You can't explain that.

You just sigh, and suffer. As gracefully as you can.

No suffering here, still using and loving Tracktion. Picked up the Ultimate version for $20, just because it's so ridiculously cheap!

I'm another still using it. Have Logic, DP7, and Studio one on my Mac, but Tracktion 3 is my favorite on my Desktop and laptop PCs. So easy and once set up for XP pro, very stable. I love it.

I spent an evening jamming on my netbook with my Toneport, AmpFarm and Reason re-wired into Tracktion. I love the abundance of 1-key hot key commands for recording, looping, metronome and so on. It almost felt like I was playing with a nice little hardware recording gizmo.

I stacked up 12 track no problem (just to see if I could) with Reason 4 pumping (pimpin'?) out the beats. Fun!

I recorded the AmpFarm effects wet, of course, and just put a low cut filter on each track to thin out the mud. I prefer to leave fewer options open these days, and instead treat each recording as if I'm micing an amp in the room. Try to get a good sound right in the beginning, even rolling off a bit of low end from the amp (sim) instead of having to cut it later. It's a fun way to work, and kind of nice to be able to return to old projects and not need to fumble around for missing plugins and such. PRINT IT!

Nice little songwriting package right there, with the netbook on a shelf right at eye level.

Reaper runs great on that netbook too, but Reason/Record starts to stutter when recording after a track or two from the Toneport, so I'm only running that on the desktop for now. I think I'll be spending more time with Tracktion in this context, but may roll back from T3 to T2. I really miss the 1-key markers from version 2 (I don't really need more than 9), and a lot of the time-stretching rigmarole is just not needed for what I generally do.

I did have problems with synth automation on T2 which was resolved on T3, but I do most of that in Reason now.

Also miss those gummy, candy-like and endlessly swooshy little magnetic arrows on the input icons...

A big cheer to Mackie for keeping all the old versions accessible on their site! Next time I see an old purple iMac in the trash I may have to grab it and slap T1 on there...just to prove I can! (Did v1 run on OS9?)

I don't think version 1 ran on Mac.

Tracktion was my first love - recorded an entire album on it, which was released commercially. Went through T1 and T2, the hey day of Jules, and remember the excitement of the release of T3 very well. Bought the instruction video to get to grips with all the new features.

Eventually had to give up as it was clear Mackie had too. I bought Sonar Producer two years ago, and spent six months learning it. I hankered for the old days and occasionally went back to T3. Then I realised that all the wonderful shortcuts I knew in T3 were there in Sonar - I just had to configure it the way I wanted (Key Bindings).

Never looked back since. Sonar is ten times better than Tracktion ever was. You never forget your first love, but I am so so glad I moved on.

If you are still with Tracktion and are considering a move to one of the big DAWs, you have to be prepared to put the work in, but you will be rewarded many times over.

Cheers, Bill

I bought a new laptop recently but to my horror i couldn't get Tracktion to run properly and initially thought it had something to do with Win 7. Thus I gave Reaper a spin.

Then came the audio interface I ordered and I decided to try Tracktion out once more, as I thought the unstability could have to do with the ASIO4ALL drivers - which turned out to be true. Tracktion now runs stable on the laptop as well.

Now I'm in a bit of doubt on which host to choose... Reaper points to the future but on the other hand I know Tracktion like the back of my hand.

By all means get to know Reaper, but when you've got a song, used the host that works for you now. I read an inspiring CM article on Nathan Fake (British electronic musician) and he still uses something like Cubase VST 5 and Cool Edit, simply because it's always worked for him. He seems to have a constant fountain of musical creativity and those apps (running on an ancient single core pc) are enough to catch it all.

Also check out the free WLAN Optimizer (google it), so you can work on your PC without having to shut down Wifi to avoid dropouts. Very nice!

Also, I've been using T3 on my Netbook running Windows 7, and got a lot of bad sound using asio4all until I clicked the 'use ASIO Direct Mode'. Your mileage may vary.

Still running T1, myself. Part of it is inertia, part is sheer poverty (it's the NFR 1.6 freebie, ffs), but mostly it's love. Tried Reaper, N-Track, a few versions of Cubase, and hated them all; can't believe anybody can get any work done with such systems. Tempted by Sonar, though; loved it on a friend's rig when I tried it a few years ago, and rumor says it now has the current versions of Blockfish and Endorphin.

Remember that you can create a support account on the mackie.com web page and then buy/download T2 for 29.95. Might be time for an upgrade! ; )

I run T1 on a 500Mhz G3 iBook from 2001 all the time. Works great and is super stable. I use it to mix on my living room couch when I'm feeling lazy.

Gotta be honest, have been working the last couple weeks on a new song using Tracktion 3 and I'm wondering how people are using this program...

Was able to lay down tracks OK but started running into CPU issues on my MB Core Duo 2GHz far sooner then I do using LogicExpress 8. So I froze tracks and that's when my frustration has peaked. I have about 14 tracks I'm using, most audio with a couple plugs(ampsims, EQ, reverb, comp, the usual suspects) and the only way i can play the tracks back and add stuff is if they're all frozen...

Problem is, it takes way longer than the length of the track to freeze things and I can't get the blasted things to save permenently causing me to waste at least an hour refreezing all the tracks. Just opened it up after a few days away and none of my frozen tracks are there.

Is there no way to freeze everything I want all at once like on Logic? And why won't it save when I come back to it later, wtf?

Don't get me wrong, I think I got my money's worth in extras in buying Tracktion. But I don't think I'd start another idea in T3, it's pretty frustrating unless I'm just stupid (which I can acknowledge may be a possibility with not having rtfm) I can't get past this issue to make this program worth using on a consistent basis, tbh.

Any help would be appreciated from those who know this program better than I, thanks in advance.

Or should I start a new thread?

debra1rlo,

Under Settings / Audio, what number do you see in the 'Processors to use' text box? If you see '1', change it to '2'.

Keep us posted!

-skent

thanks skipkent... hmmmm well, it is 2 already so it must not be that

but thanks, i had never even noticed that particular setting before , tbh