Tag: DAW

The MPV Hub is free educational resource for Mac users

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on The MPV Hub is free educational resource for Mac users

This is kind of old, but it’s an awesome site (was cleaning out things I flagged in Google Reeder)

The MPV Hub is free educational resource for Mac users:

macProVideo.com, an online education company specializing in tutorial-videos for Mac users, has launched a new educational portal called The MPV Hub (http://www.macprovideo.com/hub/).

It’s a free resource developed for the Mac creative community. You can use the MPV Hub to find written articles about how to use software, short tutorial-video tips & tricks, interviews with industry experts, product reviews, and other article.

(Via MacMinute)

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How Much Longer Will ProTools Be Around?

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on How Much Longer Will ProTools Be Around?

From Wall Street PR:

Avid Technology is a company specializing in video and audio production technology, specifically digital non-linear editing (NLE) systems, management and distribution services. While Emmy and Oscar winners and nominees almost invariably use the company’s systems, sales seem to be a problem that Avid can’t cut out of the picture.

Avid now envisions revenue of $125 million to $127 million, and a GAAP loss of $17 million to $19 million. Previous Street consensus was for revenue of $145.2 million and a profit of 14 cents a share. This announcement shocked investors in early trading hours, as this Q3 revenue range included $4 million of revenue from divested businesses, while ongoing businesses had revenue of $121 million to $123 million versus $143 million a year ago.

Basically, Avid, you screwed yourself by continuing to sell ProTools for too much. And, you waited way to long to allow ProTools to work on NON Avid hardware. Thus, you pretty much shut yourself out of the prosumer/consumer market. People can by Reason, Logic, Ableton, Sonar, Reaper, Digital Performer, and a host of other programs for a fraction of what you want for ProTools. And existing users……you want $499 for me to upgrade? Forgetaboutit!

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Saitara Software AC-7 Pro Control Surface for iPad

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Saitara Software AC-7 Pro Control Surface for iPad

Yes, the iPad is out. Yes, it is amazing. No, it is not simply a bigger iTouch or an iPhone without the phone part. If you haven’t been able to try one, then go to a store and try it. You will be hooked. There are a few music apps out, like Magic Piano which is neat-o to show your friends, but really has no practical use in my opinion.

However, there are a few functional apps in the store, and one that I’m growing fond of is the AC-7 Pro Control Surface for the iPad ($9.99). It turns your iPad into a virtual fader board and DAW controller for Logic, Digital Performer, and Pro Tools. It does this “magic” by utilizing your WiFi network to connect to your Mac using an open source program called DSMI to connect to the app and translate its messages to midi. You then go and configure your DAW to receive the midi stream from DSMI as a Mackie Control. And it works….mostly.

I say mostly because, well, there are issues. First off, using your general wifi network (ie the network that your mac, iphone, ipad, internet connection is on) it seems to work most of the time, but it will lose connection every now and then. Usually when you really need it. General consensus seems to be that on an busy network, if there is a packet that gets dropped, DSMI and the app don’t retransmit it. Or something to that effect, resulting in programs like Pro Tools complaining about the HUD connection or worse, messing up the position of the fades, which could be bad.

If you have a Mac that has built in WiFi, you can create a private wifi network, and put the iPad on it, and then the App works flawlessly (at least for me). But if you have a MacPro that doesn’t have its own wifi transmitter, well, you are going to have to suffer for a while. To get dynamic track names, you also need to use a freeware program called midipipe.

So, it is a start. I think really what needs to be done is a custom app on the Mac side that connects properly with the iPad app and won’t drop packets and drops the need for midipipe. If you can get through the setup, it is a very slick app. The Pro Tools support is basic, but the support for Digital Performer and Logic is pretty darn complete. And it can only get better with updates which will hopefully add more Pro Tools support. It’s bleeding edge, but workable. It is really nice now to not have to be tied to the computer to control Pro Tools. If you have an iPad, or an iPhone/iTouch (there is a smaller version for iPhone/iTouch), and work with DAWs a lot, check this app out.

8/10 (2 points deducted because there is no unified mac app for it…..you have to run 2 programs, and the configuration is not totally apparent).

Some guys demo of it.

Why this guy is wearing a Microcrap shirt I don’t know……(Update: He works for Microcrap….I can hear the chairs being thrown by Steve Ballmer now….)

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Pro Tools 8 Released

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Pro Tools 8 Released

protools_50667Keeping its promise to ship Pro Tools 8 in December, Digidesign announced that Pro Tools 8 is shipping. However, it is just DOWNLOADABLE right now. This is what you get (if you have M-Powered Pro Tools)

Pro Tools Installer 3994.84 MB
Big Fish Dance DJ Loops 1229.6 MB
Big Fish Hip Hop Loops 1267.08 MB
Big Fish Jazz Loops 516.01 MB
Big Fish Pop Rock Loops 1094.18 MB
Big Fish R&B Funk Loops 1226.28 MB
Big Fish Rock Hard Loops 371.43 MB
Big Fish World Loops 399.43 MB
FXpansion BFD 962.27 MB
Torq LE 234.52 MB
Melodyne Essential 28.7 MB

A good 11+ gigabytes to download :-(. Thanks Digidesign. You should at least have taken $20 or so off the price.

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Apple Logic Studio

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Apple Logic Studio

Today, Apple announced it’s Logic Studio. Not only did they pack a ton of features into an already feature rich product, they dropped the price to $499. Amazing. There are new features such as mainstage, five Apple Jam Packs, more software instruments, and thousands of other sounds. Plus, you get Soundtrack 2, which is an excellent sound editor (at least that is what I hear from my Final Cut nerd friends).

I think I might have found where that $100 Apple Store credit is going now….Wonder what the next version of Digital Performer is going to do to match this….

UPDATE: 09/12/07 by E: A couple of other sites have some first impressions about Logic Studio.

Will post more links as I find them.

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