No Echo Farm AAX?

[khoop2112]

Thanks, Ed.

It should be noted that PodFarm sounds NOTHING like EchoFarm, even with the same models. Try selecting the "Deluxe MemoryMan" on both plugs, and you'll see. Even more important for me, is being able to recall a mix I did this summer with Echo Farm.

Thanks, Ron for the link. I hope everyone should send them a note, which should include "We would be happy to pay an upgrade fee." Money talks, and since this product fell in-between 2 companies, I doubt they feel like they owe it to their customers to update it - especially since they have PodFarm.

Hopefully if enough people write them, and they think they can make a profit, they'll do it.

- kent

[LukeHoward]

Originally Posted by Avid

... I will miss them when I go to my future AAX-only 64-bit system.

You'll miss them if you go to HDX now, not in some putative future 64-bit only release. That's because they are TDM only - there is no RTAS version.

This is an issue for us now.

[entropyjesus]

The problem is that Echo Farm clearly sounds better than POD Farm. Whether or not that has something to do with the algorithms themselves or the fact that it's native, I would much prefer a direct update to Echo/Amp Farm for AAX DSP.

[chocoholic]

Originally Posted by Avid

Dear All,

I want to apologize for the extended “radio silence” on this thread as the discussion grew to this length. This is my fault as I promised my team that I would post some information once I was in touch with my counterpart at Line 6. This has not happened yet so let me tell you what you should know in the meantime. Amp Farm and Echo Farm, beloved plug-ins that they are, are developed, owned and maintained by Line 6; this has been the case since their inception. Digidesign was the worldwide distributor of these plug-ins for Pro Tools and D-Show (our live sound platform) and we have bundled them with both systems in the past (a major reason that they are so widely used). Avid does not own or control the IP embodied in Amp Farm, in Echo Farm, or in the newer Line 6 product, Pod Farm. Pod Farm represents the newest code and features and we have appealed directly to Line 6 to update Pod Farm to our new AAX platform. The AAX platform is relatively new and Line 6 has looked into the development process in a preliminary way, but the prioritization of the work to get Pod Farm to AAX is fully a Line 6 matter, and we are here to assist Line 6 as we always have, and as we do with other developers working on AAX. So, what about Echo Farm and Amp Farm? I would not wait for them on AAX, and to my knowledge, the code for these plug-ins has not been updated or modified in several years as Line 6 moved on to Pod Farm and to other product priorities. I, too have used Amp Farm and Echo Farm in many, many compositions, and I will miss them when I go to my future AAX-only 64-bit system. Pod Farm on AAX and other comparable products, it is hoped, will fill the void for all of us. I will let the thread know as soon as I hear more from Line 6 about their development plans. I hope you will respect how important it is that we do not speak on their behalf about their roadmap. In the meantime, please know that Avid doesn’t control the outcome on this one and there is nothing at all wrong with reaching out to Line 6 (directly, or through me) and telling them what you want. We are dedicated to getting as many of today’s plug-ins over to AAX as soon as possible, and providing the support and services that pave the way for great new ones.

Thanks,

Ed Gray
Director, Partnering Programs
Avid

Thanks for the update Ed

So why when I phoned Line6 Nov 24th & spoke to a guy there, I was told:

"Digidesign licensed the modeling technology from Line6 & then created and marketed their own plugins, so it's up to Avid to decide if they will offer any future updates or conversions to other formats."

Sorry, didn't get the guys name, but it just shows you more misinformation is out there, even when I thought I was going to the source speaking to a real person who works at Line6.
I give up. (just for this week)

I guess I'll just hang onto my TDM rig for a lot longer than planned.
Maybe get a Native HD rig, except I haven't figured out how it will be possible to keep all iLok authorizations compatible on new & old systems.

Anyone have a solution for those of us who want to run TDM PT 8.0.1cs2 on an old system & then jump between PT10 HD Native using Waves Mercury & Studio, Sonnox, Soundtoys etc... ?

Will a new PT 10 iLok auth allow me to open my PT 8 app?
Will Waves v8 auth open my old 7.1 plugs? (yes, I'll email Waves on this one)

UPDATE: reply from Waves confirms what I thought.
"Waves authorization will only open up a specific version, so a Waves version 8.x auth would not open any other version."

I'll check back in 6 months & see what, if anything has changed....

R.I.P.
Echo Farm

[khoop2112]

Unfortunately, I just got a reply from Line 6 tech support.

"...you may know that Amp Farm and Echo Farm have been long discontinued."

I guess I missed the memo on that, when it happened 'x' years ago.

[ronwasserman]

Originally Posted by khoop2112

Unfortunately, I just got a reply from Line 6 tech support.

"...you may know that Amp Farm and Echo Farm have been long discontinued."

I guess I missed the memo on that, when it happened 'x' years ago.

I think it's just time to move on then.

I'm always baffled when a company designs a widget, discontinues the widget, sees tremendous demand for the discontinued widget, and decides to ignore it. Obviously Line 6 is NOT interested in additional profits.

[LukeHoward]

Originally Posted by ronwasserman

I think it's just time to move on then.

I'm always baffled when a company designs a widget, discontinues the widget, sees tremendous demand for the discontinued widget, and decides to ignore it. Obviously Line 6 is NOT interested in additional profits.

Maybe the code is too old to maintainable. Fair enough. Be nice if they could address whatever it is about Pod Farm that makes it not a decent replacement (sound, stereo, etc).

[digidesigner]

This istuation is absurd isn't it? Companies keep producing s*1tload of plugs that they then try to shovel down our throats and then there are couple of plugs that many are willing to kill for and they just kill them.
Remember LexiVerb? Sometimes I check some mixes I know I had Lexi in use and they sound fantastic reverb-wise... I have tried lexicon native verbs and I absolutely don't get that instant satisfaction that I got from LexiVerb.

I would pay a bunch for LexiV and EchoFarm... but well...

I hope someone bright like Colin or Massey or someone from SoundToys is reading this thread and will get inspired.

[studioj11]

Originally Posted by khoop2112

Unfortunately, I just got a reply from Line 6 tech support.

"...you may know that Amp Farm and Echo Farm have been long discontinued."

I guess I missed the memo on that, when it happened 'x' years ago.

I think typically when a product has been "discontinued" the company STOPS selling it. You can still buy Echo Farm brand new today on the Avid website.

Avid- your handling of this plugin is shameful. You owe it to your customers to work it out after you bundled it with so many software packages.

[JFreak]

This thread sucks.

Clearly we can all see that Avid as well as all 3rd party plugin companies have their hands full investigating which plugs can ported easily, with more work, or not at all. Nobody is going to announce "we don't know" because it's worse than silence. Once they're ready, they're ready and we pay for it.

Some companies (Sonnox, Eventide, SPL and BX to name few) are more proactive about this than others (TC, Serato, AbbeyRoad to name few). But the fact is we do not know which plugs we're going to lose once PT11 is out. Every plugin company (in my opinion) has this 2012 to release because PT10 still supports RTAS/TDM as well as AAX. I don't think anyone who could risk making a living would be an early adopter with HDX and fool enough to drop the old system before the new world is "ready".

So let's just take it easy. For example Sonnox has announced that they will have AAX-native support first and AAX-DSP support to come, and they have not yet released a single AAX plugin. Only new licenses And we're happy with it, right?