The Future of Microsound?

[geezer]

I will reiterate again that I in no way speak for MTU, but....


The central issue for changing MicroEditor always seems to be hiring the original main programmer- Larry- to rewrite code for it. His time is expensive, and he no longer is employed by MTU. (Please correct me if I am wrong about this, Dave!)......There have several times been suggestions from the MTU admin that Larry could be brought on to do some rewriting if the goals and expenses were clearly defined and, perhaps, if enough users would underwrite the costs....I and a few others have indicated more than once that we might be willing to go down that path (i.e.- paying money for specific features), but nothing has ever come of it.


That is why I have taken the tack- more or less continually- of defining a markedly more narrow and extremely inexpensive set of goals having to do with simple file recognition and translation.....I have to tell you that it disturbs me greatly that I have gotten no real response on this front either.

I don't know what else to do. The will to insure some future for this product does not seem to be there in Raleigh. It is a strange market, for sure, but I wish there was a little more information forthcoming.


Again: Dave and Co., pipe up and tell me I am wrong......Or pipe up and tell us something. I have been an almost rabid supporter and promoter of Microeditor since I got the system 10 years ago, but it is increasingly hard to justify this attitude. Product support is what sold me originally and what drove my enthusiasm.

The system is still fast and fluid within its feature set, but that matters less and less if I cannot interface with other modern systems and file structures. I end up defining a smaller and smaller area of my business where the efficiency of MicroEditor makes sense.

[MMVOX]

Hi Geezer,

Well, okay, not really a "sin". I wanted to get back to you, now that a ton of time has passed. Although I've used and loved MicroEditor since 1994, I've been forced to relegate my system to backup status. I've gone to Pro Tools and it's excellent. I would have preferred to stay with MicroEditor, but two things forced my hand:

1) Lack of development and support. To this day I find it hard to believe that MicroEditor would not be supported over the long term by fans such as myself, and those that I've turned on to the system. Granted, this would take a bit of effort on the part of MTU...the software development needed to keep up with the times, and equally important the marketing drive to get the system into catalogues, dealers, etc. so that people are actually aware of its existence.

2) On a personal level: I got ripped off. A while back I contacted MTU about purchasing a backup hard drive and CD burner for my system. I could have bought this stuff anywhere, but I went to MTU out of loyalty, respect, and for their expertise. I purchased FROM THEM the equipment THEY recommended. When the hard drive proved to not be compatible, I requested a refund. They refused because I had waited longer than 30 days after purchase. (It was in fact longer than 30 days...installation of this drive wasn't an emergency or anything so my computer tech was in no rush to get to me.) Although it's not much, I am responsible for at least 10 MicroEditor systems being purchased from MTU between 1994 and 1999. That said, and since it was THEIR equipment recommendation that proved to be inaccurate, I would have expected a refund, or a credit, on the hard drive. Their inaccuracy occurred at the time of purchase, not after the 30 days.

Certainly it's not the money...MTU obviously needed the cash more than me. It's the principle that is important to me.

But it's been a great learning experience. They demonstrated a valuable lesson to me about how NOT to treat my clients, and as a result most of my business is from repeat clients. They forced me to be open minded about embracing and learning a new system, and Pro Tools is great, fun and very well supported. And finally, they showed me that all that wacky religious crap that appears in the MicroEditor manual under "Credits" is nothing but lip service...like most religious zealots, they can talk the talk but cannot walk the walk.

[geezer]

Happy to see you are settled in to a new system.

As I have said elsewhere on this forum, I found my highly affordable, high quality replacement for Microeditor a few years ago with Steinberg's Wavelab. Once I figured out how to use it, it was actually faster than Microeditor and enough of an improvement in quality that I was able to figure out a whole new set of quality considerations with digital audio, and really upgraded my mastering skills for CDs.

I still have 2 functional MicroSound systems, but have actually not powered them up in 2 or 3 years at least.....I should probably pull them off the shelf and spin the drives up to see if I can salvage any of the somewhat important files still in that format, I guess.

....There was a "golden age" of support and development for MTU and Microeditor that, when I think back on it, was actually pretty short for me....perhaps only 3 or 4 years. The amazing thing, though, is that the original product and paradigm were so elegantly designed and forward thinking that the lack of continued development did not kill it completely for maybe 5 years after that. It certainly would have been better for MTU to have been more forthcoming about the dead end they were aimed at, but the quality did ultimately justify the investment, I guess.....even though, in my case, that investment was pretty considerable ($12,500. in 1994, and at least another $3,000. over the next 3 years or so).

Although it would have been nice for MTU to have made the transition into the new age, we are actually living in pretty lucky times right now. All the companies still left standing have managed to come up with very mature, good sounding software packages, and the computers they ride on have lots of power right out of the box.....At least we all have some place comfortable to land after our the wings fell off our airplane in mid-flight. I was definitely a little scared when I heard the engines sputtering back around 2001-2 (after several years of entreating MTU to give them a valve job), but my heart stopped racing when I got Wavelab working....and there are lots of other functional systems now. Whew.

[MMVOX]

Hi Geezer,

Very well said. You are right, we are fortunate to have the choices in software/hardware available to us right now. Many of them are excellent.

I made the move to ProTools in 2004, but I do power up my MicroEditor once a month or so just to spin the drive and see if it still works. And it does. I was just extremely disappointed because MicroEditor was the first DAW that I learned, and it opened up all kinds of possibilities for me in broadcast audio and music production, allowing me to be more productive and creative. Ironically, one of the last voiceover projects that I recorded on MicroEditor was a narration for Avid/Digidesign....makers of ProTools.

[admin]

Well gentlemen, this is an interesting set of posts.

First, MTU IS and always WILL BE the Grandfather of the DAW industry. MIX Mag documented that we were the first in their Sept. 1997 "The Audio Industry: 20 Years" issue. We knew that as we watched everyone else come in after us. I even sent MIX 12 pages of history, some of which they weren't aware of, that proved to their satisfaction that we were the first.

MTU pioneered and defined the "bleeding edge" in DAWs and microcomputers, starting in 1968. We cut the path from nothing. We then paved the road for others to drive on. No matter what you want to think or say today, we did it, and Digidesign and Steinberg benefited from our pioneering work. We were shipping 9 years before Digidesign started their first product, before even their Sound Tools. Steinberg was more than a decade later.

1. Motorola killed Microeditor. Although we had a 5 year guarantee from the DSP Manager, with 3 of his managers hearing (and later attesting to) his promise, 8 months later we received our "last buy" warning on the 56401 Digital Audio chip... which was the clock heart of the Krystal DSP card. We ordered what we thought would be enough for then next few years, based on our sales forecasts and past performance. To redesign Krystal, was out of the question. We had lost our senior engineer to SAS. He was both hardware designer and lead programmer. There was no way to keep him at any price as the DAW market was too volatile for him. Redesigning the hardware would have taken probably $150,000 before we were tested and released. It was not feasible.
   
   
2. Radio producers needed one set of advancements, studios a different, and video yet another major shift. Thus, our markets required diverging technologies.[/b] MTU didn't have the staff to excel in 3 different directions, and you both know MTU never shipped junk! Our "advisors" were pulling us in different directions, and made it clear that unless we did what they recommended, we would not make it. Well, I agreed.
   
   
3. The DAW market shifted drastically within a year. The software only products became usable, and ate the market from below. Lots of sales we used to make for editing work were now going to... Goldwave, CoolEdit Pro, Sound Forge and others. These had no hardware cost like our Krystal card so their retail price was below our manufacturing MATERIALS cost!
   
   
4. The other "high end DAW" systems with hardware, were in the same boat with us. They too had to redesign from ground up to support 192KS/s, add POW-R dithering, change from SMPTE, and more... or die. Most also died with us that were at the "mid range" in price. Digidesign was sold to Avid, which aided their survival and eventually winning the "high end" market.
   
   Steinberg, Syntrillium and Sonic Foundry were sold, and their products survive today. "Small" companies are gone, and the market players are Mega-Internationals now. Simply stated, the DAW market we pioneered... matured. MTU would NOT have made it even if we tried. As President, I made the right decision because unlike most of our DAW competitors, MTU is still around for you to post in our Forums!

Geezer, you were one of our lead "advisors". You pushed the envelope all the time. Your suggestions were superior, and drove us to higher excellence. I can't estimate the massive number of hours I spent thinking about each suggestion you made; implementing many of them as you know. And one of your posts in 2004 said it all: "That is, I would not have realized how to work fast or how fast you can work - and how good things can sound- without having used Microeditor." However, we couldn't afford to go where you and others made it clear we "had to go". After doing my own analysis I agreed. Given the 4 points above, which I clearly saw coming, and with no offer to sell out, we got out before bankrupty.

Markets change  *  Technologies change  *  Companies change  *  The world changed

MMVOX, your request for a full refund was made more than 180 days after you received the drive! And just like you, we didn't need the money... it was the principle of the matter. We all dropped our jaws when we got your first letter demanding we refund and take the product back after so long. Had you requested after 60 or 90 days, we would have negotiated a refund. Also, as I remember, the technical problem wasn't ALL MTU's fault, but its not worth proving it now. We always dealt ethically with you, proven by your own claim that you recommended us from 1994 -1999. We walked the walk. I truly am sorry that you feel you must insult us now. Un-forgiveness destroys a person. It is time to let it go and move on in life.

I'm glad you both have found new audio tools. Enjoy them. I wish you well in your endeavors.

We all worked well together for a Season and a Reason, but not for a Lifetime. Be glad it happened. Don't grieve it is gone.

[geezer]

Well, Dave.....although there were some critical communication errors made by MTU to its customers during that fatal period in the late 90s, you know I understand what you went through and why it happened. I also always understood the anger from other users that surfaced. There were express and implied promises that were not kept. This is old hat now, however, and anyone with their eyes open knew what the deal was by 2001 or so.....As I said in my previous post, I did not feel cheated. Saddened and paniced for awhile, but not cheated. Microeditor carried me through just fine until its replacement(s) appeared.

I always thought that you would have been saved if you had called on me and/or Charles to help you sell your product to NPR....I went back there briefly again in 1996 during the time that Sonic Solutions was exercising its attempt to develop its product to meet the NPR spec. I ran into their rep there and asked him what they had to do in the way of development (mostly things that Microeditor already did!) and how much of it was done (15%!!!). They never finished, and I heard that NPR had to eat something like a million dollars that they had paid them.

I recently had an opportunity to write an article for Radio magazine about the state of the DAW that you have maybe seen. In doing so, I ended up rehashing a lot of the history you alluded to above. It is still amazing how far you were ahead of the pack you were when I bought my system in 1994. Sound Tools was trash, and the early Pro Tools was not really any better. Sonic Solutions was just barely beginning....As far as I can tell, MTU was the only system out there with internal 32bit architecture and high bit rate accumulators.....(But I did not know that was why the system sounded good. This meant that when my colleague from NPR asked me what the internal bit rate of the system was during the time that they were looking around, I couldn't tell him....a crucial communication/selling deficit.)

In that same Radio magazine article, I talked about the state of customer support now, which, as we all know, is basically FAQs, slowly answered e-mails and downloaded manuals. MTU is the only software company that ever provided the incredible kind of customer support I got from 1994-1998 or so, and I am still thankful for that. I think most of your customers who were angry were disturbed by the disappearance of that support, even though noone else had ever provided anything like it. It was a tough pill for many of us to swallow. I'm sure it was even a tougher pill for you to swallow.

....But, you know me. I'm a realist. I came to MTU after running through the capabilities (some of which were vaporware) of another editing system in under 2 years, and having them completely change their business model and abandon their pro market in that same time frame. I have seen digital multitrack machines with incredible functionality and quality come and go in as little as 2 years, even when marketed by huge, international companies. The 8 years or so I got out of my MTU systems is a lifetime compared to most, and, as I said earlier, we are lucky enough to live in an age where computer recording and editing has really matured and become extremely affordable.

I thank you for your intial support and your and Larry's initial commitment to elegant programming. MTU's history from 1977 to 1998 was unmatched, really. It would have been great if the transition was a little more elegant, as well, but you did not simply abandon the product as so many others have done during this past, volatile decade. It would have been great if someone besides me were actually telling everyone on the forum that development was over, but you were definitely not making any new promises and you kept the forum up for everyone to get info. I thank you for that as well.

Like I say, I don't feel cheated. I got my money's worth.

[admin]

Thanks Jim.

Hindsight is 20/20. All the communications I had with NPR, which included my traveling to DC and meeting with who I thought was the right person, came to naught. Their myopic view of DAWs was singularly focused on their funding of Sonic Solutions as you say. To have changed and allowed MTU in would have been tantamount to admitting their mistake. At the time that we needed to see some progress with NPR, it was not possible. Such is life.

I can say that even this week I have discussed trying to take parts of the Microeditor Paradigms and embed them into a new software-only product. This discussion happened when one of our contractors was trying to do the equivalent of create a simple segment, and then go back and extend its ending to now include more of the original file. Sound Forge wouldn't allow it, and we wasted minutes going back to the orginal and redoing a new file.

Thus, I can truly say there was never a point where I made a FIRM DECISION that MTU would never again take up Microeditor. If there had been, I would have said so. The technology we have in source code is still extremely valuable, if we could see a way to penetrate a viable market.

However, to survive, as we have in the past, we migrated to a new emerging market - Karaoke - that allowed a small company to thrive. We are on the verge of making some major thrusts this month that may change the way Karaoke is done. It will be our first attempt to change an industry other than defining the bleeding edge... and others reaping the profits of our pioneering work.

Time will tell. Bryan often reminds me our current market does not have the savy or technical chops that our Microsound customers did. Tis true, and we miss you guys a lot.

I hope you and your wife have a Merry christmas!