DIGI just bought M Audio !!!

[Parkerflyguy]

Should be interesting.... new products... and a focus on the "fast growing home market"

Cheers

[tele_player]

Interesting... it would be nice to run ProTools LE on the Firewire 410.

[birdFEEDER]

Wow! Yes, indeed, using the existing line of M-Audio products with ProTools would be sweet!

-birdFEEDER

[Slim Shady]

PTLE and a firewire 410? Not gonna happen. From the press release:

7. How will Digidesign’s products, such as Pro Tools, integrate with M-Audio systems?

Many of M-Audio’s products – such as keyboards, MIDI interfaces, microphones, and speakers – are already in use in conjunction with Pro Tools systems. Other M-Audio products, such as computer peripherals, are not currently compatible with Pro Tools. While the companies may discuss these types of combinations in the future where they make sense, there are no plans to integrate Digidesign and M-Audio products as part of this acquisition announcement.

8. Does Digidesign plan to develop a Pro Tools application for M-Audio hardware?

Currently the Pro Tools LE software application is written specifically to operate with Digidesign’s line of LE hardware interfaces for reliability, performance, and ease of setup. Digidesign also includes industry standard drivers (Core Audio and ASIO) with LE products, so that any piece of compatible software can use them for audio recording and playback. While the companies may discuss integrated product development initiatives in the future where it makes sense, there are no plans to develop Pro Tools for M-Audio hardware as part of this acquisition announcement.

[birdFEEDER]

I could just be a bit to overly optimistic but I think their statement is spilling over with hints, I've highlighted the hints below:

"Other M-Audio products, such as computer peripherals, are not currently compatible with Pro Tools. While the companies may discuss these types of combinations in the future where they make sense, there are no plans to integrate Digidesign and M-Audio products as part of this acquisition announcement."

I dunno, at a minium, they have options now, I for one would like to the see the FW410 replace the MBox.

[tele_player]

No, I don't expect ProTools on the 410... and overall, I'm not very interested in M-Audio gear.

[booinec]

Is there more than meets the eye here?
M-Audio releases development of 64 bit support of Windows future OS, working directly with AMD.
Home recording is the biggest growth area for the recording business by far.
More folks own PCs than Macs. Is this the beginning of Digi's migration to priority support of the PC, or just another part of the see-saw world of development?

[birdFEEDER]

More folks own PCs than Macs

While this is certainly true overall, more musicians own Macs over PCs. I haven't any data to back it up unfortunately as I'm not sure any studies have been done on it. But the "potential" PC market (overall) is almost nullified when you think that the vast (vast!) majority of PC owners are not musicians and have no interest in products like ProTools.

Peace,
-bF

[wildstar]

yuck, bad news.

Digi treats its users poorly, we all know that. if it hasn't happened to you yet, just wait. M-Audio was/is a cool little company making cool products. will they now become a ruthless, uncaring monster that we love to hate, like Digi?

living and working with Pro Tools is like having a fiery, stormy relationship: a lot of passion, beauty, and people being treated badly.

[jes]

um. m-audio is not a small cool company. they were highest growth of any hardware manufacturer for the past two years, i believe.
plus i don't think their audio devices are very good. i own an Oxygen8 keyboard and it works pretty well, but i bought and subsequently sold their quattro and FW-410 over the past few years, due to crappy sound and drivers that didn't work properly in Mac OS and not at all in Linux. I'm using an RME Multiface on my linux systems, and it makes me wish Digi would learn something from them, not M-Audio....