Apple's Soundtrack Pro 2

[JanuS]

Is really evolving into a professional sound-for-picture application, by the looks of it.
The ADR "automatic cut and fade the best part of a take" looks like a very handy tool. There are some automaters for Protools as well, but this looks integrated and very simple working!
Also the capability to mix via sends and busses to 5.1 outputs, with an IO of choice will probably get some potential buyer who now are on the PT LE platform...

Soundtrack Pro 2 is part of Final Cut Studio 2, and not for sale by itself, I believe.

An open question (ok, it's been discussed on the DUC before); Will Soundtrack Pro be a serious competitor for Protools?

I love to hear your opinions and future brainwaves...

Jan

HD2 & LE + DVtoolkit2

[Noiz2]

Before they show it at NAB? Anyone who could answer that can't talk about it till then.

Short answer, no. Maybe down the road.

[Noiz2]

I see they opened the box Sun. But the short answer will do for now.

[IO Composer]

Based on what they currently have posted on the Apple site, I'd say that it's becoming more and more of a competitive product to PT. Certainly much more compelling to a DIY production person as it's a seemless extension to FCP. It's ADR workflow seems pretty handy... probably better than PT. Now that it has OMF/AAF import/export.. it seems like a very viable and useable tool... I would not be suprised at all if I started getting Sountrack Pro sessions to finesse.

It's pretty clear to me that for most FCP projects (short of feature films), Soundtrack Pro 2 will do quite well.

-Jamey

[24bit dither]

Soundtrack 'Pro' version 1.x is a bug-fest nightmare, somehow I doubt v2 will be any more stable...

[EarHole]

I've already had requsets to mix using.

[JanuS]

To give this post an extra dimension: Rumor is Apple is going to, or is already 5 year busy with, a successor of Logic. and I don't mean Logic 8...
I'm really wondering if Apple is heading for a share of the audio post market? I suppose the end of this year is gonna give me/us a new insight of how audio post is done.
Or are these too big thoughts?

[Nathan W.]

Yeah not sure. They still aren't thinking about the FULL picture. It seems to me they aren't fully equipped for broadcast yet but works great for DVD and AC encoding. For instance, for 5.1 broadcast audio productions require LT/RT mixes IE you need to not just downmix a 5.1 mix but you need to encode it. Also, what's the workflow like? How easy is it to make punches in 5.1? Another HUGE thing is processing power. I'm still waiting for someone to release a Dolby E plugin. That would rock...

[IO Composer]

To give this post an extra dimension: Rumor is Apple is going to, or is already 5 year busy with, a successor of Logic. and I don't mean Logic 8...

I don't think this is true. If it were true, then they wouldn't be putting so many resources into evolving Sountrack Pro. They tend not to develop competing products. Soundtrack Pro is their their intended "protools killer". It's just not quite there yet. This new release gets it closer though.... I will certainly be evaluating it as soon as I get my hands on it.

I was asked to mix a soundtrack pro project a few months ago but since it didn't have OMF export, I ended up going back to the FCP OMF and redoing the work in PT that had already been done in STP. Bad workflow, obviously. But now that STP has OMF export, I think it'll be possible.
-Jamey

[kptkarl]

I don't see it as a competitive product to Pro Tools by any means. Its a bundled ap with FCS for $1299 so I don't see many LE users jumping on it unless they are doing video editing as well.

Surround 5.1...yipee...glad they could actually get into the 90's!!! 6.1 and 7.1 are moving forward.

OMF/AAF export is a nice addition. Let's see how well that part plays with others.