NAMM 2009 NO Traction

[koolkeys]

I can say as a matter of FACT that there was no sign of Tracktion at NAMM. I checked. That doesn't mean there isn't something going on, but it just wasn't there.

I wish I could share more, but unfortunately, I can't. But I DID find out some Tracktion news this week while here(I swore not to tell for now).

Brent

[oxbee]

Really I don't mind about a new version/Namm blah... I've changed my PC 2 weeks ago for a Core2Duo/lot of RAM/WinXP/etc.. thing and I have absolutely no problem. It works perfectly with an amazing CPU headroom on all my projects that were constantly hitting the red whenever I played them.

So, I'm a slave to Tracktion more than ever

[MelodyMan]

But I DID find out some Tracktion news this week while here(I swore not to tell for now).
Brent

But you can tell if that is good or bad news, no ?

[HLW]

There you go. I read a lot of speculation and conspiracy theories in these forums about companies "dumping" us. Theories without information, without facts, ar just that and it makes it really easy to jump to conclusions, especially negative conclusions. The last reply demonstrates one of the best ways to get to the truth and that is to go straight to the source. Every time I have called Mackie tech support, I have gotten answers. Of course, it depends on who you get on the other end and what level of support they are on as to whether you get a satisfactory answer. It's always that way wherever you go. Hang up and call again and get a different rep. Email support has not been quite as reliable but still very helpful for clearing things up if they are capable. When I emailed them about updates to T3 and why there had not been any recently, the reply was that a lot of the issues had been resolved and this was THE most stable version so far. He added to that, "Why mess with a good thing"? You may not agree with that, but I do, because for me, stability is the most important thing. He said many customers were having issues because they have the plug ins folder pointing in the wrong direction. All the user says in the forums is that Tracktion crashes. Also, there were definitely issues with Vista, but I don't know if those have been resolved. Also, Leopard had Firewire issues that caused crashing that were blamed on T3.
My point to all of this, is just to suggest that you try contacting the guys at Mackie and get real answers. I have had great success working this way.

If you worry, you die.
If you don't worry, you still die.
So don't worry.

Cheers.

[jplanet]

There you go. I read a lot of speculation and conspiracy theories in these forums about companies "dumping" us. Theories without information, without facts, ar just that and it makes it really easy to jump to conclusions, especially negative conclusions. The last reply demonstrates one of the best ways to get to the truth and that is to go straight to the source. Every time I have called Mackie tech support, I have gotten answers. Of course, it depends on who you get on the other end and what level of support they are on as to whether you get a satisfactory answer. It's always that way wherever you go. Hang up and call again and get a different rep. Email support has not been quite as reliable but still very helpful for clearing things up if they are capable. When I emailed them about updates to T3 and why there had not been any recently, the reply was that a lot of the issues had been resolved and this was THE most stable version so far. He added to that, "Why mess with a good thing"? You may not agree with that, but I do, because for me, stability is the most important thing. He said many customers were having issues because they have the plug ins folder pointing in the wrong direction. All the user says in the forums is that Tracktion crashes. Also, there were definitely issues with Vista, but I don't know if those have been resolved. Also, Leopard had Firewire issues that caused crashing that were blamed on T3.
My point to all of this, is just to suggest that you try contacting the guys at Mackie and get real answers. I have had great success working this way.

If you worry, you die.
If you don't worry, you still die.
So don't worry.

Cheers.

This is worse than I thought - it would have been more comforting to find out that Mackie knew that T3 was so buggy that it wasn't worth developing, rather than hear them say that it's just fine. It's as if Mackie is putting their fingers in their ears going "la la la la I can't hear you!" when bugs are reported.

My plugins folder is pointed to the right place, and this is what I'm dealing with on a Windows XP SP2 system with an M-Audio Audiophile 2496 PCI card with latest drivers, 4GB of RAM, Core 2 Duo, system optimized for audio:

- Sustain pedal is recorded incorrectly - half the time it gets recorded as half-pedal when it was clearly recorded at full pedal. This makes for hours of editing just to capture a simple keyboard performance.
- When MIDI clips are merged without deleting notes outside of the clip, the merged MIDI is completely garbled, making the simple process of merging clips a tedious process.
- Most sample-based instruments render incorrectly, or not at all.
- MIDI is only correctly exported if there are no tempo/time sig changes, and the tempo is always a whole number.
- T3 randomly disappears in the middle of working.
- I won't even begin to get into the mayhem that ensues if I attempt to use folder tracks.

I would be ready to blame plugins, drivers or system configuration, but T2 has none of these issues on the same system, using the same plugins and projects. Reaper seems to perform these tasks quite comfortably as well.

[rpc9943]

well lets presume there is a new version in the works, why would they want to hear bug issues right now?
think about it.

also - yes i dont use folder tracks, but i never ever ever ever get poof. try to remmeber exactly what you were doing during a poof.

RonC

[rainydays]

Theories without information, without facts, ar just that and it makes it really easy to jump to conclusions, especially negative conclusions.

Well, I consider it a fact that T3 has been out for 2 years soon, and major showstopping bugs (like the Mac plugin bugs) are still there. Add to that that it will pretty soon be one year since the last update.

There is just no excuse for it. The bugs should have been fixed by now. Sure it might be hard to fix them, but it's not exactly rocket science. I'm pretty sure I could figure out the plugin bugs in two years time, and I'm not even a very good programmer.

It's pretty clear that Mackie just don't give a s**t about me as a costumer. Even though their problem might be with the third party company that develops Tracktion it's really Mackie who is responsible.

I'm not sure if giving up on a product/company after two years of waiting is considered "jumping to conclusions".

[jplanet]

.... try to remmeber exactly what you were doing during a poof.
...

It happens after doing a lot of MIDI editing, and then trying to save the project.

e.g., possibly the worst time for a crash imaginable, because it means that a lot of painstaking work is lost...

It seems that the consistent difference between me and others with similar setups who have no problems, is that I work with a lot of time sig and tempo changes, and my tempos are almost never whole numbers (I tap out the feel, and if the tempo has a fraction in it, I leave it).

[Mauvehead]

try to remember exactly what you were doing during a poof.

RonC

Ummm....anytime I use T3 on my Intel Core2Duo 2.4GHz (4GB Ram) MacBook Pro + OSX (latest).

No plugs, no midi tracks, no automation, no inputs, just listening back to raw audio (usually wav or aiff) files, etc..

Random Poof Crashes abound. Entire song/project's worth of files get disassociated with the said song/project (although the files are still in the exact same location/folder on the hard drive). CPU sucks even with no plugs, automation, midi, etc. or any other programs running in the background.

[jplanet]

well lets presume there is a new version in the works, why would they want to hear bug issues right now?
think about it....

Ok, I thought about it - the Reaper developers are working on version 3.0. There is a version 2.99 in alpha testing, and the current 2.54 version is not only stable, but gets updated with frequent bug fixes (no show-stoppers, BTW), and more features will still be added before version 3.0 is released.

So the answer to "why would they want to hear bug issues right now?" is: Because paying customers cannot use the software until they fix them, they have known about these bugs for more than a year, and competing products are doing a stellar job keeping up with bug fixes, as well as keeping their user community informed.

So, it's more than just a little lame to hear that Mackie's view on this is: "Why fix it if it isn't broken?".

[rpc9943]

what im saying is what if they are doing an entire engine re-write? what then?

It could explain the silence.

This is all theory, of course.

RonC

[canadave]

what im saying is what if they are doing an entire engine re-write? what then?

It could explain the silence.

This is all theory, of course.

RonC

In fairness, Ron, whether they're doing an entire engine rewrite or nothing at all, Mackie still owe it to their inquiring customers to be more forthcoming about what's going on. I specifically mentioned this via email to the Mackie support rep who replied to my inquiry, and I suggested that it would be in their best interest to post some word either here or in the official T3 Mackie forum to let concerned customers know what's happening. I never heard back after that.

Communicating with paying customers about the state of development or non-development is fundamentally expected of a software company. Of course they don't have to communicate anything--that's their right. In that case it's also the right of those customers (justifiably, in my mind) to feel betrayed and let down, and then start to look elsewhere for a software company that is more responsive to customer concerns.

Personally I'm content to wait and see what happens (it's certainly looking more positive now), but I don't blame anyone for wanting to jump ship.

[oxbee]

I'm still surprised of all those bugs you're mentionning. I sometimes feel like I use that tool the bad and basic way.
I've never had to complain about T3 so far. Everything works perfectly fine and I do a lot of recording (ac/el guitar, bass, voice, synths...) with extensive use of VSTi and VST.
I bought a new PC 2 weeks ago so I had to migrate everything on it and all went well.

So, the only exception for me is in my plug-ins list. I have a limited set of plugins that I use like my Nomad Factory Blue Tubes, Ohmforce (full bundle) Kjaerhus and Mackie built-in plugs for signal processing. I have something like 20 synths (freeware and commercial) and that's all. Nothing else.

So, as the VSTcache seems to be an issue according to another post here, maybe it may explain your problems. I don't know... Just trying to figure it out.

[jplanet]

The smoking gun that proves that none of these issues can be blamed on plugins or drivers is as simple as this: Tracktion 2 does not have these same problems.

I would view a complete re-write of the engine as I would view an abusive spouse who went to rehab. Ok, nice that they worked out their problems, but what's to stop a relapse of their earlier bad behavior? If Tracktion 4 has bugs, we can look forward to half of the users telling us to stop complaining because it works fine for them, and Mackie telling us that as far as they are concerned, all the bugs are fixed.

[Mr. Tingle]

even if they release T4, why would you bother downloading and helping them to bug test the bugger? Seriously they have been given soooo many good bug reports from so many different places that CONSISTENTLY show horrendous bugs on the mac platform and done NOTHING. Why spend even more time on this type of uncaring company. Where you give your money encourages that company and its behavior.

They dropped the ball.