http://www.ohmstudio.com/

You beat me by 10 seconds... haha

Very nice look, and a great concept, yet no AU support is a deal breaker. I would jump on this otherwise. My bandmate and I have been using dropbox for a year now, but this would really speed up our demos.

i think the whole "community" aspect of this is what will grab alot of people.

im not sure i feel like learning a whole new DAW as im finally getting my head around Live 8, but ill keep an eye on this and see what people have to say.

also not big on "beta" anything...

-Sin

Seems very compelling.

It's very pretty

The installer keeps crashing on my mac

I have it installed on Mac but am seeing the spinny wheel a lot - it's very slow to create a project

Its because the servers getting hammered atm.

Yeah I can't imagine the beta is much fun. I'll be watching this though, IMO every host will need to implement something like this eventually to remain competitive, how soon that day will come I don't know. It is a matter of time and technology. I would love something like this for Studio One that worked with the free version as well, it would be great to have a vocalist for instance install it and add her vocals without being a DAW wizard.

Now it won't open because the server is down. It would be a good idea if they made an offline mode for such circumstances.

Ug, that's no fun! Yeah no offline mode means no interest for me. I think that is critical, to me some 'real-time' collab stuff isn't so necessary. To have file-sharing built into the environment so you can easily open up rendered project stems from other users is what is compelling to me, it would get around all the file import export fumbling, especially when dealing with less than expert computer users.

The way I would imagine this would be when you save a project, having the option to save a copy of all rendered stems to an online server, and anyone with permission could open it and save off a version there as well. Maybe even to some 3rd party service service (like how Soundcloud is making its way into DAWs now) so you could share cross-platform (Mac/PC/Linux/Android/iOS or whatever) and cross-DAW as well. They would just be audio files. Level settings and stuff though wouldn't be part of the files in that scenario, but I'm sure there is some sort of elegant way to do it.

Anyhow I am not feeling the love for something that requires an internet connection at all times and forces all partners to work in the environment. That seems just prone to frustration. I'd love to work with someone using whatever tools they like and not have preferences like that get in the way. Like I said, I would see all the DAWs getting similar functionality like this eventually and then you would still have the issue of what DAW to use.

Welp, I was a bit bored so I gave it a quick go. The download and install were painless(I'm on a mac). First couple of starts had hiccups probably due to the amount of traffic on their servers. But third time around I got an account setup and it started scanning my plugins. It choked a few times on a couple run-thrus and I had to go out to the Activity monitor and force-quit the process a couple of times. However, after a few whacks at it the app finally just kept on going ignoring the plugin(s).

Once inside, the chatroom/projects page took a second to get used to and on my 27" screen the text was a bit small. Felt like a point 8 font and I have not found a way to change it. Can't imagine looking at it for more than 10 minutes, its a cross between Podium and an IRC client. I didn't linger, instead I hit the big "New Project" button and within a short amount of time (seconds) I was at a very pleasant looking track/rack/mixer screen thingy. Most visual things were the same as they were in most linear hosts. I didn't look for tips and directions. I dropped a couple of Zebras on the rack area creating two tracks and then dropped a loop onto one audio track and started noodling around.

I did not collaborate with anyone. I did not complete any song. However, after about 10 minutes I felt real comfortable working in the app. The freeze function was quick and did not interfere with the audio while the transport was in play. The layout was clean but not sterile. The shortcut keys were somewhat standard and that helped a bit as well. It felt like someone put some thought into and it didn't feel rushed.

I'll play more with it tonight but my overall impressions were very positive. The only real downside is that it seems like if you can't make an internet connection you can't get to anything. It will tell you to come back later and you don't get past the splash screen. I have no idea if this will change over the long term but I don't like restricted access to my creations. That aside, I do see where this could be a pretty awesome way of working.

On first impressions alone I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10. And that could easily become and 8 out of 10 down the road once things are worked out a bit. Keep in mind that I value the simplicity of the interface and I hope they find a way to keep it this way. But the overwhelming feeling I had once I logged out was that I wish my host of choice had some of these features built-in. I'd much rather work in the familiar interface of Live (my host of choice) and have the option to activate those real-time features if I were to collaborate with someone.

Still, its hard to not give credit where credit is due and I think they have a winner on their hands. I will be keeping a continuos eye on this one.

Downloading now, will take for a test run. A question for now: will involvement in the beta give any sort of permission or make it easier to get involved with the final product?

x64?

I really hope they get an offline mode because it sounds very cool. I could deal with being blocked from sharing because of the net, but fully blocked and can't work is a huge drag. I wonder how much of the app is the online component and how much really exists on your computer.