Protools user since the begginning

[davip]

Argh...thanks for the reminder about DATa; those were the days. I started with Sound Designer I on a Mac SE30. Before that it was a Decillionix DX-1 samper in my IIe!

[Dale-c]

This has been a rather cool post. I have often wondered about the history and progression of Pro Tools. While I am at it, could someone tell me what system worked with the Mac II CI? I use an Mbox and and iBook now of couse but I was given an old mac and I would love to set up a "retro" system.
As for me I only go back as far as PT Free and now LE with and Mbox.
Yes, it is awesome the quality that you get for so little space and money
It is so portable and inexpensive!

[Steve MacMillan]

While I am at it, could someone tell me what system worked with the Mac II CI?

I had a IIci for my first 4 track, version 1 ProTools. That and a Nubuss SampleCell card (16MB ram $1000). 14" Apple screen (which cost $800) and a 1.5 Gig hard drive the size of a shoe box ($2000). My pride and joy was my MO drive which recorded 300MB on each side of a MO disk (drive $3000, disks 60x $150), I still have it and it still works. Really ProTools was a 3 track, because I used to record the timecode off the 24 track analog on a track and slave the 24 track to ProTools. It was great for moving stuff around, tuning vocals with Sound Designer (took ages) and replacing snares. By todays standard it sounded stinky. I had to be one of the first to trust master vocal recording to the computer, the studio staff used to think I was nuts. It was a pretty exclusive club then.

sm

[woodywho]

'82 Wasn't doing music, but I was writing flow charts and programming in basic on commodore 64s in high school, that was after 2 yrs of punch card readers.......LOL
'95 PTIII & SD w/ an 888 on a 7100 til '99
'00 upgraded to (4) 888s w/ an expansion chassis on a 8100(266mhz g3 card) w/ 2 9gb barrracudas($1500 ea.) (2 disk i/o, 2 bridge i/o, 4 dsp, 1 samplecell) til present

'02 PT HD2 (2-192i/o, 1-96i/o) til present


....oh yeah, and I still make 3-4K a month with my original nubus system!

[PBerolz]

I helped beta test Sound Designer when it was a sample editor for the Mirage, & Prophet 2000, running on an Apple 2e ( I think) and the original Mac 512. Probably 1985.
Since then have used SD2, Qsheet AV, Masterlist, DATa, Samplecell, SoftSynth, Turbosynth and PT since version 2.02 (I didn't like the original version & skipped it.)

[ripple FX]

My SoundTools system was one of the first to be delivered in Chicago. Purchased April 5, 1989 from Gand Music. Took it back to Indianapolis and stayed up 3 straight days and nights. Ran it on a IIx (which is still in use as a labeling station - PageMaker 3!) E-Machines 17" B&W monitor, CMS 600MB drive, and the first MO drive for backup (300MB/side). First ProDeck/ProEdit rig was 1990, version 1.03 - 2 IO cards and the SysAxe card. 8 channels of digital bliss, when it wasn't crashing. I often remind folks, I was ProTools long before it was cool.

Cheers,
Chris

[Nexxt]

Since summer of '92, when a 1gb HP harddrive was $2,100, sounded like a banshee and Samplecell was a shortlived big dollar expense. All of the software/hardware upgrades since except D24 and 5.1. It's been a great ride for the most part.

[mixer]

still have my old IIci..may fire it up and see if it works..long way to the hd3 accel i use now..back in those days only edited some on the system..still on 2 inch tape and large format consoles...today only see the analog stuff on very rare occasions...digidesign has been a great company for me..

[Peter Gotcher]

My, this thread has triggered quite a trip down memory lane. I'm sure most of the "newer" PT users don't know me, but I founded Digi in early '84 with Evan Brooks and was the CEO and main product "idea" guy through the Avid merger. I ran Digi for about 18 months post-merger and "retired" in '96, leaving the company in very able hands (including the present GM, Dave LeBolt, who has had tremendous input into PT for many years).

I drop by the DUC every once in a while because I'm an active PT user these days. It's fun to see people discussing ancient programs like Q-Sheet, which was inspired by Bill Koepnick at Advantage Audio (heck, he practically designed it). At the time I thought "Post" was a cereal manufacturer.

FX designer was another obscure one. Mark Jeffery wrote that program to get the most out of a Lexicon reverb he bought and it was so damn cool we had to ship it. Mark is one of the great music software developers of all time in my opinion. He wrote Softsynth (well ahead of its time), Turbosynth (ditto), and designed most of the early PT user interface. He even designed the infamous "tapping fingers of doom" that we have all of us PT users dread. Mark still works at Digi and has more recently fathered Bruno/Reso, D-fi, Sci-fi and Beat Detective. Can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

I'll try not to wallow in sentiment here, but I have a lot of great memories of many years at Digi. The company has been blessed with great people, past and present.

If anyone has any really obscure Digi history questions, I can probably answer them. Here's today's first history quiz: what was Digi's original company name?

Peter

[RobMacki]

I don't want to chime in too quick but what the hey.

I learned something tonight. Sound Designer was originally designed for the Emulator II.
And wasn't there some connection w/ Ensoniq?

DigiDesign History
DigiDesign was founded in 1984 (as DigiDrums) by Peter Gotcher and Evan Brooks. The company began as a project to raise money for their band by selling the drum chips they had programmed for the new digital drum machines (such as the Drumulator and Oberheim DX). These EPROM chips sold by the 10,000's, and provided the new businessmen the capital to forge ahead into software and hardware design. Peter Goucher sold Digidesign to Avid in the 1990's and went on to become a famous silicon valley busines man.