Is it just me or...

[adamg67]

... or are there still some serious problems with the attitude to standards and inter-operability in the computer music world? It seems like a lot of companies have Microsoft's Disease, abusing standards or coming up with their own way of doing things.

I'm reasonably technically savvy (MSc in parallel computing and 25+ successful years in development, ops and other tech fields, and still going strong) but I've never had so many technical problems with anything as I have with the music related stuff I've used in the last 10-15 years. I know it does amazing things, but sometimes things just don't work when they should.

Anyone else feel like the digital audio companies that take our money also take the p*ss when it comes to making things actually work properly, especially with other company's software or gear?

[SimonEdward]

I moved from tape based recording to 24-bit Windows PC based in 2012 ~ and no regrets. I use Reaper DAW and 99.7 % of the time, I've had zero interface problems or compatibility issues with external provider VST plug-in's. The developers release updates and enhancements (I presume this includes back end code), every few weeks'. They took £50 off me 3-years ago, and I probably won't need to renew my license for at least another two-years or more.

I bet they would say, "Windows is hardly the most stable operating system available" - and have a nightmare whenever there is a new release - windows 8 on PC anyone?

However, one (only slightly) "music related" software that drives me nuts, in terms of [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] [/font][/color][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]inter-operability is Wordpress.. most 3rd party themes and plug-ins are a pile of sh*te! [/font][/color]

[roman_sub]

As the joke goes... we like to have standards in pro audio - that's why we have so many of them!

I had to work through issues with most paid software providers I've dealt with: so, many reinstalls and once a 3 hour call with Waves support.

Not sure as to causes - perhaps chaotic marriage of industry and art?

Edited November 9, 2017 by roman_sub

[WinterMute]

Lack of observance of the few ‘standards” we have is usually the problem...

That said, a bit of research ahead of any changes usually does the trick, that and never updating software during a project and never buy 1st gen hardware.

Avid are usually the worst offenders, but they’ve been decent of late.

[Sibob]

Curious to know what examples the OP might have?


Si // Focusrite Media Relations

[adamg67]

So, my current mini project is to have physical control of my virtual amps. I want 2-way comms with the controller, so that if I change presets or switch between tracks or plugins the values on the controller update.

I picked up a second hand Kenton Killamix Mini ([url="http://www.kentonuk.com/products/items/midicontrol/kmix-mini.shtml"]http://www.kentonuk.com/products/items/midicontrol/kmix-mini.shtml[/url]) for doing this, and it's a great little box. Not sure I'd pay £270 for one but at £100 off ebay I'm happy with it. It has 9 endless rotary encoders with LEDs round them, and 9 buttons, plus banks so by pushing any of the knobs you get a different midi channel, so 9 x 9 knobs and 9 x 9 buttons easily selectable, plus you can can get more by holding down knob 9 and pressing another one. Class compliant, talks to anything, I really like it.

The tricker bit is getting 2-way comms with the virtual amp and fx plugins. They are all geared up for one-way MIDI control, which IMO is no good at all for controlling parameters - it's a proper PITA just for turning stomps on and off, I've been through all that with my multiamp.

What you do get now with DAWs, including Studio One v3, is the ability to map a control surface to a plugin using the automation interface between the DAW and the plugin. That's designed for both read and write and is a normal way for the DAW and eg Amplitube to communicate.

Sadly, it's not that simple. First, Amplitube and BIAS FX have a limited number of automatable parameters which you configure to control what you want. That seems to make them look different to the DAW, but after much faffing I've got the 2-way control working - but by trial and error, and the method for getting it mapped is not how it shows you in all the videos. Quite a few people have given up at that point from what I can see, but I perservered.

Anyway, you soon run out at 16 parameters for Amplitube and even 20 for BIAS, although that's more workable. I probably could have worked around that but by this point I was determined to make it work. So I thought I'd just have an instance of Amplitube for stomps and one for amps, that would be fine. Set it up, it works, saved it, loaded it again, all instances of amplitube have the same mapping instead of the different ones I'd set up for stomps and amps. Goes the same way with plugin presets, it seems like I can have one mapping per plugin, not per instance of that plugin. So in the end I've found a VST wrapper that has 100 parameters and lets you map them to multiple plugins, so with that it looks like I can get it to do what I want. It's just taken ages longer than it should and is more complicated to set up, which takes the edge off the niceness of having real knobs to tweak.

Edited November 10, 2017 by adamg67