Subject:SF 9 initial impression

Posted by: Sijon

Date:4/12/2007 5:23:24 AM

Wonderful upgrade and new features. Thanks Sony!

I'm in the midst of school contest recordings and took a big chance by downloading SF9 night before last and then putting into operation yesterday but all worked fine. I especially loved the additional metering. The phase meter allows checking not only phase but the pattern indicates the "mix" of multiple microphones and allowed me to very precisely balance the microphones I'm using in a modified Decca tree for these contest recordings. Love the new features and intuitively placed in the menus.

Three anomalies noticed: Batch converter displays "check status" upon completion instead of "success." (found myself wondering if it had completed or hung), strangeness of cursor behavior (at least compared to earlier versions), and I found myself looking for a way to increase the sensitivity of the phase meter as low level passages show up as a mere dot. But these things are certainly fixable in later releases.

Again, guys, thanks!

Subject:RE: SF 9 initial impression

Reply by: ForumAdmin

Date:4/12/2007 12:28:39 PM

Any chance you could define what "strangeness of cursor behavior" is? Some specific issues have been pointed out by other folks but I don't want to assume that's what you are talking about.

We'll also take a look the the Batch Converter issue you have mentioned.

Thanks,
DaveS

Subject:RE: SF 9 initial impression

Reply by: Sijon

Date:4/12/2007 6:39:33 PM

Sure Dave,

After setting the marker for the beginning of a region I usually "play" from that point. While playing I jump to the end of the region, set the cursor and play the very ending of a piece to where I want to set the ending marker. (I really like and value the new "Snap To" the marker!)

In SF9 I can't play the ending without hitting STOP first because as soon as I set the cursor at the end of the piece and hit PLAY it jumps back to the beginning that is already playing. It's just new behavior but after editing some 60 pieces today and learning to live with it it may be faster to edit this way than the old. Maybe it could be available either way under Preferences?

I noticed that CD Architect recognizes a new CDR about 3 or 4 times as fast as the previous version. Very valuable. In these school band and choir contests, for example, every second counts.

I've found lots of refinements and new capabilities. Really neat stuff!

I haven't checked SF9 yet with Remote Desktop but hopefully the transport controls have been corrected. (Using Remote Desktop, if the link is broken SF and Vegas drop out of RECORD and the file is "lost". I checked some 3 or 4 similar products and all remain in RECORD if the link is broken and, in fact, remain in RECORD until they are stopped). So there is something very different about how you handle the transport controls. (Maybe the wrong level in the stack) At present I'm using Cubase SE to record remotely and then pull the files generated into Vegas/SF for editing and manufacturing.

Subject:RE: SF 9 initial impression

Reply by: timo75

Date:4/13/2007 1:52:29 AM

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In SF9 I can't play the ending without hitting STOP first because as soon as I set the cursor at the end of the piece and hit PLAY it jumps back to the beginning that is already playing. It's just new behavior but after editing some 60 pieces today and learning to live with it it may be faster to edit this way than the old. Maybe it could be available either way under Preferences?
----

Sijon, do you mean the new seek behaviour? There's already a thread about this, have a look! :-)

Subject:RE: SF 9 initial impression

Reply by: porkjelly

Date:4/13/2007 8:33:15 AM

I like SF9. I wish they would have implemented a sidebar/panel with easy instant access to multiple open files, and a way to group custom presets together for those of us, such as myself, who have hundreds of custom presets---so we don't have to scroll through so many.

Subject:RE: SF 9 initial impression

Reply by: Ben 

Date:4/13/2007 5:21:06 PM

>> I wish they would have implemented a sidebar/panel with easy instant access to multiple open files <<

Yes!! I've wanted this for many versions now, and have also mentioned it countless times on here. A floating and dockable 'window' window (!) would be a far superior way of dealing with multiple waveforms open that the current 'Window' menu. The latter is horrible to deal with, when you've got dozens of files open and you need to find a particular one.

I've always thought that the lack of this is a real glaring omission.

Ben