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Feels like "what is the future of the word processor" but with some weird expectation that you're expecting to see leaps and bounds. Look, FWIW, my favorite mu

by jrm4 3y ago

Feels like "what is the future of the word processor" but with some weird expectation that you're expecting to see leaps and bounds. Look, FWIW, my favorite music making "stack" is - Fruityloops (as in, sure I'll use FL Studio but it was pretty much solid for me when it was called that) - Sony ACID. Still unbeatable to me for quickly layering/previewing multiple tracks of loops - Cool Edit Pro/Adobe Audition. Still much nicer than Audacity. I don't know why Audacity remains so popular, it's way clunkier than the above Ableton/Bitwig are also fun to play with and I could see them being indispensable for some, but what more do people need that you couldn't theoretically get "incrementally" or "with plugins?"

tomduncalf 3y ago
> I don't know why Audacity remains so popular, it's way clunkier than the above Presumably because it’s free, but I’m with you on the clunkiness. The UI looks very dated. I can recommend OcenAudio, which is free though not open source, and for me offers just the right level of functionality in a clean user interface. It’s very similar to how I remember the old versions of Cool Edit pre-Pro, which I thought were amazing bits of software.
- MrVandemar 3y ago
  > The UI looks very dated. If the UI is clunky to use, that's something that needs to be fixed. If the UI works okay, but only looks dated, that's ... fine and there's every good reason to leave it as it is. Why? Because altering the look of the UI is strongly coupled with altering the usability of the UI. This leads to regressions in usability, making the product "look better" but "work worse". Leave things alone. I don't care if the UI looks like Motif or TCL or a TUI, but if it works in a smooth, intuitive and pleasing way, there's no reason to change it. The VIM interface is the very definition of "extremely dated", and that's fine.
  - jrm4 3y ago
    Yeah, I didn't just mean in looks though; e.g. Audition and Ocenaudio behave more like, e.g. a normal text box or other "editing space in a computer." Cutting/Pasting/Trimming etc are easier and more intuitive, with fewer clicks and less thinking about tracks and such.
- jrm4 3y ago
  Yup, was going to mention it, though it was crashy for me last time I used it.
  - ta988 3y ago
    I remember spending days at a time in Audacity and have no crash (talking over a decade). Now everytime I use it I find a new way to crash it and it didn't evolve that much (compared to things like Ardour that went really far in the last decade including in stability).
  - tomduncalf 3y ago
    Ah interesting. Don’t think I’ve had it crash ever but I don’t use it all that often relative to e.g. Ableton
RockRobotRock 3y ago
Of course, that's the hook they used to convince artists they need generative AI in their creative process.
ta988 3y ago
In my opinion advanced DAWs like Ardour, Bitwig, Reaper or Live bring automation to the table, more complex routing and a single tool for a big part of the production. They are also extremely useful to play live (and the recent addition of clips into Ardour makes it closer to the commercial competion now). It is a bit (just a poor analogy) like saying you could program anything in assembly or C. Sure but sometimes it is just much more efficient time-wise to just use Python, Kotlin, C# or any higher level language and not have to reinvent the wheel or deal with repetitive complexity. In the end, what I always recommend is to try things and see what sticks, test new tools and retest the ones you didnt select regularly and when your workflow evolves just switch to the more adapted tool. I also find that really nice to improve myself in my current favorite tool as I can often bring back new tricks that were more obvious in other tools.

by jrm4 3y ago

tomduncalf 3y ago

> I don't know why Audacity remains so popular, it's way clunkier than the above Presumably because it’s free, but I’m with you on the clunkiness. The UI looks very dated. I can recommend OcenAudio, which is free though not open source, and for me offers just the right level of functionality in a clean user interface. It’s very similar to how I remember the old versions of Cool Edit pre-Pro, which I thought were amazing bits of software.

MrVandemar 3y ago
> The UI looks very dated. If the UI is clunky to use, that's something that needs to be fixed. If the UI works okay, but only looks dated, that's ... fine and there's every good reason to leave it as it is. Why? Because altering the look of the UI is strongly coupled with altering the usability of the UI. This leads to regressions in usability, making the product "look better" but "work worse". Leave things alone. I don't care if the UI looks like Motif or TCL or a TUI, but if it works in a smooth, intuitive and pleasing way, there's no reason to change it. The VIM interface is the very definition of "extremely dated", and that's fine.
- jrm4 3y ago
  Yeah, I didn't just mean in looks though; e.g. Audition and Ocenaudio behave more like, e.g. a normal text box or other "editing space in a computer." Cutting/Pasting/Trimming etc are easier and more intuitive, with fewer clicks and less thinking about tracks and such.
jrm4 3y ago
Yup, was going to mention it, though it was crashy for me last time I used it.
- ta988 3y ago
  I remember spending days at a time in Audacity and have no crash (talking over a decade). Now everytime I use it I find a new way to crash it and it didn't evolve that much (compared to things like Ardour that went really far in the last decade including in stability).
- tomduncalf 3y ago
  Ah interesting. Don’t think I’ve had it crash ever but I don’t use it all that often relative to e.g. Ableton

RockRobotRock 3y ago

Of course, that's the hook they used to convince artists they need generative AI in their creative process.

ta988 3y ago

In my opinion advanced DAWs like Ardour, Bitwig, Reaper or Live bring automation to the table, more complex routing and a single tool for a big part of the production. They are also extremely useful to play live (and the recent addition of clips into Ardour makes it closer to the commercial competion now). It is a bit (just a poor analogy) like saying you could program anything in assembly or C. Sure but sometimes it is just much more efficient time-wise to just use Python, Kotlin, C# or any higher level language and not have to reinvent the wheel or deal with repetitive complexity. In the end, what I always recommend is to try things and see what sticks, test new tools and retest the ones you didnt select regularly and when your workflow evolves just switch to the more adapted tool. I also find that really nice to improve myself in my current favorite tool as I can often bring back new tricks that were more obvious in other tools.