The Spirit of St.Croix
This is a personal blurb from me about my friend and business partner of many MANY years, Stephen St.Croix. Some of you will be very familiar with him from his years of writing, agitating, pushing, and being a no bull evaluator of all things audio (and toys….I mean professional tools) from his Mix column. I knew him as a mentor, friend and someone with whom I butted heads with daily (believe me my head still hurts).
He taught me a lot about audio. But the most important thing he taught me was to hold all things audio to the highest, most ridiculous, and unattainable standard. Then try to make it better. There were times when exhausted about some detail of some product we were working on I’d scream “dammit it’s better than everything else out there by miles,” but he didn’t care. I wanted to strangle him. But he was right.
Steve passed away almost three years ago today. But besides memories, pictures, history and knowledge I carry what I call “the spirit of St.Croix” inside my head for every project. It’s almost a cliche, but I always ask “what would Steve do?” Or more accurately “how would Steve tear this thing to shreds before feeding it to his cats?”
So Steve, if you are reading this, yes, I know, I know, it all can be better. Darnit it’s only version 1.x, leave me alone, we’ll fix it on the update. Wishing you were here. Hope you like the digital Time Modulator.
Steve was directly involved in the audio portion of the Marshal Time Modulator plug-in.
Edmund Pirali
Posted June 2nd, 2009
Previous post: Artificial Artificial Intelligence OR There's Something about Randomness (acting on things with inherent structure)
Next post: What are we thinking?

16 Comments
Rob AMarch 16th, 2010
Hi Edmond, this is so good to hear, that would be like the coolest thing, waking up to an email notification that Paris 3.1 has been released...!! My system is a Quad core i7 / 4 gigs ddr3 ram, Gigabyte mobo / 3 EDS / 2 MECS / 3 c16 / MikeA EDS XP drivers / 1 UAD / Faderworks / VST wrapper / DX, midi disable.
Take care Edmond and come on over to the new group to say hi, we'd love to have you visit.
www.kerrygalloway.com/ParisForums/
Thanks again for your masterpiece.
Robert Arsenault
>Thank you for the kind comment. We are still working on bringing Paris back to life. What platform are you running Paris on?<
Eric DhumezMarch 7th, 2010
I have Paris since 1998. Don't use it anymore. But is was and still is my first love and would drop my PT HD3 if Paris came back alive.
Eric
KerrygJanuary 1st, 2010
Gentlemen, a New Years toast to you: may all your endeavours in 2010 garner the kind of appreciation and loyalty you see expressed here about PARIS - particularly amazing when you think about how fast-moving today's DAW world is, and how many years have passed since PARIS was in production.
Happy New Year to you all from the PARISforums!
Kurt GregoryDecember 24th, 2009
Hi Edmund.
I am so glad to see you and ID doing well. I check in once in a while to see what you guys are up to, yes and hoping Paris gets further development. I have 2 mec 4 card system on Mac Platform. Would love to see it run on a G5 even if you didnt change a thing in its function and performance. Thanks for all your support over the years.
Tom BruhlNovember 16th, 2009
Hi Edmund,
Still using Paris since '99. Love it's sound and look of the mixer. I am now on a PC quadcore and running with lightning speed using macros Faderworks and FF4-X. Hopefully more than just the Paris spirit will continue!
Thanks for all the hours Stephen and yourself put into it.
Tom B.
LaMont DavisOctober 8th, 2009
Hi Edmund!..Still using Paris on PC (Win XP). For mixing, it's still my favorite..
Carl AmburnJuly 23rd, 2009
Hi Edmund & co.,
Great to see ID still at it. ! I'm still using Paris (since '98) all the time (xp). It still feels and sounds better to my ears than any other daw I've worked on. The headroom and non-linear clipping areas throughout the signal chain are just.... well... fun. :)
macysoundJuly 21st, 2009
Hi Edmund,
Still running two Paris systems...I am currently summing 24 lightpipe outs from my ProTools HD3 into 24 LP in in my Paris system and love it..lets mu clients work and edit in a system they are familiar with and still get the Paris sound I love so much...still do many projects start to finish in Paris...can't wait to heat the MTM...thanks for keeping Steven's spirit alive...
Kerry GallowayJuly 15th, 2009
Hi David - I don't want to hijack the thread, so I'll just say -
1) yes, 3.0 is an excellent upgrade, well worth it, and
2) if you want PARIS help of any sort (or just PARIS related chat) click over to ID's legacy products area, find the PARIS section and click through from there to the PARIS forums, where you'll find an active PARIS community who'll be happy to help you with any questions you might have about our favorite DAW.
David BatchelorJuly 14th, 2009
Upgrading from v2 to v3 is what I meant. Comments please. Advice all welcome.
David batchelorJuly 14th, 2009
Great I have found Paris people. Having had mine get dusty for the past few years I had it put on a G4 and am going to use it to record my next CD instead of other software. When I go back and listen to the work I have done using Paris it just has something sound wise I can't get anywhere else. I am even thinking about upgrading to #. Any input would be most welcome. Very excited about the ID plug ins too.
James PhillipsJuly 3rd, 2009
Hello Edmund,
Cool to here your working on Paris.
I just love paris they way it works,looks and the sounds.
Hope to see some new mac drivers so i can replce my old g4's.
Best of luck. Jim
EdmundJune 29th, 2009
Definitely! It would be great to know what people are doing with Paris, how they are doing, etc.
Hey Edmund -June 29th, 2009
FYI, I started a new OS poll in the PARIS forums a couple of days ago that might generate some relevant info. I'll keep it open for a much longer window than previous polls so we can capture some of the less-frequent visitors and thus get a better sample.
- K
Edmund PiraliJune 29th, 2009
Thank you for the kind comment. We are still working on bringing Paris back to life. What platform are you running Paris on?
Robert AJune 28th, 2009
Hi Edmund, nice to hear from you again. I have been and still am a Paris user since 98. I use your masterpiece everyday and still love it.
God bless you and Steve.
Rob