KVR Audio

jonljacobi · Post by **jonljacobi** » Sun Dec 03, 2017 3:03 am

To be perfectly honest, I never buy based on plug-ins as I have my own. So I can't really vouch for that. From what I've seen, this couldn't compete with Live or Bitwig as a EDM instrument or tool, but in just about every other department it's quite good.

My biggest issue is simply the tiny text and icons. I'd like to see some destructive audio editing, as it's like Live in that you manipulate the clips on the arranger, but slap a slick modern look on this thing and I think you'd see people really start to take notice. And I've never really been a scroll wheel person so I'd like the resize-the-slider or drag-the-timeline magnify, but that's being very picky.

I just dragged a video file in and darned if that didn't work fine as well. Haven't crashed once either. Had to reboot the first time because it didn't like a plug-in, but after that...

Just found that you can see the FX chain right on the track header. I find that particularly sweet.

BTW, Live is my mainstay and I like 10 a lot. But I'm really enjoying trying to find something wrong with this and failing.

jonljacobi · Post by **jonljacobi** » Sun Dec 03, 2017 3:57 am

Okay, I finally found one thing I don't like. Live will automatically place warp markers on an entire audio clip so all you have to do is drag them about where there's an issue. Like Bitwig, Mixcraft forces you to manually create markers. Unless of course I'm missing something. There's a quantize, but I I've become used to dragging stuff manually to get different feels or avoiding that "too perfect" feel.

lingyai · Post by **lingyai** » Sun Dec 03, 2017 4:03 am

Maybe ask on their forum about it, would be interesting to know for sure.

lingyai · Post by **lingyai** » Sun Dec 03, 2017 4:06 am

Now that I have my feet wet I can make more sense of these quick-start tips for various major things,

http://forums.acoustica.com/bbs/viewtop ... 12&t=20467

jonljacobi · Post by **jonljacobi** » Mon Dec 04, 2017 6:54 pm

Regarding Warp markers. There is a way called Autowarp, but it inserts and warps at the same time. Not what I want. I just want warp markers inserted. I've asked in their forum to see if there's a way around it.

lingyai · Post by **lingyai** » Sat Dec 30, 2017 11:12 pm

Some favorable reviews...

The paywall on this one from July's Sound on Sound recently came down:

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/ac ... mixcraft-8

This came out earlier this month:

http://www.musictech.net/2017/12/acoust ... io-review/

IMHO his emphasis on the bundled plugs (which he likes) is a bit misplaced; yes, some are nice, especially Pianissimo, but I don't think that'w what tempts DAW buyers (except newbs) to switch. He didn't really touch on the workflow and stability, which for me are the stars of the show, other than this in his closing list of pros: "No nonsense, just gets on with the job without any fuss."

I've got maybe 100 hours in it under my belt and I'm quite happy. I'm finishing old Sonar projects in Sonar but all my new stuff's in Mixcraft. "It just works".

THE INTRANCER · Post by **THE INTRANCER** » Sun Dec 31, 2017 1:52 am

There's arrow button's in Mixcraft 8 which are the third of a size of my mouse pointer. The piano roll silver gradients are terrible looking, not only are they polar opposites of each other, the gradient brightness levels are different from each other. Text is tiny and virtually unreadable in some places, and generally the GUI looks, well old and dated, 2003/4ish if that. There looks like there's been some attempt to bring it up to date, but it's got a long way to go yet. I gave it some solid time to really test if it was a viable daw to move to over 3 years ago, however I did uncover some general stability issue's quite regularly...

There's a lot of stuff hidden away in this daw..that I think it would be better if they moved onto a more modern development build in a similar way Presonus did when they rebuilt Studio One, than modding the old version... there's many other things but..I'll come back and look at it in another 3 years or more...development seems too slow a pace for me.

lingyai · Post by **lingyai** » Sun Dec 31, 2017 10:57 am

THE INTRANCER wrote: I gave it some solid time to really test if it was a viable daw to move to over 3 years ago, however I did uncover some general stability issue's quite regularly...

..I'll come back and look at it in another 3 years or more...development seems too slow a pace for me.

Are your comments about the three year-old version, or the present one?

THE INTRANCER · Post by **THE INTRANCER** » Sun Dec 31, 2017 2:04 pm

lingyai wrote:
THE INTRANCER wrote: I gave it some solid time to really test if it was a viable daw to move to over 3 years ago, however I did uncover some general stability issue's quite regularly...

..I'll come back and look at it in another 3 years or more...development seems too slow a pace for me.
Are your comments about the three year-old version, or the present one?

The time when I tested it, was 3 years back... I gave it a good workout over the course of the trial, but there was some unexpected crashes along the way as far as I remember. But the workflow seemed fairly intuitive to me, even if the interface's aged look was fighting with it. Lots of hidden features within, but the 14 day trial didn't feel long enough really when I was busy doing other stuff.

lingyai · Post by **lingyai** » Sun Dec 31, 2017 3:13 pm

THE INTRANCER wrote:
lingyai wrote:
THE INTRANCER wrote: I gave it some solid time to really test if it was a viable daw to move to over 3 years ago, however I did uncover some general stability issue's quite regularly...

..I'll come back and look at it in another 3 years or more...development seems too slow a pace for me.
Are your comments about the three year-old version, or the present one?
The time when I tested it, was 3 years back... I gave it a good workout over the course of the trial, but there was some unexpected crashes along the way as far as I remember. But the workflow seemed fairly intuitive to me, even if the interface's aged look was fighting with it. Lots of hidden features within, but the 14 day trial didn't feel long enough really when I was busy doing other stuff.

Fair enough. FWIW the new interface is toned down -- a lot of no nonsense shades of grey -- and doesn't jar when I switch among MC, Sonar Platinum and Studio One. If you include Logic in that group, seems to be how DAWs are converging cosmetically.

As for hidden features, understandable, by definition when you work with a new DAW many things are "hidden". Something I did at the outset with MC was to launch their demo song / project, and clicked / right-clicked around, for around 15 minutes. That can give a quick leg up.

THE INTRANCER · Post by **THE INTRANCER** » Sun Dec 31, 2017 3:35 pm

lingyai wrote:
THE INTRANCER wrote:
lingyai wrote:
THE INTRANCER wrote: I gave it some solid time to really test if it was a viable daw to move to over 3 years ago, however I did uncover some general stability issue's quite regularly...

..I'll come back and look at it in another 3 years or more...development seems too slow a pace for me.
Are your comments about the three year-old version, or the present one?
The time when I tested it, was 3 years back... I gave it a good workout over the course of the trial, but there was some unexpected crashes along the way as far as I remember. But the workflow seemed fairly intuitive to me, even if the interface's aged look was fighting with it. Lots of hidden features within, but the 14 day trial didn't feel long enough really when I was busy doing other stuff.
Fair enough. FWIW the new interface is toned down -- a lot of no nonsense shades of grey -- and doesn't jar when I switch among MC, Sonar Platinum and Studio One. If you include Logic in that group, seems to be how DAWs are converging cosmetically.

As for hidden features, understandable, by definition when you work with a new DAW many things are "hidden". Something I did at the outset with MC was to launch their demo song / project, and clicked / right-clicked around, for around 15 minutes. That can give a quick leg up.

I use to do something similar with songs published by users on that fondly remembered site called Reasonstation, way back in 2002, opening up songs in Reason 1.01, flipping the back around and seeing how they were all wired up, learning the techniques they used. The forum was great too, lots of characters to contend with, and the constant request for VST support, right up to 2008. The VST aspect was what got me curious in how Mixcraft handled them.

jonljacobi · Post by **jonljacobi** » Sun Dec 31, 2017 7:52 pm

I conversed with the company, and they seem to be aware of the scaling issue. Apparently, I haven't been the only one to point it out. But the feature set is right up there and the methodologies pretty darn efficient. It's also been 100% stable in my hands-on, though admittedly that's been pretty limited.

It is quite amazing how much an interface will attract or put off customers.

THE INTRANCER · Post by **THE INTRANCER** » Sun Dec 31, 2017 8:37 pm

jonljacobi wrote:
It is quite amazing how much an interface will attract or put off customers.

Most peoples eye's are very sensitive to light and colour, and if our eye's have to constantly keep refocusing, it can cause eye strain. For many of us we were always told not to sit too close to the TV set when we were younger, this was more about our parents worrying about the cathode ray tube frying our brain

, but today it's more about eye strain and prevention of headaches I think. For grown up's in this modern age of screens and technology, we probably spend about 3 or 4 times the time, in which we look at screens than when we were younger, whether that's playing computer games, using daw's or graphic design software.

In 5 years, you can spend about 3500 hours looking at a screen constantly. If you're using a daw with a midi keyboard, that may be somewhat less, but it's still a significant amount of time and if the daw is poorly designed interface wise where you're head starts to get sore and you're eye's are always twitching within 15 to 30 minutes...you know when there's an issue with an interface, you're using. Stuff that glares as you, and draws your eye's away, having to move position in your seat constantly to look at small text or icons can cause back strain or aggravate an existing spinal injury... are all aspects which affect one's ability to use an interface...be that in bright daylight or darkness.

jonljacobi · Post by **jonljacobi** » Sun Dec 31, 2017 8:50 pm

All true. But I should actually have said "how much the style of an interface will attract or put off..." There are comments that it looks dated, and it does in some ways. I think there are users who will never buy it not matter how competent it is, simply because of that.

THE INTRANCER · Post by **THE INTRANCER** » Sun Dec 31, 2017 9:26 pm

jonljacobi wrote:All true. But I should actually have said "how much the style of an interface will attract or put off..." There are comments that it looks dated, and it does in some ways. I think there are users who will never buy it not matter how competent it is, simply because of that.

Absolutely, and even more so in the competitive market that DAW developers are currently in these days, technology changes and if you don't keep pace, you'll fall behind. But it's also true if a developer goes to the extreme opposite end of the spectrum in their design, and forgetting established design principals in the process, for example Oculus Rift territory..

...unlikely..but hay you never know.

Mixcraft 9 3D..( sounds like design program )

Mixcraft 8 Pro -- early days yet, but a nice surprise so far