Jimmy Street, Jimmy Street Productions, Culver City, CA
I was at the NAMM Show in January and picked up a demo from Sonic Foundry. They buy full-paged ads in all my music magazines and have received lots of accolades for their great software. In the demo, I noticed a proliferation of bells and whistles. Then I zoomed in and cut out 4 bars... a simple edit I do every day. To my astonishment the software began to calculate the edit. The 4-bar edit took about 15 seconds to render. Then I clicked the Edit menu Undo command... again the time thermometer and the edit HAD TO UN-RENDOR! This is the software that's getting all the hype? I make hundreds of cut edits a day. Plus, my clients invariably ask me to change or adjust edits. After years of instant editing on Microeditor, I couldn't believe that a renowned software like Sound Forge would have to render such a basic operation!
Michael Daher, Goodfellows Productions, Winnipeg MAN Canada
I'm going on 7 years using my 486 Microsound workstation for 2 track classical editing, multi-track editing flown in from tape, and mastering. Using Microeditor has become second nature and intuitive, almost like playing a musical instrument. I must say that it is still the easiest and fastest editor available today.
At other studios, I've used all the other software editors such as Cool Edit Pro, Wavelab, Sound Forge and hardware editors such as ProTools. I'd rather splice analog tape because it would be faster. Whenever Protools users watch me maneuver and edit on Microsound they are at a complete loss of words. In my opinion, if Microeditor was released for Windows/Mac PCI sound cards, even Digidesign hardware, it would be the 1st choice of audio editing worldwide on all platforms.
Jack Parnell, Jack Parnell Enterprises, Germantown, TN
A quick comparison comment; I've got one of MTU's old 486 DX100 computers with the older ISA-bus RevJ DSP Engine and Microeditor 2.7b software...extremely happy with it. I also own part of a local studio which has Sonic Solutions (Mac-based). The Sonic Solutions is MUCH harder to learn, understand, won't do as much, doesn't sound any better, is more cumbersome, and crashes much more often than MTU! Every time I use the Sonic Solutions, I get happier with MTU!
Joey Johnson, Sound Resources, St. Paul, MN
I've used Microsound since 1993 on a 486 66MHz computer at work. Microsound continues to never crash, and I have never lost any recorded audio with it. But Dave, I have a confession. I'm using a Digidesign Session 8 in my home studio because it was so cheap. The Session 8 is awful... awful slow, awful tedious, awful cumbersome, difficult to work with, and non-instinctive to use. This was only a stop gap measure. I am an MTU man. I have a lot of respect and loyalty to you and your company. Anything I can do to help you and MTU is an honor. We at MTU understand cost is important to everyone. Joey gives us all a good clue why he could buy the Session 8 so cheap!
Charles Lawson, WETA Public Radio, Arlington, VA
Every day I fall deeper in love with Microsound and so do the producers I work with. I just finished a "very" complicated national radio production with Microeditor 2.5 that took one tenth the amount of time of a similar production using WETA's $45,000 Sonic Solutions Mac system. My client saved thousands of dollars, I saved days of irritation [because Microeditor never loses files], and the producer saved her sanity. Way to go!
Another quote in 06/99 - I've been using Sonic for nearly as long as I've been using MTU. I can't really recommend Sonic for anything but straight two-channel classical music editing. If you're trying to do anything more complex than that, Sonic makes for a great doorstop.
Robert Smith, Production Dir., WHCN, Hartford, CT
After ten years of working to get into the major-markets I knew I would not leave the big time for any offer less than perfect. When the offer came including a digital production system of my choice, I chose the MTU Microsound system over all others I had tested in the past (Dyaxis, AKG 7000-DSE, AKAI Magneto-Optical, Alesis ADAT, ADAP, Protools and Turtle Beach - to be specific) because of it's flexibility, upgradability, options, speed and price, and I am very pleased with the decision.
Tom Backus, Second Story Productions
I just finished a major Kodak film job, some new motion picture film stock demo....had to edit dialog and SFX and music on the MTU. Stuff sounds great. Recorded a 50 piece orchestra for the score and had to do some mixes and fixes out in LA on a Fairlight and Euphonics system. Just didn't sound as good out there. Also working on two new series for A&E, all post audio will be in MTU.
Jeff Apthorp, Bible Broadcasting Network, Charlotte, NC
Microsound was not the editor that introduced me to digital recording, but it was the one that hooked me. My first experience was with a MAC based system that was cumbersome and very difficult to use. After four hours with it, all I knew was that it was capable of recording digital audio. By contrast, I recorded my first segment on Microsound within two minutes of powering on the computer.
For my home studio [before he was aware of Microsound] I researched and found an editing program for about $300 and a "very reputable" card. Well, I got exactly what I paid for. I dubbed in a few minutes of an orchestra from CD and playback was very grainy and downright irritating. As I continued with this other editor, I found that every edit I made left an audible pop that I had to remove manually. It was also prone to the stereo left and right channels getting out of sync slightly. This totally phased out one announcer's voice and I had to re-submit the work to correct the error. I now have Microsound in my home studio also and have never experienced these problems with it.
Jimmy Street, Jimmy Street Productions, Culver City, CA
I have been a satisfied user of Microeditor for over three years now, and it always frustrated me why Protools always seems to get mentioned when I read an article about some writer/producer's project, or whenever a potential client inquired about my setup. I have never had the opportunity to directly compare the performance of Microeditor and frankly I was a little intimidated. Yesterday, I had a client who was very knowledgeable about digital editing who came prepared with notes and cue points marked off on his DATs. Throughout the long and often tedious editing session I kept hearing sighs of relief and downright pleasure from my client (and his partner) as I fulfilled their complicated requests. I was enjoying myself as well, because Microeditor was its usual glitch-free self. At the end of the session, the client stood up and told me how completely satisfied he was. I'll paraphrase:
I was beginning to think that the things I was asking editors to do on Protools were impossible. I am amazed how you not only could complete my requests, but how quickly your computer could mix and play it back. Usually, I feel like I'm spending half of my time waiting for the computer to finish calculating.
I'm running on a 486 100MHz and its scary to think of the speed and power a "state of the art" machine would give me.
Les Mizzell, Catwalk Studios, Charlotte, NC
As a user of both Microsound at home and Protools III at the office (it was in place when I started), I've been able to do an objective comparison of the two systems. I have three main reasons for choosing Microsound as my personal system. First was thequality of customer support and the willingness to listen to problems, suggest solutions and consider implementing changes to current software to make it work better. The folks at Microsound excel at this. Digidesign has a 900 number for customer support and charges $3 per minute for calls, with a $35 minimum billing. I usually feel I'm being talked down to. Forget making suggestions as to how the system can be improved. "We're Digidesign and THIS is the way it's done. Why would you want it any way else?"
My second reason is sound quality. I have yet to find another system that I feel is as transparent as Microsound. I have a client that does symphonic recordings for a living. He uses a matched pair of B&K mics with a high end mic preamp and AD converters for
his recordings. We have done a direct plus blind A/B test between Microsound and Protools and he has NEVER failed to identify the Protools version of his recordings. He finds Protools " It's grainy! The sound stage has been flattened. Where's the "air" that was in there?" He will not allow his material to be edited on Protools.
Third is software stability. Microsound is the ultimate in reliability. I have several crashes PER WEEK with Protools often resulting in the LOSS OF A PROJECT requiring me to start from scratch a bit red-faced in front of a client. "Oops, it just went south!" Most of my Protools clients take it in stride as they've gotten USED to it crashing at times. I've never lost a project on Microsound!
While Protools may be more visually appealing to folks who can't get the tape-recorder way of working out of their heads, I have found the Microsound to be consistently MUCH faster. Creating the same project on both systems, I can usually complete the Microsound project 40 to 50 percent faster.
Bob Souer, Bob Souer Productions, McMurray, PA
The first digital transfer I made into my Microsound workstation I noticed how much cleaner the audio sounded than it had performing the same transfers with the Digital I/O card from Digital Audio Labs. I was not prepared for the difference. There is no question that Microsound provides MUCH cleaner digital transfers than any of the other systems I've used, not to mention the higher quality of the analog converters. Bravo for a product whose quality is second to none!
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