Open Letter to Digidesign:

Dear Digidesign:

Could you stop being so lame? I know that’s a tall order, but I also know it’s possible. I can think of lots of largish (to me) audio software companies that aren’t lame. Ableton and Native Instruments come immediately to mind. I realize that you’re only one cog in a much larger wheel, but even so, it has to be possible.

Why are you lame, Digidesign? It’s hard to enumerate the specific reasons that have led to such a pervasive lameness, but in my general opinion, you haven’t really done anything worth a shit since Turbosynth came out, frankly. It is true that your products are the de facto standard of the professional recording community, and kudos for that, but I think that’s where the problem lies.

With the release of PT M-Powered, you have made available to a much larger userbase a product which is inherently unsuitable for people that aren’t, well, smart. I know this because these people write me a lot. “Well, that’s kind of odd,” you say. You no doubt say this because we don’t actually sell RTAS plugins. That would be a logical deduction on your part that while making a certain amount of sense, is demonstrably false. I will quote a sample letter, received not two days ago:

I’m installing the 2 plug ins that i have just bought but when I go to find them on my hard drive they aren’t there. Im installing them onto a MacBook OSX. Can you help? Could there be a problem with the plug in files?

I’ll give you one guess as to which host this customer was using. Now, one could say “this dude obviously has a larger issue, because everyone knows that PT doesn’t host VST plugins without a wrapper.” Well, as it turns out, not many PT M-Powered users know that. Because you never tell them. Nowhere on your site does it say “hey, the vast majority of plugins don’t work with our shit.” In actual fact, it says there is a “[h]uge selection of compatible third-party plug-ins and software options.” In your defense, there is a list of which plugins do work with your shit, but that list doesn’t include FXpansion’s wrapper;. Any thoughts on that?

Don’t even get me started on that wrapper, Digidesign. Seriously. Just don’t.

So, here’s one way you could be less lame: either start hosting AU/VST in your product, or make an effort to tell your customers that only RTAS products work with that shit.

kkthxbai.

Chris Randall
Audio Damage, Inc.