Public betas just continue to grow in popularity — and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve been participating in Adobe public betas for Flash, Lightroom, and Soundbooth, and in each case the developers have gotten the opportunity to respond to user feedback while I’ve gotten the chance to work tools more gradually into a workflow. Vista’s launch may have been a bit rocky, but it went a lot smoother than it would have without its massive beta. And Ableton squashed bugs and added features with their Live 6 beta, including even the last-minute addition of crossfader curves.
The latest is, surprise, Digidesign, with their new Structure Sampler. Head to Digi’s Structure site for the beta download. You’ll need some flavor of Pro Tools 7, of course, plus an iLok; you’ll get the software and a library of samples to play with. Should be worth doing for Pro Tools users; this is the latest from the AIR soft synth division, with talented vets of recently-acquired software house Wizoo. Now, if Digidesign would only release a native VST/AU version; I’ll add that to my wish list of things that will never ever happen.