What's the next step for Digidesign?

[froyo]

By Kirkland

Is there anything other than that vague little tidbit? It would be nice to hear a little more from Digidesign themselves on this.

Hello. I just wanted to point out that the statement on that thread is as official as it's going to get. In other words, you will never see a Digidesign employee come in here and tell us that in 4 months they will have new LE hardware and in 7 months there will be new TDM hardware and a year from now there will be a new product to fit the middle. You will never see this.

I don't know how familiar you are with the business but this simply just doesn't happen. No one does it. Not one single company, it would be very very disadvantageous. Have you ever seen a company give out specific plans on anything they are working for the future? No, never, all you see is the 'vague' statements like the ones from Digidesign you read earlier, until they are ready to make their official press release.

Did Apogee announce the Symphony and Ensemble lines when they were in the planning stages? Did Apple announce their switch to Intel during those 4 or 5 years they were testing in their labs? Did Steinberg announce their new product Nuendo when it was in the drawing board and all people knew was Cubase? Did Digidesign announce the creation of the new Limited Edition software and hardware line months and years before they were introduced in 1999? Obviously the answer is no and you will never ever see these announcements.

[Kirkland]

I know quite a bit about this business as I have worked in it for over 10 years now. I know plenty of things well ahead of time from lots of companies, but never from Digidesign. I happen to know lots of things about other companies right this second that you can't find anywhere and will not know about for months. That's not really the point though, the problem is that Digi is falling way behind all those other companies and really needs to prevent losing their customer base. I'm not saying that they should hand out wiring diagrams for their newest products here, it would just be nice to know that they are listening and will have something to offer that segment of the market soon. Once novices get past the "Wow, I'm using Pro Tools!" factor, they eventually grow up and learn that LE is very lacking and that their next move is either spend $20,000 on an HD system or explore the many, many other capable systems that cost considerably less. Digidesign has created their own no man's land by hanging on to a very outdated 1990's structure and I think they need to help save the morale of their user base before they get too disillusioned to ever want to come back.

[AltissimoFreak]

it would just be nice to know that they are listening and will have something to offer that segment of the market soon.

Of course they are listening!

Why do you think we have the Mbox 2, MBox 2 Pro, MBox 2 Mini, and the Digi003 line, ans their new high falutin' reference monitors, with all their industry shattering advancements? Aren't those products exactly what their users have been asking for for years?

[MarkusB]

it would be great to have an in between solution LE-XX-HD... i personally rarely use all 32 tracks as i often start ideas ,mainly midi, in tracktion(great for composing fast) and reason for its soundsets... pre mix some stems and take it into PT for more audio and minor midi stuff. i have started to like PT midi(not perfect but workable) heres what i think PT should offer:

a better out of the box solution...

>> i.e. a more complete plugin suite (like logic, even logic express version has great plugs/instruments)

>> give us watered down versions of the A.I.R. instruments with upgrade paths

>> trackfreeze( i mean come on! )

>> apple loops browser/support (now even in Tracktion3)

i dont think they could provide great out of the box sounds like reason hence id still use it even if it just as a soundbank played from PT

stay tuned,
m.

[Kirkland]

Of course they are listening!

Why do you think we have the Mbox 2, MBox 2 Pro, MBox 2 Mini, and the Digi003 line, ans their new high falutin' reference monitors, with all their industry shattering advancements? Aren't those products exactly what their users have been asking for for years?

Ok, so basic incremental upgrades to their existing one-extreme-or-the-other philosophy is what you consider "industry shattering advancements"? There are a ton of nice monitors on the market too, so Digi putting their logo on one doesn't exactly fill me with excitement. What I am talking about is the giant gap that exists between LE and HD. HD systems have the software features that I need that would make me use Pro Tools exclusively, but I can't justify spending the thousands of dollars it would take to get those features. Even the cheapest HD system would be around $10,000. Is getting more than 32 tracks, SMPTE, surround and delay compensation worth $10,000? Not when Cubase 4 has all that for $799. The arguement would then be that for that amount of money, you're also getting hardware DSP and relatively nice sounding converters. That's true, but I have 3 UAD-1e's (which the plugins sound quite nice- as good as anything out there really) and could buy an Apogee Ensemble (which also sounds quite nice & has a handful of decent pre's, hi-z inputs, two headphone amps built in etc.) Not to mention that I am running a really fast Mac Pro with 4gigs of RAM and multiple hard drives. This isn't 1999 anymore where your 450mhz G4 is choking without the help of a TDM system. Digidesign needs to address this in a real way. People will always ask for more of this or that for any software package to be fair, but Digidesign really does only want to give non-HD users tablescraps. Because this mentality has put them in this place, I think that an indication of what direction they are heading is pretty urgent at this point.

[letrev]

[/QUOTE]

This isn't 1999 anymore where your 450mhz G4 is choking without the help of a TDM system. Digidesign needs to address this in a real way. People will always ask for more of this or that for any software package to be fair, but Digidesign really does only want to give non-HD users tablescraps. Because this mentality has put them in this place, I think that an indication of what direction they are heading is pretty urgent at this point.

[/QUOTE]

I agree. Native processing has closed the DSP gap so it comes down to whoever can provide the best software with least limitations. Digi's business model is so hardware-dependent that it is unlikely they will offer much more to midrange pros than incremental improvements to the mbox/003 lines.

I think it would be interesting if Apple updated Logic to make it more user-friendly because it already sounds great and has a ton of flexibility. Just add the AD/DA of your choice and off you go...

[Wheeltard]

I think it would be interesting if Apple updated Logic to make it more user-friendly because it already sounds great and has a ton of flexibility. Just add the AD/DA of your choice and off you go...
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letrev,
You just hit the nail right on the head. If Logic ever incorporated Digi's audio editing interface and bussing capabilities -- ballgame. I don't think they should fear Steiberg, MOTU, really anyone else. Honestly, I don't they should. But Apple? That'd be the killer. Because then you get Apogee products already integrated for Apple Macs and software. Plus you have an entity with the marketing muscle, budget and lethality to seriously compete with Digi/Avid on the shelves and display stands of Guitar Center and the e-promos at Sweetwater and Musicians Friend.

Until then, however, most of us ain't going anywhere (okay, maybe just me). 'Cuz the alternatives -- even with the crappy LE limitations -- just don't cut it versus PTLE. My .002 cents.
Wheels

[Kirkland]

I think it would be interesting if Apple updated Logic to make it more user-friendly because it already sounds great and has a ton of flexibility. Just add the AD/DA of your choice and off you go...
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letrev,
You just hit the nail right on the head. If Logic ever incorporated Digi's audio editing interface and bussing capabilities -- ballgame. I don't think they should fear Steiberg, MOTU, really anyone else. Honestly, I don't they should. But Apple? That'd be the killer. Because then you get Apogee products already integrated for Apple Macs and software. Plus you have an entity with the marketing muscle, budget and lethality to seriously compete with Digi/Avid on the shelves and display stands of Guitar Center and the e-promos at Sweetwater and Musicians Friend.

Until then, however, most of us ain't going anywhere (okay, maybe just me). 'Cuz the alternatives -- even with the crappy LE limitations -- just don't cut it versus PTLE. My .002 cents.
Wheels

Well, Steinberg is owned and distributed by Yamaha now- you don't get much bigger than that. Ever been to a NAMM show? Where most companies have little booths set up, Yamaha has several ball rooms reserved to show their products. And Apogee's Ensemble works with any Core Audio application, not just Logic. Pro Tools still has the name appeal that will sell their systems and for your average guitar playing demo-maker hobbyist, LE probably seems like more than enough. Eventually though, even those guys realize that they're gonna need a bigger boat and once you learn how limited LE is and how Digi has nothing else to offer you until you jump up many, many thousands of dollars more- you start looking at other options. I think Digi's days of having a built-in customer base that replenishes based on the brand name appeal of Pro Tools will erode unless they can offer more competitive upper-mid to high-end products. I think that if they could offer a system in between LE and HD, with significantly better features than LE, they would have a real upgrade path.

[mickdoo22]

Being fairly new to Pro Tools and DAW in general, I am very curious about what the major limitations are in PT LE verses an HD system? I have a Mac Pro Quad 2.0, 2 gig RAM, and four 500gig HD with a Digi 002. Although it is very early in the game for me, aside from the 32 track limitation, (which isnt really an issue for me), what are the major differences??
It seems to me that with the advent of more powerful computers, DIGI is actually going to have to (if they haven't already) dial back the performance of Pro Tools LE so as not to tick off their HD customer base.
i have just been reading alot of posts here and it seems like most here view LE as very limited. I am interested in hearing in what regard.

[southboundloco]

Of course they are listening!

Why do you think we have the Mbox 2, MBox 2 Pro, MBox 2 Mini, and the Digi003 line, ans their new high falutin' reference monitors, with all their industry shattering advancements? Aren't those products exactly what their users have been asking for for years?

nah thats not what their users wanted...thats more like what they wanted to do...are u an LE user?if u've been using the software for some time --- past the, as they say "wow! am using pto tools!" stage and u've been readin the DUC forums long enuf. then u'll know that mbox2 pro and the likes are not what the users wanted...now back to my question...what is it about LE that frustrates u so much? if uv been using the program long enuf u'll have answered it straight away... like one respected AE said on one of his website, he's been using pro tools for years TDM,HD,LEGACY...LE... but when asked to comment about LE, he just blatantly said that "LE is a joke"...we'll go figure