[tallscot]

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I say yay, anything either company does to keep the other one innovating is a good thing for us all.
Wasn't expecting an Intel-only release, though. I thought it would be a few more years before "Universal Binary" turned into "Intel Only, PPC SOL."

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Exactly. I'm still very wary of the Macromedia purchase by Adobe. Having many companies competing against each other is best.
I haven't downloaded the beta yet, but I don't understand this thought that Soundtrack Pro isn't designed for the video content creators or Web creators. I use Soundtrack Pro exclusively to create a soundtrack for my video and Flash projects. What features is Sountrack missing that would make it better in this regard?

[adobephile]

Well, where have you been, sport? Never heard of repurposing content for other media? XML is for such, and many electronic media uses SOUND! But then you haven't heard, have you?

[pixelcruncher]

Sure would be nice if it were better than soundtrack pro. Apple made a huge splash with me and other media professionals, but they sure have taken their time refining their apps. They've added a lot of compatibility fixes, but they haven't bothered to really finish some of their apps. With all the focus on the iPod and laptops, I'm glad Adobe is taking on Apple again. Heck, Final Cut Pro still doesn't have a descriptive undo/redo list, just says "Undo" and "Redo". Whoops! Did you accidentally hit a button? No way to tell. Want to go back ten commands and start over? Good luck finding the spot where you want to start over. Go Adobe, get moving Apple.

[MacGeek1955]

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Maybe they should have divided Illustrator into a print version and a web version and not bothered trying to approximate the typographic tools of a page-layout application.
At this point I'd almost rather use QuarkXPress 4.1 (which actually works and produces reliable output, even if it's pretty primitive) than face Adobe's idea of what print and web convergence should be -- I get the impression from them sometimes that they think print should just die already so they can stop supporting it.
--mark

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I never liked Illustrator much, but it would be nice if Adobe would upgrade Freehand MX (at least to Universal Binary). I still use it for print all the time, but Adobe has effectually killed Freehand, the best Vector Graphics program around. You're right about Quark, too. It's been upgraded but functionally it's no better than 4.1 and the web graphics additions are useless bloating. Why can't Adobe and Quark just make print versions of print software and different software for web production? Then maybe we can tell clients no we can't put the flash animation that's on your web page into your ad. There's a huge missconception that web graphics will look good in print and that Microsoft has anything to do with print publishing.

[adobephile]

Now there's a healthy attitude towards competition.
It's not the childish deluded video game-inspired "Destroy them!" penchant many posters here seem obsessed with.
It's responding to real-world needs and wants and making the tools work the way they should. Both Apple and Adobe seem to be interested in such, and customers will buy what works best for them.

[MacTel]

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Could Apple's bank cash buy Adobe?

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Apple could buy them out with the $10 billion in cash they have as Adobe is worth just over $22 billion. They'd have to use stock to make up the difference.
They probably wouldn't though as Apple needs the dough to fight off lawsuits and make smaller acquisitions. It would be a great merger though IMHO. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[moose_n_squirrel]

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It would be a great merger though IMHO. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

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It would be one of the world's great horrors. You would have created the next Microsoft. A huge company with singular domination and no competition. If Lightroom had been around when Aperture came out, would Apple have had the gall to charge $500 for that 1.0 they shipped?

[MacTel]

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It would be one of the world's great horrors. You would have created the next Microsoft. A huge company with singular domination and no competition.

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It would certainly create another 800 pound gorilla, but Microsoft has had its sights on Adobe for awhile so I wouldn't say there's no competition. When Vista ships you'll see the heat cranked up a bit on M$ going toe to toe with Adobe and Apple pro products.

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If Lightroom had been around when Aperture came out, would Apple have had the gall to charge $500 for that 1.0 they shipped?

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I agree. It was obviously a face saving move. Lightroom came out as a beta and Aperture did too. The only difference is that Apple made you pay a premium to play. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[jedi228]

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Wasn't expecting an Intel-only release, though. I thought it would be a few more years before "Universal Binary" turned into "Intel Only"

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Just a week ago someone was griping about a software product that hadn't yet gone Intel.
It takes time to make a different (Intel or PPC) version; they won't pop up magically. The SoundBooth guys probably figured out that it wouldn't be feasible to do both so they choose the newer platform. Soundbooth probably makes use of machine language code to do all the bit math fast so it isn't easily made into two versions.
Folks there is no conspiracy or desire to make life tough for customers. It all depends upon the time the software was made. (Keep in mind that a product that ships today may have been started six months ago or two years ago)

[moose_n_squirrel]

People seem to be reacting to my comment about Intel only. I am really not complaining much at all and I don't think there is any conspiracy. I was just saying "wow, we're seeing this already."
Obviously, it is better for us to get an app that runs on Intel only than to not have a Mac version at all. If this is one of the benefits of Apple having gone Intel, to have software choices we wouldn't otherwise have, that is certainly positive.

[jackaxe]

This reminds me of SoundEdit 16, which I used with Director.

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Soundbooth also features tight integration with Flash.

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Just not the "Mac" version of Flash, which I guess they didn't notice is PPC only, even the F89 preview is PPC only.
Now I'm all for progress and will be jumping to an Intel this coming year, but this Intel only thing is a bit premature, considering that none of their primary apps, especially Flash, are available in UB.
<]=)

[dreyfus]

Hm, nobody seems to come up with the obvious question... As Apple's Soundtrack Pro is part of Final Cut Studio (cannot even be bought separately any more) and the use of this application is limited without integration with a video editing app... is Premiere coming back to the Mac?

[ghmetcalfe]

Um...did anyone actually try this out? As we are all busy posting opinion, I thought I'd let you know that this app really is nothing special. After working with the beta this morning, it isn't something to jump up and down about. There is definitely a LARGE amount of interface work left to do. Interface controls on the same function do not coordinate with each other, scrolling/scrubbing controls are not obvious and don't work well, etc. etc.
I understand that they are trying to reduce the learning curve so video pros don't have to learn anything about actual music production, but they have really almost limited themselves too far. There are some interesting CONCEPTS going on...the sliders that allow working with different aspects of a group of tracks, but again, the sliders work inconsistently depending on which part of the interface you are in. IMHO, this feels more like a proof-of-concept or alpha version...they have a ways to go before this becomes something real, let alone, golden master material.

[ptogel]

So what is next? First, we stop doing video and sound application for the Mac. Now they return to this arena? Who is behind the strategy? Or do they see the potential of producing generic unix applications that run on Linux, Unix and Mac OSX? They might just wait for Oracle to buy Red Hat. Now that Larry crashed the stock price he might just take them over....