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History In An Image

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 10:45 am
by lindymack
I was going through some stuff and found an item from the Dark Ages that I thought might be worth sharing.

Image


Wasn't that fun?

Lindy

History In An Image

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 10:59 am
by MIDI Life Crisis
Not as much fun as the 46 disks you needed to install some programs! That was fun for days, and then you had to run Conflict Catcher to find out what was screwing things up.

We really have so much less to moan about these days.

Re: History In An Image

Posted: Sat Aug 04, 2012 4:23 pm
by Shooshie
I saved those disks, too, as well as the ones from 1985. My earliest Performer disks seem to have gotten away from me, but I've got most of the others. Quite a history there. It wasn't like today. Then it was a shared experience between MOTU and us; we were gradually learning how to do this, and when I saw "we," I mean all of us. MOTU included. They were learning from us what is important, what doesn't matter, and what we're willing to pay for. (also, what will cause us all to hit the phones, endlessly, until they fix it) Sometimes it was surprising to find features they had neglected to include, which made it extremely difficult to work. As I said, it was a learning experience for all of us.

When I see those disks, I do not feel joy. I feel an uneasiness. The annoyance that it's time for another round of slow installations and paid beta-testing. (we pay, then we test) It meant another round of bugs, phone calls, and fixes. It meant lost time. Work arounds. It meant we became good at getting our work done, despite the tools. That's why some of us old timers are kind of intolerant of the whining we hear so often now.

We have it good now.

Shoosh

Re: History In An Image

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:18 am
by mikehalloran
>That was fun for days, and then you had to run Conflict Catcher to find out what was screwing things up. <

Ahhhh... the bad old days! I do not miss them.

I recently sent all my old floppies, along with DP pre-5, to recycling.

History In An Image

Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 11:23 am
by VitcoMusic
Shooshie wrote:..... That's why some of us old timers are kind of intolerant of the whining we hear so often now.

We have it good now.

Shoosh
Couldn't agree more.

DV



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Re: History In An Image

Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 7:07 am
by David Polich
Reminds me of how far ahead of the curve MOTU really has been, actually.
I started using Performer in a studio in 1987. The studio owner had it
running on a Macintosh Plus, and synced it to an Otari 24-track machine
with a system involving a JL Cooper Sync box and a device called a Jambox.
We ran MIDI sequences from the tape so we could sync drum machines and
synths to it. Sync dropouts were a constant problem, but nevertheless,
this was cutting edge stuff back then.

Not sure, but I think that MOTU was the first to market a DAW with digital
recording that actually worked - Digital Performer.

There was still a spirit of amazement with technology back then - as in,
we were amazed we could even do this stuff. NAMM shows were a wondrous event
because you didn't really know what new miracles were going to be revealed,
unlike today where you already know months ahead of time what's going to be
shown. It was an exciting time.

Re: History In An Image

Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 10:58 am
by wylie1
David Polich wrote: The studio owner had it
running on a Macintosh Plus, and synced it to an Otari 24-track machine
with a system involving a JL Cooper Sync box and a device called a Jambox.
You just described my old studio only I updated the chip in the Jambox and it use to lock solid after that.

We're redoing some of the old stuff now for a new CD and I wish I had some of those old files.

Re: History In An Image

Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2012 3:21 pm
by Shooshie
David Polich wrote:Sync dropouts were a constant problem, but nevertheless,
this was cutting edge stuff back then.

I'll bet I did a thousand hours of sync with major-league boards back then, and never had a single drop. Of course, we always striped a track and used SMPTE. Still, it was pretty cool that MOTU made that possible.

Also, I discovered that for some strange reason, film crews don't like SMPTE. Cramps their style, I guess. One camera dude came over and irrationally threatened to punch me if I continued to inform them when DP had synced up. I think "speed" is the word that was used, and which we'd always used for that purpose. Then I stood up and was twice his size, and threatened to fire his ass if he so much as looked at me cross-eyed again. I guess he didn't know I was the music director. He found out quick.

Contrast that with the first time I ever went into a studio carrying Performer on a Mac; the engineer thought I was some kind of genius. I had studied the SMTPE chapter in the MIDI Time Piece manual the night before, and was just doing what it said, as if I knew what I was doing. Heck… it worked! I always trusted MOTU after that. By the time I was doing multi-camera syncs, I was an old hand at it. I never figured out what was wrong with that camera dude except that he was just angry. Maybe drugs were involved. I didn't see them, but his face was twisted in a knot, and he was angry at everyone. But walking up to my chair, looking down at me and threatening to punch me if I said "speed" one more time… that's… crazy!!! Shoulda fired him anyway. Those videos turned out to be crap, and we had to do it again.

But the next time, we had a free-lance director from National Geographic with about 12 Emmy's. It worked out for the better. Interestingly, he would not work with SMPTE. No sync. He preferred to match audio and video in the mix, and his matches were perfect. He had his method. So… camera guys apparently don't like SMPTE. Still not sure why.

Shoosh