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This is an old revision of ParisIntro made by admin on 2008-04-04 15:19:49.

 

Introduction to PARIS


PARIS stands for Pro Audio Recording Integrated System.

By definition, PARIS is a digital audio workstation, or DAW. It is a hardware/software tracking and mixing environment, normally including a hardware-based DSP "daughterboard" (with the exception of the EDS500 cards; systems based on the EDS500 do not have this "daughterboard").

The "daughterboard" is based around the proprietary ESP2 processor, which is also used by Ensoniq in the DPPro series of effects processors (EDS500-based systems do not include the DSP "daughterboard"), with some rudimentary MIDI capabilities, generally ignored or disabled by users with some exceptions.


PARIS is an unusual platform because it remains one of the only DAWS in its current price range to combine the advantages of hardware with the flexibility of software.

These advantages include:

1) true zero-latency monitoring under all circumstances
2) particularly well-designed AD/DA conversion, leading to audio quality that still stands up credibly to present-day standards.
3) integrated hardware-DSP-based effects which permit, for example, zero-latency monitoring through compression and reverb without external mixer
4) a high-throughput interleaved file format (.paf) which permitted high track-counts from then-current drives (now largely been nullified by technological advances).
5) an analog-like response to "pushing into the red" or "spanking" PARIS. Some argue this to be due to the ParisPatent covert inclusion of analog-modelling technology.

Limitations include:

1) obsolescence: last official software release was Paris V3.0 in 2000; support discontinued and now solely user-driven; parts in increasingly short supply.
2) a resulting slippage in comparative features with modern DAWs including grid support for multiple tempos,
3) a resulting lack of direct support for current operating systems (third party initiatives have met with both success - Win XP drivers - and failure - Mac OSX drivers)
4) a resulting lack of compatibility with newer filetypes: no support for filetypes beside mono .paf, 'wav and .sd2; minimal support for interleaved stereo files (limited to export and import); rudimentary OMF support; no REX file support.
5) a resulting lack of support for samplerates above 48k (this is argued by devotees to be mitigated or nullified by PARIS' inherent audio quality and today's most common destination formats).
6) a non-standards-compliant GUI - constrained-expansion windows that fit neither Apple or Windows guidelines; hard-coded key bindings


Shifting Arguments

Most pieces of digital technology that reach obsolescence reach irrelevance at the same time. Due to the inherent strength of its design, the arguments for/against PARIS, although significantly evolved since its introduction in 1995, continue. Features that once raised it head-and-shoulders above competitors, such as the interleaved .paf file format that gave extremely high track counts from relatively slow late-nineties-vintage hard drives, have been overtaken by massive increases in hard disk speeds and exponential drops in price, are now essentially irrelevant.

Oddly, at the same time PARIS handles with ease some features that modern native-based systems still struggle to deliver, such as true zero-latency monitoring in place with effects; superior AD conversion; fast, hardware-like response; a hardware surface with responsive faders and a shuttle wheel with no lag or latency; a "big knob"

The influence of pricing

Many of the arguments really center around one issue: price. The $8000+ "proposed ProTools killer" of 1995 that became the "disappointing orphan product" of 2002, seen in a different light, becomes something new today.

Namely - a sub-$500 "bargain of the century". When considering what one would have to spend on hardware and software to achieve the following:

- 16 channels of dedicated faders;
- formidable AD/DA conversion, the sonic equal of much more expensive current systems, whose modularity permits expansion in eight-channel increments below $250
- true zero-latency monitoring without "buffer juggling", even on obsolete computers
- the ability to deliver all of this in a package that will run quite happily on low-spec computers that are essentially given away for free nowadays
- the still-highly-respectable sonics of the platform that retain an analog characteristic that

PARIS begins to snap into focus as a bargain-hunter's dream for music that relies no more on the absolute necessity for "current feature sets" today than it did in 1995.

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PARIS consists of four discrete components -







ASIO drivers were included as part of the PARIS package to enable other software to access the PARIS hardware. After much experimentation, due to serious limitations, including inability to access MEC modules, a maximum of two channels and a general lack of reliability, the drivers are considered essentially non-functional by users.


Various third-party initiatives specific to PARIS include:






Other initiatives designed to be of use to (but not specifically limited to) the PARIS platform have been:




Finally, the PARIS EQ, generally held to have a desirable sound, have been ported into VST as plug-ins so they can be made available in non-PARIS DAWs.`
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