Suggestions for MOTU webinars (topics, formats, etc.)

[nk_e]

First of all kudos to everyone involved in making the webinars happen. They are incredibly helpful and I’ve picked up so much useful info already.

I thought I would start a thread on topics folks would like to see covered at future seminars or suggestions on format.

My biggest suggestion is about the structure of the sessions. I’ve taught quite a few webinars and the one suggestion I would make is that the structure be clearly divided between covering the topic and general QA. By that I mean that questions asked and answered during the presentation should be related to the topic at hand. Questions that are about general issues and things unrelated to the topic should be noted and tabled for answering at the end of the session. That way, we can be sure that everything related to the day’s topic is covered in a coherent, focused way and then we can get to general troubleshooting.

I also find that it helps to remind people at the beginning of each session that they should hold unrelated inquiries to the end, but feel free to ask anything about what is being presented. Sometimes folks will use some torturous logic to relate their question to the day’s topic in an effort to get it addressed immediately, but the host just needs to call it and say we’ll park that one to the end.

Other than that, I’m pretty happy with the sessions. I guess as far as topics, I’d love to see more about Chunks and their many uses.

I’m still a klutz when it comes to tempo operations. I’ve gotten used to just dragging things in the timeline (when that’s needed) in Cubase and a Studio One to line up hit points. And of course more on beat mapping, warping etc., would always be appreciated. But a lot of that has been covered so once they post the old sessions, I’ll be able to replay them.

If there’s anything else you’d like to see, post below!

Thanks again MOTU!

[dix]

Due to my west coast work/sleep schedule (working with clients in Asia) I've only been able to catch one of these. Even though I'm a DP veteran, and the one I happened to see wasn't of particular interest, I learned a ton of stuff. ....you never know what you don't know I guess!

I thought the unrelated questions in the middle of the presentation seemed awkward too. I think MOTU wants these to feel more like a free flow of information rather than a class maybe? But suggesting people wait for OT questions, rather than make 130 or so other participants listen, would make the webinars more productive and efficient for sure.

My number one suggestion would be to make these webinars available after the fact! MOTU has said they would, but it's been weeks. Maybe they seem too raw for them to publish as-is? They should realize that, for better or worse we're all getting used to seeing extremely rough presentations on TV etc. ...Conan O'Brien, The Tonight Show etc. look like they are shot by children (because they often are, literally). These webinars are at least as ready-for-primetime as many actual primetime shows are now.

[Michael Canavan]

Re: off topic questions, I really don't think it's too common of an occurrence, and there's the slippery slope part that any company with an image has to deal with. Two examples: I pointed out in a question about Clips that there's a bug in the "back to arrangement/linear sequencer" 'scene', it doesn't work right now, it loads empty ghost clips and plays nothing. The other day in the film scoring one a lady asked about articulation mapping like Logic and Cubase have, and I was happy to hear that it along with MPE was heard loud and clear by MOTU. Now are either of these important to the discussion at hand? Yeah of course, but I also expect pretty much the entire Q and A part of these to be edited out of the youtube versions.

Looking at what's coming up, it's hard to say what I think would be cool for them to do a webinar on. They're covering a lot of ground. Of course my only complaint is about details. Matt went over the metronome in DP and I wanted him to mention something that I hadn't realized, I mean for years. Apparently it's important to add the metronome into the Conductor track. It has literally taken me years to figure that out. I just assumed it was like meter in general and would play nice as the 'default' if it was the only one, but it really works much better added to the Conductor.

So I guess a generalized webinar with all the tips and tricks Matt knows that he ends up teaching people for various reasons like their obscurity, not explained completely in the manual etc.

[terrybritton]

This topic might be good as part of a webinar.

V-Racks, Aux Tracks, Pre-Gen, Clippings, VEP vs Local

Terry

[nk_e]

I like the idea of a general tips webinar. In fact, it would be great if that were a byob type of thing...an opportunity for Matt to present some of his, then open it up for attendees to share theirs.

I don’t think (at least I hope) MOTU realizes that the general QA at the end has a lot of value and doesn’t cut them. Even the couple of times something hasn’t worked for Matt or he’s hit a glitch, seeing how he works around/get out of it is valuable.

These don’t have to be overproduced to be posted. IMHO they can pretty much post these as they are. If they are worried about looks, make it available after user login. I’m pretty sure 99% of us don’t care, we just want access to the content!

[nk_e]

This topic might be good as part of a webinar.

V-Racks, Aux Tracks, Pre-Gen, Clippings, VEP vs Local

Terry

Wow. That is an excellent and clear summary. Many thanks.

[cowtothesky]

My number one suggestion would be to make these webinars available after the fact! MOTU has said they would, but it's been weeks. Maybe they seem too raw for them to publish as-is? They should realize that, for better or worse we're all getting used to seeing extremely rough presentations on TV etc. ...Conan O'Brien, The Tonight Show etc. look like they are shot by children (because they often are, literally). These webinars are at least as ready-for-primetime as many actual primetime shows are now.

Totally agree. It only makes sense that they want every one of their DP users properly trained and able to tell others how great it is. The more training stuff they put out, however 'raw' it may be, the better. This should be part of their marketing expense.

[dix]

They have (video) "Coming Soon" on the Webinars page next to each of the topics covered so far, so I guess they're coming....soon.

Did anyone catch today's, Apr 28 webinar? I came in the middle of a user describing how they were able to create a bus to include CPU heavy effects in the Pre-gen scheme (Auxs are not included normally). Did anyone else catch that? I didn't hear how they did that exactly.

[Michael Canavan]

They have (video) "Coming Soon" on the Web
Did anyone catch today's, Apr 28 webinar? I came in the middle of a user describing how they were able to create a bus to include CPU heavy effects in the Pre-gen scheme (Auxs are not included normally). Did anyone else catch that? I didn't hear how they did that exactly.

So Matt was talking about how he likes to keep reverb’s etc. on aux track busses which of course do not pre gen and run in real time. I think what was mentioned that you might have misinterpreted is that you can run a tracks output to an Aux for things like Stems and it will still be able to PreGen, just not the Aux track itself, and any plug on the Aux track.

[Michael Canavan]

The general rule of thumb is that Aux tracks, record enabled tracks, and input monitored tracks do not Pre Gen.

[dix]

They have (video) "Coming Soon" on the Web
Did anyone catch today's, Apr 28 webinar? I came in the middle of a user describing how they were able to create a bus to include CPU heavy effects in the Pre-gen scheme (Auxs are not included normally). Did anyone else catch that? I didn't hear how they did that exactly.

So Matt was talking about how he likes to keep reverb’s etc. on aux track busses which of course do not pre gen and run in real time. I think what was mentioned that you might have misinterpreted is that you can run a tracks output to an Aux for things like Stems and it will still be able to PreGen, just not the Aux track itself, and any plug on the Aux track.

Hmm. Thanks. I guess that was it - the fellow did mention that it was good for stem outputs. I thought there may have been some PreGen trickery revealed, that I was unaware of, that might make it possible to run Adaptiverb (etc...or any Zynaptiq plugin, right?) without it bringing my CPU to its knees.

[Michael Canavan]

I thought there may have been some PreGen trickery revealed, that I was unaware of, that might make it possible to run Adaptiverb (etc...or any Zynaptiq plugin, right?) without it bringing my CPU to its knees.

Pretty much all the regular players are what you're going to have to use.

If it can run on a track, let it PG by not arming that track. Don't look at it funny.

Set up a single instance as an Aux and send to it. Watch the bouncing CPU meter go!

Turn up the buffer setting. Learn to play in front of the front of the beat.

Get rich, buy a new computer.

[labman]

Don't look at it funny.

I was missing that step Michael!

[terrybritton]

They have (video) "Coming Soon" on the Web
Did anyone catch today's, Apr 28 webinar? I came in the middle of a user describing how they were able to create a bus to include CPU heavy effects in the Pre-gen scheme (Auxs are not included normally). Did anyone else catch that? I didn't hear how they did that exactly.

So Matt was talking about how he likes to keep reverb’s etc. on aux track busses which of course do not pre gen and run in real time. I think what was mentioned that you might have misinterpreted is that you can run a tracks output to an Aux for things like Stems and it will still be able to PreGen, just not the Aux track itself, and any plug on the Aux track.

Hmm. Thanks. I guess that was it - the fellow did mention that it was good for stem outputs. I thought there may have been some PreGen trickery revealed, that I was unaware of, that might make it possible to run Adaptiverb (etc...or any Zynaptiq plugin, right?) without it bringing my CPU to its knees.

That was me bringing up the Auxes and pregen.
I've got a thread here talking about many of the issues.
Generally I've stopped using AUXes to host plugins entirely (except in Michael Canavan's example later in the thread where using a heavy "gluing" reverb receiving from MANY track sends makes little difference over having pregen in action). I use Audio tracks, as you can have input monitoring on now (new feature) and hear the plugin, and then you can print it easily. When you turn off the record arming and/or input monitoring, the audio track plugin will be processed using pregen, effectively rendering it like an audio track. Keep in mind to set your audio settings with a slightly higher Prime Milliseconds figure if using pregen a lot. (I use 350 to 500 these days, rather than the default 200.)

Terry

[dix]

That was me bringing up the Auxes and pregen.
I've got a thread here talking about many of the issues.
Generally I've stopped using AUXes to host plugins entirely (except in Michael Canavan's example later in the thread where using a heavy "gluing" reverb receiving from MANY track sends makes little difference over having pregen in action). I use Audio tracks, as you can have input monitoring on now (new feature) and hear the plugin, and then you can print it easily. When you turn off the record arming and/or input monitoring, the audio track plugin will be processed using pregen, effectively rendering it like an audio track. Keep in mind to set your audio settings with a slightly higher Prime Milliseconds figure if using pregen a lot. (I use 350 to 500 these days, rather than the default 200.)

Terry

Thanks for chiming in Terry! I'm still not sure I'm clear on this though. You say:

"I've stopped using AUXes to host plugins entirely (except..."

Does this mean you, with some exceptions, have abandoned the traditional send/return model for reverbs, delays etc and instead just put those effects plugins directly on to the Audio tracks?

Also, you say instead of Auxes...

"I use Audio tracks, as you can have input monitoring on now (new feature) and hear the plugin, and then you can print it easily."

I'm not clear on what input monitoring has to do with being able to hear the plugin. I understand that that having input monitoring enabled takes the track out of the PreGen scheme, but with or without Record or Input enabled you can hear the Audio track and the plugin, no?

[EDIT: apologies. i'm not in front of DP at the moment due to a power outage i can't recall the behavior of an input-enabled audio track]