I've been using Cubase SX for years, but have always found it extremely difficult to really get in control of due its immense feature set and cluttered user interface. It's always felt as if Cubase was controlling me, and everybody on this forum knows that this is not exactly a good starting point when you are having a moment of divine creativity
Having tried the T2 demo, I must say that it's striking to see how different and easy, yet sofisticated, a sequencer program can be - not least the user interface, which I find extremely attractive.
It's difficult to point out exactly what I like most, but the MIDI editor seems really cool and is not far from being equal to the one in Logic in terms of user friendliness, IMO, though it lacks some of the advanced function. It's got the potential to become a state of the art editor in the future, if Mackie keeps on developing it with their current way of thinking.
It would, however, be nice if it were possible to make the MIDI editor full screen when editing. In its current incarnation I still can't get the biiiig overview of what I'm editing - but still, the way it basically works compensates somewhat for this.
As for the VST instrument implementation, I must say that it's a brilliant way that you insert instruments and effects; it's very very easy to get an overview of your loaded plugins and their part allocations at any given time. However, it doesn't seem possible to use multiple MIDI channels in one VST instrument which is a shame for those of us using Kontakt, Hypersonic etc. Maybe this could be something to work on in a future update.
Bottomline, T2 is an extremely easy to use sequencer and in terms of functionality it's getting closer to the big ones, like Cubase, Logic etc (and at only one tenth of the price!!!). However, in some areas I think that T2 has already surpassed these other programs! And I've got absolutely no doubt whatsoever that if Mackie keeps on improving Tracktion, sooner or later it WILL become the software of choice for even studio pros - I really really hope that this is their ambition. As for now, T2 a very well thoughtout piece of software that seems capable of satisfying most users.
Regards,
Think77
