Shooshie wrote: We won't have to record to audio -- in some cases probably never will record to audio; we'll just bounce straight to disk, and the VI's will render in the process. I can't wait to see that. Shooshie
Ah, but the other consideration is being able to open projects in the future and general portability. Plugins constantly become obsolete, sometimes within a year. I am thinking of adopting a new work habit -- record all my MIDI tracks as audio and MIDI simultaneously. This saves the extra set of rendering the track to audio later.
One of the big appeals of MIDI in the early days (back when I was using tape and slaving MIDI via SMPTE) was simply the ability to have more tracks. But now audio tracks are plentiful, and audio editing has gotten increasingly more flexible (not as flexible as MIDI, of course).
I like the idea of rendering all of my MIDI and effects as audio as soon as possible in a project. This doesn't really address DP 6, or features, or the present thread so much, but I'm just throwing this out there more as a new way of thinking about working for myself. Render as audio as you go along. I find that if I leave it till the end, I never end up doing it (esp. if I've got like 40+ MIDI/VI tracks). I'll just bounce out a mix and move on. I have to start forcing myself to render as audio immediately. I also like the idea of committing to a sound as soon as possible, because today's DAWs can trap the creative process into a tunnel of endlessly auditioning patches and fx. Sorry, I'm rambling... This was just my reaction to the idea of never rendering MIDI tracks. For me, in some cases, MIDI is only something I use because it makes it easier to punch in or go back and fix clams. Otherwise, I want to start doing everything as printed, wet, finished audio, as much as I can. Commit to audio, just as if it were all tape. Mind you this is just a goal...
Babz