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Old October 3rd, 2007, 11:47 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Raleigh, NC, USA
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GaryB, the I/O Module cable is identical for the "Tabletop" and "Rack mount" I/O Modules; i.e. it'll work.

I'm sorry I wasn't available to talk when you called. My wife's step-father had just had a stroke and she is up there helping him and her mother. She is an MTU employee and I have had to carry her ball also.

Jim, I don't want to start a word war cause I don't have the time, but you forgot how much time we spent trying to go to the 24-bit wave format. Chas Lawson was the main pusher on that as I recall. He's the initiator of this thread... about National Symphony Orchestra. The 24-bit SF format didn't work on many of the tests we ran. We had part of it, but the rest and interfacing with other gear wouldn't fall in line. With all we had on our platter, and Larry leaving (for lower pay I might add, but more status/security his wife needed), we simply couldn't finish it.

The real killer was Motorola. They lied to us... point blank! Eight months after they made firm 5+ year commitments to us (7 people heard the phone conversation), they discontinued the 56401 digital I/O, which also happened to be the clock generator for Krystal. They also dropped the Variactor diode that we used to do the magic in Microsync to lock to a +/-50% sync range. No other product even came close... +/- 12% was the best I ever saw advertised for anything else.

Had Motorola not pulled the rug out from under us, I would have considered keeping Medit going. Larry and I did discuss porting over to another 56301 card. We all knew Medit was GREAT... you guys helped us polish it. But we were just too far ahead of the time to win. Syntrillium and Sonic Foundry were "marketable" and were sold. MTU was considered for a short while by Sony, but not formally. Now our pioneering work is being adopted by others.

With Krystal production limited to the 400 56401 chips we bought (and 800 Variactor also), we had a limit on our lifetime. When the market shifted to software only taking a lot more market share, there was no sense in continuing pushing a dying horse. I paid the license for John LaGrou's POWr dithering, but we didn't have the staff to integrate it. He also never told me his was better than Medit's. Thus, it would have been for you, Chas and a limited few who needed the "prestige" of POW-r versus just as good home-grown Medit.

There was a LOT we invested in trying to attain 24-bit, but it was all futile. I hope now you will be a bit more positive. There's no need for sour grapes at this late date. After all, you were one of the main external "developers" on our team. If we had unlimited financial resources, things may have turned out differently. Also, in 2002 my now-ex wife demanded a divorce. Talk about trying to keep your head up and still breathe. MTU did survive, but we had to take a hard look at Medit, and it was just too much to try to convert to Software-only - sans Krystal. Sigh.....

Great to hear from you all you guys. I miss all of you and the great discourses we had in the past, and the fantastic energy of developing and polishing Medit to be what it was.

BTW: We have the best Vocal Remover available... to our knowledge anyway. It can even remove non-center panned vocals and instruments, and retain Low and High frequency music panned the same as the vocals. Really cool. Try the Vogone demo.
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