Audacity is useful. And its auto noise reduction is actually good enough to use the app just for that if you otherwise have a professional software package. But it doesn’t really hold a candle to full flavor professional software on the order of something like Pro-Tools. And it does not solve the problem that if I am handed Pro-Tool project files, and am expect to work on them, I need Pro-Tools to work on them. Or the reverse situation. Professional environments are often all about work flows, collaboration, and interoperability.
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Its actually not as bad as it sounds. Its a lot easier to do high quality audio for video than it is to say mix and record music (or Foley). You can do 90% of what you need done in the video software. So its feasible to skimp on full audio software since you don’t explicitly need it. So long as you have good audio recording practices/techs and you don’t skimp on the microphones and other equipment itself you can save a few bucks using free ware to improve the functionality of the video software.
Now I’ve also worked with plenty of people who insist you don’t need an audio person on a shoot, and swear the 20 dollar unshielded lav mics are all they can spring for. Then they hear the results…
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*Checks watch*
Is it 2020 already?
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Only studio folks seem to use REAPER; for better or worse, Audacity is the
de-facto standard in Canada.
Oh, that’s right. They are in extended support and simply ended all feature updates.
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Wishful thinking that it’s 2020.
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I always find it ironic that people expect Microsoft to support an OS for 10+ years (or more for XP) but don’t blink when Apple cuts OS X support in about half of that.
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Free updates and an almost yearly release cycle help. Mac owners have been conditioned into upgrading. When I worked on a NAC product, we seldom found customer environments where OS X version’s were older than the 2 most recent. Windows, well, I still cringe.
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I agree and it’s kind of a double edged sword.
Microsoft takes huge pains to preserve compatibility as much as possible often to the detriment of being able to improve in certain areas. Looking standing bugs won’t get fixed because “this can break (insert some legacy product)”. This is great because it means most stuff will effectively work forever, but it also hobbles the ability to innovate without compromise. Raymond Chen has some great blog postings on this. (Of course you used to work for Microsoft if I’m recalling correctly so I’m sure you know all of this already.)
Apple on the other hand says “hey, you want to use that 10 year old software nobody supports anymore, lol that’s nice.” They will do heroics for compatibility when needed as a forcing factor (Classic Mode, Rosetta) but after a while they pull the plug and your screwed. I admire this in some ways as it does take some courage (not in the headphone jack sense) to be willing to say “screw you and your compatibility, we need to move forward” knowing full well a lot of stuff will break.
It’s especially hard with Apple because at least on Windows is very easy to virtualize old versions of Windows for when you really need compatibility. Apple doesn’t really give you this.
That sure was a lot of words and I’m not quite sure what point I was trying get at except to say it’s tough to balance compatibility and innovation.
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In fact, I used to work with Raymond. 
He likes to knit during meetings.
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I would add to this that the model is completely different, considering Apple is really selling hardware, not the OS.
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Given Apple’s lack of hardware updates for real computers, I’m skeptical that they’re really in the desktop/laptop business any more except as a unwilling legacy.
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They’re not charging for the OS, and they still require you to run it on their hardware, even when virtualized. It may be unwilling, on some level, but it’s still their business model.
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Hah that’s awesome. He’s a developer icon to me. I’ve never met him personally but I’ve had numerous email exchanges with him in the past. He seems to expertly walk the very thin line of being super knowledgeable, curmudgeonly, and very direct without being a complete dick to others (c.f. Linus Torvalds who is all those things but is a complete dick to others).
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Yeah, I’ve never seen him be a dick (though it has been 11 years since I worked with him). He was always very direct without being an asshole. Universally respected as well.
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That option isn’t available when Windows Spotlight is selected for the background image. I like Windows Spotlight because it provides some seriously nice photos and I do like when I can learn a little about the subjects so I think for now I’ll put up with the easily avoided promotional links that sometimes appear.
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On one hand you get bugs like the long file path one because SMB v1 design decisions. On the other, you have all win versions still getting pwned by goddamn RTF files on a monthly basis.
The date is November 4, 2020. Did you sleep through something important?
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Shit! My soufflé!
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If they see Trump’s shadow, do they go back to bed and we see another four years of winter?
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