Fired Over WIRED
18 messages in this thread
— Fired Over "WIRED" —
I just read my first issue of WIRED, the August '93 issue, and
although my initial excitement ran high, it didn't last long. The
"Desktop MTV" article by Fred Davis on page 84 was disillusioning in that,
despite all of the hype in your publication over accessable technology and
egalitarianism, the article omitted one of the most important and
revolutionary platforms in the desktop video, if not audio, field: The
Amiga. CTDV (which to date has outsold, but not
out-PR'd, CD-I and VIS) was omitted from your platforms list containing
machines not even available yet. Neither was there any mention of
Commodore's new model, the CD32 which is based on newer AGA Amigas. And to
top it off, there was no mention of the Video Toaster which was used
almost exclusively to create the 3D animation in at least 3 music videos
by Todd Rundgren (who was featured heavily in the article).
After witnessing this apparent effort to avoid the Amiga and Video
Toaster (in an article which is followed by an ad for a $30,000 workstaion
by SGI), I have doubts about WIRED's journalistic integrity and
willingness to stand by the ideals it claims to represent. After
scratching the
surface, your magazine simply strikes me as ivy-league and elitist;
Perhaps in your future issues you will prove this to be only bad first
impression.
-Christopher Laprise
CNR Graphics (home to a Video Toaster 4000)
Christopher,
If you are looking for Desktop Video coverage in a magazine where the AMiga
gets a fair shake on a regular basis, perhaps you should be looking at Desktop
Video World Magazine. I suspect you will find it to your liking. Lou Wallace
Editor-In-Chief, DTVW
Lou,
Butting in here. I would like to subscribe to DTVW. Can I get an evaluation
copy sent to me in UK together with the international Subscription rates. I
will Email the details if this is possible.
-=<<<<<< Delivered by Co-Pilot v. 1.4 >>>>>>===-Andrew Letchford=–=UK=-
Andrew – DTVW is a paid magazine, not o one of the 'freee' trade books
around. The best thing to do to see about a comp copy is call our
marketing department. The numbeis 800 441 4403 and ask someone
there. Lou
Lou,
I can't dial 800 numbers from UK. Can you give me a regular number please.
-=<<<<<< Delivered by Co-Pilot v. 1.4 >>>>>>===-Andrew Letchford=–=UK=-
Sure can. It is 603 924 9471. Lou
The article was about interactive music, Chris.
Not passive videotape.
What connection do you see with the tools you mention?
John
"What connection do you see with the tools you mention?"
CDTV and CD32. They are, after all, the same platform as the Toaster
(which also should have at least been mentioned in connection with
Todd Rundgren's music video.. The artwork that was produced and
animated by the musical artist for the video is bound to be the basis
for the interacive releases.) Or is a musical artist producing all
of the graphics for his 3d computer-animated videos an angle not
worth mentioning?
Anyway, the omission of Todd's use of the Toaster made me
suspicious, then the omission of CDTV/CD32 in the platforms list made
me angry and quite sure that something was wrong.
Chris,
Thanks for the additional info.
So, which interactive music titles on CDTV or CD32 did you think the article
should have covered? What did they miss? What is available?
And I'm curious…why would you doubt the magazine's integrity when nothing is
written about certain video tools? The article carefully refrains from
mentioning any of the authoring, music, and design tools used. It deals with
content, not technique.
I appreciate how WIRED is about the social issues of new technology, rather
than the "my-tool-is-better-than-your-tool" kind of thing. I like its
platform-agnostic approach. Wha'dya think of the Drucker article?
jd
What was this Drucker article about?
Howdy John,
An interview with Peter Drucker, on how capital-ism is being replaced by
knowledge-ism. About how the success of the government-dictated MITI
consortium in Japan is a myth, how the centralized planning tried to push
Mazda and Honda et al. out of the auto market, successfully pushed their
computer industry into supercomputers instead of workstations, pushed for
that damnstupid analog HDTV setup. About the changing nature of
intellectual property. About how knowledge, and creativity, and nimbleness,
are more important than large amounts of government-printed dollars. I
guess it's also about how the grassroots spunkiness of forums like this
will replace TV conglomerates, too! <g> Drucker's a crusty guy, saying a
lot of smart stuff I can't find in my daily newspaper. Cool article.
jd
Cutting in, if I may…
"CD Remix" for CDTV (and upwardly compatible to CD32) is a one-of-a-kind
program. I've heard of nothing else like it. Bascially, it lets you create
interactive CD audios. Amazing, cool, wonderful! Recut your audio CDs with
sound effects, drum riffs, digitized speech, edit points, etc., and save
the resulting script. It's not the only music title written for CDTV, but
it's the best. No doubt, "Wired" has never even heard of it.
— Ron Legro from Milwaukee via AUTOPILOT
(The only way to fly)
Thanks for that bit of info, Ron. Hope you don't mind if I forward it to
Wired (editor@wired.com).
-Chris
Cool, Ron…sounds like CD Remix has some kind of device control going on with
a cd deck, yes? Are sound effects and digitized speech coming off the hard
drive? Can you output the mixed version to a tape deck or something? Any
references in any of the Amiga mags that you could point me to? thanx–jd
I've never seen "CD Remix" reviewed in depth domestically, although one of
the Euromags did a piece on it. "Remix" was mentioned in passing when the
CDTV first appeared, but that's about it.
"CD Remix" does not need to control an external audio CD player. This is
because CDTV (and the A570, and standard CD-ROM units with appropriate
device drivers) can play ordinary audio CDs. What "CD Remix" does when you
create a script is to load the appropriate drum riffs, sampled sounds,
etc., from its own CD-ROM disc into system RAM. Then the program prompts
you to unload the "CD Remix" disc and insert the music CD you're remixing.
"Remix" (which is running in RAM) thereupon controls the music CD,
locating the tracks you've specified, and inserting the effects in the
script from RAM during playback. Everything happens within the CDTV player
in real time. The only reason you'd need a floppy or hard drive or flash
RAM card (CDTV has a port for one) would be to save your remix script, or
to load sampled sounds not available on the "Remix" disc (which carries
about 500 samples!).
If you had an ordinary CD-ROM drive with audio CD capability and a driver
like AsimWare or Xetec that can run some CDTV stuff, you might be able to
use "CD Remix" with it, too.
And yes, you can save the remix to tape or whatever, since it's playing in
real time; just hook up the audio outputs to your stereo system amp and
dub to the appropriate recorder.
By the way, when you run a script, "Remix" also displays a time code and
track number on the TV screen.
I'm surprised "Remix" has been overlooked. To me it was one of the "killer
application" that everyone thought CDTV needed to prosper. But if no one
knows about it, that's no help!
— Ron Legro from Milwaukee via AUTOPILOT
(The only way to fly)
To: John 71333,42
CC: editor@wired.com
I'm not even sure if they are available for CDTV (interactive music). The
artists only mentioned Mac and CD-I in the main article; Yet, this didn't
stop them from listing a wide range of CDROM units in the sidebar about
different "Platforms" that exist (the sidebar clearly was not intended to
show only the ones with interactive-music releases).
"Platform-agnostic approach" hardly seems like Wired's style. The mag is
replete with references to Mac and MS-DOS platforms, including many little
mini-reviews of Mac & MS-DOS products. One Mac product was billed as "The
Choice the 3-D Animation" in the title!
Wired is very much into mentioning platforms without
"my-tool-is-better-than-your-tool" comments as you stated, but it's pretty
bad when they can't bring themselves to mention the Amiga. The ommission
is pretty obviously a conscious decision.
Elsewhere in the issue is also a shameless "plug" article for a digital
studio in Hollywood being built with the help of IBM. Umm, 'scuse me, but
what does this have to do with revolutionary _consumer_ technology?? HELLO
PEOPLE! Yes, here we are.. thousands of us with our OWN Video Toaster
studios!
This magazine needs to get a clue about the Amiga and the Video Toaster.
Otherwise, a large portion of Wired will continue to be nothing more than
regurgitation of the clone market's meaningless "revolutionary technology"
& multimedia hype.
It seems like they are trying to personify the revolutionary spirit that
is so strong among Amiga users, yet they come off like Glamour magazine.
Or maybe Larry Drucker is right, and the people at Wired think they are
off to a head-start by _hoarding_ knowledge about the Amiga & Video
Toaster.
-Chris
Christopher,
I'm also about to send a letter to Wired, complaining about their
nonexistent Amiga coverage, especially in articles which feature some of the
Amiga's greatest achievements.
Blaq!