Sound Designers

Normally I wouldn’t turn this into a rumor mill, but I was informed of a very interesting tidbit concerning my first love: audio. Because this was not relayed to me by anyone from Digidesign, nor divulged under any kind of NDA, I present it here. Paraphrased:

TDM is dead. Digi knows this. A new version of Pro Tools will be out – with all of the HD functionality, but without TDM cards. All CPU based. Expect it this year, maybe even in Q3.
(.....)

My apologies, the digi post has been removed. Hope to be back-up soon.

Benoit T. a écrit :Quelques liens

La claque... en enregistrement d'un disque dur par Nathan (Noise Jockey).... ça démonte! (aucun process qu'une normalisation)
http://www.noisejockey.net/blog/2010/04 ... rive-guts/
<object height="81" width="100%"><param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf ... ram><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf ... lor=dd0000" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed></object><span><a href="http://soundcloud.com/noisejockey/hard-drive-guts">Hard Drive Guts</a>by<a href="http://soundcloud.com/noisejockey">nois ... </a></span>

Papalou a écrit :

My apologies, the digi post has been removed. Hope to be back-up soon.

When a soft whisper becomes a loud echo – Digidesign

Posted by Michael Kammes on April 26, 2010 · 1 Comment

Normally I wouldn’t turn this into a rumor mill, but I was informed of a very interesting tidbit concerning my first love: audio. Because this was not relayed to me by anyone from Digidesign, nor divulged under any kind of NDA, I present it here. Paraphrased:

TDM is dead. Digi knows this. A new version of Pro Tools will be out – with all of the HD functionality, but without TDM cards. All CPU based. Expect it this year, maybe even in Q3.

Given the time frame, this is by no means set in stone. However, wow, this is a huge notion, if it does indeed turn out to be true. While LE was given the ability to do many of the HD selling points (see: DV Toolkit) there are still a good amount of needed-for-post-features-and-high-end-music only present in Pro Tools HD.

TDM – the expensive expansion cards that go into a computer to give it more real time processing and effects – was designed because CPU’s could not handle the demand that audio DSP required. Now that CPUs have the horsepower, TDM is really not needed. Digi – err, Avid Audio’s “parent” – Avid – did away with this technology many years ago. From a hindsight perspective, this makes sense: no wonder Digi hasn’t had an HD product refresh in over 8 years. From a technology geek standpoint it also makes sense. The card based technology is outdated. It relies on a hardware based selling model which almost every single higher end software/ hardware system is moving away from (see Smoke on a Mac – ‘SMAC’, DaVinci Resolve, et al.)

Thus, geek questions arise:

1. What will the interface be to Pro Tools I/O? (96 I/O, 192 I/O, etc) Will a host card (Core) still be required to communicate with these devices, or, are we going with a generic HBA (host bus adapter)? Maybe USB 3.0?

2. Perhaps M-Audio or other con & pro-sumer based I/O will be made available to Pro Tools HD? For Sync HD / XMON / Control Surface devices, what changes will have to be made?

3. How long will development continue for TDM based systems? The Digi community went ape-shit (see the last 2 posts) when support for Mix systems was announced as being discontinued – 7 years (yes, 7) after the last unit rolled off the assembly line.

Just as Avid is unifying their 5 brands – and adopting 3rd party hardware, I see Pro Tools following suite of Media Composer: Software only has everything – hardware just adds I/O functionality. No speed increase for the extra cost of hardware.

I’m not sure how happy I am about this: Hardware used to separate the men from the boys. Those serious about the craft and those who tooled around, undercutting those who spent their lives working on it.

I liken it to the Trades: if you are aspiring to become skilled and experienced in a trade or craft, you must work your way up the ranks. Apprenticeship. Journeyman. Master. Once you attain a higher rank, it’s generally considered you know just what the hell you’re doing. Giving novices the same tools as the masters serves to degrade the perceived ability and quality of the Master. Audio people who have not yet refined their skills become competition to those who do have the experience. Are you a betting person? I bet there are more qualified people with HD systems than qualified people with LE systems.

Those are my feet.

I know what you’re thinking. “That’s pretty snobbish.” Consider this: We’re in an environment where the concept of more and cheaper labor is often better than less, but expensive labor – especially here in Hollywood. If 1 person can accomplish 1 hours work at $100/hr, but I can hire 2 people at $20/hr – they have 5 total man hours to accomplish what 1 person at $100 can do. You can see how this quickly becomes interesting to bean-counters. This is happening now. This is reality. Experience be damned, you cost too much. Thus, “just OK” quality becomes status quo.

That mindset, coupled with the same “enabling” computer system – yields a net result of the cheaper labor winning almost every time. The cheaper labor becomes the norm –as the expensive people must lower their rates to remain in business – and the industry continues the downward trend of expecting more for less, and demeaning experience and talent to the cost of gear. This has been happening for years in the post-picture film / video industry…and unfortunately, the time has now come for audio to take the same lumps.

Soap box aside, going hardware-less would only serve to attempt to saturate an already drenched-in-Digi market. Digi already has massive market penetration with Pro Tools LE – does Avid Audio really think that giving the still remaining post features in Pro Tools HD and rolling them into LE – and eliminating any hardware acceleration will really “move the needle” and yield more sales? Are you really worried that Soundtrack Pro is going to force Pro Tools into what Final Cut Pro forced Avid into becoming? I think you have some breathing room on that end – at least for a while. Quite frankly, you should be more concerned about people doing their sound mixes in Avid or Final Cut Pro than in Soundtrack Pro.

Also, from a reseller perspective, this means less margins, and more hustling for a few crumbs. What an inspiration! Hey great! Can’t wait to fight for 2 points! Hey, I can match B&H and Guitar Center! Avid, how is this incentive in the reseller channel? Maybe you should just take everything direct. I’m sure your decimated staff can handle it, right?

So, yes, from a professional audio editor / mixer perspective; from a partner in the reseller channel; and from a logic perspective; this is gonna suck. However, I’m not so stuck up that I can’t see the forest for the trees.

Digi, at least you’re keeping up with the Joneses.

so a écrit :Juste pour dire un truc pas très original mais vrai.
Bravo pour tous ces liens et merci de les partager ici par ce que ça doit en prendre du temps.