Podium is now $50

[Kyran]

It's bounce option. And it's reversible

It renders everything in that track (and below) to a wav file. You'll notice the B button of the track gets lid. It will now playback the wav instead of what's beneath it.

If you want to make some changes, just switch off the B button and the bounce is off. When you switch it back on it will rerender the wav file.

[DavidRadi2]

So it's the bounce option / at least from what I learned in shortcuts /.
I was searching for freeze as I thought that bounce means render to audio without option to unbouce/or unfreeze as in Cakewalks.
Anyway thanks, I'll check it.

[christianmusicmaker]

wow. he's really worked on this thing since last i played with it.

i like the dark and orange, but i wonder is there a "theme" archive somewhere to make it a little brighter?

Yep. As Brent said "Load set up" is what you want.



..you should then see this..



There are quite a few ways to change the look and feel to something lighter, you also can have track colour bands that stretch across the arrangement. All configurable so its as subtle or as obvious as you want. ...



A track level colour picker is also available if you like to tinker with colours like me...



There is also another menu for colour options for the rest of Podium.

I think the term "Load set up" is used because you can save / load more than user configured colour settings.

[UncleAge]

I believe that you can change the texture (metal texture of most areas) now as well. Frits changed it a little bit ago. There's a thread over there with directions on how to do it.

[grymmjack]

wow. he's really worked on this thing since last i played with it.

i like the dark and orange, but i wonder is there a "theme" archive somewhere to make it a little brighter?

Yes, go to the "Setup" menu at the top, and then "Load Setup". I don't know why it's worded that way. But then you can select from the preset schemes. There are a lot of them. Or, from the Setup menu, you can adjust colors to your liking manually.

Brent

this thing is cool indeed. the only things i'm not liking about it so far are the funky way zooming works. i like the vertical/horiz zoom tool but i seem to always over zoom..

still a very cool host. i'm identifying on some unsafe and abnormally happy level with the hierarchy system. i'm an OCD bastard as it is, but groups of groups of groups? holy crap. i'm in OCD heaven.



seems a solid host.

how do you find it's rewire implementation brent?

[grymmjack]

wow. he's really worked on this thing since last i played with it.

i like the dark and orange, but i wonder is there a "theme" archive somewhere to make it a little brighter?

Yep. As Brent said "Load set up" is what you want.

thanks friend for the great reply.

i think podium is beautiful now

[koolkeys]

So it's the bounce option / at least from what I learned in shortcuts /.
I was searching for freeze as I thought that bounce means render to audio without option to unbouce/or unfreeze as in Cakewalks.
Anyway thanks, I'll check it.

Podium used to only use the "Bounce" function, which was a realtime mixdown of any audio stream you want in the chain. However, it now includes a freeze function. It's in the right click menu when you click on a track.

Most people who have tried Podium in the past may not realize that it's there, but it's been there for a few versions now.

Brent

[koolkeys]

wow. he's really worked on this thing since last i played with it.

i like the dark and orange, but i wonder is there a "theme" archive somewhere to make it a little brighter?

Yes, go to the "Setup" menu at the top, and then "Load Setup". I don't know why it's worded that way. But then you can select from the preset schemes. There are a lot of them. Or, from the Setup menu, you can adjust colors to your liking manually.

Brent

this thing is cool indeed. the only things i'm not liking about it so far are the funky way zooming works. i like the vertical/horiz zoom tool but i seem to always over zoom..

still a very cool host. i'm identifying on some unsafe and abnormally happy level with the hierarchy system. i'm an OCD bastard as it is, but groups of groups of groups? holy crap. i'm in OCD heaven.



seems a solid host.

how do you find it's rewire implementation brent?

I don't use ReWire really. I don't even know what I have installed that uses it. So I haven't tried it. I know it's in there though somewhere. I may check in a bit.

I have a feeling that you insert a ReWire device just like any other plugin, from the left inspector pane. But I don't know that for sure as I haven't looked.

Brent

[aMUSEd]

So it's the bounce option / at least from what I learned in shortcuts /.
I was searching for freeze as I thought that bounce means render to audio without option to unbouce/or unfreeze as in Cakewalks.
Anyway thanks, I'll check it.

Podium used to only use the "Bounce" function, which was a realtime mixdown of any audio stream you want in the chain. However, it now includes a freeze function. It's in the right click menu when you click on a track.

Most people who have tried Podium in the past may not realize that it's there, but it's been there for a few versions now.

Brent

Pity the realtime mixdown option seems to have added some extra steps though. It's useful but why make it take 5 steps when the offline bounce only takes one? (could be just a modifier key with "B")

[koolkeys]

So it's the bounce option / at least from what I learned in shortcuts /.
I was searching for freeze as I thought that bounce means render to audio without option to unbouce/or unfreeze as in Cakewalks.
Anyway thanks, I'll check it.

Podium used to only use the "Bounce" function, which was a realtime mixdown of any audio stream you want in the chain. However, it now includes a freeze function. It's in the right click menu when you click on a track.

Most people who have tried Podium in the past may not realize that it's there, but it's been there for a few versions now.

Brent

Pity the realtime mixdown option seems to have added some extra steps though. It's useful but why make it take 5 steps when the offline bounce only takes one? (could be just a modifier key with "B")

I agree that it could be improved a bit. I do like the old bounce system as it IS flexible. But making a couple less clicks would be helpful.

Brent

[skipkent]

Still can't get a single bleep out of this software! Granted, I haven't exactly scoured the web for tutorials, but it just looks like Rubik's cube to me. Wish it came with a sample session I could pick at.

Same effect on me with the Sonar demo. I don't understand why developers offer demos without some means to guide users a bit into seeing what's great about their software. I went to the trouble of downloading, configured my soundcard and tweaked around a bit. A great opportunity for Podium (or Sonar) to say "Hey! Look at this...". As it is, I say "Wow, looks interesting. Maybe some other day."

"Yeah, but so-and-so has demo's here, and so-and-so has tutorials here, what more do you want?"

It's really a question of what does the developer want. Does he/she want to attract users and make money, or just have a boutique item that users here and there will find interest in?

The included demo projects are a HUGE part of what made me a dedicated Tracktion user in the past. I could see and hear instantly what the software was capable of, and that made me very hungry indeed to learn more on my own, and gave me lots of ways to answer my own questions. Cakewalk makes money anyways on OEM sales, but Podium could really benefit with a little hand-holding for first time users. They got some great coverage in CM magazine and should raise the bar a bit.

[koolkeys]

Well, there SHOULD be a small trial project or two included. Or at least there used to be. It wasn't much, but shows that you can get sound with it.

What precisely are you having trouble with? How far did you get and what did you try so far? Maybe we can help?

Brent

[original flipper]

HI

Skipkent wrote:

Still can't get a single bleep out of this software! Granted, I haven't exactly scoured the web for tutorials, but it just looks like Rubik's cube to me. Wish it came with a sample session I could pick at.

Same effect on me with the Sonar demo.

I had the exact same problem with BOTH the hosts you mention.

I have checked out Podium several times and did make some progress a while back - I even made a couple of feature requests that the dev coded up within a couple of days!

A similer discussion took place in the Orion v's FL thread - a big issue for many programmes is there is very little in the way of tutorials on the most basic operations: a manual tends to be more technical than aimed at helping users.

Unfortunately once the way an application works is put in place it rarely moves away from that place - I love the look/gui of Podium but it's basic way of getting things (as simple as) a VSTI loaded and some sound out of the thing drove me crazy!

Flipper.

[koolkeys]

With Podium, it's actually more simple than people think. But it's not always apparent on how to get it working. Here are some basic instructions on how to get rolling:

1. Create a new project. There will either be a section on the right side of the screen where you can edit project names, select audio/midi devices, and select plugins folder. Select each one accordingly. If the "Create Project" section isn't there, just go to the "Project" menu at the top and start from there.

2. After setting everything, hit "Create Project". At this point it will scan all the plugins in the directory you selected. They will start to appear on the right side. When this is done, you now have a project. This is basically a "holder" for your arrangements(discussed in a moment).

3. When scanning is done, it will ask you if you want to save this project as a template. If you say YES, then you can create new arrangements in the future without rescanning. It will use your currently scanned plugins. Then, it will ask you to create an "Arrangement". This is your actual musical "project" that you would be used to. This is where all your MIDI and audio will be found, and the mixer.

4. After saying "Ok" on the arrangement creation dialog, it will take you to the screen that you are wanting to get to. You can start your music creation here!

5. The quickest way to test things is to look on the left side of the screen. There are several panes there that have multiple purposes. Find the "Devices" tab. Here you will find all your plugins. Now, just drag one to any track and start playing! If you don't have a keyboard hooked up, double click in the main arrangement area to create a MIDI clip. Then double click that. You can also open up a middle section between the mixer and arrange area and your MIDI/audio/automation that you select can also be edited there. But that's beyond this little tutorial for now.

6. Ok, so say you don't want to go through all that next time. Easy! When you open up Podium, your "Project" should appear in the projects pane. That is what contains your plugin settings and everything you just did. So go to the "Arrangements" pane and either double click on a current arrangement or create a new one. Any arrangement you create will use the same exact settings as the project that is selected in the project pane.

The reason it's like this is that you can create different "Projects" with different plugin settings. Want to have a project with ONLY your synths available so the list isn't cluttered with everything else? You can do that. And it's easy to add plugins or entire folders of plugins to a project just by going back to the main screen and using the dropdown menu labeled "Devices", which is above the list of plugins.

Recording audio is easy as well. You can select the little record button on a track and then hit the record button on the transport, just like any other host. If the audio input you want to use isn't already listed on that track, you can drag any audio or MIDI input(and more) from that left side "Inspector" pane.

I hope these things make sense. These are just the basics, and going from my memory(Podium isn't in front of me right now). Any questions, just ask!

Brent

[Caleb]

Oh - so THAT'S how you're supposed to do it.

The concept of the project vs arrangement was throwing me.
I even managed to get sound out of it.

The only thing you didn't mention is that if you want to play from your keyboard you also need to drag n drop the relevant midi input onto the track as well as the plug-in.

Thanks for the simple explanation Brent.

Regards
Caleb