The TelenatorI haven’t had much time, either, but I know Alexander, been working out the bugs in these, been discussing what players are searching for to improve their sound and setups, what features they are looking for, etc.
This one attempts to address that common refrain of ‘need one more gain stage for my setup’ that almost everyone, from the metalheads on up, cry out when trying to find their sound using each new amp sim.
The TelenatorNo, two different ways of doing business. On Ableton Live you can click and two rows of your laptop keys become able to play notes. It works . . . but in a primitive and uninspiring sort of way.
Others, REAPER a perfect example, offer a Virtual Keyboard, a keyboard UI that appears on screen when chosen, can be moved to a good location, actuated by mouse or (on some) a row of keys as well, and there is never any question which notes are being played, since one sees the keys depressed in real time — two very different animals.
The TelenatorYeah, now that you mention it, I’m spending an awful lot of time maintaining my plugin database and then having to load the most recently updated list into every current project and template. If only I could check a nice little box in Preferences that said, “load plugin database to any project when opening (global database option).” Or something to that effect.
The situation has changed, you see. Not only are plugins being updated by makers quite frequently now, often changing the name or Mk number, which Podium does not ‘see’ as a newer version of the former plugin, but new plugs are showing up every single day. These need to be installed upon discovery, making for a very tedious chore of maintaining the list and then loading it into every project.
The TelenatorMore about CharBooster:
“AXP has released a new free VST plug-in effect for Windows: CharBooster, a guitar booster effect, with a character. It allows to shape, overdrive and boost the guitar signal before hitting your favourite amplifier VST plug-in.”
–quoted from BPB site, originally from KVR post (I think)
I didn’t even notice what this newest plugin was exactly about until just now checking my other daily news and saw this quote above. This is precisely the issue with so many of even the best full-featured amp sim packages. It’s an issue that’s been discussed a lot, and now it appears AXP has tackled it head-on. Everybody has issues, needs, problems about that ‘one extra stage’ of gain needed or that they want to add on the front end. Even the very finest of amp sims — and I’m now using what I consider the very best, Mike Scuffham’s S-Gear 2 — can benefit from placing and tweaking a bit of certain ‘stuff’, such as this new plugin, before heading your signal into your awesome amp.
The TelenatorI had to smile all the way through as I read adimatis’ post here. Obviously, most of us know what this is all about. I just finished over on Wildfire’s thread advocating (again) for a Virtual Keyboard feature, since he, like so many Podium newbies and starving artists, he’s asked for it in the thread because he needs one!
For the record, personally, the only feature I really need — and I’d even be willing to pay for — would be the inclusion of that Metronome Pre-Count, sometimes called a Count-In, you know, 2 to 4 bars of clickity clack to help get going on recording sections or track — I want it to clack for X measures and then kindly Shut Up for the rest of the segment. (I truly hate having a click track running constantly and have been recording long enough that I really don’t need that ‘help’.)
Also for the record, I’ll state for the sake of this thread that I am not remotely interested in adding Time Stretching, except that I know well how a few others want it badly. (I’m just going to buy Melodyne eventually for that — assuming Melodyne works well inside Podium — does anyone know?)
I’m fully aware that I must come off as some sort of a hard-butt and adversary when it comes to discussing the ongoing lack of features and dev stuff. At its core, this comes from prior business experience. I’m personally and overall quite pleased with my Podium experience, especially after having got a few things straightened out and a few small workarounds set in place.
And I have plenty of compassion for this ‘one-man show’ issue. I’ve been there in other business. However, this has to be a lessor concern when it comes to attracting and retaining newer users and longer-term users. Podium, to me, is a most wonderful DAW, but let’s face it — in regard to certain lack of basic features it is clearly half-baked in some critical respects. I had to add REAPER as a DAW basically to be able to get ALL my work done. I don’t regret that needed addition in any way, as these two DAWs complement each other and work beautifully together. At the same time, I can look at Podium objectively and see very plainly that it could be on a somewhat better path.
EXAMPLE: This soon ‘Fix’ for the troublesome loading of certain plugins is good and needed work. Yes, it has been a nuisance to some users more than others and ought to be remedied. Personally, I would have fixed something else first. With this issue, I would have instead just added an important, impossible-to-miss Note: “RE-Load separately plugins that give trouble. Here’s why . . .” and then got back to it later. I’ve had a few that needed to be loaded separately, after the bulk of others, but it really wasn’t a big deal if you know what the issue is! About the same with the files IMHO. I think some improvements there are worthwhile and will be helpful to some users, but I can easily think of another half dozen items that need fixing more urgently.
The TelenatorI’m still a proponent for this feature. A Virtual Keyboard (no, let’s not go the QWERTY keys way — we need some real keys).
Obviously, if you’re serious about using lots of MIDI and softsynths in what you record, then the purchase of a good keyboard controller, control units and the like will be on your list and not far off into the future. I took this route and am rather well-fixed now and can’t complain at all.
BUT . . . I’m still insisting that a good Virtual Keyboard for Podium is a MUST and needed soon. Look, you have musicians and sound novices coming to Podium precisely because it is very affordable. These people don’t have $500 to drop on some hyped Cubase or further off, some Pro Tools setup. Forget that. By the same logic, these people don’t have the cash to then go right out shopping and have to drop another $200 to $400 on a MIDI keyboard. They need a virtual one so they can get working fast and actually STAY using Podium. This is a complete no-brainer.
This keyboard feature would help greatly to retain all the Podium newbies we keep seeing leave for ‘greener pastures.’ It’s a very basic feature that every other DAW has, and we need it now.
The TelenatorOur Days of Yore indeed! Yes, the Tascam issue is a real shame, as ‘back in the day’ anything Tascam, and Teac and Fostecs, too, for that matter, were always solid hardware workhorse units for those of us who hadn’t had much opportunity to work in fully equiped studios yet. Tascams were the original Home Studio mainstays!
I hope you are able to figure out what is the trouble. On other hardware I made a switch to ASIO4ALL instead of using the unit’s own dedicated ASIO and got much better results. Good luck with all this!
Cheers!
Tele
The TelenatorOf course I was thinking about a couple of the pieces you have posted using ZynAdd at the same time I was knocking the synth. There are some musicians/composers, too, who swear by SynthMaster and seem to do magic with that one also, about like you and Zyn… Then there are some who think Oatmeal’s GUI is too complicated or hard to understand, yet this synth is one of my personal favourites.
Everybody seems to have at least one synth that inspires them. I see Synth1, I want to play nonstop for two hours. I see Zyn …, I want to run . . . go watch the telly or read the papers. I’m glad you can get something out of that synth. I see where certain others are keen on it too.
The TelenatorI was just thinking about the incompatibilities of Native Instruments stuff with Podium, so I decided to pass by this thread. Honestly, if it were not for the Abbey Road Drums that requires Kontakt, I would get rid of all NI software in a heartbeat. Every other news or PR release currently seems to be yet another instrument designed for Kontakt. I find this rather annoying. So I suppose it comes as no surprise that I really don’t care much whether Podium is compatible with NI. I am curious to know exactly what the trouble is though. Can anyone explain specifically?
The TelenatorI’m probably mistaken, and if so perhaps someone else will straighten this out, but I thought that ZynAddWhatever was one of the very few instruments that doesn’t work in Podium. Perhaps I’m thinking of some other VSTi. I’d know more about this, except I thoroughly dislike ZynAddEtcEtc … as being the most uninspiring synth (next to SynthMaster and one or two other bloated, complicated, over-rated instruments) that I ever encountered.
The TelenatorHey, thanks for this, sobaka. I would have never run into this anywhere else. I installed the Fender Bass player and it is quite nice. I’m always looking for a good version of that sound, and it’s very hard to dial that in on most of the synths. This one sounds authentic.
The TelenatorWhat I thought was equally interesting about Apple’s sharp decline — and that was confirmed by several leading publications — was Apple’s sharp increase just beforehand. You know, before I knew the extent of Apple’s pricing for a good model, I had assumed they would be well up to 25% of market by this late date. Besides money, as we all know, are personal issues. Some people simply fall head over heals about the way its OS and desktop interacts. I spent some time on a girlfriend’s Mac way back in the early 2000’s and tried but really failed to fully embrace her laptop. I always felt like a foreigner on that machine, having started in ’98 on Windows 95.
My understanding is that porting a big rig like Podium, a complex programme, to OSX is one of the toughest tasks in DAW/VST design. I mean, after the thing is basically a finished product. If true, this would explain the curious situation where we find some of the better freeware and cheapware plugins still not available for Macs. I can easily understand some tiny 1 or 2 plugin outfit not being offered for Mac, but there are much bigger outfits that have nothing besides Windows and it’s been years now.
The TelenatorWell, to be sure, I just researched it. I did the same in 2010, but a couple of years have passed and I’ve been wondering what’s going on.
Now, once again, we are only talking about home or personal computers, just to be very clear. Apple briefly attained a whopping 12.9% of the market; however that did not hold, slipping back to somewhere between 10 and 11% as most sources report. This has traditionally been Apple’s usual share of the market, going as long back as I began tracking. There used to be a common remark — ‘Apple’s 10%.’
Moreover, the last quarter of 2011 and some of 2012 saw a huge fall off in Apple sales, speculation being rampant as to actual hard reasons but several were highlighted. At the highest price points Apple has maintained a very healthy margin, but this most come with consideration that it costs at least $2k USD to own any of their better machines, compared to $800 to $1200 for a comparable PC laptop.
I’m not certain which other part of my post it was you found issue with, but market is none of my opinion, simply what the trades and blogs report.
One last comment that goes along with this subject is what you may find more interesting. You reported some folks ‘bailing PCs to head for Apple’, and I have seen some percentage over all the years. What surprised me greatly in the last year or two is what I never would have expected: I’ve seen and am still seeing notable examples of Apple users calling it quits with the Mac and going out and buying a fully loaded Microsoft PC. Reasons given were — they are sick of the overpricing, sick of the Apple culture, or never really bonded with the Apple UI or OSX.
The TelenatorYou’ve obviously thought this one through further than I have, but your latest post brought up a bevy of difficult and scary ‘What IFs’.
I’d heard just a mention of Windows Blue and more frequent updates — and left it right there. After all, those of us particularly in audio have got used to updating our DAWs and plugins all the time. I spend at least a few minutes on the subject every week. Most are nothing urgent, but I like to keep up on what’s going on. So I read the daily news much like some people check the scores on their favourite teams!
So, the What IFs?
Are DAW and plugin makers going to be able to keep up with these frequent changes? At what point will these regular ‘improvements’ take the OS to a level where all plugin makers will have to make significant changes? I think you see what I’m getting at. It’s already a considerable issue that designers are demanded to have their products available to so many current platforms. Lately, I hear the cry of the Unix and Linux people!
In the end, I’m thinking mainly in personal terms, though. Will I install some Microsoft upgrade one evening and wake up tomorrow to find that my best DAW or perhaps some or all of my plugins no longer work?
There’s one more scary issue along with that. As you probably know (and this is going on right now!), people who are upgrading from W7 to W8 are having problems. It has long been known that the best way to change your OS on a PC is to totally wipe the last before installing the new. Those who don’t have often reported operational issues from small to fatal. Will we have to keep all our audio and files on an external or secondary drive to avoid and protect from all this preferred wiping?
I think the whole possible and likely future is rather scary at the moment, especially considering that Microsoft has said very little about its plans for the future, even more MS doesn’t like to talk publicly at all, aside from its formal launch presentations. What are yours or others’ thoughts on our likely PC future?
The TelenatorYes, you mentioned that. It is a little spooky.