Samplitude and Sequoia

Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 6:24 pm

Gentlemen,
I got Samplitude 7 today. I had given up hope that it would arrive, and assumed I'd been ripped off, but it's here and it's wonderful. I was able to go through the activation process, so it's real.

This program is absolutely amazing. Now an upgrade to Sequoia is out of the question at the moment, but what would the advantages be? I don't see myself doing very sophisticated edits, and I only bought this for the sound quality, but I'm sure I'll be itching to upgrade quite soon.

In terms of audio quality (for simple record and playback), are Samplitude and Sequoia the same? I've always assumed that the audio engine is the same. I'm still going to use Sonar for a lot of stuff, and intend to upgrade to the newer version (it has some great now workflow enhancements) but the quality of everything about Samplitude is wonderful -especially the way it sounds!

Thanks
John

Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 9:04 pm

Glad you're enjoying yourself, John. There are indeed a few extras with Sequoia that you wont get with Samplitude, but I doubt you'll miss anything....yet. I think you'll be a long way away from needing it yet.

However, there are a few things. For starters the four-point editing capability that is really quite wonderful. (And I'm STILL trying to get better at using it, although I know the learning curve is worth it. I'm not quite there yet...)

Another plugin that works only in Sequoia is reNOVAtor from Algorithmix, but there is also a stand-alone version. I'm not sure what the cost is for it as a plug-in, but once you've worked with it, you'll never want to be without it. It's truly an outstanding bit of processing. (Spectral editing/noise reduction tool) I've been able to remove some otherwise impossible gremlins from recordings, and I don't think i'll ever want to be without it. (Sneezes, coughs, chair scrapes, planes, trucks, subway rumble, you name it, in most cases it can be removed, but NOT with tradtional cut/copy/paste methods. Like Photoshop (for audio), you isolate (crop) the area in question, in as small increments as necessary, and hit "process". The software interpolates what comes before and after the sound, in most cases seamlessly doing the work. It's truly astounding in working with classical/jazz/acoustic music.

Again, I think you'll have plenty to keep you busy with Samp. 7 and 8. (Elastic Audio, available in both Samp 8 and Sequoia 8 is going to make you VERY VERY happy when it comes to fixing choral edits and things that have dropped in pitch or changed tempo. )

Keep us posted on how you're doing, ok? Thumbs Up

Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 2:23 am

Hey thanks Joe.
That elastic audio thing is something I'm very interested in, but unfortunately I have version 7.2. I was sent the professional version which is great of course- especially as I only paid for the Classic version! I downloaded a demo of version 8 and it's quite impressive, as I was interested in elastic audio. I suppose it's a bit like Melodyne in some respects.

The Algorithmix stuff seems pretty cool as well -I was looking at their site earlier on, and I'm particularly interested in their EQs that don't cause the phase issues normally associated with eq.

I hadn't looked up renovator, but it seems amazing. I realised that Sequoia has advantages in terms of editing, but it sounds like it's well worth the extra cost for uncompromising professionalism.

I'm having a couple of problems with buffers that I'm going to spend tomorrow sorting out. The sound drops out, but if I increase the buffers, the latency is several seconds. I suppose more RAM could help. Still, it's a wonderful program. My main interest was the Room Simulator which is pretty impressive.

Now all I have to do is decide what I'm going to buy next. While I'm delighted to have bought this, I think money was made for one thing -buying microphones! I have multi-pattern tube Oktava on the way that Jeremy found on ebay for a stupidly low price, and I'm trying to resist the impulse to buy a Neumann M49. I was offered one at a great price, but of course it can cost about five thousand to get the thing to perform the way it should. Still we can always dream...
I've come to respect Barbra Streisand a lot since I found out she has twenty of the things!

John

Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 2:30 am

Joe
I'm either going senile, or reNOVator costs the same as Sequoia! It's the stand alone version on the Algorithmix website. I've put in a request for the demo version.

Thanks again!
John

Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 9:09 am

I just don't understand their pricing, really. Either it's a mistake, or they don't want to sell it to anyone.

I've done a few projects with it now, and it is truly astounding. (Perhaps that's the reason they want so much? The WOW factor?) But unless I"m missing something in the operation of it, it really only does the one thing (ok, it does it VERY VERY well indeed.)

It's not a complex application with many subroutines, features, etc., or something that requires a bit tech support team. It's an applette, actually, designed to run under Sequoia or Samplitude. Unless I'm so completely jaded by all these wonderful tools now, I can't imagine the $2900 price tag for each (combined to nearly $6k total) for just the ability to run reNOVAtor.

Perhaps they want $2900 for it in the stand-alone version? (I did NOT pay that much for my combination upgrades, but I am also in an agreement to write reviews for both products, etc., and I'll leave it at that for now....)

Their website is a bit confusing as well, and there seems to be a big disparity with pricing & info for reNOVAtor vs. the other plug ins they sell.

I've also seen/read a bit about Adobe Audition having a similar feature (spectral editing) that's now available in the $250 upgrade to the original $600 package. But the folks at Algorithmix have assured me it's a pale imitation to what reNOVAtor does. (Hmmm.....I do wonder...) Has anyone tried THAT version? It LOOKS similar, but I haven't tried that one out.

There IS a demo version of reNOVAtor included in Sequoia, under the destructive effects menu. If you click on "Spectral" or "Algorithimix" (I forget now how it's labelled) you can run a demo mode that won't let you save the result, but you CAN see/hear it work and decide if it's right for you.

Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 10:59 am

Looks can be deceiving... May look the same, but I would doubt that it is quite as good... The restoration tools for cool edit are some of the best for the money, but they still aren't professional level tools.

In the case of Algorithmix's plugs and the cost- you get what you pay for. They are all extremely high-end plugins. Built to compete against products that cost many times as much (like CEDAR, No Noise, etc...). There is a package price of all three restoration plugins which, while expensive, is a much more reasonable deal.

--Ben

Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 11:31 pm

In my stupidity I thought reNOVator came with Sequoia Embarassed

BTW has anyone played around with buffering? I get lost buffers even when CPU and HD usage is around 3%. It goes away when I increase the number of buffers, but the performance suffers. I found Sonar much easier to optimise. Having said all that, I think the inflexibility of the Apogee ASIO driver might be at fault. As usual, Apogee have ignored my e-mail.

John

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