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As an amateur producer, I'm wondering: what's the utility of something like this? If I create a new set, I have the option to use the 'Synth'. Let's be very h

As an amateur producer, I'm wondering: what's the utility of something like this? If I create a new set, I have the option to use the 'Synth'. Let's be very honest here: if I want to make real music, I'm going to turn to a serious DAW + synth plugin. I personally use both Massive and Serum with Ableton. Anything you cook up in a webapp is going to fall seriously, seriously short of what Serum can do. Not to mention that a web tool just doesn't fit into the workflow. The synth is the heart of digital music production. If I'm making music in Ableton, I want my synth to be inside Ableton. This might interest absolute amateurs, but amateurs won't pay for this, and by the time they are advanced enough to want to pay, they would have discovered Ableton/Logic/FLStudio. I don't mean any offense, but I find that online music tools like this are generally very poorly thought. They are a solution searching for a problem instead of the other way around. A lot of people need simple tweaks to their photos or graphics. This is why online photo editing tools work even though they fall far short of Photoshop in capabilities. But audio/music? This isn't something your average Joe needs for his Instagram profile or his Facebook business page. If someone is serious about music/audio editing, he will eventually want to use a professional tool. Not to mention that Ableton Lite is quite decent for someone new to music production

sdnguyen90 10y ago
I think this is more of a editor like Audacity that just happens to have synths. I don't see any sequencing features.
myzie 10y ago
Sawtooth creator here... Thanks for the feedback and I agree with a lot of what you said. You're right that this can't compete with pro audio software but it's also not my goal to compete with those tools. I'm putting Sawtooth out there to evaluate if there is demand for this type of web app, and what groups may be the most interested. Whether anyone will pay for it... great question! I'm not worried about that just yet. Web apps have a lot of limitations compared to native desktop apps when it comes to serious audio work. At the same time, I wonder how many people could use a reliable web app for super quick edits, to listen to some of their audio while on the go (not just at an audio workstation), or share tracks privately with bandmates or coworkers. We'll see.
- usmeteora 10y ago
  I'm glad you are taking all the feedback in stride but I think this is a great idea. For all the people saying signing up is a big commitment, buying or ripping off (as thats what everyone I know did in college who couldn't afford it) Ableton Live or for me using fruity loops or a linux knockoff is a big commitment either financially or learning the ins and outs. At the very least, this takes away some of the a. intimidation of merely experimenting with music to someone curious about it, and could be a leeway to people investing in desktop based software or a group of users could grow with you as you go along. b. financial commitment or technical search/compare contrast, and download/ripoff of existing software and finding compliance with operating systems. Most of your feedback here is probably going to be from experienced music makers but as an Electrical Engineer who loves music, and playing with music is only something I have to do in my spare time since I work two full time jobs, this is really cool and allows me to play with stuff easily. It also enables me to login and work on this at my work computer, so even if I make a sample, I can send it to myself elsewhere. I think this is a great idea. There is some cool music software and I have audactiy, ardour, ableton live and fruity loops but the webapp idea is actually a great one and there are some huge advantages here. You are 1. Lowering the barrier for entry level music makers and making it a little less intimidating to be honest 2. Allowing increased access so people can play and edit in their spare time or on a lunch break at work, or just pull it up to play around with friends at a coffee shop on their laptops. Going through the process of finding downloading/paying for a piece of music making software is alot of work and might otherwise deter two people from sitting down and just mixing up something on the fly quickly 3. I know alot of highshoolers who would use this in school that can't bring their laptops to school. 4. On a globalscale, feedback here is really underestimating the lack of ability many people in many countries have to liscenses to good music making software we have in Westernized society. Now anyone who has internet or the future phone apps can have access to this without having to torrent software or be a linux guru to know about the free distros out there. This is a huge advantage. 5. As shown in another comment, someone who does speech processing has already found this to be advantageous, there are some clear uses outside of experienced DJs and music makers for other industries. Watch your demographic closely because there could be some great uses for this otherwise that come through in later funding rounds if you need support to scale. 6. The basic features despite immediate feedback from people that it seems pretty basic, is not a bad thing when you are starting out in my opinion. You can grow and respond better with your user group than having a panel of overhwleming options to anyone other than already experienced music makers. Their feedback is one of the most important, but I think your initial userbase is going to grow with you and that's not a bad thing. Like everyone else said, I would put a cool little mini walkthrough tutorial of how to make a cool 20 second sample with your software and have it on the front page so people could actually click through see some of the features and make a little sample or something. If they want to save the sample to edit, share or collaborate, then they can be prompted to make a login. When you roll out to the paid app, provide a discount if people to invite, share on twitter, fb etc and provide a link for them to do so. It sounds cheesy but don't be ashamed to have your own users advertise. Don't be discouraged by the feedback of experienced users. This is a really good idea. scale for phone apps and make a twitter account.
acuozzo 10y ago
> If someone is serious about music/audio editing, he will eventually want to use a professional tool. Perhaps, but there are a good number of people that need to do very basic audio editing frequently and don't really need something with more features than this. An example: I'm part of an online community that focuses on video and film preservation and a good number of its members spend time capturing commentaries from Laserdiscs that haven't made it to DVD or BD. These captures need to be synchronized to the track on the target release in order to be enjoyed. Only very basic tools are needed for this work.

sdnguyen90 10y ago

I think this is more of a editor like Audacity that just happens to have synths. I don't see any sequencing features.

myzie 10y ago

Sawtooth creator here... Thanks for the feedback and I agree with a lot of what you said. You're right that this can't compete with pro audio software but it's also not my goal to compete with those tools. I'm putting Sawtooth out there to evaluate if there is demand for this type of web app, and what groups may be the most interested. Whether anyone will pay for it... great question! I'm not worried about that just yet. Web apps have a lot of limitations compared to native desktop apps when it comes to serious audio work. At the same time, I wonder how many people could use a reliable web app for super quick edits, to listen to some of their audio while on the go (not just at an audio workstation), or share tracks privately with bandmates or coworkers. We'll see.

usmeteora 10y ago
I'm glad you are taking all the feedback in stride but I think this is a great idea. For all the people saying signing up is a big commitment, buying or ripping off (as thats what everyone I know did in college who couldn't afford it) Ableton Live or for me using fruity loops or a linux knockoff is a big commitment either financially or learning the ins and outs. At the very least, this takes away some of the a. intimidation of merely experimenting with music to someone curious about it, and could be a leeway to people investing in desktop based software or a group of users could grow with you as you go along. b. financial commitment or technical search/compare contrast, and download/ripoff of existing software and finding compliance with operating systems. Most of your feedback here is probably going to be from experienced music makers but as an Electrical Engineer who loves music, and playing with music is only something I have to do in my spare time since I work two full time jobs, this is really cool and allows me to play with stuff easily. It also enables me to login and work on this at my work computer, so even if I make a sample, I can send it to myself elsewhere. I think this is a great idea. There is some cool music software and I have audactiy, ardour, ableton live and fruity loops but the webapp idea is actually a great one and there are some huge advantages here. You are 1. Lowering the barrier for entry level music makers and making it a little less intimidating to be honest 2. Allowing increased access so people can play and edit in their spare time or on a lunch break at work, or just pull it up to play around with friends at a coffee shop on their laptops. Going through the process of finding downloading/paying for a piece of music making software is alot of work and might otherwise deter two people from sitting down and just mixing up something on the fly quickly 3. I know alot of highshoolers who would use this in school that can't bring their laptops to school. 4. On a globalscale, feedback here is really underestimating the lack of ability many people in many countries have to liscenses to good music making software we have in Westernized society. Now anyone who has internet or the future phone apps can have access to this without having to torrent software or be a linux guru to know about the free distros out there. This is a huge advantage. 5. As shown in another comment, someone who does speech processing has already found this to be advantageous, there are some clear uses outside of experienced DJs and music makers for other industries. Watch your demographic closely because there could be some great uses for this otherwise that come through in later funding rounds if you need support to scale. 6. The basic features despite immediate feedback from people that it seems pretty basic, is not a bad thing when you are starting out in my opinion. You can grow and respond better with your user group than having a panel of overhwleming options to anyone other than already experienced music makers. Their feedback is one of the most important, but I think your initial userbase is going to grow with you and that's not a bad thing. Like everyone else said, I would put a cool little mini walkthrough tutorial of how to make a cool 20 second sample with your software and have it on the front page so people could actually click through see some of the features and make a little sample or something. If they want to save the sample to edit, share or collaborate, then they can be prompted to make a login. When you roll out to the paid app, provide a discount if people to invite, share on twitter, fb etc and provide a link for them to do so. It sounds cheesy but don't be ashamed to have your own users advertise. Don't be discouraged by the feedback of experienced users. This is a really good idea. scale for phone apps and make a twitter account.

acuozzo 10y ago

> If someone is serious about music/audio editing, he will eventually want to use a professional tool. Perhaps, but there are a good number of people that need to do very basic audio editing frequently and don't really need something with more features than this. An example: I'm part of an online community that focuses on video and film preservation and a good number of its members spend time capturing commentaries from Laserdiscs that haven't made it to DVD or BD. These captures need to be synchronized to the track on the target release in order to be enjoyed. Only very basic tools are needed for this work.