as it actually takes to set up!
Anyhow, thanks a million. Your info helps a lot!
Cheers!
The TelenatorThanks for your suggestions, kim, but, yes, I think you are missing something here. I think if you had a little familiarity with how things work in other DAWs, it would help some. It’s something I noticed in some of the other threads, too, but no matter for now. But all I’m really trying to do is what every other damn DAW allows these days.
You see, I don’t want to be making workarounds here — no copying clips and having VSTi on two tracks, etc, etc. In fact, that creates something much different than when you blend instruments and FX together on one track with one output. Besides, I’m really finished with the whole workaround monkey business.
The other bit — yes, many FX, namely here the Fretted Synth collection and related types, will take the instrument audio input and create a MIDI track, then output that to track. Of course, Podium won’t let the MIDI be recorded, as usual.
So one solution is to use a subhost, where I can do many of these things within it, without Podium’s knowledge or interference. I’ll try to get the ADM you mentioned. The last drum unit I tried, Podium would only allow the kit to be recorded in mono or stereo, all the parts mixed into one. You see, you can’t do the most basic things, such as compress your snare or similar work with the kick if your DAW shoves everything together and won’t map the unit’s multiple outs. That’s just plain crazy. So far I’ve managed to download the much older version of the energyXT sequencer/subhost and, since they said the older version works in Podium, will try that one.
Anyone have any other subhosts that are known to work without trouble in Podium???
The TelenatorOkay, since this has reared its ugly head yet again, can someone please post here any/all subhosts and/or sequencers that actually DO work inside Podium without causing it a fit, freeze or crash???
I experimented with this a few months ago and it was FAIL, FAIL, FAIL, one after another, and I decided I could not waste any more of my time on it.
SO . . . what works? Anything? I’d like to be able to use FX on VSTi’s, um, record or at least route out the MIDI that my guitar creates to a track when I run through some of Fretted Synth’s plugins like Junction, GuitarSynth, and by other makers — and I might even like to have two VSTi’s together in some manner. Or use a drum machine inside it where I might be able to process certain drum parts (such as the snare output) separately. Can’t do any of it in Podium directly, and I would need to ‘hide’ any of this within some subhost. So what have any of you been using? What can you suggest?
Thanks much!
The TelenatorThe TelenatorThe TelenatorThe TelenatorTrancit, I’ll keep this one shorter — mustn’t be posting too many “walls of text” that might force one to engage in what was once called ‘reading’!
But to answer your first question: REAPER’s MIDI editing UI and normally somewhat buggy assortment of features within it makes it hard to use. I can barely see the notes on full zoom. Not too long ago, they began offering the ability to link outside, external editors. Yes, it works once you’ve set it up. I have Podium as my primary and currently have Audacity as my secondary (for certain audio use). Further, REAPER, using ReWire, can be used as a slave to Podium. This works, too, and I need to explore this more to accomplish some of what I posted about Podium’s missing features, namely the routing and plugin implementation. It has been a struggle to keep Podium as my main recorder, but options such as these keep the situation from becoming hopeless.
As for the rest, I have to agree with most of the points you made — the Host Market, the greater complexities of a DAW to even a complex plugin design, and so on. REAPER, the other DAW which I currently know best, is an anomaly as far as design and feature improvements right now, and I avoid suggesting that Podium could or should be able to achieve similar. But you are correct — the software coming out nowadays is so far advanced, even in a version 1, that it is almost mind-boggling to comprehend and even harder to keep pace. Therefore, part of this discussion is about how users and its designer struggle to keep Podium relevant in this rapidly changing state of the art.
The TelenatorThanks, Frits. Personally, I appreciate any response at the moment. I’m very aware that the Feature Requests are numerous and all over the spectrum; you see this on every DAW forum. Even over at Cockos REAPER, where they are improving things at the speed of light, updates coming almost faster than I can install them, still users there whine on endlessly about needing more, more. It’s crazy to read, and suffice it to say they couldn’t cope for more than 15 minutes over here.
However, the point I have kept trying to drive home here is that Podium has enough of its own virtues and unique features, starting with its unsurpassed UI (which I happen to know is your specialty), that I seriously don’t believe you need to add every common feature found in every other DAW in order to achieve top ranking status and full professional use. Some will disagree, but I’m not even sure if you would need to implement much more than half of what are currently considered standard features. I’m not even pushing for time stretching abilities but have gone along with it because other users here seem to want it so badly. I’m not 100% sure it is a core need, so that should give some idea of where I stand on features. I won’t offer any list right now, but it truly only involves a relatively small handful of core features. Also, I think it is intuitive. Some of the most recent feature additions on other DAWs can basically considered ‘puff’ — interesting, perhaps attractive, but really not necessary for daily use.
I understand how much work it will be to allow greater flexibility for plugins, but I’ve focused on this as being so ‘core’ to full use of Podium and many plugins that I just don’t think you can put it off much longer. I see it as the one major handicap in Podium. As much as I have grown to like REAPER, I would still prefer to use Podium for almost all my work. I’ve become hesitant lately to purchase plugins that I can only use in REAPER if I want their full deployment.
One good ‘fix’ that would hold for quite some time is if Podium could be made ‘friendlier’ to accepting readily a handful of ‘subhosts’ — tested, approved, and listed by you and perhaps users. If we could combine multiple plugins there and also have the sort of flexibility I’m talking about it would go a long way. Up to now, though, I’ve had Podium reject practically everything I’ve tried, and I’ve read similar posts of other users. Additionally, Podium often has trouble accepting processes that need to be routed in from outside via cables and such. On one instance it nearly uninstalled MidiYoke to where I had to do a reinstall/repair on MidiYoke later. Back then I devoted a solid couple of weeks some months ago attempting several workarounds with virtually no success.
The TelenatorSorry I didn’t respond in the short grunts and phrases that is more common on the internet today. I realise how painful it is to have to use your brain and read something. I suggest if you can’t cope with it there are lots of cartoons and such on the net that will entertain you without having to invest so much as one brain cell.