Mach 5 V2 vs Digi's Structure

technomorph · Post by **technomorph** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 4:33 pm

will the Mach 5 V2 stand up against Digi's Structure within ProTools?

Will the Mach 5 allow drag and drop from the Session Edit window?

The Structure beta is out now.
Release very soon.
MOTU better hurry or they are going to get burried on this one.

homebilly · Post by **homebilly** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 5:30 pm

a better question is does Structure read K2, EXS and all of the other formats in their native format without converting?
probably not. M5II will.

Digi better hurry up and play catch up

garymadi · Post by **garymadi** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 8:12 pm

technomorph wrote:will the Mach 5 V2 stand up against Digi's Structure within ProTools?

Will the Mach 5 allow drag and drop from the Session Edit window?

The Structure beta is out now.
Release very soon.
MOTU better hurry or they are going to get burried on this one.

Who Knows. All these "samplers" have a specific sonic character, unique to that sampler.

Regarding standing up to Structure, Who knows, I still like Ray Kurzweil's K250 and it was 8 bit tecnology.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 11:35 pm

The one thing that hangs in the balance is how important such a thing as MachFive is to Digi. How important MachFive is to Digi USERS is another mattter. Digidesign set out ages ago to be a pretty much self contained system in both hardware and software-- and in the software dept. they clearly wanted to set themselves apart. Yet interapplication and/or cross-platform compatibility is apparently not as big a priority as some would hope.

MOTU makes hardware and software just as Digi does. But no matter how idealistically it seems that one combo of hardware and software from one company should be guaranteed to be fully functional with that of a competing company, there remain issues on top of issues.

What we're seeing, imho, are the dregs of what Apple believes is at least the beginning of a solution to the problem-- and that is Core Audio in OSX. It's not there yet by any means, but one company's understanding of RTAS behavior remains at odds in some respects to another company's understanding of it.

One question to consider is whether Digidesign and MOTU have anything to really gain by making all of their hardware and software cross compatible on the Mac platform in a way that was tidier to users who require such univserality. To me, it's not that it's impossible-- but there's some factor of improbability involved since so many users are singing the blues in the same key.

There is one consideration, and that is if Core Audio would dare impose a Mac standard on top of other protocols, including RTAS, DAE, etc., where the numerous paucities could be smoothly reconciled at the OS level.

OK.

The politically correct thing to say is that "not everyone is having trouble".

(Then again, I place more value on correctness than political correctness.... right is just plain right no matter how you slice it.)

DAE and RTAS under Leopard? Remains to be seen.

homebilly · Post by **homebilly** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 6:42 am

machfive II is running under Leopard already from what my source has told me.

garymadi · Post by **garymadi** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 9:47 pm

mon · Post by **mon** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 10:13 am

SampleCell, SampleCell II, Soft SampleCell, NuBus cards, PCI Cards, costly support, costly upgrades, burnouts, discontinued product.

I just don't trust 'em anymore.

I threw my lot in with the Mach5ies years ago, too, with little joy, but soon things will change.

BradLyons · Post by **BradLyons** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 12:00 pm

mon wrote:SampleCell, SampleCell II, Soft SampleCell, NuBus cards, PCI Cards, costly support, costly upgrades, burnouts, discontinued product.

I just don't trust 'em anymore.

I threw my lot in with the Mach5ies years ago, too, with little joy, but soon things will change.

Back in the day when Digidesign hardware was exclusively on the Mac, they were at the mercy of Apple and all their hardware changes. Computers in those days were somewhat new to an extent. Okay, not new but technology was being developed on a constant basis where today it's about moving forward into faster, more elaborate processing. Digidesign got out of the software sampler business for awhile, and now are in it with a huge surge. Understand, however, their plugins ONLY work with ProTools.

I've been able to test-drive MachFive V2 and Structure. While I will have both the moment they are available, I do see myself using Structure first and MachFive second ONLY BECAUSE I use ProToolsHD in my studio. Structure integrates into ProTools, therefore for me it makes sense. But if you're not using ProTools OR if you're using more than just ProTools for your audio/sequencer application--then I think MachFive V2 will be the obvious choice these days. Look, both are EXCELLENT--and they are less than $1,000 cost between them. I had (3) EMU E4XT Ultra's fully-loaded I paid nearly $5,000 a piece on.... $1,000 for two applications that is light years ahead seems like a pretty good bargain to me.

homebilly · Post by **homebilly** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:34 pm

how about D24 then one year later

MIX+

can you say OMF?

digitranslator
DV toolkit
mp3

BradLyons · Post by **BradLyons** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:54 pm

Well considering that Digidesign has been doing this for over 10-years, I'd say that makes them keeping up with the times. People bought a Beige G3, then a Blue & White G3, different versions of the G4 up to the G5 and now Intel-based machines. I don't see the difference.

bongo_x · Post by **bongo_x** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 7:58 pm

as someone who has made my living from pro tools for the last decade (?!?), and still find it to be my favorite daw, I have a strong dislike for digidesign and invest in their products as little as possible. I always tell people "don't by anything from them unless you can make your money back in 6 months".

you can't blame all their bad behavior on apple, that's just silly. everyone knows that hardware changes. rarely has a company orphaned so many products, even companies that went out of business. how about the people who paid $600.00 for the koblo synths and then digi buried them? how about the fact that they never even updated sound replacer, and how much did I pay for that thing? if you buy something from them, except pro tools, you can expect that you are buying version 1 and it will never be updated. and you are locked in.

they may be changing their ways, but they already lost me. I buy what I absolutely have to for work and that's it.

bb

mon · Post by **mon** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 6:35 am

That is my experience exactly. Thanks for the backup, bongo_x, I was starting to feel pushed around!

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 9:33 am

BradLyons wrote:...People bought a Beige G3, then a Blue & White G3, different versions of the G4 up to the G5 and now Intel-based machines. I don't see the difference.

I think the difference is that when folks bought those G3s, G4s and G5s, they were in fact receiving whole, complete computers.

Imagine the Digi Computer•„•:
Hard drive: $200 upgrade.
Keyboard and mouse: $200 upgrade.
"Getting Started" Production Pack: Limb required.
"Professional Pack": Grandmother required.

Digi... Microsoft... Digi... Microsoft... Digi... Microsoft...
Eureka! That's it!

DigiSoft.

jimlongo · Post by **jimlongo** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 2:23 pm

MachFive is probably great if you use DP, but if you're using PTs then Structure is a much better product. It runs much better within PTs - drag'n'drop is fantastic in the beta. The interface is much easier to SEE.

MachFive with PTs has really been a dog. Sorry that's how I feel, I've had it since day one. And the history of M5 has been a joke. Anyone remember when you couldn't see the text in the interface for a half a year? Say what you want about digi, but I doubt you will see Structure sitting still for 2 or 3 years without any development. I hope that v2 finally does arrive for all of you.

BTW they are offering a generous upgrade from Soft Sample Cell -> Structure.

As for translators, well they don't really need to be built into the sampler do they?

meeloo · Post by **meeloo** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 2:52 pm

jimlongo wrote:MachFive with PTs has really been a dog. Sorry that's how I feel, I've had it since day one. And the history of M5 has been a joke. Anyone remember when you couldn't see the text in the interface for a half a year? Say what you want about digi, but I doubt you will see Structure sitting still for 2 or 3 years without any development. I hope that v2 finally does arrive for all of you.

This is just wrong. The text issue have been fixed in less than a week. The issue was due to an undocumented change in some of Apple's programming interfaces during an upgrade of the OS. You have been able to download and install a fix almost right away. If may have chosen to ignore the fix but then MOTU can't force the update on you.

MOTUnation.com

Mach 5 V2 vs Digi's Structure

Mach 5 V2 vs Digi's Structure

Re: Mach 5 V2 vs Digi's Structure