Ok, so I imported some drumfiles that I recorded with Paris for 12 years ago into my PT10 system with mytek 8x192 converters.
I am really satisfied with my mytek converters and clock etc but I actually were amazed how good the recording sounded from the Paris sessions that were done that way back of the digital age:-)
The Paris software were all shitty and that were the main reason whay I shifted to prootools.
It makes me wonder how that system would sounded and worked today If they had continued with the development of that system.

It is a shame;.)

Best Rickard

It still works and does sound great! There are now Windows 7 drivers for it, will sync to other DAW's if you need VSTi's, new ASIO drivers allow the hardware to be used with other DAW's...there are still a big group of users and some software developers that have continued to keep it going. Yes...just of lately has the sound of other software algo's and plugin's manages to catch up to that of which PARIS does so well. Push those faders!

I still listen back to the stuff I recorded in PARIS back in 97-2005. It sounds big and fat with no harshness. A lot of it had to do with how PARIS handled it's gain stages. It's like every gain stage had some kind of algorithm that would compress it like tape or a good tube compressor. You couldn't get it to sound harsh no matter how much you pushed it.

I still have a pile of stuff. I got a bunch of extra gear for real cheap after it was dropped. I can't bring myself to get rid of it. If I move into a bigger space, I'd still like to set it up. I had a lot of fun with that software back in the day.

I think the biggest problem was with ID software. Their main market was forensic audio software for law enforcement, and it seemed after 9/11, software development got really slow. I imagine their priorities were aimed elsewhere at the time.

Thought it would be fun to bump this and let the discussion continue regarding Paris sound.
I remember when sending files to other mixenineers. They asked what I used to record it, they thought it sounded for real and not shitty like protools back in that time:-)

PARIS is still a great sounding system in the right hands. The Win 7 drivers have it running better than ever and I've yet to find any DAW that can record faster than PARIS does. It is still the only DAW where the artist asks me to slow down the recording process, lol.

Now, the software is older and lacks many modern DAW functions, but you can record and mix with it today and the results are still great.

I will record in PARIS, dump the files to Reaper for some Nebula treatment, then back to PARIS for the mix, and finally master in Wavelab with Nebula...... digital sonic heaven for me.

YMMV, but I think recording in Reaper is also damn fast... and I've seen a very seasoned PARIS engineer (recorded with my former band) work with it... I'm faster than him easily in Reaper.

Ah, reaper users... The vegans of the audio world.

Don't worry, I love meat

I am just stating things from my own perspective. I don't find working in PARIS software as efficient as in Reaper. That's just my experience.

Hahaha thats hilarious.

Can you guys keep talking up PARIS? Maybe it will become the first desirable "vintage" DAW, and I can sell my system for top dollar.

But seriously, once my new place is done, I'm going to set up my PARIS system for kicks. It's been about 10 years since It's been cranked up. I didn't realize there was still some grass roots development. New drivers, new host plugins...pretty cool. I still have the Waves Ren. Collection on a parallel port dongle. Good times!

Huh? It's probably the Beefiest DAW on the market.

EvilDragon, as always to each their own.....
I do love and use Reaper but I have done sessions where I never stopped the session once while working/recording in PARIS, not once, the whole time recording and never in loop mode, for 2-3 hours...... and that was over 10 years ago, lol. Some very talented artists would beg me to slow down a bit so they could catch their breath, lol. When I was in other major PT studios working, I was very fast but my PARIS speed was light years faster.... and still is.

I use most of the modern DAW's, every one has a strength, PARIS strength was and still is its sound quality and recording speed. Reaper's solid VST usage, routing matrix, and small footprint are easily the key features I love.

As I said before, it's all in the hands of the operator and for what I did, speed was king.

In the end they are all just tools for us to use and master. I still love that after all these years PARIS is still a tool that shines for me.

I'm confused as to what you mean by "speed of recording." Please explain.

"Speed of recording" is how fast you can record/edit/move tracks in a session to keep up with the artist or writer you are recording. In my world, you must be very, very fast, or many artists get upset and will never work with you again. DAW's differ in the speed they allow you to record/edit/move tracks around. Some like PARIS are lightning fast and stable, allowing the engineer to never have to stop the session playback once allowing you to move faster than the artist, and other DAW's like PT require you to stop playback to move files, or some just force you to slow down your workflow for stability.

The current ram loading DAW's are catching up, with the ability to play the session from anywhere instantly or click anywhere else and it playing from there. Reaper is fast, most likely the second fastest DAW for recording, but PARIS is still the king of speed for recording IMHO.

As always, to each their own.

His comment had nothing to do with diet...

More the shared self-righteous & evanglist-esque attitude that vegans & reaper users both seem to have.

Sarcasm dude...lighten up.

In one project I maxed the system with 128 tracks in a mixingsession.
That session was not going fast I can tell you:-)
Had to bounce a 16 channel group at a time to get hands on the next 16 channels to do changes and then a bounce again for the next 16 channels. And on and on.
It was hell on earth mixing a project like that in Paris and all bounces were in realtime:-)
After that I decided to go to protools. But I still miss that sound sometimes:-)

PARIS update:
Mike Audit has been working on ASIO drivers for PARIS. His hard work has me running PARIS hardware with Reaper, Studio One, Wavelab, FL Studio, Ableton Live and he has recently been using PARIS hardware with PT 10. The future is looking good for all the old PARIS hardware sitting around.

Daaaaaaamn, So happy to stumbled into this thread, I myself was a PARIS user and man how I miss it. True the Sound of that System was magical and true it has its own sonic signature and everything you'd record into would sound spectacular. I personally wonder where's Chuck Duffy (Paris Dev) and where he's been up to? I swear if Chuck is reading this and would like to bring Paris back to today's music Tech World, I'd put money and invest in it's development without a single hesitation period.

I think i'm going to re-connect mine back up and use it as a D/A converter, while getting back to its workflow :-)

Reminiscing the good Old days best sounding DAW system :-)

Actually, that sounds like it might be a good kickstarter campaign if Mr Duffy is still interested.

I had PARIS. Loved it. At the time it is what I needed and I was sad to see it go. It did sound very good.

I swear, get me Mr Duffy, @BrianT & @MikeAudet and we'll start a KickStarter Campaign and i'm positive something positive will come to life bringing back PARIS with today's technology and features ;-) Let's remember, the whole basics is already in Paris both Software & Hardware. And when Paris came to the game, it was quite something for what I recall. Sad that E-Mu let it die . Thats what happens with companies that stop seeing where the main great vision could have led them in today's music technology world we're living and we're at ;-)

Mike Audit has now successfully gotten PT running and recording on PARIS hardware down to a 64 buffer..... good things are ahead for all that great old PARIS hardware.

Once I mixed a 128 track session on my Paris system.
I could play 32 tracks at that time so it was a lot of bouninng.
It was hell on Earth.......but sounded great!

So funny seeing my name here in a google search, actually had to join to say hello. Hard to believe it was almost 20 years ago that I picked up my paris rig! I met some great people through the old forum. Still keep in touch with a few of them to this day.

I wasn't really a paris dev. I was just a crazy persistent guy who tried to get ensoniq to make more plugins for paris. I knew they were sitting on a motherload of effects from all their other gear that they could easily port to paris and get a recurring revenue stream going. They weren't even remotely interested.

Chuck

Man, I only recently mentioned on another thread how incredible the FX in my KT-88 are. The chorus, reverbs, delays, filters, EQs... Total knockout, even by today's standard. I wished I could have them in plugins, they'd be to die for.

That little factory in Malvern was packed with freaking genius, and besides being chip designers, analog circuit designers, academics, scientists and talented developers they were all musicians. They designed their own dsp chips, the assembly language for them, the compilers, the algos - everything. They were also masters of economy. I think the paris eq ESP2 assembly code is 7 instructions. I swear they didn't really think that was a big deal. I remember one of them telling me that it was just about music and sounding musical.

I think about the paris plate sometimes. It doesn't sound very good to me at all soloed up, but in the context of a mix I still don't have anything in my arsenal that suits my personal taste as well.

I can believe it. The reverbs don't sound realistic at all when soloed, but in the context of a mix, they can bring everything to life. They are good for *unrealistic* spaces.

I wonder, what happened to the intellectual property? Who now owns, so to speak, the algorithms? It is incredible to me that so many achievements of this era have been lost. This also goes for Lexicon, EMU and Eventide.

Well, creative owns all the IP. Back in 2002 or so I bugged emu so bad that they licensed all the ensoniq stuff to me for a dollar. They literally sent me a backup of their MS SourceSafe (source code management system). I spent a year or so figuring everything out, 'ported' a bunch of the effects to run in PARIS and used to sell them. I put ported in quotes because it wasn't much of a port as PARIS used ESP2 chips, same as their other hardware. It was basically figuring out enough of the assembly to be able to wire the plugs to the right registers and ports, then enough about the compiler to be able to build, then enough to make guis in their crazy cross platform txt file based markup language that they also invented.

Life moved on and I handed off everything I had and knew to a great guy named Mike Audet. He eventually ported about 20 effects I think, and made new drivers for the hardware so paris can run on modern computers, and VST support I think (but not for effects).

ensoniq.ca

Thanks for sharing.

BTW, Paris is also the best-looking DAW ever.