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nickbatz

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Posts posted by nickbatz

  1. 4 hours ago, R C-R said:

    That's what I thought too, but it looks to me like the screenshot above is from the desktop version.

    Anyway, I do not seem to be able to duplicate the missing items in AP 2 on my Mac. Can you?

    I'm not exactly sure what you're saying, but this is 100% repeatable. Either you're charmed, I suppose it's possible that my software is corrupted, or you're doing something else.

    And yes, I only use the Mac version. iPads have a small fraction of the memory what I do requires.

  2. 9 hours ago, drstreit said:

    To rail back the topic:

    • I think we all agree that AI per definition cannot produce art - as art always needs an intention

    Actually, I'd debate the semantics of that point (not that I disagree entirely). Apologies in advance for being so argumentative - this is something I've been thinking about a lot recently, and no doubt I'm far from alone in that!

    Anyway, text-to-picture certainly has an intention, and whether or not you call what it does art isn't really important (although I don't).

    To me the main issue is what I already wrote: we are humans with a deep need to create and enjoy art. AI has the potential to take a lot of that away.

    Or will it force real artists to come up with things that are beyond a machine?

    9 hours ago, drstreit said:
    • On the other hand - 99% of grafic design is not art, but producing nice stuff - here AI will make a huge difference

    Remember, programs like Midjourney rely on a database of images created by artists.

    9 hours ago, drstreit said:
    • Examples mentioned are real AI selections/replacements, being able to train your personal style for image variations etc

    All that above needs an integration into Serif's product line: An dthat was why I started that topic: I see open APIs in other products getting them the integration needed, but I hear SDKs/APIs not even on the roadmap of Serif - that concerns me greatly, as I personally think that the current AI models will become so powerful that they will replace a lot of traditional workflows.

    Machine learning is a totally different thing from AI "art." Whether Serif *needs* to incorporate it into the Affinity programs, who knows.

    Anyway, my hunch is that at lot of this will end up as... I'm not a programmer, but it'll be in libraries of routines that are part of the SDK.

    You're right that it's the next wave, though. New Macs even have dedicated neural engine cores in their current computers.

  3.  

    2 minutes ago, Bigwillt said:

    AI works in very narrow fields and has a long way to go to replace artists and designers in broad areas. Especially if you want to create something new and unique and not just smash stuff together. 

     

    I'm afraid you're underestimating the impact programs like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion are already having.

    But the second sentence of yours I quoted here - yes, in fact it's a tautology to say that unique art is always going to be unique! 

  4. On 11/11/2022 at 1:57 PM, drstreit said:

     

    Do not make the mistake to look at the current stage, that is like the jokers that told everybody that electronic cameras will never make it, because the first generation was worse than mechanical DLSRs. The journey for cameras took 20 years - here we are talking software: It will not even take 20 more months.

    It will get better, but I consider that irrelevant.

    You can come up with 50 billion analogies about other inventions, and they all collapse at the same point: human have a need for the arts (both creating and enjoying it).

    Having a machine create "art" is totally unclear on the concept, even if it can produce some interesting things at times.

    I have less utter disdain for the whole concept than I did at first, because there are creative uses for it (for example creating backgrounds). But it will never be art, no matter how hard you struggle to compare the process.

    Shorter version: I don't give a FF about it. No AI can do what I do, and it's not something I'll ever use - whether it's visual art, music, or anything else.

  5. 19 hours ago, deeds said:

    The difficulties of coding cross platform, realtime audio with both complex management of realtime plugins and realtime visual responsiveness are so much greater than that of programming offline, non-realtime visuals that the state of Affinity's software, in the context of things like Reaper (equivalent price, big incumbents dominating the market and yet they're doing great things) should be a source of embarrassment. 

     

    btw when I first saw your username I immediately thought of Mr PWM Nick Batt, and had to check that that's not you ;)

     

     

    Oh no, Nick Batt is not at all the same person, and I believe his video reviews are what you're talking about - not that he isn't good at it.

    He sort of grumbled and barely suppressed a snarl when I accused him of stealing my name and initials (Edit: obviously my accusation wasn't serious). :)

    I'm Batzdorf.

  6. 1 hour ago, deeds said:

    Music software (and hardware) is in a weird place, an absolute anomaly where despite not much significant improvement to the hosts (DAWs) the entire enterprise interest level in making music digitally and with hardware has bucked every major trend of decline and is instead absolutely thriving... until the parts shortages for hardware.

    Things like CLAP for being developed and released by U-he and BItwig for all to benefit from multiple cores managed well ensure this will continue.

    And the community around music software utilisation is incredible, despite there not being a single cohesive reason for it.

     

     

    DAWs have been pretty amazing for years, but I guess it's true that there hasn't been much significant improvement to them - leaving aside that seemingly small things can be hugely significant if you use a program all the time! Probably the biggest change over the past few years is that the software and hardware (computers) have caught up with each other.

    Affinity's programs aren't real-time, so that's less of a factor, but faster hardware certainly does help.

    And yeah, hardware synths are definitely thriving, and the supply chain bottlenecks do seem to have eased. Synthplex, a synth show in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago, seemed to be very well attended - both by manufacturers and regular humans.

  7. 5 hours ago, deeds said:

    The 90's also featured critical reviews in magazines by experienced users with journalistic skills. Remember that?

    This meant that it wasn't that easy to throw money into software that didn't work well as any news agent (remember these public libraries of old) would provide a constant stream of insight into the performance, stability and features in direct comparisons with rivals and prior versions, all taken seriously by writers considerate of reader opinion of them and their host publications due to the relationships with readers.

     

    Granted, there were magazines with bought and paid for content thanks to the influence of advertising, but they weren't in the majority.

     

    Try to find an objective youtube reviewer in this day and age...

     

    I'll wait. 

     

    I was a print magazine editor then and now edit an online magazine (SynthAndSoftware). Music and audio technology is a different audience, but we actually do run real reviews.

     

  8. 3 hours ago, loukash said:

    Not generally. 

    I should have said you can't *count on* being able to reinstall an older OS.

    As far as I know that was the case with my previous Mac, a 5,1 Mac Pro, when you installed High Sierra en route to Mojave. That may have been an old wives' tale, though - I didn't try going back. Or maybe it was just that you needed the firmware update to support the Metal-capable video card Mojave required.

    Anyway, it's moot, because that iMac can't be upgraded and Affinity Photo can't run on it. I sympathize, of course, but that's how it goes.

  9. I just did and would buy the v.2 license just to support Affinity's development even if I didn't care about the features, in fact I bought Designer for that reason (at this point I only work with pixels, not raster graphics). 

    However, the fact that this thread is now five pages long says something about how customers perceive things, i'nit?

    There are lots of posts from people kvetching, followed by responses explaining why it's a good deal, obligatory car analogies, and so on.

    And in my opinion the responses totally miss the point! I don't care about not getting a lower price than new customers get, but I do understand the reactions.

  10. 20 hours ago, aeioguy said:

    @nickbatz I certainly would recommend a full backup first so you can always restore your old system 

    By the way, that's in any case, even if you're not doing anything to your system!

    And I wouldn't recommend trusting only one full backup, because they can fail too. I use alternating Time Machine local backups, a bootable clone in my glove compartment (made using SuperDuper from Shirtpocket Software), and an iDrive cloud backup (which can't do a full restoration, i.e. it doesn't include programs).

    ***

    That aside - and what was sticking in my head since yesterday (I know, I'm not normal) - you can't reinstall an older OS if the firmware gets updated. It doesn't do that with every update, but the point is that you only want to do macOS updates with your eyes open.

  11. 1 hour ago, aeioguy said:

    @nickbatzA 2009 iMac isn't supported by Apple anyways and I certainly would recommend a full backup first so you can always restore your old system but, Mr. Macintosh's videos make it fairly easy. Earlier versions of Mac OS (before Ventura) actually included the drivers for older machines in the OS so the Legacy patcher actually worked pretty well (I think some of the devs actually got some support from Apple engineers - this isn't a hackintosh). Most limitations were if your older computer was missing hardware to do something or just wasn't performant enough to take advantage of new features. The biggest hassle is you need to repatch it when there are upgrades - but even that is streamlined. 

     

    Understood, but I still wouldn't do it - and in fact I chose not to on my (heavily updated) 2009 Mac Pro. I work on these silly machines all day long, need to run current software, and just can't afford to risk having problems with drivers, etc.

    It is annoying when a computer has plenty of horsepower and will run everything except a couple of things that are incompatible (usually the main programs you use), but what can you say; I'm old enough to remember when computers were 2-1/2 year investments for people who ran demanding software.

     

  12. 10 minutes ago, MikeTO said:

    There's the issue with saving to an existing file on an external drive - if your friend who you are madly in love with 🙂 doesn't regularly save directly to an external drive then it's fine. That bug is in v1, too, and Serif has said it's with development for review.

    I haven't heard of any other Ventura issues aside from a few cosmetic ones. It looks very good to me on Ventura.

    Thanks very much. Actually I do save to an external drive regularly. But now that you mention it, I think I just do Save As when it doesn't want to save, in other words I never realized it was a bug!

    There are still a couple of music plug-ins I use that have issues with Ventura, but those are going to be fixed imminently.

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