Tracktion Software

IIRs · Post by **IIRs** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 12:57 pm

Just for the record: every version of Cubase I have ever used has had loads more bugs in it than any version of Tracktion I ever used.

mikejade · Post by **mikejade** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 1:21 pm

Tracktion is great for audio-oriented musician, the recording and re-recording options in T2 make it a joy to use. Quality of the output mainly rests on the input stage and the plug-ins used, but the included ones will do the job for any demo, and with a few better ones (Vintage Warmer, some good EQ and convultion reverb) it will get the more serious project up to the mastering stage.

Midi is good enough for players, no options for SYS programming and notation. But, automation drawing is a breeze. Use free Stepbeater sequencer for added comfort when creating looped stuff.

There are issues with some VST plug-ins and Rewire, not quite sure who to blame in particular cases. Maybe even the soundcard drivers.

Other than that, this is the best solution for any small-scale recording. Mind you, P.J.Harvey would still consider it an overkill, listen to her last album, recorded on the 4-track...

IIRs · Post by **IIRs** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 2:32 pm

mikejade wrote:Quality of the output mainly rests on the input stage and the plug-ins used, but the included ones will do the job for any demo, and with a few better ones (Vintage Warmer, some good EQ and convultion reverb) it will get the more serious project up to the mastering stage.

Quality of output mainly rests on the pair of ears making the decisions..

I would put quality monitors much higher up the list of essentials for a serious project than plugs such as Vintage Warmer..

In fact, I would recommend people spend at least 4 times the price of Tracktion on some decent monitoring (plus £30 on 'Mastering Audio' by Bob Katz) before even trying any other compressors or EQ's..

aldi · Post by **aldi** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:09 pm

IIRs wrote:Just for the record: every version of Cubase I have ever used has had loads more bugs in it than any version of Tracktion I ever used.

because cubase has 100 times more features, it's "logical", that it has more bugs and the chance that they didn't affect your daily work is much higher, because most of cubase features are not often used in daily work. so you have to look, which bugs are affecting your work.

IIRs · Post by **IIRs** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:13 pm

The version of Cubase I use now has many issues that would affect me every day had I not learnt how to work around them.

Even so, I regularly have to re-export midi files because Cubase 'forgot' to put the patch & volume data into some or all of the tracks.. that one bug on its own is more irritating than anything I have ever run into in T.

IIRs · Post by **IIRs** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:17 pm

and incidentally, for every feature Cubase has that Tracktion doesn't, there is a Tracktion feature that Cubase users hadn't even thought of..

soulata · Post by **soulata** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:27 pm

I like T2's workflow very much (well, I sold it, so it's not thaaat much).

But I might jump on it again in T4 time.

What bothered me the most was:

1) it goes out of time when turning the click on/off
2) you can't just press record in the middle of playing - it skips the beat or two

apart from that, it's excellent for tracking (that's what I usually do, I rarely mix anything)

k

Beardedone · Post by **Beardedone** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:33 pm

I will say that's it is way better than Cubase.

Bill @ Irie Lab · Post by **Bill @ Irie Lab** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:54 pm

Tom,

When Logic (Apple) abandon Windows I was crushed. But as one door closes another opens - enter Tracktion.

Logic has way cool MIDI editting features that I sometimes miss, but I don't miss spending more time setting up than recording, misterious error messages (Achtung!...), or lock-ups or crashes when we're finally getting the performance we're waited 5 hours to hear.

I use Cubase LE for its MIDI editting but when it "roll tape" time it's Tracktion - good stuff.

mle · Post by **mle** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 7:48 pm

Recall that the original poster said that when he does use the MIDI portion of Sonar, it's mainly to do drum programming. Tracktion has no drum editor view, so he will be hard pressed to use Tracktion for this important task. Still, he could maybe do drum programming in Sonar, and export the MIDI file for importing into Tracktion before doing audio. This could potentially save him a lot of time, because Tracktion's audio capabilities are much easier to use than Sonar.

IIRs · Post by **IIRs** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 8:25 pm

If you <cntrl> select a key on the piano keyboard pop-up it will select all notes of that pitch. You can then easily edit the velocities for just that note in a similar way to a drum editor.. (use the select tool to scale them all, or the pen tool to adjust them individually: default hot-keys are 'S' and 'D' to switch between them) it takes a little getting used to, but its quite fast and efficient. (I use Cubase VST's drum editor every day so I am aware of what else is possible with a dedicated drum editor, but the velocities thing was what I missed most until I discovered this method)

mikejade · Post by **mikejade** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 9:21 pm

IIRs wrote:
mikejade wrote:Quality of the output mainly rests on the input stage and the plug-ins used, but the included ones will do the job for any demo, and with a few better ones (Vintage Warmer, some good EQ and convultion reverb) it will get the more serious project up to the mastering stage.
Quality of output mainly rests on the pair of ears making the decisions.. I would put quality monitors much higher up the list of essentials for a serious project than plugs such as Vintage Warmer..

In fact, I would recommend people spend at least 4 times the price of Tracktion on some decent monitoring (plus £30 on 'Mastering Audio' by Bob Katz) before even trying any other compressors or EQ's..

Uh, sure, I forgot to mention that part, as I concentrated on software.

Still, these too seem to be an overkill for P.J.

lharless · Post by **lharless** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 11:13 pm

i find that tracktion helps me to record and edit audio. it's also easy to use. it is the easiest professional recording and editing software available at the moment. simply.

i like tracktion very much. i recommend it to any serious cubase, sonar, pt le user that is getting tired of the over hyped and over priced crap they're being fed. tracktion will also become a personal friend after you've done a couple projects on it. the time you save will take away the rings under your eyes.

get a control surface and you're golden. i plan on getting the tascam us-2400. ill be good to go at that point.

until i can afford the tascam x-48 and another onyx 1640, ill stick with this. it's easily the best thing going at the moment. a great community as well. and sometimes the developer stops by to hand out free potatoes.

james0tucson · Post by **james0tucson** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 11:21 pm

Tracktion seems to appeal to a type of user who is less into tinkering with the tools and more into having the tools get out of his way. That's perfectly understandable, especially in an application context like audio.

It isn't my cup of tea, but that's only because I'm very stubborn in my preferences. T2 would be a very, very good choice for someone who just wants to work in the idiom of making music, and have less to do with the DAW itself. There's a lot to be said for that approach. T2 users are putting out material left and right, while all I ever do is mess around with software.

bchamp · Post by **bchamp** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 11:22 pm

Is anyone here besides myself running T2 on a Mac? I'm curious if any other Mac users are running into the same issues as me.

The problem I'm having with jerky knob movement within plugins is not restricted to Sonik Synth & Sampletank...it happens in any plugin with linear knob movement...rotation knobs seem fine.

regards,
BC

Tracktion Software

KVR Audio

How do you like Tracktion?