My initial Impressions of Platinum

As one of the people in on the pre-sale, i ave had a little time today to play.  This is far from an extensive review but just an initial impression.  Forgive me if it does not cover everything.
 
I made a few mistakes with command center but when i realized it was my screwup, it was pretty smooth
 
Being a video guy, I was very excited about the vocalsync.  I was expecting something along the lines of some of the third party products used to align audio. The very first thing i did was toss in a video i shot along with the audio i recored on a dedicated audio recorder. Right away, I realized it was not quite ideal for this task.  For some reason i was hoping for some magic thing that would automatically align multiple lines of audio. My mistake.  So I took a different approach and had talent do a vo of already recorded dialogue.  needless to say, the odds of this syncing up perfectly with the original is slim even with the bes talent and people notice things like lips not matching.  using vocalysnc with this scenario was kind of cool.  Once audio was aligned, i just looped sections and adjusted the knob until it matched enough to be acceptable  The quality was good but there will be a learning curve before i perfect using this
 
Next feature i tested was perfectly timed because  i had an OMF from an artist i recored last week.  I needed to test a couple of plugins I  picked up recently (Nomad factory Pultec EQ's and Replika), and figured Mix recall was a good way to go.  So far, this is my favorite new feature.  Some may think "why not just save a copy?".  to this I say the workflow advantages are immediately notiecable.  I created an initial rough mix, placing the pultec on an R&B lead vocal. I also used the replika delay on a send that i fed to the background vocals. I liked it but worried the artist might feel it was too dull.    I decided to take a different approach by using IK's version of pultec on lead and switching to Nomad oilcan delay.  and i wanted to be able to quickly A/B.  i quickly used Mix recall to create multiple versions. Switching while stopped was smooth and painless so  I tried doing while playing.  As you would expect there was a delay but imho it was tolerable considering what was taking place and much quicker than opening a copy.
 
Since i was already mixing, i figured the fx bin would be next thing I checked out. No fancy scenarios.  It's just better.  being able to see more is one of those things I did not realize i wanted until i got it.
 
Did not really get to the midi stuff yet. So far seems pretty stable, but it is still early.
 
 

So, did some more tests on actual project I am working on. Sorry if my posts are not in the standard list every feature and give my opinion.  I'm working off of actual use.  Revisiting the fx stack.  It is a feature that the more you use it, the more you appreciate what a great improvement it is . i admit i was one of those people who felt 'what's the big deal" when i saw people like mod bod requesting something like this. This and the mix recall greatly compliment each other.  i was in the studio with lead vocalist tweaking things and being able to see everything at a glance was beyond helpful, particularly when working with multiple backup vocal tracks i was trying to create a lush harmony with.  Speaking of lush harmony....
 
 
Finally decided to give rematrrix a spin.  i will be the first to admit that new reverbs give me fits because it seems like everyone does their interfaces so differently and nothing ever feels familiar.  i say that to hammer home the fact that i rarely go beyond the Sonitus reverb.  Not that i think it sounds that great, but because of familiarity.  I never got into breverb. i think it's a great sounding reveb, but again, we sometimes just reach for the familiar.  I tried two methods.  First I placed on a single track and just dialed in the "go to verb!" .  Kind of processor heavy but these kind of verbs always are. I'm sure i could have got it to work with enough tweaking but decided to save a new mix scene and then deleted effect and placed it on a dedicated bus. Much better.  I think i am going to start using this as my go to bus verb.  I liked it so much that it took me a sec to get past the first preset.  Again, this is just honest real world usage and not in depth review.  not sure what tech terms to use, but once i ran all the layers of my backup vocals through the send, it just gave everything a nice lush feel.  Sorry i did not get into more of new features.  The artist wanted to focus on the background vocals.  One important note is that i did not get any crashes despite running a lot of plugins.  I'm already confident that I likely won't have top go back to X3 to transition.