Re: my post on the Avid blog
Dear Slau, Like everyone else here, I would like to congratulate you for this concise and detailed summary. For the moment, I have sold my ProTools license, I realised I was feeling comfortable with sonar and also that, being an intensive midi user, I needed a Daw that gave me full access to midi editing. I'm sorry if I ask questions that have been asked over and over on this list, but how did Midi editing's accessibility evolve with pro tools 11? I know that ProTools VS sonar is one of the recurring subjects on this list, and I was wondering if one could compile and post a little summary of what has been said about this so far . Thanks for Your continuing efforts, and not giving up. best regards, jpr http://www.jprykiel.com http://soundcloud.com/ryksounet http://twitter.com/ryksounet http://facebook.com/jeanphilipperykiel Le 11/05/2014 05:48, Gordon Kent a écrit : Hey Slau: that's a great summary of how things have evolved with PT. Frankly, the only reason I need to stick with Sonar and windows is that I have such a huge library of sampled instruments that I have done that use the SFZ format. At present, there is no aax SFZ player available for the Mac. When we wer using RTAS the garritan engine which does support SFZ worked with Pro Tools, but nobody could tell me how to refer to the Mac folder structure in an SFZ definition file. I tried putting the definitions and their associated .wav files in all kinds of folders but never got them to work, and now Garritan has pretty emphatically stated on their site that they have no plans to convert to the AAX format, which is rediculous since so many others have. If we could get access to structure, the SFZ files could be converted to sound fonts and loaded into structure. At this point, as far as instruments that are bundled with Pro tools are concerned, Structure is the real drawback for us. A good usable sampler is a very important part of the production environment, especially for those of us who want to mix and match drum kits, custom sample instruments to our taste, and process vocals through synth modulators etc. I hope they haven't forgotten about this, as I said, it's really one of the only reasons I haven't totally switched over to Pro Tools for the kind of stuff I do. But know that I sincerely apreciate what you've done, I've gone through the same thing with my many years of association with cakewalk, which has put a lot of blind folks to independent work. Gord On May 9, 2014, at 11:59 PM, Slau Halatyn slauhala...@gmail.com mailto:slauhala...@gmail.com wrote: As some of you may already know, I was asked to write something for the Avid blog regarding Pro Tools accessibility. The article was published this afternoon at: http://www.avidblogs.com/music-daw-software-for-blind-and-visually-impaired-audio-professionals/ Because of the way the story is laid out, it appears not to read entirely chronologically. So, I've pasted the contents of that post below. There were several photos in the post which are not included below. I was introduced to Pro Tools while enrolled in the audio program at Five Towns College in Dix Hills, New York, during the mid '90s. Most of my early training in college was on large format consoles and multitrack tape machines, which were de rigueur in the studios of the day. Computers had certainly found their way into the recording environment nearly a decade earlier, but more so in the role of MIDI sequencers. During the years I was in school, however, the digital audio workstation (DAW) had gotten its foot in the door of the control room and the DAW that led the way was Pro Tools, which I began to work with in my senior year. I sat there in front of the monitor, staring at a graphic representation of a waveform, wondering whether the hours I spent learning how to splice quarter-inch tape with razors had been wasted... I had the advantage of taking a one-on-one advanced digital audio class with my professor as a result of my need to use adaptive software known as inLARGE, a screen magnifying program for the Macintosh. Several years earlier, I had been diagnosed with a retinal condition that impaired my vision. When I entered college, most of the gear I used was highly tactile: mixing consoles, outboard processors, tape machine remotes, etc. By the time I was preparing for graduation, things had already begun to change. Evidence of this glowed from a VGA before me---everything, all under one roof, one box. Little did I know that this was the paradigm of the future, and little did I know that 20 years later, I'd be so closely involved with Pro Tools and its accessibility for blind audio engineers and musicians. After graduation I started a recording studio of my own, BeSharp, in New York City and for a number of years I kept one foot firmly planted in the analog multitrack world while occasionally using a computer for virtual tracks slaved to tape.
Re: my post on the Avid blog
Hi Jean-Philippe, The MIDI Event List became fully accessible as of version 11.1. As you may recall, it was always possible to create MIDI tracks, record and edit with a control surface in a cut, copy paste manner. Now that the event list is visible, one can edit all parameters, filter, etc. I'm not sure of the exact status with patch libraries and the like but things are a whole lot better than they were a few years ago. Hope that helps. Slau On May 13, 2014, at 10:37 AM, Jean-Philippe Rykiel jpryk...@gmail.com wrote: Dear Slau, Like everyone else here, I would like to congratulate you for this concise and detailed summary. For the moment, I have sold my ProTools license, I realised I was feeling comfortable with sonar and also that, being an intensive midi user, I needed a Daw that gave me full access to midi editing. I'm sorry if I ask questions that have been asked over and over on this list, but how did Midi editing's accessibility evolve with pro tools 11? I know that ProTools VS sonar is one of the recurring subjects on this list, and I was wondering if one could compile and post a little summary of what has been said about this so far . Thanks for Your continuing efforts, and not giving up. best regards, jpr http://www.jprykiel.com http://soundcloud.com/ryksounet http://twitter.com/ryksounet http://facebook.com/jeanphilipperykiel Le 11/05/2014 05:48, Gordon Kent a écrit : Hey Slau: that's a great summary of how things have evolved with PT. Frankly, the only reason I need to stick with Sonar and windows is that I have such a huge library of sampled instruments that I have done that use the SFZ format. At present, there is no aax SFZ player available for the Mac. When we wer using RTAS the garritan engine which does support SFZ worked with Pro Tools, but nobody could tell me how to refer to the Mac folder structure in an SFZ definition file. I tried putting the definitions and their associated .wav files in all kinds of folders but never got them to work, and now Garritan has pretty emphatically stated on their site that they have no plans to convert to the AAX format, which is rediculous since so many others have. If we could get access to structure, the SFZ files could be converted to sound fonts and loaded into structure. At this point, as far as instruments that are bundled with Pro tools are concerned, Structure is the real drawback for us. A good usable sampler is a very important part of the production environment, especially for those of us who want to mix and match drum kits, custom sample instruments to our taste, and process vocals through synth modulators etc. I hope they haven't forgotten about this, as I said, it's really one of the only reasons I haven't totally switched over to Pro Tools for the kind of stuff I do. But know that I sincerely apreciate what you've done, I've gone through the same thing with my many years of association with cakewalk, which has put a lot of blind folks to independent work. Gord On May 9, 2014, at 11:59 PM, Slau Halatyn slauhala...@gmail.com wrote: As some of you may already know, I was asked to write something for the Avid blog regarding Pro Tools accessibility. The article was published this afternoon at: http://www.avidblogs.com/music-daw-software-for-blind-and-visually-impaired-audio-professionals/ Because of the way the story is laid out, it appears not to read entirely chronologically. So, I've pasted the contents of that post below. There were several photos in the post which are not included below. I was introduced to Pro Tools while enrolled in the audio program at Five Towns College in Dix Hills, New York, during the mid '90s. Most of my early training in college was on large format consoles and multitrack tape machines, which were de rigueur in the studios of the day. Computers had certainly found their way into the recording environment nearly a decade earlier, but more so in the role of MIDI sequencers. During the years I was in school, however, the digital audio workstation (DAW) had gotten its foot in the door of the control room and the DAW that led the way was Pro Tools, which I began to work with in my senior year. I sat there in front of the monitor, staring at a graphic representation of a waveform, wondering whether the hours I spent learning how to splice quarter-inch tape with razors had been wasted... I had the advantage of taking a one-on-one advanced digital audio class with my professor as a result of my need to use adaptive software known as inLARGE, a screen magnifying program for the Macintosh. Several years earlier, I had been diagnosed with a retinal condition that impaired my vision. When I entered college, most of the gear I used was highly tactile: mixing consoles, outboard processors, tape machine remotes, etc. By the time I was preparing for graduation, things had
Re: my post on the Avid blog
Nicely done Slau. I'm blown away that they've actually gone public about it this time around. Was anyone at the Avid Developer Conference? I'm wondering whether there are any thoughts here on which developers definitely saw those accessibility slides. Scott On 5/10/14, Slau Halatyn slauhala...@gmail.com wrote: As some of you may already know, I was asked to write something for the Avid blog regarding Pro Tools accessibility. The article was published this afternoon at: http://www.avidblogs.com/music-daw-software-for-blind-and-visually-impaired-audio-professionals/ Because of the way the story is laid out, it appears not to read entirely chronologically. So, I've pasted the contents of that post below. There were several photos in the post which are not included below. I was introduced to Pro Tools while enrolled in the audio program at Five Towns College in Dix Hills, New York, during the mid '90s. Most of my early training in college was on large format consoles and multitrack tape machines, which were de rigueur in the studios of the day. Computers had certainly found their way into the recording environment nearly a decade earlier, but more so in the role of MIDI sequencers. During the years I was in school, however, the digital audio workstation (DAW) had gotten its foot in the door of the control room and the DAW that led the way was Pro Tools, which I began to work with in my senior year. I sat there in front of the monitor, staring at a graphic representation of a waveform, wondering whether the hours I spent learning how to splice quarter-inch tape with razors had been wasted... I had the advantage of taking a one-on-one advanced digital audio class with my professor as a result of my need to use adaptive software known as inLARGE, a screen magnifying program for the Macintosh. Several years earlier, I had been diagnosed with a retinal condition that impaired my vision. When I entered college, most of the gear I used was highly tactile: mixing consoles, outboard processors, tape machine remotes, etc. By the time I was preparing for graduation, things had already begun to change. Evidence of this glowed from a VGA before me--everything, all under one roof, one box. Little did I know that this was the paradigm of the future, and little did I know that 20 years later, I'd be so closely involved with Pro Tools and its accessibility for blind audio engineers and musicians. After graduation I started a recording studio of my own, BeSharp, in New York City and for a number of years I kept one foot firmly planted in the analog multitrack world while occasionally using a computer for virtual tracks slaved to tape. As my vision gradually grew worse, however, it became more difficult or even impossible to perform certain tasks at the studio. LCD displays were dim, VU meters were a blur and tweaking outboard gear became tedious. All the while, I was experimenting with an LE version of Pro Tools, using the outSPOKEN speech synthesizer on my Mac to access it without having to look at the screen. With the introduction of Pro Tools HD, I finally made the jump over to the digital world. For several years, everything went well. A small community of blind Pro Tools users emerged and shared tips and techniques. While the program was almost entirely accessible, the use of a control surface proved to be indispensable for efficiency and tactile feedback. To me, it felt not that much different from the old days, only now I didn't have to deal with aligning my tape machines or worry about one of my console channel strips crapping out in the middle of a session. Around the time that Pro Tools HD was introduced, Apple was touting its new OS X operating system. Unfortunately, there was no screen reading software available for the new OS, but most blind Pro Tools users simply continued using their rigs under the old OS 9. Gradually, with Pro Tools' support of OS X, blind users started missing out on newer plug-ins, new virtual instruments and Pro Tools features, not to mention all the benefits of OS X. In 2005, Apple introduced OS X 10.4 Tiger with a built-in screen reader known as VoiceOver. This was revolutionary: now a blind user could walk up to any Mac running Tiger, press Command-f5 and have the computer start speaking. One of the first things I did was purchase an upgrade to Pro Tools HD 7.1 to use with Tiger. Unfortunately, when I launched the application, the only thing I could access was the menu bar. No other windows were readable. With the introduction of this built-in screen reader in the new operating system, the accessibility we enjoyed earlier was now broken. In 2006, I was invited to visit members of the development team at Avid in Daly City, Calif. I demonstrated the level of accessibility afforded blind users with outSPOKEN under OS 9 versus VoiceOver under OS X. It was clear to everyone that Pro Tools was unusable with VoiceOver and
Re: my post on the Avid blog
Fantastic stuff Slau. The jump in accessibility I've noticed from PT nine to eleven point one is substantial but it's great to know avid aren't resting on their laurels and more improvements are still to come in the future. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say thank you for all the time and work you have put into this personally. I'm on track to pass my final year at college in a month and certainly would have struggled without both the pt upgrades and this group. Cheers everyone, Alan, Oban, Scotland Sent from my iPhone On 10 May 2014, at 04:59, Slau Halatyn slauhala...@gmail.com wrote: As some of you may already know, I was asked to write something for the Avid blog regarding Pro Tools accessibility. The article was published this afternoon at: http://www.avidblogs.com/music-daw-software-for-blind-and-visually-impaired-audio-professionals/ Because of the way the story is laid out, it appears not to read entirely chronologically. So, I've pasted the contents of that post below. There were several photos in the post which are not included below. I was introduced to Pro Tools while enrolled in the audio program at Five Towns College in Dix Hills, New York, during the mid ’90s. Most of my early training in college was on large format consoles and multitrack tape machines, which were de rigueur in the studios of the day. Computers had certainly found their way into the recording environment nearly a decade earlier, but more so in the role of MIDI sequencers. During the years I was in school, however, the digital audio workstation (DAW) had gotten its foot in the door of the control room and the DAW that led the way was Pro Tools, which I began to work with in my senior year. I sat there in front of the monitor, staring at a graphic representation of a waveform, wondering whether the hours I spent learning how to splice quarter-inch tape with razors had been wasted… I had the advantage of taking a one-on-one advanced digital audio class with my professor as a result of my need to use adaptive software known as inLARGE, a screen magnifying program for the Macintosh. Several years earlier, I had been diagnosed with a retinal condition that impaired my vision. When I entered college, most of the gear I used was highly tactile: mixing consoles, outboard processors, tape machine remotes, etc. By the time I was preparing for graduation, things had already begun to change. Evidence of this glowed from a VGA before me—everything, all under one roof, one box. Little did I know that this was the paradigm of the future, and little did I know that 20 years later, I’d be so closely involved with Pro Tools and its accessibility for blind audio engineers and musicians. After graduation I started a recording studio of my own, BeSharp, in New York City and for a number of years I kept one foot firmly planted in the analog multitrack world while occasionally using a computer for virtual tracks slaved to tape. As my vision gradually grew worse, however, it became more difficult or even impossible to perform certain tasks at the studio. LCD displays were dim, VU meters were a blur and tweaking outboard gear became tedious. All the while, I was experimenting with an LE version of Pro Tools, using the outSPOKEN speech synthesizer on my Mac to access it without having to look at the screen. With the introduction of Pro Tools HD, I finally made the jump over to the digital world. For several years, everything went well. A small community of blind Pro Tools users emerged and shared tips and techniques. While the program was almost entirely accessible, the use of a control surface proved to be indispensable for efficiency and tactile feedback. To me, it felt not that much different from the old days, only now I didn’t have to deal with aligning my tape machines or worry about one of my console channel strips crapping out in the middle of a session. Around the time that Pro Tools HD was introduced, Apple was touting its new OS X operating system. Unfortunately, there was no screen reading software available for the new OS, but most blind Pro Tools users simply continued using their rigs under the old OS 9. Gradually, with Pro Tools’ support of OS X, blind users started missing out on newer plug-ins, new virtual instruments and Pro Tools features, not to mention all the benefits of OS X. In 2005, Apple introduced OS X 10.4 Tiger with a built-in screen reader known as VoiceOver. This was revolutionary: now a blind user could walk up to any Mac running Tiger, press Command-f5 and have the computer start speaking. One of the first things I did was purchase an upgrade to Pro Tools HD 7.1 to use with Tiger. Unfortunately, when I launched the application, the only thing I could access was the menu bar. No other windows were readable. With the introduction of this built-in screen reader in the new
Re: my post on the Avid blog
well said On 10/05/2014 10:35, Alan Macdonald wrote: Fantastic stuff Slau. The jump in accessibility I've noticed from PT nine to eleven point one is substantial but it's great to know avid aren't resting on their laurels and more improvements are still to come in the future. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say thank you for all the time and work you have put into this personally. I'm on track to pass my final year at college in a month and certainly would have struggled without both the pt upgrades and this group. Cheers everyone, Alan, Oban, Scotland Sent from my iPhone On 10 May 2014, at 04:59, Slau Halatyn slauhala...@gmail.com mailto:slauhala...@gmail.com wrote: As some of you may already know, I was asked to write something for the Avid blog regarding Pro Tools accessibility. The article was published this afternoon at: http://www.avidblogs.com/music-daw-software-for-blind-and-visually-impaired-audio-professionals/ Because of the way the story is laid out, it appears not to read entirely chronologically. So, I've pasted the contents of that post below. There were several photos in the post which are not included below. I was introduced to Pro Tools while enrolled in the audio program at Five Towns College in Dix Hills, New York, during the mid ’90s. Most of my early training in college was on large format consoles and multitrack tape machines, which were de rigueur in the studios of the day. Computers had certainly found their way into the recording environment nearly a decade earlier, but more so in the role of MIDI sequencers. During the years I was in school, however, the digital audio workstation (DAW) had gotten its foot in the door of the control room and the DAW that led the way was Pro Tools, which I began to work with in my senior year. I sat there in front of the monitor, staring at a graphic representation of a waveform, wondering whether the hours I spent learning how to splice quarter-inch tape with razors had been wasted… I had the advantage of taking a one-on-one advanced digital audio class with my professor as a result of my need to use adaptive software known as inLARGE, a screen magnifying program for the Macintosh. Several years earlier, I had been diagnosed with a retinal condition that impaired my vision. When I entered college, most of the gear I used was highly tactile: mixing consoles, outboard processors, tape machine remotes, etc. By the time I was preparing for graduation, things had already begun to change. Evidence of this glowed from a VGA before me—everything, all under one roof, one box. Little did I know that this was the paradigm of the future, and little did I know that 20 years later, I’d be so closely involved with Pro Tools and its accessibility for blind audio engineers and musicians. After graduation I started a recording studio of my own, BeSharp, in New York City and for a number of years I kept one foot firmly planted in the analog multitrack world while occasionally using a computer for virtual tracks slaved to tape. As my vision gradually grew worse, however, it became more difficult or even impossible to perform certain tasks at the studio. LCD displays were dim, VU meters were a blur and tweaking outboard gear became tedious. All the while, I was experimenting with an LE version of Pro Tools, using the outSPOKEN speech synthesizer on my Mac to access it without having to look at the screen. With the introduction of Pro Tools HD, I finally made the jump over to the digital world. For several years, everything went well. A small community of blind Pro Tools users emerged and shared tips and techniques. While the program was almost entirely accessible, the use of a control surface proved to be indispensable for efficiency and tactile feedback. To me, it felt not that much different from the old days, only now I didn’t have to deal with aligning my tape machines or worry about one of my console channel strips crapping out in the middle of a session. Around the time that Pro Tools HD was introduced, Apple was touting its new OS X operating system. Unfortunately, there was no screen reading software available for the new OS, but most blind Pro Tools users simply continued using their rigs under the old OS 9. Gradually, with Pro Tools’ support of OS X, blind users started missing out on newer plug-ins, new virtual instruments and Pro Tools features, not to mention all the benefits of OS X. In 2005, Apple introduced OS X 10.4 Tiger with a built-in screen reader known as VoiceOver. This was revolutionary: now a blind user could walk up to any Mac running Tiger, press Command-f5 and have the computer start speaking. One of the first things I did was purchase an upgrade to Pro Tools HD 7.1 to use with Tiger. Unfortunately, when I launched the application, the only thing I could access was the menu bar. No other windows were readable. With the introduction of this built-in
Re: my post on the Avid blog
Thanks a lot Slau, we all recognize and appreciate your efforts, dedication and hard work!! Best, John André On 10 May 2014, at 05:59, Slau Halatyn slauhala...@gmail.com wrote: As some of you may already know, I was asked to write something for the Avid blog regarding Pro Tools accessibility. The article was published this afternoon at: http://www.avidblogs.com/music-daw-software-for-blind-and-visually-impaired-audio-professionals/ Because of the way the story is laid out, it appears not to read entirely chronologically. So, I've pasted the contents of that post below. There were several photos in the post which are not included below. I was introduced to Pro Tools while enrolled in the audio program at Five Towns College in Dix Hills, New York, during the mid '90s. Most of my early training in college was on large format consoles and multitrack tape machines, which were de rigueur in the studios of the day. Computers had certainly found their way into the recording environment nearly a decade earlier, but more so in the role of MIDI sequencers. During the years I was in school, however, the digital audio workstation (DAW) had gotten its foot in the door of the control room and the DAW that led the way was Pro Tools, which I began to work with in my senior year. I sat there in front of the monitor, staring at a graphic representation of a waveform, wondering whether the hours I spent learning how to splice quarter-inch tape with razors had been wasted... I had the advantage of taking a one-on-one advanced digital audio class with my professor as a result of my need to use adaptive software known as inLARGE, a screen magnifying program for the Macintosh. Several years earlier, I had been diagnosed with a retinal condition that impaired my vision. When I entered college, most of the gear I used was highly tactile: mixing consoles, outboard processors, tape machine remotes, etc. By the time I was preparing for graduation, things had already begun to change. Evidence of this glowed from a VGA before me--everything, all under one roof, one box. Little did I know that this was the paradigm of the future, and little did I know that 20 years later, I'd be so closely involved with Pro Tools and its accessibility for blind audio engineers and musicians. After graduation I started a recording studio of my own, BeSharp, in New York City and for a number of years I kept one foot firmly planted in the analog multitrack world while occasionally using a computer for virtual tracks slaved to tape. As my vision gradually grew worse, however, it became more difficult or even impossible to perform certain tasks at the studio. LCD displays were dim, VU meters were a blur and tweaking outboard gear became tedious. All the while, I was experimenting with an LE version of Pro Tools, using the outSPOKEN speech synthesizer on my Mac to access it without having to look at the screen. With the introduction of Pro Tools HD, I finally made the jump over to the digital world. For several years, everything went well. A small community of blind Pro Tools users emerged and shared tips and techniques. While the program was almost entirely accessible, the use of a control surface proved to be indispensable for efficiency and tactile feedback. To me, it felt not that much different from the old days, only now I didn't have to deal with aligning my tape machines or worry about one of my console channel strips crapping out in the middle of a session. Around the time that Pro Tools HD was introduced, Apple was touting its new OS X operating system. Unfortunately, there was no screen reading software available for the new OS, but most blind Pro Tools users simply continued using their rigs under the old OS 9. Gradually, with Pro Tools' support of OS X, blind users started missing out on newer plug-ins, new virtual instruments and Pro Tools features, not to mention all the benefits of OS X. In 2005, Apple introduced OS X 10.4 Tiger with a built-in screen reader known as VoiceOver. This was revolutionary: now a blind user could walk up to any Mac running Tiger, press Command-f5 and have the computer start speaking. One of the first things I did was purchase an upgrade to Pro Tools HD 7.1 to use with Tiger. Unfortunately, when I launched the application, the only thing I could access was the menu bar. No other windows were readable. With the introduction of this built-in screen reader in the new operating system, the accessibility we enjoyed earlier was now broken. In 2006, I was invited to visit members of the development team at Avid in Daly City, Calif. I demonstrated the level of accessibility afforded blind users with outSPOKEN under OS 9 versus VoiceOver under OS X. It was clear to everyone that Pro Tools was unusable with VoiceOver and something needed to be done. But it so happened that Pro Tools was about
RE: my post on the Avid blog
Slau Great post. It is a wonderful summary of the advances made by Avid and blind users of Pro Tools in audio production. After spending the last several months as the accessibility programming engineer, and a blind software engineer at that, I've found that there are a number of ways to make some graphic information accessible if you have access to the data that drives that graphic. Granted, much of this is part of iOS but I suspect that some or maybe even all of it could be done with OS x. I won't bore the whole list with some of the technical details that I have used and have also found pointers for on the net and from Apple but if you like we could talk about it off list and maybe this could point some of the engineering staff at Avid down a few new paths. I have been dragging my feet on the upgrade, even though it is free to me, for a number of reasons the biggest of which is time to play with it. Now that I have graduated with a shiny new BS in Computer Science it is time to look into ways I can now apply the knowledge I have gained. Thanks again for a well written post and insight into the use of Pro Tools by blind and visually impaired professional audio engineers. Best, J. R. Westmoreland From: ptaccess@googlegroups.com [mailto:ptaccess@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Slau Halatyn Sent: Friday, May 09, 2014 10:00 PM To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Subject: my post on the Avid blog As some of you may already know, I was asked to write something for the Avid blog regarding Pro Tools accessibility. The article was published this afternoon at: http://www.avidblogs.com/music-daw-software-for-blind-and-visually-impaired- audio-professionals/ Because of the way the story is laid out, it appears not to read entirely chronologically. So, I've pasted the contents of that post below. There were several photos in the post which are not included below. I was introduced to Pro Tools while enrolled in the audio program at Five Towns College in Dix Hills, New York, during the mid '90s. Most of my early training in college was on large format consoles and multitrack tape machines, which were de rigueur in the studios of the day. Computers had certainly found their way into the recording environment nearly a decade earlier, but more so in the role of MIDI sequencers. During the years I was in school, however, the digital audio workstation (DAW) had gotten its foot in the door of the control room and the DAW that led the way was Pro Tools, which I began to work with in my senior year. I sat there in front of the monitor, staring at a graphic representation of a waveform, wondering whether the hours I spent learning how to splice quarter-inch tape with razors had been wasted. I had the advantage of taking a one-on-one advanced digital audio class with my professor as a result of my need to use adaptive software known as inLARGE, a screen magnifying program for the Macintosh. Several years earlier, I had been diagnosed with a retinal condition that impaired my vision. When I entered college, most of the gear I used was highly tactile: mixing consoles, outboard processors, tape machine remotes, etc. By the time I was preparing for graduation, things had already begun to change. Evidence of this glowed from a VGA before me-everything, all under one roof, one box. Little did I know that this was the paradigm of the future, and little did I know that 20 years later, I'd be so closely involved with Pro Tools and its accessibility for blind audio engineers and musicians. After graduation I started a recording studio of my own, BeSharp, in New York City and for a number of years I kept one foot firmly planted in the analog multitrack world while occasionally using a computer for virtual tracks slaved to tape. As my vision gradually grew worse, however, it became more difficult or even impossible to perform certain tasks at the studio. LCD displays were dim, VU meters were a blur and tweaking outboard gear became tedious. All the while, I was experimenting with an LE version of Pro Tools, using the outSPOKEN speech synthesizer on my Mac to access it without having to look at the screen. With the introduction of Pro Tools HD, I finally made the jump over to the digital world. For several years, everything went well. A small community of blind Pro Tools users emerged and shared tips and techniques. While the program was almost entirely accessible, the use of a control surface proved to be indispensable for efficiency and tactile feedback. To me, it felt not that much different from the old days, only now I didn't have to deal with aligning my tape machines or worry about one of my console channel strips crapping out in the middle of a session. Around the time that Pro Tools HD was introduced, Apple was touting its new OS X operating system. Unfortunately, there was no screen reading software available for the new OS, but most blind Pro Tools users simply continued
Re: my post on the Avid blog
Thanks all for the kind words about the post. Naturally, it's a team effort from Ed and others at Avid to the other beta testers (Vinny, Mike Chuck) to the programmers in Ukraine. We're still on a long journey but a steady one for now. This was to raise awareness through social media and it's being promoted pretty widely. Good stuff. Slau -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Pro Tools Accessibility group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ptaccess+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Re: my post on the Avid blog
Awesome thank you sir, amazing blog. Thank youSent from On May 9, 2014, at 10:59 PM, Slau Halatyn slauhala...@gmail.com wrote: As some of you may already know, I was asked to write something for the Avid blog regarding Pro Tools accessibility. The article was published this afternoon at: http://www.avidblogs.com/music-daw-software-for-blind-and-visually-impaired-audio-professionals/ Because of the way the story is laid out, it appears not to read entirely chronologically. So, I've pasted the contents of that post below. There were several photos in the post which are not included below. I was introduced to Pro Tools while enrolled in the audio program at Five Towns College in Dix Hills, New York, during the mid ’90s. Most of my early training in college was on large format consoles and multitrack tape machines, which were de rigueur in the studios of the day. Computers had certainly found their way into the recording environment nearly a decade earlier, but more so in the role of MIDI sequencers. During the years I was in school, however, the digital audio workstation (DAW) had gotten its foot in the door of the control room and the DAW that led the way was Pro Tools, which I began to work with in my senior year. I sat there in front of the monitor, staring at a graphic representation of a waveform, wondering whether the hours I spent learning how to splice quarter-inch tape with razors had been wasted… I had the advantage of taking a one-on-one advanced digital audio class with my professor as a result of my need to use adaptive software known as inLARGE, a screen magnifying program for the Macintosh. Several years earlier, I had been diagnosed with a retinal condition that impaired my vision. When I entered college, most of the gear I used was highly tactile: mixing consoles, outboard processors, tape machine remotes, etc. By the time I was preparing for graduation, things had already begun to change. Evidence of this glowed from a VGA before me—everything, all under one roof, one box. Little did I know that this was the paradigm of the future, and little did I know that 20 years later, I’d be so closely involved with Pro Tools and its accessibility for blind audio engineers and musicians. After graduation I started a recording studio of my own, BeSharp, in New York City and for a number of years I kept one foot firmly planted in the analog multitrack world while occasionally using a computer for virtual tracks slaved to tape. As my vision gradually grew worse, however, it became more difficult or even impossible to perform certain tasks at the studio. LCD displays were dim, VU meters were a blur and tweaking outboard gear became tedious. All the while, I was experimenting with an LE version of Pro Tools, using the outSPOKEN speech synthesizer on my Mac to access it without having to look at the screen. With the introduction of Pro Tools HD, I finally made the jump over to the digital world. For several years, everything went well. A small community of blind Pro Tools users emerged and shared tips and techniques. While the program was almost entirely accessible, the use of a control surface proved to be indispensable for efficiency and tactile feedback. To me, it felt not that much different from the old days, only now I didn’t have to deal with aligning my tape machines or worry about one of my console channel strips crapping out in the middle of a session. Around the time that Pro Tools HD was introduced, Apple was touting its new OS X operating system. Unfortunately, there was no screen reading software available for the new OS, but most blind Pro Tools users simply continued using their rigs under the old OS 9. Gradually, with Pro Tools’ support of OS X, blind users started missing out on newer plug-ins, new virtual instruments and Pro Tools features, not to mention all the benefits of OS X. In 2005, Apple introduced OS X 10.4 Tiger with a built-in screen reader known as VoiceOver. This was revolutionary: now a blind user could walk up to any Mac running Tiger, press Command-f5 and have the computer start speaking. One of the first things I did was purchase an upgrade to Pro Tools HD 7.1 to use with Tiger. Unfortunately, when I launched the application, the only thing I could access was the menu bar. No other windows were readable. With the introduction of this built-in screen reader in the new operating system, the accessibility we enjoyed earlier was now broken. In 2006, I was invited to visit members of the development team at Avid in Daly City, Calif. I demonstrated the level of accessibility afforded blind users with outSPOKEN under OS 9 versus VoiceOver under OS X. It was clear to everyone that Pro Tools was unusable with VoiceOver and something needed to be done. But it so happened that Pro Tools was about to undergo a major change in the way the graphic
Re: my post on the Avid blog
Slau and the gang, You have given accessibility a big push and have done it well. My thanks to all of you. kr We print the Bible in Braille, http://biblesfortheblind.org Keith Reedy God gives His best to those who leave the choice with Him. J Hudson Taylor. On May 10, 2014, at 9:36 AM, Slau Halatyn slauhala...@gmail.com wrote: Thanks all for the kind words about the post. Naturally, it's a team effort from Ed and others at Avid to the other beta testers (Vinny, Mike Chuck) to the programmers in Ukraine. We're still on a long journey but a steady one for now. This was to raise awareness through social media and it's being promoted pretty widely. Good stuff. Slau -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Pro Tools Accessibility group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ptaccess+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Pro Tools Accessibility group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ptaccess+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Re: my post on the Avid blog
thank you for a very informative run down on the developments of the advances of accessibility with protools. I have not purchased tools as yet, but it is only a matter of weeks away. been learning voice over on the mac over the last few weeks. It's great to know that accessibility is in good hands with avid. Really looking forward to taking the protools journey. Thanks again Steve Sparrow On 10 May 2014, at 1:59 pm, Slau Halatyn slauhala...@gmail.com wrote: As some of you may already know, I was asked to write something for the Avid blog regarding Pro Tools accessibility. The article was published this afternoon at: http://www.avidblogs.com/music-daw-software-for-blind-and-visually-impaired-audio-professionals/ Because of the way the story is laid out, it appears not to read entirely chronologically. So, I've pasted the contents of that post below. There were several photos in the post which are not included below. I was introduced to Pro Tools while enrolled in the audio program at Five Towns College in Dix Hills, New York, during the mid '90s. Most of my early training in college was on large format consoles and multitrack tape machines, which were de rigueur in the studios of the day. Computers had certainly found their way into the recording environment nearly a decade earlier, but more so in the role of MIDI sequencers. During the years I was in school, however, the digital audio workstation (DAW) had gotten its foot in the door of the control room and the DAW that led the way was Pro Tools, which I began to work with in my senior year. I sat there in front of the monitor, staring at a graphic representation of a waveform, wondering whether the hours I spent learning how to splice quarter-inch tape with razors had been wasted... I had the advantage of taking a one-on-one advanced digital audio class with my professor as a result of my need to use adaptive software known as inLARGE, a screen magnifying program for the Macintosh. Several years earlier, I had been diagnosed with a retinal condition that impaired my vision. When I entered college, most of the gear I used was highly tactile: mixing consoles, outboard processors, tape machine remotes, etc. By the time I was preparing for graduation, things had already begun to change. Evidence of this glowed from a VGA before me--everything, all under one roof, one box. Little did I know that this was the paradigm of the future, and little did I know that 20 years later, I'd be so closely involved with Pro Tools and its accessibility for blind audio engineers and musicians. After graduation I started a recording studio of my own, BeSharp, in New York City and for a number of years I kept one foot firmly planted in the analog multitrack world while occasionally using a computer for virtual tracks slaved to tape. As my vision gradually grew worse, however, it became more difficult or even impossible to perform certain tasks at the studio. LCD displays were dim, VU meters were a blur and tweaking outboard gear became tedious. All the while, I was experimenting with an LE version of Pro Tools, using the outSPOKEN speech synthesizer on my Mac to access it without having to look at the screen. With the introduction of Pro Tools HD, I finally made the jump over to the digital world. For several years, everything went well. A small community of blind Pro Tools users emerged and shared tips and techniques. While the program was almost entirely accessible, the use of a control surface proved to be indispensable for efficiency and tactile feedback. To me, it felt not that much different from the old days, only now I didn't have to deal with aligning my tape machines or worry about one of my console channel strips crapping out in the middle of a session. Around the time that Pro Tools HD was introduced, Apple was touting its new OS X operating system. Unfortunately, there was no screen reading software available for the new OS, but most blind Pro Tools users simply continued using their rigs under the old OS 9. Gradually, with Pro Tools' support of OS X, blind users started missing out on newer plug-ins, new virtual instruments and Pro Tools features, not to mention all the benefits of OS X. In 2005, Apple introduced OS X 10.4 Tiger with a built-in screen reader known as VoiceOver. This was revolutionary: now a blind user could walk up to any Mac running Tiger, press Command-f5 and have the computer start speaking. One of the first things I did was purchase an upgrade to Pro Tools HD 7.1 to use with Tiger. Unfortunately, when I launched the application, the only thing I could access was the menu bar. No other windows were readable. With the introduction of this built-in screen reader in the new operating system, the accessibility we enjoyed earlier was now broken. In 2006, I was invited to visit members of the development team at Avid in
Re: my post on the Avid blog
Hey Slau: that's a great summary of how things have evolved with PT. Frankly, the only reason I need to stick with Sonar and windows is that I have such a huge library of sampled instruments that I have done that use the SFZ format. At present, there is no aax SFZ player available for the Mac. When we wer using RTAS the garritan engine which does support SFZ worked with Pro Tools, but nobody could tell me how to refer to the Mac folder structure in an SFZ definition file. I tried putting the definitions and their associated .wav files in all kinds of folders but never got them to work, and now Garritan has pretty emphatically stated on their site that they have no plans to convert to the AAX format, which is rediculous since so many others have. If we could get access to structure, the SFZ files could be converted to sound fonts and loaded into structure. At this point, as far as instruments that are bundled with Pro tools are concerned, Structure is the real drawback for us. A good usable sampler is a very important part of the production environment, especially for those of us who want to mix and match drum kits, custom sample instruments to our taste, and process vocals through synth modulators etc. I hope they haven't forgotten about this, as I said, it's really one of the only reasons I haven't totally switched over to Pro Tools for the kind of stuff I do. But know that I sincerely apreciate what you've done, I've gone through the same thing with my many years of association with cakewalk, which has put a lot of blind folks to independent work. Gord On May 9, 2014, at 11:59 PM, Slau Halatyn slauhala...@gmail.com wrote: As some of you may already know, I was asked to write something for the Avid blog regarding Pro Tools accessibility. The article was published this afternoon at: http://www.avidblogs.com/music-daw-software-for-blind-and-visually-impaired-audio-professionals/ Because of the way the story is laid out, it appears not to read entirely chronologically. So, I've pasted the contents of that post below. There were several photos in the post which are not included below. I was introduced to Pro Tools while enrolled in the audio program at Five Towns College in Dix Hills, New York, during the mid '90s. Most of my early training in college was on large format consoles and multitrack tape machines, which were de rigueur in the studios of the day. Computers had certainly found their way into the recording environment nearly a decade earlier, but more so in the role of MIDI sequencers. During the years I was in school, however, the digital audio workstation (DAW) had gotten its foot in the door of the control room and the DAW that led the way was Pro Tools, which I began to work with in my senior year. I sat there in front of the monitor, staring at a graphic representation of a waveform, wondering whether the hours I spent learning how to splice quarter-inch tape with razors had been wasted... I had the advantage of taking a one-on-one advanced digital audio class with my professor as a result of my need to use adaptive software known as inLARGE, a screen magnifying program for the Macintosh. Several years earlier, I had been diagnosed with a retinal condition that impaired my vision. When I entered college, most of the gear I used was highly tactile: mixing consoles, outboard processors, tape machine remotes, etc. By the time I was preparing for graduation, things had already begun to change. Evidence of this glowed from a VGA before me--everything, all under one roof, one box. Little did I know that this was the paradigm of the future, and little did I know that 20 years later, I'd be so closely involved with Pro Tools and its accessibility for blind audio engineers and musicians. After graduation I started a recording studio of my own, BeSharp, in New York City and for a number of years I kept one foot firmly planted in the analog multitrack world while occasionally using a computer for virtual tracks slaved to tape. As my vision gradually grew worse, however, it became more difficult or even impossible to perform certain tasks at the studio. LCD displays were dim, VU meters were a blur and tweaking outboard gear became tedious. All the while, I was experimenting with an LE version of Pro Tools, using the outSPOKEN speech synthesizer on my Mac to access it without having to look at the screen. With the introduction of Pro Tools HD, I finally made the jump over to the digital world. For several years, everything went well. A small community of blind Pro Tools users emerged and shared tips and techniques. While the program was almost entirely accessible, the use of a control surface proved to be indispensable for efficiency and tactile feedback. To me, it felt not that much different from the old days, only now I didn't have to deal with aligning my tape machines or worry
