Mixcraft 8 -- opinions from actual users?

[lingyai]

I know I can try the demo myself; still, I am interested in users' opinions.

--How stable and predictable is it? I ask as my current DAW, Sonar Platinum -- while it has a great theoretical feature list -- fails miserably on this score; it is in fact why I am considering jumping ship to another DAW.

-- Does it work well with Kontakt?

-- Does it work well with Waves plugins?

-- Are the FX parameter envelope automation and signal routing (use of send busses etc) functionality up to scratch?

-- I have Melodyne Editor 3, which is more powerful than the bundled Melodyne Essential. Do you know if that integrates with Mixcraft 8?

-- Is there anything important (e.g. any "caveats, "gotchas" etc ) I should be aware of?

By the way, I'm aware of but frankly uninterested in the bundled FX and instruments; I have all the 3rd party VSTs for that I'll ever need.

In case it matters, I'm using a Windows 7 Professional 64 bit PC with an i7 2.7 ghz CPU, 16 GB of RAM and a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 USB interface.

(Please no off-topic stuff e.g. "What's wrong with Sonar? Works fine for me; must be you"; "It has been scientifcally proven that there is no reason to use anything other than Reaper" etc.)

[lfm]

I ran Mixcraft 7 64-bit for a while, and have license for it, and just some things to check out if it changed.

I could not use Waves synths, they were not recognized as synths. I had to use a wrapper like Metaplugin for that to work. Just check it out.

Multi out VST like Kontakt work fine. A different approach though - you work with midi in lanes on the same track - what is to feed the instrument. But you select midi channel and stuff as you please, so it works.

I liked the principle for using instruments and loading multiple on the same track - if like two stereo out instruments you get two audio stereo outs - so works just as if you had one multi out VST instrument. I wish more daws implemented that approach, instead of routing between many tracks with one instrument each.

You could not route any level of busses or anything like that. So I felt limited rather quickly. Check that out if any change. You could create lanes on a track that goes to a folder/bus kind of, and tracks to a bus and out - that was it. so two levels basically.

There was no undocking of mixer to second monitor either, check that out.

Otherwise it worked well and stable and that.

[Phorous]

Question, if you have all the third party VSTs you will ever need and are switching DAWs because of lack of features, why not pick a DAW that you know is fully featured, stable, and widely used by professionals?

I mean I don't know much about Sonar, but it seems a bit odd to me that you would want to go from Sonar to a DAW clearly meant for hobbyists/amateurs.

Not questioning your decision to leave Sonar, but have serious questions as to whether Mixcraft will actually work for you.

[jacqueslacouth]

(Please no off-topic stuff

Ummm, you DO realise this is KVR?

[lingyai]

Question, if you have all the third party VSTs you will ever need and are switching DAWs because of lack of features, why not pick a DAW that you know is fully featured, stable, and widely used by professionals?

I mean I don't know much about Sonar, but it seems a bit odd to me that you would want to go from Sonar to a DAW clearly meant for hobbyists/amateurs.

Not questioning your decision to leave Sonar, but have serious questions as to whether Mixcraft will actually work for you.

Where do you come up with "clearly meant for hobbyists/amateurs"? The latest review in SoundonSound Magazine, which I respect, says it is quite a competent DAW.

I named this thread "Mixcraft 8 -- opinions from actual users?". Are you an actual user? If so, I'd love to hear your informed opinion about Mixcraft.

[lingyai]

Thanks, lfm, for your comments. Good to know it plays well with Kontakt. By Waves plugins, I meant FX, by the way.

What I've heard about the routing from you and elsewhere does seem like a fairly big drawback though.

[jjpscott01]

I have used Mixcraft 8 Pro quite a bit. I wouldve probably characterized it as a semi-professional DAW until version 7 and then it really started coming together. Version 8 is a very refined update and to me feels far and away the most stable. It handles my Waves plugin collection without any issues that I can think of. I run all my Native Instruments, McDSP, Soundtoys, Etc stuff with zero problems. I actually think the Melodyne Integration(I have the full Editor version) may be the best of I've used in any DAW thus far. I also have Studio One, Reaper, Sonar, Samplitide Prox, and Waveform so I have a few to compare it to on that front. It is accessed right there in your editor view under your transport panel. I heard someone mention not being able to undock the mixer for use with a second monitor and that now has been fixed with version 8 also.

As far as being compared to Sonar, that's obviously going to very subjective. Sonar is an extremely capable workstation with a lot of really nice features but I've also personally felt that the workflow and layout of everything is somewhat cumbersome. I guess in a way it feels bloated or overloaded with stuff which for me is always a distraction when im trying to be creative. Mixcraft is almost the opposite in that it feels almost like an "old school DAW"... A very simple, timeline based, clean interface and therefore it feels quick and easy to work with.

Up until version 8 I would say this was at the expense of some cool features it lacked. Now with much improved stability, Melodyne Integration, a re-worked browser, improved plugin support, video support, and vst3 support, it feels pretty damn capable. This is of course taking nothing away from other DAWs as I generally believe we're at a point when production software is all pretty amazing. Just thought I'd throw in an opinion from someone who's actually put it to the test. Hope that helps you out in some way man.

[lingyai]

I have used Mixcraft 8 Pro quite a bit. I wouldve probably characterized it as a semi-professional DAW until version 7 and then it really started coming together. Version 8 is a very refined update and to me feels far and away the most stable. It handles my Waves plugin collection without any issues that I can think of. I run all my Native Instruments, McDSP, Soundtoys, Etc stuff with zero problems. I actually think the Melodyne Integration(I have the full Editor version) may be the best of I've used in any DAW thus far. I also have Studio One, Reaper, Sonar, Samplitide Prox, and Waveform so I have a few to compare it to on that front. It is accessed right there in your editor view under your transport panel. I heard someone mention not being able to undock the mixer for use with a second monitor and that now has been fixed with version 8 also.

As far as being compared to Sonar, that's obviously going to very subjective. Sonar is an extremely capable workstation with a lot of really nice features but I've also personally felt that the workflow and layout of everything is somewhat cumbersome. I guess in a way it feels bloated or overloaded with stuff which for me is always a distraction when im trying to be creative. Mixcraft is almost the opposite in that it feels almost like an "old school DAW"... A very simple, timeline based, clean interface and therefore it feels quick and easy to work with.

Up until version 8 I would say this was at the expense of some cool features it lacked. Now with much improved stability, Melodyne Integration, a re-worked browser, improved plugin support, video support, and vst3 support, it feels pretty damn capable. This is of course taking nothing away from other DAWs as I generally believe we're at a point when production software is all pretty amazing. Just thought I'd throw in an opinion from someone who's actually put it to the test. Hope that helps you out in some way man.

This is indeed very helpful, thanks a lot. May I ask, as follow ups ...

-- which version of Melodyne Editor do you have? I have v2 (which, confusingly, is the immediate predecessor to V4). I actually wrote to Celemony to ask about whether it would play well with MC8, compared with Sonar, and the guy said that the integration with MC8 is less sophisticated, and that Editor has not been tested with MC8, and thet personally , in this respect, he'd stick with Sonar.

-- what about routing? Could I do something like this? Vocal track ("VocTrack") does not send directly to MasterBuss; but rather, has, say, 3 separate sends, one to VocReverbBuss, one to VocDisortiontBuss, and one to VocDelayBuss; each of these 3 busses send to VocMasterBuss, where I'd add, say EQ and compression; and finally, VocMasterBuss sends to the MasterBuss? The ability to do this is one of the (few) things I really like about Sonar (when it works).

[fluffy_little_something]

I think the amateur reputation comes from the mediocre plugins they keep bundling with MC. I assume they can't ditch those old plugins because they have used them in the large sound/preset library built into MC. It would break backwards compatibility.
The DAW as such is very solid and more intuitive and user-friendly than for instance Mulab.

[bungle15]

Hi

If you can play music and want to multitrack Mixcraft is 100% and simple to get around
I have Arturia Synths,Fm8, and the new Syntronic. Also use Absynth and a host of others.
No problems at all
If you play music ,all you need to do is correct small mistakes.

If you are a lego brick composer ,buy a lego set!!!

[jjpscott01]

I have used Mixcraft 8 Pro quite a bit. I wouldve probably characterized it as a semi-professional DAW until version 7 and then it really started coming together. Version 8 is a very refined update and to me feels far and away the most stable. It handles my Waves plugin collection without any issues that I can think of. I run all my Native Instruments, McDSP, Soundtoys, Etc stuff with zero problems. I actually think the Melodyne Integration(I have the full Editor version) may be the best of I've used in any DAW thus far. I also have Studio One, Reaper, Sonar, Samplitide Prox, and Waveform so I have a few to compare it to on that front. It is accessed right there in your editor view under your transport panel. I heard someone mention not being able to undock the mixer for use with a second monitor and that now has been fixed with version 8 also.

As far as being compared to Sonar, that's obviously going to very subjective. Sonar is an extremely capable workstation with a lot of really nice features but I've also personally felt that the workflow and layout of everything is somewhat cumbersome. I guess in a way it feels bloated or overloaded with stuff which for me is always a distraction when im trying to be creative. Mixcraft is almost the opposite in that it feels almost like an "old school DAW"... A very simple, timeline based, clean interface and therefore it feels quick and easy to work with.

Up until version 8 I would say this was at the expense of some cool features it lacked. Now with much improved stability, Melodyne Integration, a re-worked browser, improved plugin support, video support, and vst3 support, it feels pretty damn capable. This is of course taking nothing away from other DAWs as I generally believe we're at a point when production software is all pretty amazing. Just thought I'd throw in an opinion from someone who's actually put it to the test. Hope that helps you out in some way man.

This is indeed very helpful, thanks a lot. May I ask, as follow ups ...

-- which version of Melodyne Editor do you have? I have v2 (which, confusingly, is the immediate predecessor to V4). I actually wrote to Celemony to ask about whether it would play well with MC8, compared with Sonar, and the guy said that the integration with MC8 is less sophisticated, and that Editor has not been tested with MC8, and thet personally , in this respect, he'd stick with Sonar.

-- what about routing? Could I do something like this? Vocal track ("VocTrack") does not send directly to MasterBuss; but rather, has, say, 3 separate sends, one to VocReverbBuss, one to VocDisortiontBuss, and one to VocDelayBuss; each of these 3 busses send to VocMasterBuss, where I'd add, say EQ and compression; and finally, VocMasterBuss sends to the MasterBuss? The ability to do this is one of the (few) things I really like about Sonar (when it works).

I am using the latest version of Melodyne Editor 4 so I can comment on 2 but I know the integration with 4 at least is the best ive seen as far as usability. I don't however, use routing the same way you do so im afraid I cant give you any feedback on that. I use Melodyne solely as a vocal editor/pitch corrector for vocals and the occasional wonky guitar track. Also, since I have the editor version I use it occasionally in standalone mode if I want to edit a few separate tracks at once.

I wish I could be more help to you on the specific questions you have but hopefully someone else here has used the routing configurations you have with Melodyne inside of Mixcraft 8. Good luck man

[lingyai]

I am using the latest version of Melodyne Editor 4 so I can comment on 2 but I know the integration with 4 at least is the best ive seen as far as usability. I don't however, use routing the same way you do so im afraid I cant give you any feedback on that. I use Melodyne solely as a vocal editor/pitch corrector for vocals and the occasional wonky guitar track. Also, since I have the editor version I use it occasionally in standalone mode if I want to edit a few separate tracks at once.

I wish I could be more help to you on the specific questions you have but hopefully someone else here has used the routing configurations you have with Melodyne inside of Mixcraft 8. Good luck man

This is quite useful to know, thanks again dude!