AudioMedia - December 2008 - (Page 43) M A D E I N A M E R I C A : A P R O M OT I O N A L F E AT U R E Digital By Design McDSP I Ten years in the plug-in processors field, and McDSP are still on the up. Colin McDowell, McDSP’s founder, talks to Audio Media about a decade of musical engineering, and McDSP’s unique outlook. He doesn’t, however, rule out the company’s products being available for other DAWs in the future. “These days, we’ve got a few engineers working on a variety of things,” he says. “Going to other platforms is still on the books – we just have ten years of product we’d need to port! It would have to be done right the first time out, though. McDSP couldn’t show up on another platform and expect the same cult following we enjoy on Pro Tools, unless we really kicked some butt on our first release.” Building on the original successes, McDSP has added the Revolver convolution reverb and the new ML mastering limiter and multi-band dynamics plug-ins to their roster. In , the DE de-esser, FutzBox lo-fi distortion effects, and NF noise filter were released, demonstrating that the company is keen to expand into new and intriguing areas of processing. Pro Tools on Windows XP is now supported, and the company is making inroads into the live sound arena via the new Digidesign Venue consoles. The ability to run the plug-ins on several flavours of Pro Tools system from HD to LE means that those who like to work on a laptop and a fixed studio setting need never be without their McDSP plug-ins. Wh i l e a l ot of plu g - i n companies aim their products at the project studio market, McDSP set its sights on the audio professional from day one. “Early products like FilterBank, CompressorBank, and Analog Channel got a lot of professional engineers to take to the idea of working entirely inside of a DAW like Pro Tools more seriously, says McDowell. “Later, things like the ML have really opened up the door for ‘maximising’, while still (hopefully) making better music.” However, he is aware of the bad press these types of processors are getting these days. “You can make the tools for the right jobs,” he says. “But that does not mean they always get used in the ways you intended them to be used!” He also has strong views on his company’s relationship with the people who buy its products. “I think McDSP has just shown folks you can run a small boutique software firm successfully without totally screwing your customers. I’d like to think they really have an attachment to us – their loyalty is based out of mutual respect, not some annual ritual of ‘upgrading’ their systems. McDSP has had a good AUDIO MEDIA DECEMBER 2008 t doesn’t seem like five minutes since a session in the studio started off by demagnetising and lining-up your -track machine, before threading the tape and patching in all the hardware effects units. So it was a sobering thought to realise that McDSP, purveyor of plug-in products of distinction and quality, was founded way back in by Colin McDowell – hence the name of the company, of course. This makes McDSP one of the longest established players in a field that is still on the up slope of the bell curve of innovation, and their well-respected plug-in processors will almost certainly be found on a Pro Tools rig near you. Products such as FilterBank and CompressorBank have become staples in the audio armoury of many engineers, and the company now has a portfolio of software solutions that include the SSL-inspired Channel G plug-In, the analogue modelled Synthesizer One, and Chrome Tone guitar plug-ins. Expansion Pact run, and we owe it to every dang customer out there – from Rob Barrett, our first customer, to the very latest purchase. We are glad to have the opportunity to make professional products for audio and not, say, missile guidance systems, cell phone chips – or work for the government!” One of the more unusual aspects of the McDSP philosophy is that the company has never charged for updates, preferring instead to reward the loyalty of their customers rather than fleecing them for a continuous line of revisions whenever a new version of Pro Tools is released. “If a customer purchased FilterBank in for Mix hardware on OS , then updated to OS X, HD and HD Accel hardware, higher sample rate support, all the new Pro Tools plug-in centric features introduced during that time, support for every new Digidesign control surface to date and support for Intel-based Macs, that customer would have been charged nothing,” explains McDowell. “Why? Well, we have some of the most talented and loyal clients any company has ever had the privilege to serve. I can’t see us shafting them with update fees!” “McDSP, in my completely biased opinion, has created a reputation for solid products backed by solid customer support”, says McDowell. “Our software is reliable, efficient, and does what it is supposed to do. Audio processing can get mighty fancy, but no one gives a hoot if the basic operational needs are not satisfactory.” Given McDowell’s views on software versus hardware debate, it’s not surprising that he has great expectations for the future of his company. “I want McDSP to be to the audio software industry what Neve, Massenburg, Manley and so on are to hardware. Being able to create that kind of brand equity is rare, especially in software, but I think McDSP is up to it. We’ll just have to see how the next years go!” ∫ Future Proof McDowell is an affable character, and it’s obvious that creating software audio tools isn’t just a day job for him. “I’ve always wanted to combine music and engineering, and McDSP has been a great way of doing that.,” says McDowell. “I like doing things my own way! For example, you’ll notice the strong tendency towards green user interfaces on our products. In , there were not many third party audio plug-in developers, and so the time seemed right from that perspective to start McDSP. From the product angle, I had (and still have) a strong belief software can sound as good or better than hardware – it’s the old digital vs. analogue debate I suppose – but I really wanted to challenge the impression, common in the industry, that hardware is always better.” McDowell spent over a decade in the professional audio industry, and as a digital signal processing engineer, and in his stint at Digidesign he authored many of the company’s plug-ins as well as the original TDM multi-shell prototype – so it’s no surprise that the company has concentrated on producing plug-ins for the Pro Tools platform. “I am ex-Digidesign. This is like saying I used to work at the Death Star, but got tired of wearing that dang white battle armour!”, laughs McDowell. “But I’m really good at writing plug-ins for the Pro Tools platform.” It was not only experience that led McDowell to concentrate on Digidesign’s software though, as he explains. “Early on, the iLok was not as widely used (if it even existed) – so copy protection and delivering authorisations to customers was not trivial – and so it became a barrier to moving over to other platforms.” Start Your Engines CONTACT DETAILS McDSP – McDowell Signal Processing, LLC. 1300 Crittenden Lane, No.401, Mountain View, California, 94043, USA t +1 650 318 0005 w www.mcdsp.com 43 http://www.mcdsp.com http://www.mcdsp.com
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