KVR Audio

machinesworking · Post by **machinesworking** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 9:58 pm

ls1xxx wrote:How would you get sound out of it since there wasn't vst back then (at least to my knowledge there wasn't)??? Besides using Hardware was there Internal Sounds from the Mac and cd-roms or ? Im a bit late to the game here with this daw but find this one Fascinating!

Sorry, this is just awesome. I'm gonna assume you're messing with us, but I'll play along.

To answer you, back in old timey days we would use hardware that looked like Arturia VSTi's.
We would then have to drive our model T's down to a recording studio where they had hardware that looked like the Slate Digital Virtual Tape Machines plug-in, that we would record onto. Everybody back then was a hipster and so this would all be released on vinyl as well as CD.

ls1xxx · Post by **ls1xxx** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 10:36 pm

machinesworking wrote:
ls1xxx wrote:How would you get sound out of it since there wasn't vst back then (at least to my knowledge there wasn't)??? Besides using Hardware was there Internal Sounds from the Mac and cd-roms or ? Im a bit late to the game here with this daw but find this one Fascinating!

Sorry, this is just awesome. I'm gonna assume you're messing with us, but I'll play along.

To answer you, back in old timey days we would use hardware that looked like Arturia VSTi's.
We would then have to drive our model T's down to a recording studio where they had hardware that looked like the Slate Digital Virtual Tape Machines plug-in, that we would record onto. Everybody back then was a hipster and so this would all be released on vinyl as well as CD.

Well Well Well! 2 can play this game. Sorry i wouldn't know anything about Hardware since im not in my "Golden Years", can't qualify for Senior Citizen's discount yet. But i do appreciate the History Lesson Smartass!

machinesworking · Post by **machinesworking** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 10:57 pm

ls1xxx wrote: Well Well Well! 2 can play this game. Sorry i wouldn't know anything about Hardware since im not in my "Golden Years", can't qualify for Senior Citizen's discount yet. But i do appreciate the History Lesson Smartass!

still got moms milk on your chin eh?

It's all good, my sarcasm actually had some answers in there, when things were just MIDI recording studios mattered, when four tracks of audio could be recorded into a DAW people started attempting to mix in the box at home, plug ins happened pretty quickly afterwards. Before plug ins people used outboard gear, mixers mattered, yes it was all primitive. Personally I didn't even start using audio until 2001. I though the initial plug ins sounded like crap, but I had a EMU Emax III and a Memorymoog, along with an Alesis HR-16. Obviously the Emax and HR-16 have been far surpassed by software.

If you really are young, you're really lucky, mostly software is amazing, I dreamed of this stuff when I was 18, but the cost at that time was in the tens of thousands for what we can have now for a couple grand.

fmr · Post by **fmr** » Thu Jan 28, 2016 12:24 am

machinesworking wrote: ...I had a EMU Emax III and a Memorymoog, along with an Alesis HR-16. Obviously the Emax and HR-16 have been far surpassed by software.

Emax III? You mean either the Emax II or the E-III (probably the former). The Emax II had a feature called Spectral Interpolation Synthesis that took forever to get a sound, but we could achieve some great results sometimes.

machinesworking · Post by **machinesworking** » Thu Jan 28, 2016 12:31 am

fmr wrote:
machinesworking wrote: ...I had a EMU Emax III and a Memorymoog, along with an Alesis HR-16. Obviously the Emax and HR-16 have been far surpassed by software.
Emax III? You mean either the Emax II or the E-III (probably the former). The Emax II had a feature called Spectral Interpolation Synthesis that took forever to get a sound, but we could achieve some great results sometimes.

Yeah it was the Emax 2, I got the best sounds from it what Digital Performer crashed and kept recording, sending random MIDI etc. weirdest thing, just bizarre but useful digital noise.

deastman · Post by **deastman** » Thu Jan 28, 2016 12:55 am

fmr wrote:
machinesworking wrote: ...I had a EMU Emax III and a Memorymoog, along with an Alesis HR-16. Obviously the Emax and HR-16 have been far surpassed by software.
Emax III? You mean either the Emax II or the E-III (probably the former). The Emax II had a feature called Spectral Interpolation Synthesis that took forever to get a sound, but we could achieve some great results sometimes.

My Emax I had that too. It was part of the SE firmware upgrade. I actually got a lot of use out of both the spectral transform multiplication and the additive synthesis, even though they both took forever to compute.

As for the question about getting audio out of the computer, I'm pretty sure he was referring to Digi hardware for the audio tracks in Studio Vision. I didn't see any indication that he was unaware of the fact that we mostly used hardware synths controlled by midi in those days.

I eventually added an E-mu Darwin 8 channel disk recorder for additional audio tracks synced to Vision over midi. It was alright for it's time, but was quickly surpassed and I never really got my money's worth out of it. Also gathering dust in my garage.

ls1xxx · Post by **ls1xxx** » Thu Jan 28, 2016 1:31 am

Sorry guys i wasnt more specific.. I was just wondering where the sounds were coming from that Keith Borman is demonstrating in the video since all i see him using is just the Computer and Midi Keyboard. When it comes to this sort of thing im just stupid i guess...I'm sorry.

memyselfandus · Post by **memyselfandus** » Thu Jan 28, 2016 2:40 am

http://www.kvraudio.com/focus/it_was_21 ... bout_15898

From 2011

"It’s hard to believe, but it was 21 years ago, at the 1990 NAMM Show that Opcode and Digidesign announced the results of a collaboration that had begun the previous spring. With much ballyhoo we demonstrated the first software application that combined recording and editing of MIDI and digital audio in the same environment. It was a long time ago so it’s hard to give proper credit to everyone involved, or for that matter pinpoint exactly where the genesis of the idea occurred. Suffice to say it was the right (and obvious) thing to do for our mutual customers. In fact it changed forever the way that music is produced.

I first met Evan Brooks and Peter Gotcher (founders of Digidesign) in the early 80s when I jammed with a band they had put together. Evan played keyboards and Peter played drums. Our musical styles weren’t the same, but I liked the way that Evan played, so I hired him for some casuals. A year or so later I was working with a techno band and asked Evan if he would be interested in joining. He said he didn’t have time because he and Peter had started a company to make samples for the Drumulator, a new product from a company called Emu Systems. Fortunately for him (and for me as it turned out), I wasn’t able to persuade him to quit his day job and join a rock and roll band.

My partner (and founder) at Opcode, Dave Oppenheim met Peter and Evan at the 1985 NAMM Show (the first for both companies) in New Orleans. He and Evan became good friends. Both were passionate about music, talented programmers, and creative thinkers, so they had a lot in common.

Digidesign moved quickly from creating the Drumulator samples to marketing the software they used to create and edit them. The product was called Sound Designer. It was a bit time consuming to transfer samples back and forth over an RS-422 serial port, but it was the only way to do it with the growing number of hardware samplers from Emu and others. As new technologies (like SCSI) came into play it became easier. Digidesign charged a premium price knowing that the customers for their product were most likely earning a living with their samplers and Digidesign’s software was a small percentage of the price of the hardware they had to buy.
sounddesigner.jpg

Sound Designer

In 1986 Opcode was the leader in patch librarian and MIDI interface sales so we had a pretty good idea of the size of the market and how fast it was growing, but we had a problem with our sequencer. Although we had loyal and passionate customers we were #3 behind both Performer from MOTU and Mastertracks from Passport in terms of sales. We believed we could change this by reinventing our sequencer and incorporating both a list view like Performer and a graphic piano roll view like Mastertracks. The primary editing windows were linked in such a way that the user could easily move back and forth to match the type of editing they were doing. The commands were set up to optimize the strengths of each type of editing. Whenever you made a change on one window it was automatically updated in the other, saving time and effort when you switched between views. There was a powerful strip chart feature in the graphic window where you could edit note parameters like Velocity and Pitch Bend, which hadn’t been done at the time.
vision.jpg

Vision

Like Opcode with our MIDI interfaces, Digidesign was the market leader in hard disk recording hardware with both their Sound Tools product, which connected to the Mac through SCSI, and their lower cost NuBus Audiomedia card, which was designed for the fast growing ‘multimedia’ market. As they moved more into hard disk recording their primary competition was New England Digital. NED was marketing an extremely expensive system called the Post Pro. Though they were interested in the high-end market Digi knew that they didn’t yet have the feature set to appeal to post production customers so they were looking for ways to broaden their market beyond sound designers.

They had only one serious competitor in the software market and that was Blank Software, which had been founded by a local sound designer, Donny Blank, and David Willenbrink, a very clever engineer from Kentucky. Willenbrink had written a full-fledged audio waveform editor and patch librarian (called “Sound Lab”) for the first affordable sampler, the Ensoniq Mirage in May of 1985, while Donny was finishing school. It was his first experience with waveform editing. The two partners first showed it at the same Summer NAMM show in New Orleans that Opcode and Digidesign were showing their products. Like jazz and great cooking New Orleans was the spot of the initial convergence of the Macintosh, MIDI, and digital audio.

In 1987 David, Donny, and Swedish engineer, Mats Myerberg (from Ensoniq), went undercover for a year to write Alchemy, a new sound editor that was designed to compete with Sound Designer. In addition to its elegant GUI it worked with many samplers, while Sound Designer was sold in sampler specific packages at the time.
alchemy_blank.jpg

Alchemy by Blank Software

Myerberg brought some great DSP chops that were needed for Alchemy to accomplish: High Quality Sample Rate Conversion, EQ, FFT analysis & re-synthesis, and the first ever independent Time Scale & Pitch Shifting algorithm using granular synthesis on the Mac. After its flamboyant introduction at the 1987 Summer NAMM Show Alchemy was starting to gain steam among serious sample editors.

Meanwhile, back on the Opcode farm, after all the work we had done on Vision we were surprised at the 1989 NAMM show by the introduction of a new MIDI sequencing application called Portrait from our friend Geoff Brown. Geoff had previously written Deluxe Music Construction Set, an excellent and low-priced notation product that was being distributed by Opcode and the giant (at the time – and especially compared to us) game company, Electronic Arts. Portrait had many of the features we were showing with Vision, as well as some that we hadn’t thought of. It may have been the best sequencer application that never shipped and it had the unintended effect of putting Digi and Opcode together for Studio Vision.

It made a lot sense for Opcode and Digi to work together. By coincidence we occupied office space across a small parking lot from each other in a business park in Menlo Park (also the home of Studer Editech – an HD recording competitor of Digi’s). Dave and Evan respected each other’s abilities, which overlapped but were perfectly differentiated, but it took a chance encounter to get the ball rolling. Shortly after the NAMM Show Dave wandered over unannounced to have lunch with Evan as he often did. He walked in as the principals at Digidesign were getting a demo of Portrait from Geoff Brown, who was looking for a distributor for his product.

We didn’t think of this as a good thing so my next call was to Donny Blank to arrange a meeting. If Digi was thinking about distributing a directly competitive product we needed to have an alternative ourselves. A few days later (and by further coincidence) Peter and Evan showed up at Opcode while Dave Oppenheim and I were meeting with Donny and David. Soon after these two encounters we started talking seriously and decided that we should work to put our products together in some way. It was a natural thing to do because that’s what all our customers wanted. Peter and I signed an agreement to license their audio engine at the 1989 Summer MacWorld in Boston.

Blank Software was looking for a distributor for Alchemy so Donny Blank could get back to sound design and David could move on with his career. We recognized that competing with Digidesign in this category would be hard especially given how much competition we already had in our backyard from the likes of MOTU, Passport, and other newcomers to the Mac market, like Steinberg, so we passed on it.

Ultimately Alchemy found a home at Passport and David Willenbrink found a home at Opcode. He told us that the way he liked to work was intensely for as long as it took to finish a particular task and then take off for as long as it took to get ready for the next one. It wasn’t the norm for us, but there was something about him that gave us confidence, so we went with his program.
studio_vision.jpg

Studio Vision -The first application to integrate Audio and MIDI Recording and Editing

Work began in September of 1989. In fact David Willenbrink’s first day at Opcode was the same day as the San Francisco earthquake, which destroyed the office at Blank Software. We were not disappointed when he showed up a few weeks later with the initial UI for Studio Vision. He had taken a complex set of parameters and elegantly integrated them into a wonderfully simple design. It was pretty exciting to see jaws dropping during the first design review with the principals at Digi...

Evan Brooks and Peter Richert at Digi set about creating an audio engine that could be integrated into a 3rd party application. The huge job of synchronizing everything so that professionals could use it and incorporating audio events in both the Event List and Graphic Editors fell to Dave Oppenheim, David Willenbrink, Ray Spears, and later Dan Timis at Opcode. David W. did most of the audio stuff, the GUI and getting things ready for Evan and Peter’s engine, and Dave O made sure the MIDI played at the right time relative to the audio (besides working on all things MIDI), except for the Graphic editor window, which was done by Spears.

The product was announced and demonstrated at the 1990 NAMM Show with a cool little video put together by our Director of Marketing Paul deBenedictis, with our friend Thomas Dolby doing a demo. It took a few months longer than we would have liked to ship the product, but that is the nature of software schedules. They are never less than you predict… Digi got impatient and signed a licensing deal for the same audio engine with MOTU and Steinberg as soon as the exclusivity period ended. Both companies promptly announced their competing products, but neither shipped until long after Studio Vision became available. It was A LOT of work.
studio_vision_a.jpg

Studio Vision

Our overall goal was to take control from MOTU in the sequencing category, so I’ll never forget doing a Studio Vision demo for some guy at the NAMM Show that year. Here we were showing a MIDI sequencer that had audio editing built into it. Wow!! He was pretty impressed until his friend walked by and said “Hey, Performer has notation now!”, bursting my balloon. It was a constant reminder of how hard it is to get people to switch from their adopted musical word processor.

It was Digidesign’s good fortune that the traditional players in the tape market like Otari, Studer, and TASCAM stayed away from HD recording for as long as they did. First, their core technologies were the ability to design and manufacture machines with moving parts (Otari also marketed a kiosk that vended fresh flowers in Japanese malls). They also believed that people would feel more familiar and secure continuing to use tape. This was partly true and there certainly were a lot of 2” reels of tape in garages and recording studios, but ignoring the value of instant punch in and out and virtual editing cost them dearly. All of them eventually brought HD products to the market, but their delay in doing so allowed Digidesign to build marketshare with Pro Tools and dominate the important new category ever since.

The current leaders on the Mac platform are Avid and Apple, of course. It will be hard for another company to compete profitably unless it is in a specific niche. After all Apple’s market cap is larger than the entire professional audio industry combined and the profits from the professional audio market are insignificant compared to what they receive from the consumer electronics market!

Where are they now…
Between eclipses Dave Oppenheim still works with David Willenbrink at Digidesign (now Avid). He is responsible for coding much of the MIDI that is appearing more and more in Pro Tools. David manages a UI group, developing the appearance of Pro Tools and Media Composer and many other Avid products. Evan Brooks is comfortably retired and playing music. Peter Gotcher has gone onto fame and fortune with several other companies like Line 6, Dolby Labs, and Pandora. Dan Timis went on to work for Muse Research and then Apple Computer and unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago.

In 2008 Studio Vision was honored with a TEC Hall of Fame award.

studiovision-tec08_web2.jpg

I would like to thank David Willenbrink, Dave Oppenheim, and Evan Brooks for the accuracy checks (at least what they can remember) and Marsha Vdovin for the picture of the Blank Software NAMM booth."

memyselfandus · Post by **memyselfandus** » Thu Jan 28, 2016 2:44 am

oops double

memyselfandus · Post by **memyselfandus** » Thu Jan 28, 2016 2:47 am

Applications first released between the release of Mac os 7 (May 1991) & the release of Mac os 8 (Jul 1997)
Notator Logic v1.2 (5/1/1993)
Opcode Vision 1.4 (01/01/1993)
Opcode MusicShop 1.0 (1993)
MOTU Digital Performer 1.4 (1/1/1994)
MOTU Performer 4.2 (1/1/1994)
Recycle 1.0 (6/1/1994)
Opcode Vision 2.0.3 (06/01/1994)
Cubase Audio 2.0 (?) http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_ar ... sedae.html
Studio Vision Pro 2.08 (12/01/1994)
Recycle 1.5 (5/1/1995)
Logic v2.0 (8/1/1995)
Logic v2.5 (10/1/1995)
Opcode Studio Vision Pro 3.0 (12/1/1995) http://www.pcmuseum.ca/details.asp?id=3 ... e=Software
Logic Audio v2.5 (2/1/1996)
Cubase VST Macintosh 3.0 (May 1996) http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1996_ar ... base3.html
Recycle v1.6 (8/1/1996)
Cubase VST Macintosh 3.02 (Dec 1996)
Rebirth v1 (12/1/1996)
Digital Performer v2.0 (1/16/1997)
Opcode Studio Vision 3.5 (1/16/1997)

memyselfandus · Post by **memyselfandus** » Thu Jan 28, 2016 2:49 am

memyselfandus · Post by **memyselfandus** » Thu Jan 28, 2016 2:53 am

Vision 1.02 1993

memyselfandus · Post by **memyselfandus** » Thu Jan 28, 2016 3:01 am

memyselfandus · Post by **memyselfandus** » Thu Jan 28, 2016 3:20 am

memyselfandus · Post by **memyselfandus** » Thu Jan 28, 2016 3:21 am

FEATURES NOT DISCUSSED IN YOUR PRINTED DOCUMENTS

IMPORT/EXPORT FEATURES

• You can now import audio into a track simply by selecting the track in the Tracks Window and choosing File>Import Audio. Previously, you needed to open an edit window for a Track before the Import Audio command became available. Imported audio is inserted at the current Edit In point.

• If you import audio into a new file, and the audio is of a different sample rate than the session sample rate, then the audio will be imported without sample rate conversion, and the session sample rate will be automatically changed to fit the imported audio.

• Double click on the small clock display in Studio Vision's Control Bar to open the Sync Options dialog box. This feature is a shortcut to choosing the Options>Sync Options command.

• When using File>Export Audio Events on multiple events, Studio Vision will automatically generate a name for each file. Each file name is generated by using the name of the corresponding audio event optionally followed by a unique number, to avoid collisions, then followed by a suffix. For each file format there is a different default suffix. For AIFF files it is ".aiff", for Sound Designer II it is ".sd2", for WAVE files it is ".wav", for Sun/Next files it is ".au".

WAVES PLUG-INS

When launching the Waves Plug-ins that are supplied on the Studio Vision CD, you must enter the serial numbers provided on the Waves Product Registration card supplied with Studio Vision. If you do not do this, these plug-ins will default to being unregistered demos. The serial number for AudioTrack has an "AT" in it, and the serial number for EZVerb has an "EZ" embedded in it.

ARBORETUM PLUG-INS REQUIRE POWER PC

The Arboretum Plug-ins that ship with the Studio Vision Pro CD are for Power PC computers only, and will not appear in the DSP>Premiere™ Plug-Ins submenu for 680x0 computers.

YAMAHA CBX CONSOLE FEATURE

When a Console is in Master Instrument mode and a channel is assigned to an Audio Instrument that cannot be panned, the horizontal 'Pan' fader will disappear. This will occur whenever 1) you send a mono audio signal to a single output, or 2) you send a stereo audio signal to an output pair.

CLEAR CONSOLE COMMAND NOW CLEARS TDM PLUG-INS

Page 65 of your Studio Vision 3.5 Supplement states that the Clear Console command does not clear TDM plug-in assignments. This is no longer true -- choosing Clear Console from the Console Window Menu now clears everything from the console, including TDM Inserts and Audio Sends.

Specifically, Studio Vision performs the following actions when you choose the Clear Console command:

1. It clears all TDM Inserts and Audio Sends assigned to any Audio Instruments used in that console. If another console uses the same Audio Instruments, then their TDM Inserts and Audio Sends will also be cleared -- it's up to you to know whether you've assigned an Audio Instrument to more than one console.

2. It clears all output assignments for any channels that are assigned to a bus, external input, or Sample Cell input. If another console uses the same bus or input, then its output assignment will also be cleared -- it's up to you to know whether you've assigned a bus or input to more than one console.

3. It sets the Instrument Selector for each channel to "none."

NOTE: If you wish to clear one or more channels without clearing any TDM assignments, Audio Sends, or output routings, then select "none" from each channel's Instrument Selector pop-up menu.

DIGIDESIGN PROJECT - DYNAMIC VOICE ALLOCATION SUPPORT

Digidesign Project owners can now use dynamic voice allocation, but it's important to keep the following restrictions in mind:

1. As discussed on Page 97 of your 3.5 Supplement, Project hardware groups its output assignments into two groups: Group #1 consists of Outputs 1-4. Group #2 consists of Outputs 5-8. You can route an Audio Instrument to any combination of outputs in a single group, but you cannot route an Audio Instrument to outputs contained in different groups. For example, you could route an Audio Instrument to Outputs 1, 3, and 4 (since they're all contained in Group #1), but you cannot route an Audio Instrument to Outputs 1, 3, and 5 (since Outputs 1&3 are in Group #1 but Output 5 is in Group #2).

2. If you use dynamic voice allocation and assign some Audio Instruments to Outputs 1-4 and others to Outputs 5-8, then Project splits its voice assignment among the two groups. It assigns four dynamic voices to share among Audio Instruments that are routed to Outputs 1-4 and it assigns the remaining four dynamic voices to share among Audio Instruments that are routed to Outputs 5-8. If you assign all Audio Instruments to one Output group (either 1-4 or 5-8), then Project dynamically allocates all 8 voices to the outputs within that group.

DIGIDESIGN AUDIOMEDIA III - 8 VOICES WITH DYNAMIC ALLOCATION

Audiomedia III users can now play 8 simultaneous voices using dynamic voice allocation. Previous versions required Audiomedia III users to employ fixed voice allocation in order to play 8 voices.

DAE 3.1 (or later) NOW USED FOR DIGIDESIGN PRODUCTS

Studio Vision now ships with and installs DAE/DSI version 3.1, which works with both NuBus and PCI Digidesign hardware, and is compatible with the new Pro Tools IV system. You may encounter problems with DAE/DSI 3.1 in two areas:

• When appending a new audio take to an existing file, you may encounter errors where previously recorded audio is played back in place of audio you have just recorded.

• You may encounter problems with the "where-is" dialog, when DAE cannot locate an audio file required by Studio Vision.

Both of these bugs have been fixed in a new version of DAE (3.1.1) which is unfortunately not available from Digidesign for shipping at this time. It should be available within a week or so of the date that Studio Vision 3.5 ships. When it is available, it will be put on Opcode's World Wide Web site for downloading, and will also be available directly from Opcode's customer service and from Digidesign.

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KNOWN PROBLEMS

PREMIERE PLUG-IN CRASH POTENTIAL

Some third-party Adobe Premiere plug-ins consume extra memory each time they are invoked. This can result in a crash if you continuously launch these plug-ins in a single Studio Vision session. If Studio Vision crashes after informing you that memory is dangerously low, try allocating more RAM to Studio Vision. Also, you can reclaim the memory "stolen" by the plug-ins by quiting Studio Vision and restarting it. Most plug-in manufacturers are aware of the problem and are working on solutions.

"SYSTEM ERROR -7" (TDM Users Only)

In very rare instances, you may get a "System Error -7" message after launching Studio Vision and choosing File>Open to open a sequence file that has a large DSP resource requirement. In some cases, if the DSP resource requirement is too large, existing DSP resources may not be properly released when opening a file. This can also happen if you have saved a Studio Vision Setup (File>Save as Setup) that has DSP resource requirements. If you get a "System Error -7" error, quit Studio Vision, then double-click the sequence file's icon to launch Studio Vision (rather than opening the file from within Studio Vision). Another alternative is to switch to Sound Manager audio (which clears all DSP resource requirements), open the file, then switch back to DAE.

If you have created a Studio Vision Setup with large DSP resource requirements, you should either 1) remove some of the TDM inserts from your setup file, then resave it, or 2) always launch Studio Vision by double-clicking the Studio Vision Setup file's icon.

This problem is very rare, and will most likely not be experienced by the majority of users. Opcode is currently working on a fix.

ERROR -2807 and ERROR -2804

Some users have encountered these result codes when attempting to authorize version 3.5 of Vision. Our research has shown that installing QuickTime 2.5 fixes this problem. Note that you must install QT 2.5; it is not sufficient to already have QT 2.5 installed. We believe that the installation process replaces a system file that has been corrupted. In all instances that have been encountered by Opcode's Quality Assurance group, installing QT 2.5 eliminates these error messages.

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KNOWN INCOMPATIBILITIES

• Now Utilities's Sound pop-up menu: Do not use this utility at the same time as Studio Vision. If you're using Sound Manager with Studio Vision and want to change the Sound parameters, use either Studio Vision's Audio>Hardware Setup command, or the Control Strip module supplied with Apple System software.

• Apple's QuickTime Musical Instruments extension: When enabled, the QuickTime Musical Instruments extension uses such a substantial portion of your Mac's CPU time that it may cause performance errors with digital audio systems other than Sound Manager. Opcode developers recommend that DAE, CBX, or Sonic users disable the QuickTime Musical Instruments extension when playing or recording digital audio. To do this:
1. Open your current OMS Studio Setup document.
2. Double click the "QuickTime Music" icon in your Studio Setup document.
3. In the resulting dialog box, click the Off radio button, then click OK.
4. A circle with a slash across it appears over the "QuickTime Music" icon indicating it is disabled.

• RAM Doubler and Virtual Memory: Opcode developers do not recommend using either of these with Studio Vision.

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TIPS

THE PREFERENCE FILE

If your computer crashes while running Studio Vision, Opcode developers recommend that you throw away your Studio Vision 3.5 Preferences file (found in System Folder: Preferences) before restarting. This preference file can get corrupted during a crash--which could cause other problems.

If you use a unique Studio Vision configuration, and would rather not spend time resetting your Studio Vision 3.5 Preferences after a crash, then you should save a good copy of your Studio Vision 3.5 Preferences in case problems occur. This is especially important for users who enjoy custom key equivalents. Key equivalents are stored in the Studio Vision 3.5 Preferences file and would be lost when throwing out corrupt preferences. Create a copy of your Studio Vision 3.5 Preferences file, and save it in another folder. If you need to replace it, simply drag it into your Preferences folder to replace what is there (or option-drag to retain a copy).

CHANGING EXPORTED DEFAULT AUDIO FILE SUFFIXES

You can change any default suffix that Studio Vision appends to a file by editing Studio Vision with a resource editor. While Studio Vision is not running, launch ResEdit (or Resourcerer or another resource editor), then open Studio Vision from within it. Open the resources of type 'STR#'. Open 'STR#' resource number 702, "audio file extensions". Edit any suffix you want. The first one is for AIFF files, the second for Sound Designer II files, the third is for WAVE files, while the fourth is for Sun/Next .au files.

Save and quit the resource editor, then relaunch Studio Vision. Now the new suffixes will be in effect. Any suffix you enter that is longer than 5 characters including the dot will be truncated to a maximum of 5 characters.

If you want to be able to completely specify the name of each file, set the suffix to an empty string (no spaces) with the resource editor. After relaunching Studio Vision, edit the name of the events you want to export in the List Window. If those names are unique, the name of each exported audio file will be exactly the name of the respective audio event.

BOUNCING TDM EFFECTS TO DISK

Although the Audio>Mix command does NOT apply TDM effects to the mixed audio, you can still bounce TDM-affected Audio Instruments to disk, creating a new audio file (a sub-mix) that DOES contain audio modified by the TDM effects.

This technique is similar to bouncing tracks on an analog tape machine, except the process occurs digitally -- resulting in no loss of audio quality. This example shows how to do this with an 882 I/O -- owners of other interfaces can apply a similar technique:

1. On an 882 I/O, connect a cable from its S/PDIF In jack to its S/PDIF Out jack.
2. In Studio Vision, choose Audio>Hardware Setup.
3. In the Hardware Setup dialog box, set the Ch 1-2 Input to "Digital" and click OK.
4. In the Audio Instruments Window, set the Outputs to "Out 1-2" for all of the Audio Instruments that contain data you wish to mix (on the 882, Outputs 1-2 always appear at the S/PDIF Out jack).
5. Mute any Tracks or Audio Instruments that contain data you DON'T want to include in the sub-mix.
6. In the Record Monitor Window, record-enable Input 1 and/or Input 2 and define a new record file.
7. Click Record in the Control Bar. Vision plays all the Audio Instruments assigned to Output 1-2 (complete with their TDM assignments). It sends this audio mix digitally out the 882's S/PDIF Out jack. Simultaneously, it records that data on Inputs 1-2 since it's being routed back into the 882's S/PDIF In jack.

You have now bounced your audio with TDM effects to a new audio file, which you can use in your sequence--freeing your DSP resources for other TDM assignments.

Quote
HOW TO GET THE MOST SEQUENCING POWER FROM SOUND MANAGER 3.2.1

This document outlines recommended configurations, setup options, calibrating offsets and general tips for maximizing your audio performance with Sound Manager audio with Vision 3.5.1 If you are not using audio with Vision, then you can disregard this document altogether.

RECOMMENDED CONFIGURATION FOR USING AUDIO WITH VISION

• Power Macintosh with 16 bit audio input and output
• System 7.5 or higher
• 8 MB minimum RAM allocation, more is better
• Fast (7200 rpm), large ( >1 GB), external SCSI hard drive
• Level II Cache—installing a Level II cache into your Macintosh (if it does not have one already) will increase the performance and synchronization of audio voices.
• Speed Doubler—using the Speed Access Extension on all Macs and the Speed Emulator Extension on PowerMacs will increase the number of well synchronized audio voices. The Speed Access and Speed Emulator Extensions are part of the Speed Doubler package made by Connectix Corporation.
• Sound Manager 3.2.1 (from Apple) or higher
• Defragmentation software to optimize the drive's performance regularly such as Norton's Speed Disk

OPTIONS AND SETTINGS

• To get the best results during audio playback keep your Macintosh's output volume at 7 while using Vision's Consoles to set Audio Instrument volumes individually. Any changes made to your Macintosh's output volume will remain during your recording session unless you relaunch Vision or switch in and out of Vision using the Finder. Vision will return your Macintosh's output volume to its original state upon Quitting.

• QuickTime Musical Instruments will sometimes cause problems while playing multiple voices of audio. If you are experiencing Performance Errors during the playback of audio, you should disable the QuickTime Music OMS Driver in OMS Setup. This is especially important if you don't have much memory.

• Setting the Buffer Size to Large will usually increase audio performance. Some users may not be able to set the Buffer Size to Large due to lack of memory and/or too many third-party Adobe Premiere plug-ins being installed. The Buffer Size setting is found in the Audio menu of Vision. Increase the RAM partition given to Vision by choosing Get Info from the File menu in the Finder while Vision is selected. To gain more memory if you do not have any more RAM available, pull any third-party Adobe Premiere plug-ins from System Folder: Extensions: Opcode Folder: Audio Plug-ins and relaunch Vision.

• When using audio files of varying formats within the same sequence, the number of voices set in Audio Preferences should equal (the number of tracks you intend to play) times (the number of different kinds of file formats in the sequence). The audio file formats are 8 bit Mono, 8 bit Stereo, 16 bit Mono, 16 bit Stereo, etc. Files of different sample rates are not considered to be files of different formats.

NOTE: Vision's Audio Preferences dialog allows for allocating up to 20 voices of mono, 44 kHz, 16 bit, digital audio. However, Apple does not recommend using Sound Manager for more than 10 voices of digital audio. You may find that you will get anywhere between 12 and 20 voices on a faster PowerMac (over 180 MHz). Experiment, and find the maximum number of playable audio voices on your Macintosh. If you experience any Performance Errors during playback or recording, decrease the number of voices in the Audio Preferences dialog and/or increase the Buffer Size using the menu items found in the Audio menu. Experimentation with your setup will tell you what is best.

RECORD AND PLAYBACK OFFSETS

When you manually enter the Record or Playback offsets of the Audio Preferences dialog, the numeric entries will be saved in Vision 3.5 Preferences. The manually entered offsets will remain set until the Vision 3.5 Preferences are thrown out. This enables you to conveniently switch between any number of voices in Audio Preferences without losing the offsets which were customized for your setup. If the Vision 3.5 Preferences are deleted, then Vision will go back to using the default offsets set in the Audio Preferences dialog.

If you are upgrading, you will probably need to use different Record and Playback offsets in Vision 3.5 than the offsets you were using in Vision 3.0.x. Vision 3.5's Sound Manager performance has improved a great deal since Vision 3.0.x, and thus the audio behaves differently in relation to the Record and Playback offsets. The default offsets given in Vision 3.5 are only close approximations of the offsets needed for your particular system. It is recommended that you either finish your current audio projects in Vision 3.0.x, and then start new projects in Vision 3.5. Or, you may wish to open your Vision 3.0.x sequences containing audio in Vision 3.5, but be prepared to reset the Record and Playback offsets in Audio Preferences so that your audio sounds correct in relation to the MIDI.

SETTING THE RECORD AND PLAYBACK OFFSETS

Through testing Opcode found its cannot adequately provide appropriate default Record and Playback offsets for every user. This is because offsets are determined by such factors as: your Macintosh model, hard drive speed and access, the amount of memory you're using, your System Software version, whether you're using a Level II Cache and/or Speed Doubler, and how many voices of audio you're intending to use. Because of the many variations among users' systems, Opcode decided that any default Record or Playback offset could not be as accurate as the offsets you, the user, can determine to be best for your system. Below are some guidelines and a specific recipe for determining the proper offsets for your setup.

• When using 8 voices of audio (or less) it is easiest to set the Playback offset based on how the audio & MIDI sound together, and leave the Record offset set to zero. Step record a MIDI percussion pattern, loop it, and then record it as a continuous track of audio. Then click on play and listen. Panning the MIDI to one side and the audio to the other is very helpful when listening for any flam between percussive hits. If you can hear the MIDI hitting slightly ahead of the audio, then set the Playback offset 100 higher. If you can hear the audio hitting slightly ahead of the MIDI, then set the Playback offset 100 lower.

• When using 10 voices of audio (or more) it is wiser to take the more scientific approach to finding the appropriate Playback and Record offsets for your system. (We apologize for the length, but thought more detailed information is best.)

1. Pick a MIDI device that shows up in Vision.
2. Route the MIDI device's audio output(s) into channel(s) 1 (& 2 if stereo) of a stereo mixer.
3. Route the stereo audio output of your Macintosh into channels 3 & 4 of a stereo mixer.
4. Route the stereo output of your mixer into the stereo input of your Macintosh.
5. Pan channels 1 & 2 of the mixer to the left, and pan channels 3 & 4 of the mixer to the right.
6. Launch Vision.
7. Make sure any Metronome Click is turned off.
8. Set both the Record and Playback offsets in Audio Preferences to zero.
9. Set the number of voices in Audio Preferences to the number of voices you plan to be using.
10. Set the Tempo to 275.63.
11. Step record a measure of quarter notes using a very percussive MIDI sound.
12. Loop the measure of MIDI percussion, and set the Sequence Length to infinity.
13. Open the Record Monitor.
14. In the Record Monitor, open a New Stereo File for recording.
15. Set the Record Monitor so that Thru is turned Off.
16. Record Enable a New Track.
17. Click on Play.
18. Make sure you have a good level of the percussive MIDI sound in the Record Monitor.
19. Click on Record.
20. After about 8 measures of recording, click on Stop. Observe: The MIDI should have gotten recorded into the left side of the stereo audio event.
21. Record Enable another New Track.
22. Click on Record.
23. After about 8 measures of recording, click on Stop. Observe: The MIDI should have gotten recorded into the left side of the stereo audio event while the audio got recorded into the right side of the stereo audio event.
24. Double click on the audio you just recorded thus opening it into the Graphic Editing window.
25. Zoom in as much as possible.
26. Set the Waveform Display in the Audio menu to High Resolution.
27. Turn off Cursor Quantize in the Graphic Editing window (if you had it turned on).
28. Use the cursor to measure the amount of units from a bar line to the percussive hit in the left channel of the audio event. Multiply this number by 20 and call it M.
29. Use the cursor to measure the amount of units from a bar line to the percussive hit in the right channel of the audio event. Multiply this number by 20 and call it A.
30. The Playback offset = A - 2M.
31. The Record offset = M - the Playback offset.
32. Enter the Record and Playback offsets you just calculated into the Audio Preferences dialog and begin recording some serious music. If you want to check your results before moving on, you can repeat steps 16 -26 and observe how close the percussive hits fall to the bar line.