^^^
I may just get Samplitude 5 late this year to get Sound Forge Pro 13 but specially Spectralayers 6 and 7. If Samplitude Suite goes on sale for $199 I am in! But the Steinberg may also offer a sale.
Samplitude Pro X5 is due soon
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- KVRAF
- 6077 posts since 27 Jul, 2001 from Tarpon Springs, Florida, USA
My Studio: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7760&p=7777146#p7777146
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- Banned
- 2524 posts since 4 Jul, 2019
I would give a big demo workout first - I had samp plus spectralayers and they were quite crash prone. Without the crashing they are both very good - spectralayers being quite uniqueKalamata Kid wrote: Mon May 18, 2020 12:56 am ^^^
I may just get Samplitude 5 late this year to get Sound Forge Pro 13 but specially Spectralayers 6 and 7. If Samplitude Suite goes on sale for $199 I am in! But the Steinberg may also offer a sale.
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- KVRAF
- 6077 posts since 27 Jul, 2001 from Tarpon Springs, Florida, USA
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- KVRist
- 484 posts since 8 May, 2007
Also, be sure to thoroughly check out any VST3 plugins you use. I say "thoroughly" because many of the problems that Samplitude has with hosting VST3 plugins are not immediately obvious. In emails from Magix support, they continue to admit problems with VST3 hosting and tell me that they will release new versions as they solve these problems, but they are very slow at catching up to everyone else. Meanwhile, they advise the obvious workaround: Use VST2 plugins.Kalamata Kid wrote: Mon May 18, 2020 12:56 am ^^^
I may just get Samplitude 5 late this year to get Sound Forge Pro 13 but specially Spectralayers 6 and 7. If Samplitude Suite goes on sale for $199 I am in! But the Steinberg may also offer a sale.
Regards,
Dave Clark
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- KVRian
- 532 posts since 29 Jul, 2009 from San Diego, CA
Pretty damn good deal going on...
Samplitude Pro X5 Suite, Includes Soundforge Pro 13, and they are throwing in brainworx digital V3 for $199....
https://www.magix.com/us/music/samplitu ... r-special/
Samplitude Pro X5 Suite, Includes Soundforge Pro 13, and they are throwing in brainworx digital V3 for $199....
https://www.magix.com/us/music/samplitu ... r-special/
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- Beware the Quoth
- 35427 posts since 4 Sep, 2001 from R'lyeh Oceanic Amusement Park and Funfair
Probably means X6 is due out soon. Soundforge Pro 14 already is.DubLifeSD wrote: Thu Mar 18, 2021 8:40 pm Pretty damn good deal going on...
Samplitude Pro X5 Suite, Includes Soundforge Pro 13, and they are throwing in brainworx digital V3 for $199....
https://www.magix.com/us/music/samplitu ... r-special/
An idiot on Set Theory:
"In some cases there is an object called red that contains everything that is red. In much the same way a pot is a plate."
"In some cases there is an object called red that contains everything that is red. In much the same way a pot is a plate."
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- KVRian
- 821 posts since 23 Mar, 2013
Sound Forge 15 is already out, though a pretty meh update
But, this includes Spectralayers 7, I believe - which is what would make this deal special, the Digital V3 is a pretty nice sweetner.
But, this includes Spectralayers 7, I believe - which is what would make this deal special, the Digital V3 is a pretty nice sweetner.
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- Beware the Quoth
- 35427 posts since 4 Sep, 2001 from R'lyeh Oceanic Amusement Park and Funfair
Is it? Jebus.
An idiot on Set Theory:
"In some cases there is an object called red that contains everything that is red. In much the same way a pot is a plate."
"In some cases there is an object called red that contains everything that is red. In much the same way a pot is a plate."
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- KVRian
- 679 posts since 29 Dec, 2019
Pros:
- Good for Audio Recording and Editing.
- Has Track-based Spectral Editing and decent Restoration Plug-Ins
- Great visualizers
- Good for Mastering
- - Can probably use this in place of WaveLab Pro, for the most part.
- OMF/AAF Support
- Decent-Enough Video CODEC Support (Has a Video Track and Player). Usable for Audio Post.
- Includes everything you need for mixing and mastering OOTB.
- MP3/AAC CODEC Preview on the Master Bus
- DDP Export & Integrated Burning
- ARA2
- Servicable MIDI - On par with DAWs like Studio One Professional, with arguably better tooling (List Editor, etc.).
- Can do Destructive and Non-Destructive Audio Editing
- Renders nice Waveforms in the arranger
- WaveColor (formerly Comparasonics)
- Elastic Audio (think VariAudio or Melodyne Essential, though not AS good)
- Object Editor. It's really nice, though I think a lot of its benefits have been implemented in a lot of other DAWs to the point that it isn't as "bang" a feature as it used to be. It's definitely great to have when mastering entire albums, though, if you do that.
- Auto Converts Compressed Files to WAV - which can avoid some niggling issues that pop up in other DAWs.
- Batch Audio Processor: Similar to PreSonus' Batch Convert, but you don't have to pay $50 extra for it.
- Better Crossfade Editor than many (if not most) other DAWs.
Cons:
- Expensive, considering what it offers and the development pace over the past decade or so.
- Everything is really old. The plug-ins are like a decade old and out of support (save for coreFX stuff). This is why they bundle RX Elements and Ozone Elements with the product. RX adds 4 VST Plug-ins that basically overlap with their aged Cleaning and Restoration Suite, and Ozone Elements' modules are better than a few of their stock plug-ins.
- The virtual instruments use really old samples and aren't that great. Independence Pro is an eyesore to use, though you may own your own sampler.
- VST3 Support is absolutely Russian Roulette. I've run into many issues on X4 where VST3 Plug-Ins would crash or freeze the entire DAW. Every version MAGIX releases has a "all-new VST3 engine." It's always a shit VST3 engine.
- Missing basic niceties like Automatic Zero Crossing Snapping (odd for something that bills itself so much on its audio editing capabilities).
- The UI is horrible. The arranger doesn't indent folder contents, and organizing tracks via drag-and-drop is an absolute nightmare both in the arranger as well as in the Tracks window. You never know where the track is going to end up - inside or outside of a folder (usually inside a folder you don't want it in). The menu system is incredibly cluttered. REAPER-level, or maybe even worse. However, I believe you may still be able to revert back to the Samplitude 11 Menu Structure, which is IMO far superior - more top-level menus, but less bloat and nesting within them... Far more logical and better organized. The "Manager" Windows are straight out of Windows 3.1. They need a massive overhaul. Everything is still designed for docking at the bottom of the window, like we're still using square CRT monitors. With widescreen displays, side-docking of components that will always be on display is superior - vertical pixels are a luxury on 16:9 displays, because they are wider than they are tall.
- Horrible UI slowdown on larger projects with lots of objects in the arranger. Sub 30 FPS scrolling/panning/zooming. They have started to address this in X5, but the issue persisted for over a decade and $199+ is too much to pay for what is literally a bug fix. This is the #1 issue that made me drop Samplitude, as this affected audio playback. The mixer also gets very laggy with lots of tracks. This will make your brand new rig feel like an 486SX. No amount of CPU and GPU power seems able to brute force you through this issue.
- Doesn't Support REX2 Files.
- No Sampler Instrument (think Sample One XT, Sampler Track, Simpler, etc.)
- Included Synths are pretty much worthless - I personally would only install the Impulse Responses, and leave everything else off as I can't see why anyone would want that stuff. You can get far better for pretty reasonable prices, these days. The Independence Sampler doesn't even support SoundFont (stated it does, I could get none to import) or EXS24 Sampler Patches.
- Not much in the way of creative plug-ins.
- Doesn't have any of the music theory tools you see in other DAWs (Chord Tracks/Pads, etc.)
- No MIDI FX (Arpeggiator, etc.)
- Not step sequencer or pattern editor.
- No Arrangement tools (Works with Regions, and not in the most intuitive or visually indicating way).
- Some of the worst documentation I've had to force myself to read, in recent memory (I'm sure some F/OSS project had worse, years ago).
- Uses intermediate project files, etc. for things similar to VEGAS Pro. There is a file similar to the SFK files there. There are intermediate Wave Project Files if you edit anything like that. There is the Samplitude VIP (Virtual Project) file. etc. File management can become a nightmare, but I do think it has facilities to "collect" everything you use in a specified project directory (don't think it brings that other stuff with it, though).
- No WASAPI Support. Though, I'm viewing WASAPI from the Cakewalk standpoint, where it's practically good as an entry-level audio interface like the Scarlette Solo 3rd Gen in terms of latency. This is important to people who want to be very mobile but don't want to deal with ASIO4ALL drivers that lock their audio drivers.
The biggest cons IMO are:
1. Upgrade Pricing: Samplitude Pro X Suite costs more than Cubase Pro, and even during sales, the upgrade pricing is more than Cubase Pro's upgrade pricing. You can upgrade Cubase every year and you'll still end up paying 25-75% more over time upgrading Samplitude Pro X. The lower end is only due to the constant promotions MAGIX runs, because they can't sell it otherwise.
2. Development Cadence: MAGIX adds the bare minimum and charges as much as possible. Bugs persist for several years before they are even attempted to be addressed.
3. Transparency: You will never know what the developers are working on, what feedback they're considering, etc. This is further complicated by...
4. Its user community: Small, very vocal, and very defensive. Most problems with Samplitude just have to be your PC's fault. It has all of the hallmarks of an underdog community, where people are so desperate to see their choice solution grow that they become increasingly unwilling to accept any feedback that isn't positive. And because they've been using it for 20 years without issues, they have to be right... right? These people have far different "requests" than many people coming into music production these days. These things clash (similar issues over at Cakewalk).
Other thoughts:
It's really a great alternative to Pro Tools for people within that core market. Though, if you aren't in the film market it's still hard to justify spending $599 on Samplitude vs. $599 on Pro Tools. MAGIX makes Avid look like an Agile Start-up in terms of development pacing, and they are extremely bad at addressing bugs or basic feature lacks in the current version. They'd much rather you buy an upgrade. Sales > Satisfaction.
Even if you aren't going to use Samplitude, the $199 deal is good for SpectraLayers Pro. I don't see why they bundle Sound Forge Pro with Samplitude Pro X Suite. It makes no sense, since you can do almost everything that Sound Forge Pro does in Samplidue - save for Event Mode in the Wave Editor - without the round tripping.
Good for Recording Bands, Orchestras, Singer and Live Instrument, Podcasts, Audio Post for Video (goes beyond Pro Tools Standard at the same/cheaper price).
Don't recommend for people working on Electronic Music, Hip Hop, Trap, etc. Even Pro Tools would give you a better workflow...
Absolutely avoid for Orchestral Composition, especially with larger templates. For one, Cubase, Logic, and others have better MIDI facilities. Secondly, the performance slowdowns you will experience with lots of tracks and objects both in the mixer and in the arranger will render the software borderline unusable.
Samplitude is Windows-only, so unless you're buying it for a SpectraLayers discount, you should get Cakewalk instead. If you got Sound Forge Pro 12 off the Humble Bundle a while back, there is literally no reason to upgrade off of that.
- Good for Audio Recording and Editing.
- Has Track-based Spectral Editing and decent Restoration Plug-Ins
- Great visualizers
- Good for Mastering
- - Can probably use this in place of WaveLab Pro, for the most part.
- OMF/AAF Support
- Decent-Enough Video CODEC Support (Has a Video Track and Player). Usable for Audio Post.
- Includes everything you need for mixing and mastering OOTB.
- MP3/AAC CODEC Preview on the Master Bus
- DDP Export & Integrated Burning
- ARA2
- Servicable MIDI - On par with DAWs like Studio One Professional, with arguably better tooling (List Editor, etc.).
- Can do Destructive and Non-Destructive Audio Editing
- Renders nice Waveforms in the arranger
- WaveColor (formerly Comparasonics)
- Elastic Audio (think VariAudio or Melodyne Essential, though not AS good)
- Object Editor. It's really nice, though I think a lot of its benefits have been implemented in a lot of other DAWs to the point that it isn't as "bang" a feature as it used to be. It's definitely great to have when mastering entire albums, though, if you do that.
- Auto Converts Compressed Files to WAV - which can avoid some niggling issues that pop up in other DAWs.
- Batch Audio Processor: Similar to PreSonus' Batch Convert, but you don't have to pay $50 extra for it.
- Better Crossfade Editor than many (if not most) other DAWs.
Cons:
- Expensive, considering what it offers and the development pace over the past decade or so.
- Everything is really old. The plug-ins are like a decade old and out of support (save for coreFX stuff). This is why they bundle RX Elements and Ozone Elements with the product. RX adds 4 VST Plug-ins that basically overlap with their aged Cleaning and Restoration Suite, and Ozone Elements' modules are better than a few of their stock plug-ins.
- The virtual instruments use really old samples and aren't that great. Independence Pro is an eyesore to use, though you may own your own sampler.
- VST3 Support is absolutely Russian Roulette. I've run into many issues on X4 where VST3 Plug-Ins would crash or freeze the entire DAW. Every version MAGIX releases has a "all-new VST3 engine." It's always a shit VST3 engine.
- Missing basic niceties like Automatic Zero Crossing Snapping (odd for something that bills itself so much on its audio editing capabilities).
- The UI is horrible. The arranger doesn't indent folder contents, and organizing tracks via drag-and-drop is an absolute nightmare both in the arranger as well as in the Tracks window. You never know where the track is going to end up - inside or outside of a folder (usually inside a folder you don't want it in). The menu system is incredibly cluttered. REAPER-level, or maybe even worse. However, I believe you may still be able to revert back to the Samplitude 11 Menu Structure, which is IMO far superior - more top-level menus, but less bloat and nesting within them... Far more logical and better organized. The "Manager" Windows are straight out of Windows 3.1. They need a massive overhaul. Everything is still designed for docking at the bottom of the window, like we're still using square CRT monitors. With widescreen displays, side-docking of components that will always be on display is superior - vertical pixels are a luxury on 16:9 displays, because they are wider than they are tall.
- Horrible UI slowdown on larger projects with lots of objects in the arranger. Sub 30 FPS scrolling/panning/zooming. They have started to address this in X5, but the issue persisted for over a decade and $199+ is too much to pay for what is literally a bug fix. This is the #1 issue that made me drop Samplitude, as this affected audio playback. The mixer also gets very laggy with lots of tracks. This will make your brand new rig feel like an 486SX. No amount of CPU and GPU power seems able to brute force you through this issue.
- Doesn't Support REX2 Files.
- No Sampler Instrument (think Sample One XT, Sampler Track, Simpler, etc.)
- Included Synths are pretty much worthless - I personally would only install the Impulse Responses, and leave everything else off as I can't see why anyone would want that stuff. You can get far better for pretty reasonable prices, these days. The Independence Sampler doesn't even support SoundFont (stated it does, I could get none to import) or EXS24 Sampler Patches.
- Not much in the way of creative plug-ins.
- Doesn't have any of the music theory tools you see in other DAWs (Chord Tracks/Pads, etc.)
- No MIDI FX (Arpeggiator, etc.)
- Not step sequencer or pattern editor.
- No Arrangement tools (Works with Regions, and not in the most intuitive or visually indicating way).
- Some of the worst documentation I've had to force myself to read, in recent memory (I'm sure some F/OSS project had worse, years ago).
- Uses intermediate project files, etc. for things similar to VEGAS Pro. There is a file similar to the SFK files there. There are intermediate Wave Project Files if you edit anything like that. There is the Samplitude VIP (Virtual Project) file. etc. File management can become a nightmare, but I do think it has facilities to "collect" everything you use in a specified project directory (don't think it brings that other stuff with it, though).
- No WASAPI Support. Though, I'm viewing WASAPI from the Cakewalk standpoint, where it's practically good as an entry-level audio interface like the Scarlette Solo 3rd Gen in terms of latency. This is important to people who want to be very mobile but don't want to deal with ASIO4ALL drivers that lock their audio drivers.
The biggest cons IMO are:
1. Upgrade Pricing: Samplitude Pro X Suite costs more than Cubase Pro, and even during sales, the upgrade pricing is more than Cubase Pro's upgrade pricing. You can upgrade Cubase every year and you'll still end up paying 25-75% more over time upgrading Samplitude Pro X. The lower end is only due to the constant promotions MAGIX runs, because they can't sell it otherwise.
2. Development Cadence: MAGIX adds the bare minimum and charges as much as possible. Bugs persist for several years before they are even attempted to be addressed.
3. Transparency: You will never know what the developers are working on, what feedback they're considering, etc. This is further complicated by...
4. Its user community: Small, very vocal, and very defensive. Most problems with Samplitude just have to be your PC's fault. It has all of the hallmarks of an underdog community, where people are so desperate to see their choice solution grow that they become increasingly unwilling to accept any feedback that isn't positive. And because they've been using it for 20 years without issues, they have to be right... right? These people have far different "requests" than many people coming into music production these days. These things clash (similar issues over at Cakewalk).
Other thoughts:
It's really a great alternative to Pro Tools for people within that core market. Though, if you aren't in the film market it's still hard to justify spending $599 on Samplitude vs. $599 on Pro Tools. MAGIX makes Avid look like an Agile Start-up in terms of development pacing, and they are extremely bad at addressing bugs or basic feature lacks in the current version. They'd much rather you buy an upgrade. Sales > Satisfaction.
Even if you aren't going to use Samplitude, the $199 deal is good for SpectraLayers Pro. I don't see why they bundle Sound Forge Pro with Samplitude Pro X Suite. It makes no sense, since you can do almost everything that Sound Forge Pro does in Samplidue - save for Event Mode in the Wave Editor - without the round tripping.
Good for Recording Bands, Orchestras, Singer and Live Instrument, Podcasts, Audio Post for Video (goes beyond Pro Tools Standard at the same/cheaper price).
Don't recommend for people working on Electronic Music, Hip Hop, Trap, etc. Even Pro Tools would give you a better workflow...
Absolutely avoid for Orchestral Composition, especially with larger templates. For one, Cubase, Logic, and others have better MIDI facilities. Secondly, the performance slowdowns you will experience with lots of tracks and objects both in the mixer and in the arranger will render the software borderline unusable.
Samplitude is Windows-only, so unless you're buying it for a SpectraLayers discount, you should get Cakewalk instead. If you got Sound Forge Pro 12 off the Humble Bundle a while back, there is literally no reason to upgrade off of that.
Last edited by Trensharo on Fri Mar 19, 2021 4:17 pm, edited 5 times in total.
If I said you are blocked, I won't see your posts. Please kindly refrain from quoting or replying to me.
"Notifications for Nothing" are annoying. Blocking me in return is a good way to avoid this.
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- KVRian
- 679 posts since 29 Dec, 2019
And, of course, it's Windows-only. But that's pretty obvious.
If I said you are blocked, I won't see your posts. Please kindly refrain from quoting or replying to me.
"Notifications for Nothing" are annoying. Blocking me in return is a good way to avoid this.
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- KVRian
- 554 posts since 1 Dec, 2013 from UK
very comprehensive breakdown, i did like the sound engine in v3, to my ears sounded a lot clearer and brighter than the cubase i was using.. it was a stark difference for me.. but i am a cubase user, it matches mt brain... sapmplituded never really worked for me..
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- KVRian
- 679 posts since 29 Dec, 2019
Unintentional Duplicated...
Sorry.
Sorry.
If I said you are blocked, I won't see your posts. Please kindly refrain from quoting or replying to me.
"Notifications for Nothing" are annoying. Blocking me in return is a good way to avoid this.
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- KVRAF
- 1787 posts since 22 Feb, 2014
+1 - Hat tip to that breakdown takedown.
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- KVRist
- 484 posts since 8 May, 2007
Hi all,
As a long-time Samplitude user, I would agree with 99% of what Trensharo said above. My only reservation is the advice to use Cakewalk by Bandlab instead of Samplitude.
Really great summary by Trensharo. It's hard to imagine anyone being more complete and accurate.
Regards,
Dave Clark
As a long-time Samplitude user, I would agree with 99% of what Trensharo said above. My only reservation is the advice to use Cakewalk by Bandlab instead of Samplitude.
Really great summary by Trensharo. It's hard to imagine anyone being more complete and accurate.
Regards,
Dave Clark