Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] File interchange with ProTools?
From: Kevin Hremeviuc (khremeviuc_AT_yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Aug 08 2000 - 02:27:59 EEST
--- Paul Winkler <slinkp23_AT_yahoo.com> wrote: > Kevin
Hremeviuc wrote:
> > I agree that using an interchange file format is a
> > good idea. If it's a standardised format, then
> just
> > maybe it's been done from a holistic view point
> > (probably wishful thinking on my part).
>
> Well, it's at least done from a point of view that
> lets several
> major manufacturers agree on it... don't know how
> "holistic" that
> would be. My quick searching has turned up some
> articles where
> people mention "foot-dragging" by Avid since they
> control the
> ProTools format and they like making money by
> licensing it, whereas
> they don't make anything from OMFI. But customers
> are demanding open
> interchanges, very loudly.
>
> > I haven't had a look at the links mentioned yet,
> but
> > does this include midi and audio used together (as
> per
> > cubase and cakewalk (and Mac oriented studio
> > sequencers))? Because I would like to use audio
> and
> > midi together i.e. midi instruments playing in
> synch
> > with audio, as well as midi controllers assigned
> to
> > audio real time effects. A file interchange format
> > that encompasses this would be ideal.
>
> For OMFI you can get the general idea from their
> promotional blather
> at
>
http://www.avid.com/3rdparty/omfi/whatis/omfibrochure.html
> Note that there's no mention of MIDI on this page.
> :-(
>
> For AAF, I found this excerpt from
>
http://www.AAFassociation.org/techinfo/whitepaper.html
> "The Advanced Authoring Format is a structured
> container for media
> and metadata that
> provides a single object-oriented model to
> interchange a broad
> variety of media types
> including video, audio, still images, graphics,
> text, MIDI files,
> animation,
> ^^^^^^
> ^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> compositional
> information and event triggers. The AAF format
> contains the media
> assets and
> preserves their file-specific intrinsic information,
> as well as the
> authoring information
> (in- and out-point, volume, pan, time and frame
> markers, etc.)
> involving those media
> assets and any interactions between them."
>
AAF sounds a bit more comprehensive from a music
making point of view (of course there's a whole more
in there as well!).
Looking at the early phases of how I produce a song, I
have a need to capture midi (external instruments) and
audio together. Later on down the track I may be
working purely in audio. However, if I want to go back
a step and re-do a bit captured from an external
instrument, I'll need midi and audio together. As yet
midi and audio is a non event in Linux. It would be
nice to use a comprehensive interchange format (with
the fringe benefit of being able to take the file from
one platform/application to another) and set a
precendent.
I know, I don't want much!
>
> As for AES-31, I hadn't heard about it so I went
> looking. This
> turned up some interesting facts:
>
> --The EDL for AES-31 is in ASCII rather than binary,
> which is nice
> for developers and end-users alike. Compare this to
> OMFI which uses
> a binary EDL.
>
> --It costs $40 to get the AES-31 spec either
> electronically or in
> print.
>
http://global.ihs.com/doc_detail.cfm?COUNTRY_CODE=US&LANG_CODE=ENGL&document_name=AES31-3
>
> --The spec for the ASCII information is finished,
> but they're still
> talking about a standard media and filesystem, I
> guess so people can
> treat an AES-31 media (e.g. jazz disk or portable
> hard drive) as a
> black box which can plug into any supporting DAW and
> know it will
> work. Sounds like they might settle on FAT-32 and
> SCSI. We probably
> don't need to worry about that so much, and indeed
> some
> manufacturers have plunged ahead and already
> implement the existing
> spec.
>
> -- I can't find anything about MIDI in the pages
> I've seen on
> AES-31. I think it's only meant for audio with some
> sort of time
> code.
>
> --AES-31 is partly intended to make some vague parts
> of OMFI
> standardized, such as what precisely a crossfade
> means. Video
> post-production people might not be bothered so much
> of crossfades
> sound slightly different on two different machines,
> but it's driving
> the audio engineers nuts.
>
> In summary, OMFI and AAF are intended for
> multi-media applications
> such as video post-production, so they support many
> types of data
> including a bunch we're probably not concerned with.
> AES-31 is
> specifically intended for digital audio workstations
> and only deals
> with audio.
>
>
> --
> ................. paul winkler
> ..................
> slinkP arts: music, sound, illustration, design,
> etc.
> web page: http://www.slinkp.com
> A member of ARMS: http://www.reacharms.com
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