If you really want to appreciate Tracktion...

[river]

I own both Sonar 3PE and T2. They both have strengths and weaknesses. I bought T2 to facilitate moving tracks recorded on my SDR to Sonar since it will open a project file from a Mackie HDR and line up all the punches where they belong, then render files. Then I moved onto editing and comping things in T2, it's definitely easier than editing in Sonar. I'm torn on the zooming feature, love using the mousewheel, but hate how the nowtime cursor drifts while zooming. Sonar centers the cursor and it sits there until you're done. I can also punch on the fly in Sonar, not T2. I've only done the barest of quick mixes in T2, no EQ or effects at all, hoping to find time in coming weeks to give it a crack.

[paladium]

I cannot comment on sonar, but the interface looks to busy for me.

On the other hand Tracktion lacks some major functions for me, midiwise.

Midieditting is still clumsy in T2, fiddly, like where am i on the virtual keyboard on the left, what octave, why does this soingpointer glue to my mousecursor.

I switched from T1 to T2 for midisync, DOESN't work.

What annoys me also is that with traction updates
is that the new update devellops errors in
functions that worked fine in previous version,
so much that i hesitate of installing newer version anyway.
For midi i switched back to atari with clab
notator, this does things i haven't seen in any pc software anywhere. Like , if you insert control changes and you are in the middle of a song and stop, upon continue it realtime replays your changes that
lie IN FRONT of the position you continued from, or
how for this one, in notator i can program hex strings of sysex that i can view as decimal, i have 1400 PPQ
note resolution, notator never crashes, rock solid timing, i can jump and realtime play any pattern in realtime with keycommands, i can double or halfspeed
any pattern at any given time, patterns can be ghostcopys of any existing patterns but with different beat values ,different transpose, different quantization values, different beat measures and all from a same source pattern.
i can record my screen movements into my patterns
no gaudi colors to tire eyes, etc etc ...


This 15 year old program pisses on any midiprogram eversince. So where does that leave traction for me.

Mackie have to give the audiopart priority in future
updates, decent stretching , being able to rerecord/reroute its vstioutput (midi) as a copy into another track in realtime. Make the virtual
keyb in midieditor helpfull instead of counterproductive, assign clips to keycommands, make some midiplugs for chording , splitting. MAKE THE MIDICLOCKSYNC WORK, Integration of a waveditor.

Come on mackie ,jules you can do it

[Beardedone]

Thanks Paladium for this post. I was not into midi music when Atari was the thing to use. It is amazing how many people hark back to this program. Sounds like it's time to resurrect the code.

[JamminFool]

For midi i switched back to atari with clab
notator, this does things i haven't seen in any pc software anywhere. Like , if you insert control changes and you are in the middle of a song and stop, upon continue it realtime replays your changes that
lie IN FRONT of the position you continued from,

SONAR has an option to do this.

[virtualcai]

The Atari OS had the big advantage to be designed for realtime apps. One could assign a fixed bandwith for an audiostream and be absolutely sure no clicks would come when rolling this big trackball. Well of course no VST then.

cai (who had a falcon once)

[Beardedone]

SONAR has an option to do this.

Hmmmm. I think that's right but I have never tried it. Got to try that myself

[stash98]

one of the things that took me from Tracktion is setup time. I use a lot of VSTi's and the templates just are not as smooth as Cubase. Cubase does a lot of work for you when it comes to a huge VSTi like BFD or Battery. It sets up all the channels and everything is ready to go in less then a minute.

Tracktion requires you to assign each channel everyt time you start a new song..a lot of little things like that pop up in tracktion and workflow gets slowed way down. BUT, I use MIDI 80% of each song, so Cubase just makes more sense for my style. I still reccomend Tracktion to plenty of people, especially a mausican new to recording who just wants to learn on a user friendly interface with less bells and whistles.

[Lunch Money]

I seem to be using BFD no problem. Drag'n'drop!

I know, I know, that's because I'm using it in stereo rather than multi-out mode, but really... multi-out mode is a pain in the ass for me. Frankly, I don't want a different compressor and EQ for snare, kick, etc. I'll just use a multi-band and a 'global' EQ, thanks.

But, for those who DO use multi-outs, you just make a rack for that purpose. Then you don't have to set up each time at all, you just drag the rack, the same way you'd drag any other plug-in!

Greg

[Beardedone]

But, for those who DO use multi-outs, you just make a rack for that purpose. Then you don't have to set up each time at all, you just drag the rack, the same way you'd drag any other plug-in!

Not sure I understand. How do you make a rack containg a multiout VSTi and save it as a preset?

Gordon

[Lunch Money]

Well, there was a thread posted recently-- one you were a part of, if I remember correctly!

Without going into the bits and bobs of the rack itself, you basically just go out of your multiple outs into whatever effects you think you want to use (say, for example, you love Blockfish on your kicks, but prefer W1 Limiter on your snare) and then out the other end.

Once the rack's built, you just look in the bottom panel (the same area that ALL context-sensitive information appears) and manage presets->add to list of presets.

Then it's available in any project, as long as you don't completely 'close' the one your rack is in.

Even better, you make a "presets" project, do up your rack, and then add it to the "Library". This is the intended purpose of the Library Projects, in addition to sampler presets and so forth.

Greg

[IIRs]

Cue picture:

[Beardedone]

Thanks guys. This is good news. But I am still lost. I cannot find the "manage presets->add to list of presets." button. I click on the rack and instrument panel appears. But no manage presets.

I know I should read the manual but it puts me to sleep.

[rpc9943]

hey paladin great post i saw some screens to some Atari ST programs and it boggles me why there arent programs like this now... I personally can't handle tracktion's midi handling either, but then again I like to work at not as precise as you are explaining, I come from a tracker background (specifically impulse tracker) and revisit is my answer to that... so I'm set

I think they should at least pop in a step sequencer built in though, or at least have an option to lock the grid's length somehow

RonC

[dto]

I cannot find the "manage presets->add to list of presets." button. I click on the rack and instrument panel appears. But no manage presets.

Click inside an open rack and you should see it at the bottom, like this:

I know I should read the manual but it puts me to sleep.

Perhaps, but it would have answered your question a long time ago.

Edit: I don't mean to sound snooty, but I write software manuals for a living.

[stash98]

u can use BFD ultra and make a template, but you will still have to set up each channel EVERY time, and it is a huge pain. Load up BFD all in Cubase and then do it in Trakction and see how dramatically easier it is in cubase.

BFD stereo is ok I guess, but I compress every drum and basically treat it just like a Micd kit. This is all MIDI based, and Tracktion doesn't shine in this category...though for setting up audio and going, T is great..for the price, its the best software out.