Studio Artist Workshop

[morales]

Hey guys i was just comenting with john of how I will love to go to a SA workshop to share with other user and to learn new tips and tricks.

Let's used this to tell john ideas or things you will like to see in a SA workshop.

Besides bringing john from Hawaii and Bernard from France. It will be nice to have a friendly art contest to win the new SA 5 and to show the art work in the 1st SA workshop as a small gallery.

Ideas ....

Please share i will love to see this.

[morales]

Skype is also a great way to do this we could do something once every other month or something.

[morales]

John what do you thing about the Skype idea? I will like to hear from you.

[John Dalton Synthetik Software]

I think i may need to pick up a Guy Fawkes mask first for my end of a live video hookup.

...

I was going to look into possibly setting up a studio artist google+ hangout. So i'll look into that (as well as things like skype). I guess the advantage of google + is that users could have their own discussions whenever they wanted to, which might be more fruitful in some ways then some big one time broadcast live presentation from synthetik headquarters to the world at large.

...

I haven't really had time to focus on this recently to be honest. I do want to think about it a little, and put some serious thought into it.

It might make more sense for me to first put together some focused tutorial video presentations on some specific topics first (like an actual planned workshop presentation(s) in video form), post those online, and then get questions from people via forum posts, and then we could have a live discussion if the questions can't be resolved via forum interaction.

The big advantage of forum interaction is that the dialog is archived for people to look at a year later. Plus, we have users all over the globe, and where we are located is actually on the opposite side of the world from a lot of our customers, so time of day varies from user to user. 

I actually like the lag in conversation with written online discussion, it gives me time to be thoughtful in a reply, and i can also reference other things already online that may already answer the question, but it might take me 10 minutes of looking round the web to find that answer, which would get pretty boring in a live skype broadcast. I also tend to be more of a literary thinker then a verbal one, but that's just my personal thing. My sales staff is literally beating me with a baseball bat to get more video tutorials available for people, and put less emphasis on written blog style tips (my preferred method of disseminating information). It's an ongoing argument here.

...

I'm kind of slammed right now work-wise, so bear with me if it seems like i'm not super focused on this topic at this particular moment. I'm very focused on some coding issues right now, as well as future directions for future products. I do really appreciate that some of you are super psyched about getting something going like this, so we'll try to make something happen, although it might take a little while to get it going, so bear with us.

Putting together real focused presentations takes a lot of time on my part if they are going to be done well (you have no idea how much time it really takes), so when that would best fit into my ongoing schedule is an interesting question. It might make more sense to time things associated with a version 5 release as opposed to doing a lot of work and then having to redo it a few months later because of interface changes. That said, i do understand there's some pent up desire for more tutorial information, so i would definitely like to try to address that. there's nothing worse then seeing people not use parts of the program because they don't understand them, or maybe don't even know they are there in the first place.

...

To be honest, i'm also still waiting for a list of some specific topics people want some really in-depth workshop style tutorials presented on. Nobody has really focused on answering that part of this discussion. Learning MSG was discussed. And i can probably guess that a real in-depth tutorial presentation on the inner workings of the paint synthesizer would also be of interest.

...

I guess one question i have for people is, there has already been a ton of online tutorial and effect blog tips posted about MSG. Any information about what is incomprehensible in that material would be useful feedback. I do pick up that most people don't grok processor IO connections at all. And we're seriously lagging with up to date info on the latest new processors (although that's an issue that has nothing to do with workshops per say, it's a documentation refinement issue).

...

The daily effects blog seemed popular. It was also a way for me to cover one well defined workshop style effect or feature topic a day, so it was a manageable time sink (although still a big time sink). And it seemed to get a lot of page hits.

But then i got push-back from internal sales people here that most customers did not really want to receive that information in a written blog style kind of presentation. So because of that, and because we were in the middle of changing our whole web site and sales backend, and being a little burned out after almost a year of daily posts, it kind of dropped by the way side.

So should something like that be brought back? Do people find it really useful? Or is it a waste of time, and only 10 power users really grasp what is being discussed in those written posts? This has been a huge internal argument here, so feedback on your thoughts would be very useful for us.

That kind of thing is really an on-going workshop in some sense, or at least it could certainly evolve to be one, especially if it was more based on addressing people's questions in an ongoing fashion, as opposed to me blabbing away on random topics of interest. And it could maybe incorporate more screen capture video content into the daily posts, if that helps make things more comprehensible or interesting to more people.

...

So there's my 2 cents on all of this.

[morales]

I think videos about MSG. And the know how to make custom presets are very popular subjects here. having some new ones by popular demand will be a great help. Maybe the idea of the workshops is still in to much of an early stage. I do recognize your hard work on helping everyone on daily basis and we do appreciate all your passion an effort.

once again ty John.

[liveart]

I am a little late to this discussion, but will add my nickel (inflation).

I would like very much to see live skype or google+ workshops. These things always work best when there is a prepared base, but flexibility to respond to the group questions. If the group is larger than 6-7 then text input of questions rather than live (duplex) audio is the way to go, the main presenter just has to remember to read the questions out loud. I think it would be great if some users could be drafted into leading a few of the sessions.I would very much like to watch Max work live, and Bernard could show us what he has learned about the MSG.

all live sessions can be recorded for later (archived) presentation.

Regarding the daily blog, I thought that it was a great resource, but I have to agree with your sales staff, most people will find video more engaging, plus which you can post the vids on youtube with the Synthetik info at the beginning and end and get a bit of promotional value out of them.

And yes in the beginning I used to have to read stuff (including the manual) 3 and 4 times before I grasped all of it. Part of that is vocabulary (SA terminology) part is that there are so many parts to this wonderful program that being familiar with all of them simply takes time-- then just when you think you know it, John shows us a whole new trick.

So here's a vote for a once a week live video workshop.

[Carol Ross]

I have a 4000 square foot studio in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, if you ever what to do one here. :)

[liveart]

4000sq ft.. can I move in?

[Carol Ross]

Of course!

[liveart]

ha! ok, packing now..

[balaclava_man]

Bit late getting into this, but I just wanted to say that the daily effects blog is [still] an awesome source of information and inspiration. I regularly visit this when I have forgotten how to do something or to find info on a feature that I haven't yet explored. I was sorry to see that you stopped doing those. Some of the people looking for masterclass workshops really should check this out. Hopefully you will be allowed to continue with them in the future. I'd rather see a dozen more of these than have your time swallowed up by the logistical octopus of live webinars, but that's just me, I guess. You read, you learn. 

Thanks for all your hard work.

[Dee Flouton]

Ditto balaclava_man's reply, plus more videos would be a good way to go for me. Add "you see you learn" to "you read, you learn".