RFI: Why is ProTools called Alsihad?

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Okay, so reading Mixerman's diary has made me wonder why ProTools is called Alsihad, can anyone help? I have absolutely no idea.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Tuesday, 3 September 2002 21:38 (twenty-three years ago)

well?

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Tuesday, 3 September 2002 23:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Digidesign (the company that owns ProTools) doesn't mention Alsihad at all. I'm strongly suspecting that it's an industry nickname.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 00:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah. But, but, but what does Alsihad mean?

I'm not being incredibly stupid am I?

Google gives little except links to recording forums, where people are, as you say, using it as nickname.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 00:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Ah, from the Sound on Sound forums

"I think that it was Mixerman who coined the term Alsihad on rec.audio.pro - simply because Pro Tools had gained a (possibly unjustified) reputation for poor sounding mixes. The idea was that, by changing the name, we could start afresh and judge the system by its results rather than its reputation."

But I still want to know if it comes from somewhere, is it prounced 'Alls I had' or something, this is bugging the hell out of me.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 01:06 (twenty-three years ago)

i have been hearing it as all-see-HAWD, like some middle eastern name. but given what we know of mixerman's love for silly names, it probably is alls-i-had or alls-ee-had

― ron (ron), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 01:33 (twenty-three years ago)

I keep hearing it in my head as "Al - sih - had" (rhymes with "Galahad").

― Jody Beth Rosen, Wednesday, 4 September 2002 01:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Alsihad explained.

― Jody Beth Rosen, Wednesday, 4 September 2002 01:52 (twenty-three years ago)

i win!!

― ron (ron), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 02:51 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm guessing that much of the flak PT has garnered over the years is down to bit-truncation within the application. Any mixing/DSP operation on digital audio involves an increase in wordlength and, apparently, PT likes (or *liked*) to chop off the least significant bits routinely to speed things along. I'm not sure if this is still the case with the latest incarnations, or whether it was also true of Logic, Cubase, etc. I suspect it's not at all true of hardware digital multi-trackers - yr Radars, Tascams, Mackies, etc.

I could be entirely misinformed about this.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 12:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Sorry, you can't really garner flak, can you?

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 12:32 (twenty-three years ago)

You can garnish it with sage.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 13:21 (twenty-three years ago)

mmm flak with sage

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 4 September 2002 21:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Cheers.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Thursday, 5 September 2002 00:45 (twenty-three years ago)

three months pass...

Could I get the flak with sage and a side of alsihad sauce?

― ainjel, Wednesday, 18 December 2002 18:21 (twenty-two years ago)

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