Worth the Wait!

Dimension Pro... wow wow wow! After all the angst and gnashing of teeth as I waited for my shipment, I got it yesterday. It was missing the SN and after contacting Dan at customer support I was up and running.

It takes a few minutes to install, even on a fast machine. I installed it but then had to work on another mixing project for a few hours. I finally got to load it in Sonar about 9pm... Not a good idea! I wound up staying up until midnite exploring this.

Amazing! This program just burps my turtle! This is the future! I have not loaded P5 yet as I've got S5PE. I don't know how much use I will find for it, but Dpro will be used a bunch. If you don't have this program, you are missing out on the best bit of creative tools I've ever seen.

Maybe it will help improve my piano playing!

Glad you're digging it.
I started using DM Pro on a new track I'm working on at home and I gotta say, the drums are really punching through the mix.
Yes, not only do I work for the company, but I use the products.

ORIGINAL: stevee9c6

Dimension Pro... wow wow wow!

Dimension Pro rocks!!!!

I'd suggest catching one of the clinics going on right now

Hey, Mike. Sorry for the interruption. Are those dates written in stone? It seems to me that there are fewer clinics per-state this time around, yet this tour will encompass more states. At the surface, this looks like a shift in strategy.

The reason that I ask: the date in my area isn't that much of a stretch, but it's be silly to fight the traffic if there were a possibility of expanding the stops later on. Thanks.

What have you guys got against Detroit? We have been dropped from the clinic schedule. It is such a nice place to visit. Not enough attendance last time?

ORIGINAL: mikeprager

3. Yes, the Garritan content is called the Pocket Orchestra, hence it is slimmed down a bit from the personal orchestra. I believe there are 700 MB of sounds just for that bank. But you can also get the Garritan Personal Orchestra as an expansion library for DM Pro. Visit the the Garritan site for more info.

Hey Mike....are you sure this is correct?? Other than your statement, I haven't seen any real mention here in the forums yet of Garritan releasing a FULL expansion set for Dimension Pro + going to the Garritan website....unless I simply can't find it, there's no mention of an "expansion library" for Dimension Pro. Only their normal Kontakt version of Personal Orchestra.

By the way - Quantum Leap RA (big ethnic instrument library - NI Kompakt based) is on a 50% discount ending today from SoundsOnline. Please tell me you guys have something in the works ala independently or with EastWest themselves on releasing something of the same for Dimension Pro. Now that I'm getting used to Dimension Pro and love the interface, I want to maintain any sample libraries I use in one ONE interface. The idea for those companies is good for themselves to have an included interface like Kontakt/Kompakt, but now that you guys have DPro on the market and is very flexible, efficient and BUG-FREE, I don't want to fart with anything else.

My gut tells me to stick around and wait as all this kind of stuff will eventually be ported to DPro. Why? Because you guys (Cakewalk) do have CLOUT, so please be sure to use it !! I'd like to think you guys are bigger than Native Instruments, so I'm sure you can shake the cage and make things happen in the industry - turn things upside down. Look at what Adobe Indesign did to QuarkExpress. This is no different. It's time to put the pedal to the metal and kick some @ss !

Honestly...I'm a little disappointed as I bought into Dimension Pro thinking libraries from the main sample distributors would be popping up left & right for Dimension, because of your name/clout + the full-on advertising you're doing in Magazines for it + stability & ease of use of Dimension Pro, Rene being behind the technology, etc. 6 months later....the only 3rd party libraries we've seen are from a couple of small independent designers, but nothing from the majors.

I've been pretty vocal about this here, only because I want to see Dimension gain more popularity it deserves....and I just don't see it. I love everything about DPro and it's a great piece of software that surely has a bright future........at least I'm hoping it does.

Anyway....enough of my rant. You get my point!

Appreciate if you could clarify.

Thanks!

[edit] - just wanted to post the link to that 50% GroupBuy for Quantum Leap RA (14GB!!!) for those of you that may be interested:
ENDS TODAY - JUNE 2, 2006
http://www.soundsonline.com/sophtml/details.phtml?sku=EW-163G

Thanks for the quick reply, Mike! Sounds great...let us know what you find out.

On Native Instruments (Kontakt) & Cakewalk (Dimension Pro).....I made the comparison as Dimension is obviously taping into the multisample market eventhough it has the added benefit of being a synth as well....so I guess we can call it a "hybrid" which is slim, cool...flexible.

As far as getting the product to market and accepted....forget how long Native Instruments took to get Kontakt accepted....you can't compare the 2 as NI has a history (from what I've read) of providing lousy support and slow updates, hence basically the reason why I DON'T own any NI instruments. Just go to their own forums or see all the complaints at KVR. People in general just seem to be getting fed up with their attitude and introducing new products to market faster than they can fix the existing products.

People are not stupid, esp. those who spend hundreds of dollars on audio software (or anything really). If I'm going to spend that kind of money, you better believe I'm going to do my homework and sleep on it for awhile before making a decision. Take Spectrasonics for example....they've done a great job with their products. They are reasonably priced, but very professional and top-notch. In my eyes...nothing can touch the uniqueness, professionalism and usefulness of Stylus RMX. I love it...I love it...I love it. Ableton Live comes in a close 2nd for me (sorry Cakewalk ).

My advice to Cakewalk is....(and not knowing what the overall game-plan is): differentiate yourself and do it better. Reminds me of Apple's famous commercial way back then = "Think Different". You guys are well-respected in the industry and there's an obvious plan to take products to the "next level" and even offer more products like VST's and Effects. Even offering a VST-compliant product is a big deal as we all know Cakewalk went to lengths to develop the DXi plugin, which not knowing the technical details.....is probably a better architecture, but less supported amongst the variety of hosts. Why hasn't DXi been more widely accepted?? That's another big question. For me....doesn't matter as I use Ableton Live. Maybe even Live will one-day accept DXi......?? Hmmm....now that would cool! Better yet....bring Project5 up to Live's level and I'll ditch it.

But my point is.....if Cakewalk wants to take over the industry like yesterday (if I was boss...that would be my game plan!).....pull an Apple, a Nintendo (Wii), Adobe trick. Take no prisoners...."if we're going to do it, let's do it now". Show 'em whose boss. I say this because you guys now have that potential.

Sorry for the rant again....it's Friday and I'm already on my 4th cup of caffed coffee. Geez...I need to slow down here....

Man oh man! This is so cool. I played with this last night after working on another project. I actually got up early this morning to use it. What a stellar project! This just smokes my Roland module.... and I liked it a lot.

I spent some time with the Garritan Pocket Orchestra and was impressed. I will be watching for the upgrade. It's funny, but I almost bought a new workstation synth until some folks convinced me to go this route. I honestly think that I will never buy another hardware based synth. I'm not really a keyboardist, but rather a guitarist (pedal steel), who dabbles with keys. This is almost as cool as my new Rains pedal steel

Yo Steve,
Cool that you like it. Is your joy only for Dim Pro or does 'plain old' Dimension
still burp the reptile?

I just got P5 but have held off on Dim Pro for now.

ORIGINAL: mikeprager

Hi there,
I know Garritan has something for DM Pro, as we talked about it at the NAMM show quite a bit. I will try to get more info for you guys.

As for Cakewalk expansion libraries, I can not give any specifics at the moment, so my best advice is to sit tight and we'll see. I would like to remind our readers here that it took NI quite a bit of time before all of the sample companies were making sample libraries spcifically for Kompakt.

As I am not the product manager for the Instrument line, I cannot say whether this is something that is going to happen, but if it does, you can be sure I'll make a stink about it here on this site
Thanks,

Hey Mike....just following up on if you were able to find out more info on the Garritan Expansion set.

I understand you guys like to keep things hush-hush before releasing stuff, but it would be really nice for us loyal DPro users if Cakewalk would let us know what's in the works as far as sample expansion libraries. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, EastWest has put their ethnic instrument library "Quantum Leap RA" on a 50% discount Group Buy and has extended it until the end of June and as of a moment ago...602 people have signed up for it so far! Man...I'm in the wrong business!: $500 x 600 = $300,000! No wonder why they have extended it! Their "Colossus" bundle also just went on Group Buy as well. www.soundsonline.com

Anyway...I'm seriously eye-balling that stuff, Mike, but again....I'm holding back for the hopes of similar libraries built for DPro, but I can't wait forever.... luckily now I have until the end of this month to decide....