Journalists. They have to hook their readers somehow. If it makes them angry, that's great. P.T. Barnum, and numerous others since, said "there's no such thing as BAD publicity." It made us look, and their hits went up. Notice the rarity of those pages: no response section. You read it and get angry and send out links. If you could respond on the page, your anger would subside, and you would not feel compelled to tell everyone. But really now... Cubase? #1 Sequencer? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah. Then there were the most searched-for. Boy, THAT'S an indication of a great DAW. Puts Garageband right up there in the running, next to it's grandma, Logic.
Seriously, how many of these people have made a dime on their music, other than writing about it? How many have chosen a DAW as a tool , and tried to do complex real-world requests in real time with people breathing down their necks? Some of the stuff they rate highly is so filled with menus and windows and dialogs that I can be done with a process before they even get through all the things they have to click on. (I know, because we did a real, live shootout in Las Vegas 9 years ago, and not only did Digital Performer win unanimously in blind playback, it was also noted that I finished all my tasks in seconds, compared with minutes by the other guy, who was handy with his rig, also.
It was interesting. When I went into Las Vegas to do the recording project we set out to do, they were wondering whether it would be better to do it in a studio or attempt it at home. I showed them their past 5 studio attempts and asked "did you like any of these?" And they said 'No." I explained why, and suggested that we could have absolute control over the outcome if we did it with our own gear in our own makeshift studio. They were very reluctant to go along with me. "All the experts say you should be using Pro-Tools," they said repeatedly. I replied "two years ago, they'd have been right. But in 2000, we have the CPU power to run native audio with DP, and we'll have much more control over it with our own tools." So, they paraded a string of experts out to watch me and listen to what I was doing, one by one. They all said "before I met Shooshie, I'd have said Pro Tools was the only way you could do this. But now I'm convinced you can do it in Digital Performer." Then one day, without warning, several jeeps and cars pulled up into our drive, and our friends from Cirque de Soleil's two Vegas shows of the time started unloading gear. We set up the shootout, ran it, and listened. While the results were very close, sonically, every single member of the panel -- all audio professionals in the top ranks of Las Vegas -- chose Digital Performer. Everyone.
Not convinced, our manager rented a local studio for 4 days, and we took tracks for one song to be mixed. They spent four days mixing it. Once they were done, the engineer, a friend of mine, dropped off a copy for me to listen to. He winked and suggested I duplicate that mix in Digital Performer and show them what I can do. In four hours, I had not only duplicated the mix, but made it better -- completed ideas they had only started. I burned a copy, then left both CDs on the desk of the artist. He was amazed at the difference. What I had done in DP outshone the studio they went to by orders of magnitude. There was no comparison. And I had done that in 4 hours. They did theirs in 4 days with 4 people involved (which was part of the problem). They never questioned me again, and in fact, a number of people got very interested in Digital Performer.
Of course, what they didn't realize is that I could have done it just as well in Pro Tools or Logic. (well, maybe not Logic) But people are insecure, and tend to trust the herd mentality. I gave them, instead, the "heard" mentality. Once they "heard" it, they were hooked.
Shooshie