by Bill Hunt » Sun Nov 23, 2008 4:53 pm
Yes, I've also used SmartSound from its introduction in Pinnacle. Do not recall if that was version 8, or 9. I used it most in Studio 9.
When I moved to Premiere Pro some years back, I immediately got the plug-in. Yes, it's not quite as easy, as it was in Pinnacle. There were also some problems with the Waveform display in SmartSound files. That was fixed by SmartSound with a patch. About then, I picked up SonicFire Pro 3, upgraded to 4 and now to 5. For simple music soundtracks, I use QuickTracks, but for any scoring, then SonicFire Pro 5 is a sweet program. Only drawback is that I have to Export a reference AV to get the full benefit from it. Still, that is worth the effort and time if using their Strata series music. As the QuickTracks plug-in is the same for P-Pro and Elements, I doubt there is any difference between use in either program. In PE, I've used a few SmartSound pieces, but not done much work with it.
As for being a "fan," I was blown away when I looked at the recent "Sale" page. There were 51 Strata Series discs at half-off. I got out my spreadsheet and looked down the list. I checked and re-checked. There was not one disc, that I wanted, that I did not already own!
Now, their sale on the Backstage music was tempting, but it is geared specifically for high-end pro use and is still too expensive for me to consider. There are probably 4 of those, that I could use, but until someone comes in the door with a project requiring it, and a budget for me to acquire them, I will just haunt those "Sales," and keep my fingers crossed.
Back to the Pinnacle vs Premiere implementation, I do not know what the hangups are, but feel that if it were easy, SmartSound would have updated their plug-in to allow for 100% Duration editability. Gotta' be something difficult to do. Still, I can live with differences. I only do music, once I've done all of my cutting, so Duration change hardly ever comes up. If it does, then I use the multiple steps required to do it. However, i just crashed P-Pro doing this, about 3 hours before I typed this. First PP crash, and it was due to changing the Duration of a SmartSound piece!
Hunt