Quote:
Originally Posted by Drew Mazurek
A for profit public company like Avid, run by non pro audio people, can't stomach the R&D needed to develop plugins the way UA does. UA is run by Bill Putnam Jr, whose dad is one of the pioneers of the industry (for those that don't know the story already), and he understands what it takes to do things right regardless of profit. This is partly why their products are more expensive than some of their competitors. Of course they are in business to make money, it's not a charity, but I know firsthand that maximizing profits isn't at the top of the list.
Avid wants to be a software company it seems, evidenced by them getting DAD to make them a modified version of their box for them.
BTW, what you're asking for is what the TDM world was and what Avid hoped HDX would be. |
I doubt maximizing profits isn't at or near the top of the list for Universal Audio, there is likely just a difference of mentality of how to achieve profits than Avid. Steve Jobs had a mentality like that. I think Avid had some problems where short sighted execs saw the short term benefit of milking their cash cows while cutting budgets for R&D, which probably boosted profits for a quarter or two and gave that exec a bonus for their 'great work', but then that really has hurt over the longer term because technology at a technology company simply can't grow stagnant.
You are sort of right on the claim that I am asking for a TDM-like world for HDX - yes but not exactly. HDX is different than TDM, and actually better in both software integration and hardware implementation (and also better than UAD in this regard). AAX DSP plugins by design must always be Native compatible as well, thus they are more flexible and transportable than UAD. This also makes them more in line with the world of today where people want max flexibility. Want to work on your mix at Starbucks on your laptop? - well just let the plugins open in Native mode while you are working there (or even implement a 'option to freeze all tracks with HDX plugins if session is opened without HDX card attached' feature - something which UAD could never do because it doesn't have Native versions to freeze). In the TDM world there was also still never a UAD like unified store experience with personalized vouchers that immerse you in the platform and make customers feel valued. Avid, invest in your products and your customers and see your brand revitalized!