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In my mailbox this evening/morning:

We are very proud to announce that the new DSP-Quattro 2.5 for MacOS X is available for the free download from the user area at www.dsp-quattro.com. It is an Universal Binary application, it runs native on Macs based on Intel processors. This version needs 10.4 to run and does not support VST plug-ins. For this, also the previous version 2.1.2 will be still available for the download in the user area.


- HOW TO DOWNLOAD THE 2.5 ARCHIVE:


You should:


- login to the USER AREA at www.dsp-quattro.com
- Click the link to Your i3 Products.
- In the column which says DSP-Quattro v2.x, click the download link.
- That opens up a page where you can choose the new 2.5 archive.

When you first run 2.5 you have to enter a password to run it and there are instructions for getting the password included in the email sent to registered users. I just managed to do it. You need to go to the user area, and click the link that reads "your i3 products" and there's a link to "Get password."

Preliminary report... if you are on a PPC don't do it. Here's an excerpt from the read me:

New in this version:

- Universal Binary support: DSP-Quattro runs natively on Macs based on new Intel processors
- the graphic engine has been totally rewritten from scratch to support Quartz graphic libraries of MacOS X
- new event dispatching engine for very important improved performances
-several GUIs have been re-designed and re-stylished

NOTE:

-This version requires MacOS X 10.4 or later.
- MacOS X 10.5 (Leopard) full support still under investigation.
- VST plug-ins are not supported anymore on this version.
- Hardware samplers SCSI dumps are not supported on this version.

Basically if you want to run this app on your Intel machine you have to go with this. The betas of 2.5 have been disappointing to me and I hoped the release version would be better but it isn't. You give up VST support, but I don't really use VST effects much so I thought that's an easy trade off if the full Quartz graphic support meant faster screen redraws and better performance, but no. In fact, 2.5 feels sluggish. If you resize the main window, rather than show just the outline of the window when you click on the resize corner and move your mouse, it scales the whole image, but not that smoothly. Also clicking a zoom button to change the horizontal zoom yields nothing, until a the zoom changes 1 or 2 seconds later. It takes that long to respond. It's frustrating.

Oh... and from what I can tell 2.5 doesn't respond to using the spacebar to stop and start. Yipes!

If you're Intel and want to run this app, you have to update. If you're on a PPC machine, skip it. I'm going to give it some time before I delete it off my hard drive in case I think of some compelling reason I shouldn't, but that's doubtful.

Thanks for the heads up, James. Saves me some more space on my hard drive for another bad guitar solo

James Steele wrote: ...The betas of 2.5 have been disappointing to me and I hoped the release version would be better but it isn't.

This is not good news. I, too have been really disappointed with the betas. I was hoping the final release would speed up the sluggish interface issues on my Intel iMac.

What a pity. DSP Quattro has been my editor of choice for years now. It runs great on my PPC machines, and I've been making do without a dedicated audio editor on my new iMac, patiently waiting for this release. The last thing I want to do is shell out for Peak. I'm totally bummed.

I've been using 2.1.2 on my MBP without issue. I downloaded the update this morning but haven't had a chance to even launch it.

I'm going to try t out now - if it truly is a disappointment I think I need to just bite the bullet and buy Peak Pro.

Not good news at all.

Well the thing is, I don't really think 2.5 has any added features over 2.12. In fact they remove the ability to use VST effects. So there's no reason to go to 2.5 for PPC users that I can see. I received a reply this morning from Stefano:

Hi James,

thank you for your e-mail.

Yes, on PowerPC macs we suggest to use still the 2.1.2. We will work to improve the performances of the 2.5 in next versions, but surely it will work better on MacIntels.

Thanks

Stefano Daino

**UPDATE!**

Well, after reading Stefano's email that the new version 2.5 should work better on MacIntels, I decided to give it a try. BIG IMPROVEMENT in the graphics compared to the betas. Night and Day. It's much, much snappier. This is great news! Looks like I have my favorite audio editor back!

I haven't had time of course to really go through the app, but things are looking good. No problem with the space bar here.

Hey that's cool. It could be I just had a glitch going on with the spacebar. So this is definitely good for Intel users then. I would just say though that people still on PPC, should pass.

Thanks for the info, James. One other question: do 2.12 and 2.5 gracefully coexist on one machine, or would I need to delete 2.12 to try out 2.5?

-m

mongoose wrote:Thanks for the info, James. One other question: do 2.12 and 2.5 gracefully coexist on one machine, or would I need to delete 2.12 to try out 2.5?

They seem to co-exist fine. I simply renamed the new version to include "2.5" in the file name and put it in the same folder as the old version. I did have a small problem where 2.12 crashed while loading after I ran 2.5, but I deleted the prefs file and now both versions launch and run, but 2.5 is too slow for my PPC machine.

Dumb user site keeps emailing me back the PIN request and corresponding passwords for version 2.1.2. So I can't even authorise the damn thing...

Kind regards.

Dave Bourke wrote:Dumb user site keeps emailing me back the PIN request and corresponding passwords for version 2.1.2. So I can't even authorise the damn thing...

Kind regards.

When I made my PIN request, they presented me with my oldest passwords first. The newest one (and the one I needed) was buried down at the bottom of the list. Stumped me a few times before I caught it. Maybe the proper code for you is down at the bottom.

Right. I'm dumb. I'm old. I'm blind. I'm tired. I'm so mortally pissed off. Shoot me.

Thanks for the pointer.

Kind regards.

the input recorder is broken.


MIDI sds does not work

I am using 2.1.2 under rosetta still it works better.



I3 really dropped the ball.

lordtoranaga wrote:the input recorder is broken.

The input recorder seems to be working fine here. Tested it with both Built-in Sound and my Digi002r.