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My thoughts on why Pro Tools is still the number one DAW

Posted: 15 Oct 2010 10:09 am
by Bob Martin
This thread is about the different versions of Pro Tools and my thoughts of why PT is number 1. A few years back everyone was saying pro tools was dead and that all of the newer DAW's were running PT out of business LOL what a joke.

Pro Tools was one of the very first viable ways to record digital audio to the computer and do it good! For a while I just knew that Opcode's Studio Vision was going to win the race hands down and I invested heavily in that system. Well WRONG! hehe! Studio Vision was light years ahead of any other midi systems at 1st and then audio later as soon as it was added to their midi package it could do midi editing that current day systems still can't do and probably never will :-)

I was turning audio tracks into midi files left and right and with a little patience and editing it worked like a charm and of course it worked the other way as well meaning midi to audio. Mono worked the best but it would polyphonic (some what) and it allowed me to play my guitar as a bass which meant I could play all the bass lines on my guitar and then turn them into midi then manipulate as needed using good actual real audio samples while using the midi notes to play the samples.

Then those so and so's and I can think of a few other names I called them at the time went sold out to Gibson (thanks to Scott for setting me straight on the Gibson deal I forgot). So there I was stuck with about 50 floppy disks and a paper back manual that was as thick as "Gone With The Wind" and it was useless it also came in a nifty big slide out box of course I still have every disk including the nifty slide out box :-)

Naturally we all know that it didn't die that moment but I knew that it wouldn't be long before it would be useless especially as newer operating systems came out that didn't support it. So there you have it. I sometimes wonder that if Gibson hadn't canned Opcode Studio Vision Pro if Pro Tools would still be number one today or would Studio Vision have jumped out to the number one position and be on version number 200 LOL! There's no doubt for that to happen Gibson or some company would had to have ported the code over to the PC side for it to have had that chance. But we'll never know now huh?

Just a few thoughts on Daw's (my definition of a DAW is any combination of hardware or software or computer apps that can take a project from zero to finished ready to go to the mastering house) I use Sonar the newest vs. but I still am disappointed with its midi editing capabilities along with some of its other features or the lack of them but of course midi was suppose to have died 10 yrs ago LOL!

I thought just for fun I'd add a poll to see what some of us use. As far as the poll goes I know I surely missed several other DAW's so if yours isn't on there just check other and put in your post what you use.

Posted: 15 Oct 2010 2:53 pm
by Earnest Bovine
Next poll you could ask how many of us are satisfied to use the little tiny "LE" broken-down crippled free version of the software, that comes free with the sound card. For example my free Cubase LE is so simple that the User Manual is only 576 pages.

Posted: 16 Oct 2010 2:19 pm
by b0b
I don't use any of those. What's DAW stand for?

Sometimes I record with GarageBand, but mostly I use a Roland VS-1880 recorder. I use an old version of WaveLab for mastering. Are any of these considered to be DAW's?

Posted: 16 Oct 2010 3:51 pm
by Joey Ace
Digital Audio Workstation. I consider my Tascam 2488 a DAW, so your Roland must be one too. Garage Band is debateable. I'd vote yes.

Posted: 16 Oct 2010 5:10 pm
by b0b
Okay, I'll vote "Other" in the poll.

Why is GarageBand debatable? What can't it do that a "real" DAW can? Here's one I made with GarageBand:
TwentyYearsAgoToday.mp3

Posted: 16 Oct 2010 5:36 pm
by Scott Malchow
Bob,
Actually Opcode didn't really go out of business in a traditional sense. Gibson bought them and scuttled the company- something they did a lot of at that time.
A lot of us were pretty disappointed with that move back then....

Scott

Posted: 17 Oct 2010 3:38 am
by Joey Ace
Debatable because it's only software.
IMO a DAW is hardware.

So is ProTools a DAW? Not by my definition. It's only a component of one.

Opinions wanted...

Posted: 17 Oct 2010 6:40 am
by Bob Martin
Hi Scott, I should have mentioned that point but actually I had forgotten all about that terrible mean "Gibson company" bought it only to send it to the trash barrel's. I also know I wasn't the only one that had invested heavily in Opcode. I don't know if you or others would agree with my high rating of studio vision or not but I thought it was just about the "end all, do all and be all" of audio and midi apps and actually if a person had a machine that would still run it today it would still stand tall amongst the other audio-midi apps if you forget how slow it would run on the older OS's and machines. I know that it will still run on older Macs with the ancient 8.? OS but it sure would seem slow compared to today's specs on newer machines and OS's :-)

Obviously that's just my opinion and others that used studio vision may not feel the same about it.

Bob

Posted: 17 Oct 2010 6:56 am
by Bob Martin
Oh shoot I forgot to weigh in on the definition of a DAW. As far as I'm concerned any type of audio recording setup such as a software/hardware combo or any all in one digital recorder including all mentioned in posts here earlier are DAW's. I actually really like the Roland line of DAW's or I should say the ones that have a VGA hookup with them. With a VGA out along with a keyboard and mouse I see no difference between them and software/computer DAW's.

Before we have any disagreements about the difference between the 2, I have used Roland's flagship DAW with a VGA out along with KB and mouse and yes there are quite a number of things that can't be done with their setup that can be done with a computer and audio app. but on the other hand there are things that can be done with Roland's setup that can't be done with software and a computer as well.

Bob

Posted: 17 Oct 2010 7:02 am
by Bob Martin
I'll field this question to Bob, can the choices in a poll be edited after it's already been started on? If so I'd be glad to go back and add some hardware options or any other audio apps that I missed and I'm sure I missed several. So Bob let me know if I can fix the poll with more options. I think we can all learn some good stuff from this addition. thanks in advance and Bob if you have to do it and feel like fooling with it feel free to add any thing you can think of.

Bob

Digital Audio Workstations

Posted: 17 Oct 2010 7:14 am
by David Winfrey
For those who care to read a bit more, Wikipedia has an interesting page on DAW's that talks some about the history and evolution of DAW's:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_audio_workstation

Regards,
David

Posted: 17 Oct 2010 9:05 am
by Kirk Eipper
I've been using the Korg D3200 workstation for more than a year and really like it. It is my understanding that with computer based DAW's there are some latency problems which on the Korg it just doesn't happen.

Posted: 17 Oct 2010 9:28 am
by b0b
Bob Martin wrote:I'll field this question to Bob, can the choices in a poll be edited after it's already been started on? If so I'd be glad to go back and add some hardware options or any other audio apps that I missed and I'm sure I missed several. So Bob let me know if I can fix the poll with more options. I think we can all learn some good stuff from this addition. thanks in advance and Bob if you have to do it and feel like fooling with it feel free to add any thing you can think of.

Bob
The moderator or admin can edit poll options. There's a danger that once the poll has started, editing the options would give misleading results. For example, I've already clicked "Other". If you added Roland VS, my vote wouldn't be counted because I can't vote twice.

Posted: 17 Oct 2010 9:42 am
by Joey Ace
Bob M,
It would be easiest for you to request this post be closed and start a new one.
I'll lock it after adding a link to Part Two.

Posted: 17 Oct 2010 3:18 pm
by Bob Martin
Well what do you all think would it be cool to have the Mod to go ahead and close this one and me start another more informed poll and question and discussion thread?

I really wanted to have a fun thread as well as an informed discussion and throw in the poll for more fun and knowledge learning :-)

Please let me know if you guys think that would be a good idea. All I want to do is help us all have a good understanding of the recording options we might have!

Joey aren't you the Mod here? if so you have my permission for what that's worth LOL to close this one and even start a new one so we can learn more about all of the equipment we love or hate to make music on LOL!!!

Just go ahead and do what you think is the best for this little discussion and I'll b e glad to go right along with it :-)

By the way Bob thanks for the help in teaching me how polls work and Joey I believe u-r-d-man to delete this one and help us start a new deal :-) Just let me know and we'll do it!!!!

Bob

Posted: 17 Oct 2010 3:21 pm
by Bob Martin
So Joey in case I babbled to much and you weren't sure what I wanted go ahead and close this one and we'll start over :-) thanks to all that participated in this poll and thread and please jump in on the next one and I'll do my best to have more selections to the poll LOL!!!!

Blob

Posted: 17 Oct 2010 5:05 pm
by Joey Ace
OK Bob. Start a new one.

You
have to start it or you can't configure the poll.

Posted: 25 Oct 2010 7:12 am
by Joey Ace