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Back in 1994/5 I remember having conversations with Dave when I was in the Tech Support group at Digi about how messed up ProTools was.... He was actually amazingly talented at finding faults, both large and small in most of Digi's stuff. But he was friends with Peter and Evan, and approached the problem with the most positive and forceful manner one could imagine.
Then, He was there. Hired by Digi to be a guru of sorts....
I remember being impressed (awed actually) with the thought that he had played keyboards for both Bowie and Laurie Anderson as well as about a million other great artists in the NY and world music scene-
Then I started noticing he was staying until 9 and 10pm every night.... logging bugs in ProTools and SampleCell mainly.... He would bring them to us (I was then in software testing) and spend as much time as was required to be able to reproduce the bugs so we could get them to the developers.
I left Digi about a year after that, but Dave never, ever wavered. I saw him on numerous occassions prevent the shipping of unfinished software and he was a tireless customer advocate.
I really cannot agree with the notion that he was not significant at Avid/Digi, because at least in the Digi universe, he was the most significant person there since Peter and Evan, and maybe Paul Lego (Chris Bock had special significance, but not in the same manner).
Digi will certainly be different- they have some challanges that are shared by all companies in the business, but I dont see them dying over his departure- I also think he will have a less significant impact at Apple- but that wont be because of lack of effort or passion.
Apple is truly blessed to have Dave in their corner- but they will be the ones who will choose how Dave will be used.
He is a General Patton personality. If Apple wants to give him the gas to take over the world, He will deliver.
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