What do you think, is it time for Avid to concentrate on Pro Tools strengths?

[V5V]

Originally Posted by houser

When I was a kid we had to get up before we went to bed, clean the lake, eat gravel for breakfast.
..and if you tell that to the kids today would they believe you? Nah…

LUXURY! We could only DREAM of gravel for breakfast!

[YYR123]

Originally Posted by RyanC

a show/hide notes feature in piano roll (eg hide kicks/hats and only edit snares etc, then show all)..

I would love this...it's needed. Even if I am just building a song with midi, and take it to the drummer to track the real version.

It would be really nice

[V5V]

Originally Posted by JCBigler

In 200 years, we will still be listening to Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Stravinsky, Holst, Basie, Ellington, Gillespie, etc...

Do you honestly think that in 200 years any one will even remember any of this chart topping "music"? Much less even be listening to it?

We've gone from classical and jazz music with complex extended chord structures to pop songs with three or four simple chords 30 and 40 years ago to songs with only one even simpler chord with the exact same four-on-the-floor rhythmic motif that everyone else uses. The kids today are making "hit records" in their bedrooms with a 25 key MIDI keyboard, on whch they only play the white keys and a 9 key drum pad. And of everythign has to have that stupid transformers vocoder effect in it.

And in 6 months the next flavor of the week will come along and no one will remember that last hit.

All true. You're absolutely right.

But, so what? If people enjoy it, great.

The palette of life's experiences and enjoyment spans a wide gamut, encompassing both high art that is profound enough to provoke epiphanies AND catchy little snippets of novelty that are briefly enjoyed then forgotten.

I appreciate having both. It's unlikely that much of the latter will have any lasting affect on humanity, but some of it sure is fun while it lasts, and I wouldn't want to take a long road trip with only the masters to listen to any more than I would want a diet of exclusively gourmet cuisine. Sometimes you just want a Big Mac!

[spenner]

If Avid cannot, or will not, fix a recording with MIDI Merge sustain bug then they have already been concentrating on PT's strengths, which are obviously not MIDI.

One reason I upgraded to Cubase 8 Pro from Cubase 5 is because it was a great price for all the features for a hybrid producer/mixer like me.

Also, I do not have PT HD. It is rare now that I print VI's to audio and I almost never use Track Freeze. For my computer, Cubase lets me create and mix larger sessions with robust Komplete, Spectrasonics, PLAY VI's and other Fx plugins, saving lots of time. I have not seen any solid evidence that PT 10, 11, or 12 (Native AAX) is much better than previous versions regarding VI efficiency.

So while everyone talks about MIDI features, my angle is fixing bugs and making PT (native) compatible with other DAWs regarding VI efficiency hurts PT more in the MIDI department (for some) than a plethora of new features.

[NewdestinyX]

Originally Posted by b1daly

..The idea that Pro Tools can survive as a top tier audio application by focusing on audio post and old school recording approaches is ridiculous on its face.

That is the most salient point you made in your whole post, sir! And it's spot on!! And directly speaks to the point of this thread.

Digidesign first entered the scene with Sound Tools in the late 80's which was primarily a Mastering Tool. Best of its kind for its day.. Then with ProTools for multitrack audio which also became the standard of the industry for low latency all digital, all in-thebox recording with HD. Best in the biz. But all that time - they left MIDI behind.. really. MOTU led the way in amazing MIDI tools all through the early years. Then Cubase and Logic chimed in quickly. All three are light years ahead of PT midi in terms of editing and plugin manipulation tools. So much music today is Midi.. Can't understand Avid not seeing the future well.. There will always be acoustic music bring made by musicians in real time. And PT will be right there doing what it does best. But it needs to expand its user base. Well.. I" repeating myself now.. Good point, though, b1daly!

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by V5V

Forgive me if I'm focussing on the example and missing a broader point, but this one confuses me.

If I track real drums, each mic gets its own track. Kick and hat would not share an editing space with the snare. I don't understand why the MIDI data for all the drums and cymbals would be on a single track and require sifting/showing/hiding.

I don't work with MIDI at all (I do post, not music production) so I could easily be missing something obvious here, but wouldn't just routing individual sounds to separate tracks make MIDI workflow easier? Is there some obstacle to doing that?

Traditional drum MIDI is on one track (usually track 10). The thing with drum vi's is each drum does NOT have individual MIDI channel assignments so if you wanted to do what you're talking about you'd have to have a number of instances of the drum vi (one for snare, one for hihat, etc.). A drum grid would help with the programming but PT doesn't have that. One makes do the best one can with the sorry state of PT MIDI and if you want individual control the best that can be done is to split out the audio for each drum to separate aux output channels.

[ArKay99]

Originally Posted by musicman691

Traditional drum MIDI is on one track (usually track 10). The thing with drum vi's is each drum does NOT have individual MIDI channel assignments so if you wanted to do what you're talking about you'd have to have a number of instances of the drum vi (one for snare, one for hihat, etc.). A drum grid would help with the programming but PT doesn't have that. One makes do the best one can with the sorry state of PT MIDI and if you want individual control the best that can be done is to split out the audio for each drum to separate aux output channels.

Or you could do what is in Studio One, you can do an explode pitches to tracks. This will take an aggregate midi drum track with all the drums on different 'pitches', create a new track for each and put each midi drum on it's own track with one menu command...and they all still 'talk' to the drum VI.

[Bob Olhsson]

The elephant in the room is that Pro Tools has never been occupied any higher tier of MIDI production than it does now. It has no place to go but up!

[southboundloco]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

The elephant in the room is that Pro Tools has never been occupied any higher tier of MIDI production than it does now. It has no place to go but up!

Yes maybe in 15 years time

[NewdestinyX]

Originally Posted by bob olhsson

the elephant in the room is that pro tools has never been occupied any higher tier of midi production than it does now. It has no place to go but up!

EXACTLY!!

xx