Ha Ho Ha Ho Hu

[garote]

After farting around with Soundtrack Pro 2 for about six hours, I have formed various opinions about whether it can serve as a CoolEdit Pro replacement. The biggest problem so far is the navigation in the multitrack - it has SERIOUS issues. The second biggest problem is the collection of compressor/expander filters. Where is the filter where I can simply drag points around on the graph, and the program will automatically construct the right combination of compressors and expanders to match what I've drawn? CoolEdit only did this, what, NINE YEARS AGO PEOPLE. Is there some kind of patent snafu interfering with this?

Anyway, here's the result of my six-hour farting around: Ha Ho Ha Ho Hu. It's a 256kbps AAC file, compressed via ITunes. You may have to do the Right-Click And Save-As Shuffle™.

Now for some dinner.

Comments

[rudetuesday.livejournal.com]

Just finished listening to the track. This was FUN. I'm definitely keeping it for sneaking onto mixes for The Unsuspecting.

mwaahaaaahaaaa...

[robocowboy.livejournal.com]

Tell me more. My Windows machines are getting displaced rather quickly and Audition is really the only thing I'd miss at this point.

[garote]

heeheeheeheeheee

Note how the reaaaaallly slooooowww beat is a loop stolen from a Snoop Dogg song and then time-stretched about 400%. I was very impressed with the quality of the time stretch.

The woman speaking is, of course!, from the horrible HORRIBLE original english dub of Vampire Hunter D.

:D

[garote]

Well, for me, it's a shootout between Soundtrack 2, ProTools, Adobe Audition if they actually port it to Mac, and whatever the next release of Logic will be.

I would love to see Audition cross The Great OS Divide, but it hasn't so far ... and Logic ain't out yet ... so all I know at this point is that Soundtrack 2 LOSES in this shootout. As I said above: there are some real problems with multi-track editing, plus I've already stumbled upon a handful of extremely annoying bugs, plus it's crash prone. It obviously did not get the testing TLC that Final Cut garners.

This annoys me greatly because there are some aspects of the Soundtrack interface that are absolutely brilliant - for example, the way non-destructive edits are handled, the flexibility of the spectral views, and the Apple Loops Utility. When a 1.1 update for it comes out I'll have another look. Perhaps by then I'll have a larger monitor as well.

As for ProTools, the UI in ProTools strikes me as a cluttered, overcomplicated mess that hasn't seen improvement for TEN YEARS. It seems to have been designed more with the aim of pleasing gearheads who like to see lots of chrome and electro-widgets, when they could make the same decisions with a grid of points, two text boxes, and a goddamn drop-down list (a-la CoolEdit Pro). Big knobs and shiny backdrops that say "CRUSHER!" and "ASS-POUNDER!" are fine for people who are really into their gear, but I've never been one of those people. I'm very big on doing everything inside the computer. Kind of a problem, really. ;)

Still, getting back into the whole composition thing after ... what ... a five month hiatus? feels good. Maybe I'll boot Soundtrack again.