The future of PT may not be a peachy as some might think.
 
Avid seem to be in deep do-do over their lack of published results, and some of the PT diehards over at GS are getting pretty twitchy.

Danny Danzi
 
 You have to deliver something that no one else has. You have to do it in a timely fashion and you need to be trusted to the point of never letting a client down.  
 
-Danny

 
If Sony did focus on Vegas as a full blown DAW they'd deliver a deadly blow to many...not sure who
would survive that.
 

cparmerlee


You may be right.  But that is not how other platform markets have progressed.  The natural course as complex platforms approach maturity is CONSOLIDATION.  We don't have one web browser for visiting retail sites and another web browser to look at government sites.  It is just one platform that serves all markets.  And those that never achieved critical mass (or had critical mass but lost it) may still technically be alive, but certainly not thriving.
  
I may be off in my time-line of 7 years.  Perhaps the DAWs are not as close to maturity as I think they are.
 

Yes, most DAWs have been adding features from other DAWs for years now, and that's a good thing IMHO.  However, there is still a definite "target" (real or imagined) in many of today's offerings.   For example. for a live DJ or heavy remix work, Live has been a fan favorite for years, while not so much for DP.   Scoring to picture?   That's where DP really steps in.  Recording live bands in a large studio?  PT is still the leader, while FL and Live are pretty much no-shows.   EDM?   Reason, FL and Live seem to be doing well there. 
 
So even with a lot of feature cross-pollination taking place, it seems that many DAWs still have their target markets.   Then there are DAWs like SONAR, Cubase, Logic, Studio One, etc, that cater to a wide variety of users.  I figure at least a few should be around for years to come just for that reason alone.   
 

I've thought for years that Vegas should be midified.  Out of all the things a DAW should do, midi is the easiest (he sez as a non-programmer).  There was talk about consolidation above - video, audio and midi would make a great combo.  What home recordist doesn't want to make a video.  And video guys have to work w/ audio - midi would be the kicker.
 
Vegas is the easiest to grok for this guy that came out of analog.  At one point I used Vegas, had home studio for midi (which I bounced to audio for use inside of Vegas), and Fruity loops too.  It worked well but SONAR was more ... efficient.
 
I would guess SONY would have to sell it as modules, which kinda defeats the purpose, or they might price themselves out of the home market.
 
Interesting perspectives from all of y'all.  And I love Mike's iTube.  I do think in a few years tablets will be good enough for real work in the studio - or live.  I just bought a samsung tablet/laptop.  Not powerful enough to run much audio and the 11.5 inch (sorry, blokes, don't know the metric tho I could do the math) is a bit big for tablet use and smallish for detail work, but it does what I want it to do.
 
@

mmorgan
I think the companies that succeed will be the ones that are willing to bend the technology curve to their advantage, possibly even changing how we think about recording. Looking back it seems that the original digital recording was based more on replacing tape with bits.

I think that is a solid point.  The tape metaphor still seems to make sense, even to people who have never seen an Ampex unit (or a typewriter or pay phone).  But maybe it is not the best model.  I tend to think of it as bending the quality curve or the productivity curve, but it is certainly technology that enables that.
 
I see a bunch of little things that can continue to evolve at the DAW platform level to improve productivity, but I don't have a vision of any revolutions in that area. A bunch of little tweaks will not sustain a platform because if the tweaks are effective, everybody will do the same stuff in their next release.
 
To me, the really interesting stuff is up the stack in the VSTs.  I look at Ozone's Insight VST as an example.  I haven't tried it, but the concept is to use the power of technology to help us find things that need attention in our mix.  I could see a very fertile ground there.  And another example is the Fatfilter EQ.  Again, I have not used that one, but the idea of being able to visualize the frequency spectrum at the same time you are manipulating EQ parameters is very powerful. To some degree, I think Cakewalk is on the wrong side of things with their push to the Prochannel format.  I understand the desire to carefully manage the screen real estate, but that just doesn't work for high-impact VSTs.  They need more real estate to be effective.  This could easily be solved by defining  two Prochannel views: a small thumbnail that sits within the channel strip (today's solution) plus a large pop-up view that you can access with a simple double-click.  That is so obvious that it would be insane if that is not in X3.
 
My thesis is that the value migrates upward to these higher-level tools, and that will accelerate the process of DAW platform consolidation.  If I am Fatfilter (or any other high-end VST supplier) I'd rather support 3 or 4 DAWs than 20.

spacey
 
If Sony did focus on Vegas as a full blown DAW they'd deliver a deadly blow to many...not sure who
would survive that.
 

As a long time user of Sonic Foundry/ Sony Products, i would say that's not likely and even if they did the chance of success is not as high as you would think.  Sony has already failed in the DAW department.  Acid was great (and I still use it at times for certain things), but Sony never quite figured a way to move it forward.  Thus Vegas, Acid and Sound Forge are basically using the same audio technology Sonic Foundry developed over ten years ago with very minor changes.  The core effects in all three programs are still the old FX 1, 2 and three, Wave Hammer, Acoustic Mirror and Noise Reduction that they used to sell as stand alone DX plugins over 10 years ago.  The only additions have been third party.  It's a testament to Sonic Foundry that these effects have stood the test of time (although Acoustic mirror is ridiculously slow), but Sony not only has failed to move audio features forward significantly, but seem content to let these products lay stagnant.  I have little faith Sony has the vision or desire to produce a full fledged DAW.  Have you ever used Midi in Acid?   
 
Don't let the fact that Vegas has outstanding audio for a video editor lull you into thinking Sony can create a great DAW.  The audio features were simply inherited from Sonic Foundry's decision to build a video editor on top of a great, but somewhat dated audio engine.  Sony's superiority to other video editor's is somewhat deceiving because most higher end video projects handle almost every aspect of video/film production in separate applications.  You will not find Hollywood pipelines where the editor and sound guy are one and the same.  This works in Vegas' favor in lower end productions.  I love Vegas and have used it for one man jobs i need to do quickly.  Yet, for critical work, I am more than likely editing in another program and mixing sound in another.  Vegas fills an important niche but will llikely never be a DAW.

As Bristol said .... If I'd be worried of one's DAW future... it would be Protools ... 
 
It's not because it's in pretty much all big-time studio (another not-too-successful business), that it's here to stay ... 
 
Well, that's all speculation here, if Avid fails, I'm sure Steinberg (with Nuendo) would take over the major part of the broadcast/studio business anyways ... 
 
If I'd be cakewalk, I'd do the exact same thing as Steinberg (i.e. package a different (but mostly identical at the core) version of Sonar, aimed at everyone else but the musicians... 
take out all bundled instruments, and get licences for everything that's used in broadcast (dolby etc.) kikass video support (that's where I'm dreaming! ) ... then sell it for 1500$ ... 
then CW would be ready for that day .. (because the more expensive, the best is the software right? ) 
 
V

It's an odd question. They all will survive and there will probably be at least 3 more to enter the market.  There was a 10 year absence of Tracktion and it's back.  I do wonder what Sony is going to do with Acid despite coming out with new versions of Acid Studio.   Funny how DAWs that are in development are already crowned king. I think I've been of the beta list for Bitwig for over two years. That's supposedly the DAW that is suppose to rule. (yawn)  MOTU DP is now cross platform DAW.  
 
 Pro Tools isn't going away.  They've reached down from their throne to the hobbyist. Betcha can't guess which DAW the sales people at Guitar Center push to the newcomers?
 
 As for Gigastudio, it died because they locked their product down but not the 3rd party development.  I truly miss it. But after years of quirkiness and Kontakt's stability it was bound to die. The GUI on GS4 blows away Kontakt.   Needing proprietary drivers to access 64 bit support was stupid as well. Only RME still has those drivers.  
 
 As long as Steve Ballmer running (ruining) MS, at what point does the end user say enough and start looking at Apple and Linux? 
 
 Sonar is not exactly my main DAW but I will continue to support them and other developers who has the "I trust you" attitude towards endusers.  Plus it's hard to avoid their upgrade pricing. So they create some loyalty. For me to upgrade from Live 8 to Live 9 Suite is $399 for a bunch of proprietary stuff.  
 
 They only DAW I used that died was Voyetra DOP.  No XP support and worried about locking down their product instead of developing it.  It was basically a midi app.  I went to Music Creator (good starter app), Home Studio 2000 (still have the disk), then came the nice offer to upgrade to Sonar 2.2XL.  
 
 
 
 
 

Danny Danzi
This is such a great question. In my opinion, technology is moving so fast, it's really too hard to speculate. Things are obsolete in a month....new DAW's are coming out every year....you just never know what will happen next. I can tell you this as I beta test for quite a few companies....the next two years are going to blow your mind with what will be available DAW wise. People that are not known for recording programs are testing them as I type this...and let me tell you, some of them are sick!
 
Studio 1 for example, broke the scene with a pretty solid DAW in my opinion. Graphically, it's nothing to look at and needs some work, but function/stability wise, it's been really great for me. Sequoia has been solid for me, Reaper has been solid for me, the latest PT and Logic have been solid for me and of course so has Sonar which is still my personal preference. Keep in mind, all have bugs...but none have show stoppers where they are so broke, I can't do my work.
 
I think what we need to look at (which is pretty impossible due to all the variables) is how a majority is using a particular DAW. What makes PT so right for most of the major studios to where everyone had mentioned it still being around in 7 years? It crashes too. However, running it on a well-built MAC in my opinion, obliterates any Windows and PT relationship. If you use PT, go MAC. Sure they can have problems too...but we haven't had to touch anything with both MAC's we have. PT on Windows....very unpredictable.
 
Anyway, I agree with what someone said about "having a user base". My point is....if a DAW fits a particular group of people, it should survive. It's like owning a studio today in a time where studio's are dropping like mad. You have to deliver something that no one else has. You have to do it in a timely fashion and you need to be trusted to the point of never letting a client down. Selling service is important even if you aren't the best engineer. If you can do something better and faster than someone trying to rough it buying a recording program from Sam Ash and you charge a fair price, you win. I think the same can be said about the DAW market. Do things the others can't and do them well. Do things the others do, but do them better.
 
At any rate, my final thoughts are, the winners in 7 years will be the ones that work with MS and evolve as they do as well as borrow the best features from the competition. The winners will market and advertise that it matters not what DAW you use to create hit music. It's time to debunk the PT myth. Someone should approach a famous engineer and ask them....
 
"Here is a copy of our latest and greatest DAW. Please try it. If you don't like it, tell us why you wouldn't use it?" All it takes is for a few known engineers/artists to have a few major hits while using a DAW that isn't PT. Let someone that IS someone tell us what is wrong with our DAW. 
 
At the end of the day, who knows what we'll be doing in 7 years. The way things are moving so fast....we may not even be using DAW software to record music like we are today. 
 
-Danny

Which is why I predict X3 will be really big on "touchscreen" implementation and working with Windows 8. It will be really good IMO if it works really well. I will be investing in a 26" touch monitor (if I can afford it). It could be awesome to have a low tilted touchscreen in front of a large monitor for dual monitor use with touch, keyboard, and mouse. I'm sure I could already do that but I want to wait to see how comitted MS and Cakewalk are to touch. I suspect they are going to be very comitted. For some it may be useless, for others a boon.
I'm glad to hear that S1 is stable for you, I do not have it but I think it and Reaper have a lot of potential. I think Reaper may turn out to be a big surprise for everyone in a year or two. Speculation....
 
J
 

dubdisciple

FCCfirstclass
 
Sony Vegas.  (It already handles multitracking, and I can see Sony making it a full DAW with the already superb video engine.  It is the only product to receive any updates in the last 4 years, outside of SF10 being ported to Mac.)  

 
The irony in this statement is that it would be a complete 360 if that happened.  Vegas WAS originally an audio only program before the rise of VSTs and they built the video portion on top of that  later.  It explains why it is superior when it comes to audio editing to other video editors.  With that said, most of the audio features  have not changed  since the program was owned by Sonic Foundry with the exception of a few more third party plugins borrowed from Sound Forge and a few features for video like surround sound improvements.  Sony has neglected both Sound Forge and Acid (their D.A.W.) with no sign of being eager to move forward.  Unless they pull a massive surprise, I highly doubt they would backtrack after working so hard to get Vegas accepted as a video tool.  I would expect a major upgrade to Acid or even a multitrack D.A.W. - like Sound Forge before that happened.  Vegas and Acid are already very similar on the audio end since the audio engine and effects are practically identical.

Sony hasn't really neglected Sound Forge. They made it cross platform. Soundforge is still an awesome app. The only thing they can do now is go 64bit.   There are people waiting for Vegas to go the the Mac side.  It may not be as good as Avid but it's not as expensive and the upgrading pricing on Vegas is probably a lot less.  Plus Vegas can be installed on more than one machine.