Review edited: 1st September 05

I was looking for a new host which was easy to use, polished, and well thought out. After downloading the Podium demo I instantly became a Zynewave fan because I found Podium just perfect for me.

Podium is a full-featured midi and audio sequencer, with excellent support of VST plugins and external hardware, and a very very reasonable price of $90.

Features features features
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- 32 or 64 bit mixing engine to satisfy the highest of audio demands

- heirarchical mixing/track engine. You can have tracks grouped around other tracks, which allows Podium to be set up to work however you need it. So, you can have a midi or audio track, and then wrapped around that track you have a VST effect track... and track groups can be collapsed and expanded to help workflow and so you can hide stuff that you don't want to see. Each and every track can also be minimised or maximised, so you can make your tracks very neat and tidy indeed to conserve all important screen space.

These group tracks also allow "bounce tracks" to be set up - allowing you to bounce down CPU heavy tracks to audio, which is Podium's version of a "freeze" feature. This occurs in real time and is really easy to use, the best I've ever used. The mixer can also be resized to fill the screen, if you want to do some really careful level metering and mixing... or you can fill the screen with the arrangement part if you wish

- tracks can be colour coded, with the colours reflected on channels in the mixer. This makes arranging and mixing an absolute breeze, no more scanning tracks for obscure names, just look for the colours!

- customisable and intuitive interface: you can change the colour scheme of Podium, and there are many default setup colours to choose from. The interface of Podium looks very classy and clean, and the layout is intuitive with the mixer built into the main screen. Want to hide the mixer so you have more room to see your arrangement? Just click a single button to show or hide the mixer.

- support for midi and audio. You can import loops and samples, create midi parts in the piano roll, and there's even a nice drum editor if you use drum synths or samplers

- you can record knob movements on VST instruments and effects, and channel volume and pan can be easily automated

- preset librarian to handle loading and saving presets for your VST instruments and effects (and external gear)

- Project wizard: Makes it a breeze to set up a project, including everything from your sound card inputs and outputs and VST plugins... new users, make sure you use the Wizard as it will really help you get started!

Updates galore
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A new update comes out about every two weeks, with new features added, so Podium is constantly being developed. As mentioned in another review, the developer is very receptive to user ideas and wishes for features. The more users that request a feature, the quicker it gets developed, generally... it's like host development Utopia! ;)

Bugs? Not here
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I've never found a bug in Podium, only in third party VST plugins that I've used in it (not Podium's fault). And there is coding to prevent the CPU meter going over 100% so it won't fall over and crash if you run too many VSTs at once

The price
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Only $90, and it's very polished piece of software believe me (been under development for many years, even though it was released in 2004). It's a real bargain

Manual
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There are some pages up on the zynewave site (http://www.zynewave.com) and some videos to help get you started. I also wrote a QuickStart Guide..
http://www.zynewave.com/userfiles/ScamArtist/index.htm
This should help new users to set up Podium and start a basic song, and by the end you'll have a fair idea of what Podium is capable of. I did this to help out the Podium community and hopefully get a few more users into what is an excellent sequencer

Summary
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Podium is a feature packed, extremely low cost sequencer which will provide competition to a few similar products out there once it becomes more well known. Once you get a hang of the mixer (with heirarchical tracks) it becomes so easy to use and you understand the reason why it's set up how it is... :)

Highlights:
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* 32 or 64 bit mixing
* Those wonderful group tracks
* Very stable, and dodgy plugins can crash without taking down Podium because of it's inbuilt safeguards
* Nice support for VST plugins and external hardware
* Project wizard is great for all users, new and old
* Overall polished and "proper" feel

Lowlights:
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* No audio dithering yet (you have to change sample rate or bit depth in a third party app)
* No support for midi FX plugins yet
* Preset management can be cumbersome (it's not on the GUi of VST plugins like other hosts)
* Group tracks can only have 1 plugin each, makes for alot of group tracks

I'm GLAD I found Podium!

What has impressed me most about Podium, besides its ingenuity, is its stability. Having been a long time user of Sonar and Cubase, I'd become accustomed to the occasional crashes that would inevitably strike at the most inopportune times. I've had no such problems with Podium! The other approach I appreciate is it's ergonomic design; I don't need 5 different ways to perform the same function. Some highlights that stand out for me are: 1)love the logical and easy to configure way that multi-timbral plug-ins are imported 2)the absolute, most logical, handling of continuous controllers that I've ever seen 3)the un-obtrusive way that the mixing console is incorporated into the main screen 4)the ease that you are able to access VST parameters and track parameters. Virtually all of your work is done from the main screen 5)love the moving fader automation; so much easier to mix when you can see faders track your volume rides 6)the ability to record at 24 and 32 bit rates 7)the best implementation of track freezing out there. There's so much more to Podium than these few things I've listed. What I found most surprising about Podium from the start was that the frequent updates center around new feature additions, not bug fixes. If there are bugs reported, good luck finding one, Frits quicly addresses and corrects them. This is a serious piece of software that not only competes with the Sonar and Cubases, it's quickly surpassing them as each frequent update is released. For those that have been holding off and worrying that Podium was too new to consider yet, that day has passed. In my opinion the stability issue alone gives Podium the upper hand on the competition. I guess the best compliment I can pay Podium is that all of my new projects and my client's projects, are being recorded and mixed in Podium. For the price, it's an absolute steal, and a no brainer for someone looking for a serious, heavy duty, work environment friendly, application. Like everything new, there is a learning curve involved. Once you understand the layout, you'll quickly appreciate the power that it offers!

Podium is a marvellous piece of technology. In terms of quality and useability it's really up there with the greats. It is but an infant on the commercial scene, but has apparently had some 12 years in private development.
Starting off involves setting up a 'Studio', the most part of which can be done via a wizard. Many studio situations can be setup and saved to be recalled at a moments notice. This can include specifying hardware combinations, plugins (VST/i only), reference files, etc. I have a couple set up of common plugs already imported for quick demoing tunes, etc, and a better spec'd file for doing 'proper' work.
Podium is project based: A single project will incorporate the studio and all the relevant arrangements. Arrangements work using audio/MIDI clips, each clip can be shared across arrangements. No real surprises here, just telling how it is..
The main work area (arrange window) is presented with a slick graphic interface. There are three distinct sections:
The arrangement panel shows a standard timeline with the clips presented in their tracks. To the left is a properties window (which can be resized/hidden) for assigning track I/O mappings, plugin/channel presets/properties, etc. Finally there is the mixer which is one of the distinctive features of Podium.
The mixing engine is heirarchical in nature, MIDI and Audio events flowing from outer reaches of the 'tree' down to a single output. This can mean some rethinking, but makes visualizing output groups much easier. Branches (groups) can have their children collapsed for clarity, with the mixer and arrange window staying in sync.
The audio engine offers a freeze function on the form of a 'bounce' facility. The current version only supports realtime bouncing, with offline bouncing to come in the future. The audio engine in Podium is already highly efficient, but this just helps with those cycle-hungry plugs.
Graphically, Podium is very slick. Virtually everything is colour skinnable, zoomable, the scrolling transitions are very smooth, even when the audio engine is at full pelt. There are decent MIDI, drum and audio editors, offering basic facilities with a touch of flair.
Features include PDC, support for multi-timbral plugins, Aux bussing, post-it notes per object (arrangement, sound, device mapping, etc), MIDI import, Anti-aliased spline based parameter automation...
Customer support is superb. The developer Frits Neilson responds quickly and with good humour to posts on the forum and emails. He work solo, and so has complete control over the development, and is willing to change his priorities to meet the needs of the growing user base.
The only criticism, really, would be the manual. This is available on-line, or as a d/l of the Zynewave website. This provides basic usable information, and is being fleshed out as time goes on. There are 'videos' available outlining basic concepts which are very helpful.
It is hard to do it justice in such a short review. TRY IT!