Samplitude Pro X5 is due soon

[Winstontaneous]

Been a while since I used Samplitude. Trensharo’s take seems pretty spot-on. Still haven’t seen a clip/event-based editor in another DAW that approaches the power of Object Editor as a fundamental workflow tool, including more recent takes like REAPER Clip FX and Logic Regions. Regardless of age, any FX plug-ins coded by Sascha Eversmeier (of u-he and DigitalFishPhones fame) will sound great.

Beyond that, Magix has always straddled the noob consumer and tip-top mastering pro (Sequoia) markets rather strangely, with Samplitude as the odd man in the middle.

[Trensharo]

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

The advice to use Cakewalk is a comparative value determination. It costs $0, is being developed faster than 90% of the DAW market, these days, and has no upgrade costs. The only comparable value proposition in the DAW market is Logic Pro X.

Samplitude is better for Recording/Mixing/Mastering and unless you do the latter, then I don't see it delivering $199-599+ value over Cakewalk unless the bundled goodies are really that big of a deal to you. Most Generalist DAWs have gotten pretty good at Audio Editing.

Of course, user needs and preferences can change that determination. That is just my take on it (i.e. my opinion).

I also think it's time for us to stop rating DAWs based on "history" and consider how they compare and compete in the market as it exists today. A lot of what I read on forums are marketing bullet points from the nineties, especially when talking about DAWs like Samplitude and SONAR/Cakewalk - old venerable things with many "stuck" users.

I don't use Cakewalk, so I'm not recommending it because I fan it. I'm recommending it over Samplitude because it is a higher value and higher quality product at a far lower entry and maintenance cost (Long-term cost of ownership - purchase + upgrades, etc.).

[Trensharo]

Been a while since I used Samplitude. Trensharo’s take seems pretty spot-on. Still haven’t seen a clip/event-based editor in another DAW that approaches the power of Object Editor as a fundamental workflow tool, including more recent takes like REAPER Clip FX and Logic Regions. Regardless of age, any FX plug-ins coded by Sascha Eversmeier (of u-he and DigitalFishPhones fame) will sound great.

Beyond that, Magix has always straddled the noob consumer and tip-top mastering pro (Sequoia) markets rather strangely, with Samplitude as the odd man in the middle.

A lot of that has to do with them refusing to replace product lines with acquisitions, so they end up keeping everything around.

By buying SCS's products, I expected them to replace Music Maker with ACID Music Studio/Pro. Replace Video Pro X with VEGAS Pro. Replace Audio Cleaning Lab with Sound Forge Audio Studio/Pro.

Instead, they ahve kept everything and even make the situation more confusing by using Sound Forge branding on some of their other products in an attempt to net more sales.

It's a complete mess, and I wouldn't be surprised if people were thrown off by this and simply went with a competitor because they had more easily digestible options available.

MAGIX has too much redundancy across their product lines, and their website is REALLY terrible at informing the user and allowing them to choose confidently between them.

I do think Samplitude is one of the better options in that it seems like it has a proper place. It's not like Music Maker/ACID Pro or Video Pro X/VEGAS Pro. They don't have anything else that really compete with Samplitude, so I think it's fine from that perspective. It just needs more invested in its development, and for them to be okay with moving forwards from a UI/UX/Design standpoint.

I think Sequoia will always be a ball and chain for Samplitude. It will be hard to modernize the DAW if the priority is always on making sure it feels as unchanged as possible to that target market.

[DaveClark]

Samplitude is better for Recording/Mixing/Mastering ...

That's exactly how I used SONAR and ever since Pro X Suite, Samplitude, and I agree.

But over the years, just to be sure, every so often I would try to use SONAR (X1, X2, X3, and to a lesser extent Cakewalk by Bandlab). At about the time of X3, I even made a complete mix with both, start to finish, taking several days apiece, just to be sure that I wasn't missing anything.

My personal reservation about recommending Cakewalk by Bandlab over Samplitude isn't based on misleading marketing bullets, faulty cost/benefit analyses, or anything remotely like those things, as some might assume from Trensharo's response, but on head-to-head comparisons of exactly what I myself actually do with a DAW.

[Trensharo]

SONAR and Cakewalk really are just no match for Samplitude for Audio Editing. It isn't even in the same league.

And Samplitude is a lot more flexible with mixing.

But most people considering these two in 2021 are doing so largely due to budget constraints (free or "perpetual promotional pricing").

The rest of us are using what we use and there isn't a lot of value in switching - generally speaking.

You can use SONAR for that, but it simply isn't as good as Pro Tools or Samplitude - by practically every objective measure.

That is a preference pick, IMO.

The unusably bad GUI performance was the primary driver for me dropping Samplitude. It just bogged down too hard, and I couldn't work productively in it anymore. I was willing to forgive the other faults and patch them up with plug-ins and other software applications, cause its so good for editing audio.

[Danilo Villanova]

I wish they would just sell Samplitude to a company that would develop it better. Object editing would be cool in other daws, there really isn’t anything comparable.

[telecharge]

My personal reservation about recommending Cakewalk by Bandlab over Samplitude isn't based on misleading marketing bullets, faulty cost/benefit analyses, or anything remotely like those things, as some might assume from Trensharo's response, but on head-to-head comparisons of exactly what I myself actually do with a DAW.

FWIW, I didn't assume anything like that and still don't know what your reservation is about SONAR/Cakewalk. Why bring it up if you're not going to give a reason?

You can use SONAR for that, but it simply isn't as good as Pro Tools or Samplitude - by practically every objective measure.

Sorry, got a little lost here. Are you talking about audio editing?

[DaveClark]

FWIW, I didn't assume anything like that and still don't know what your reservation is about SONAR/Cakewalk. Why bring it up if you're not going to give a reason?

FWIW I did give a reason.

[Trensharo]

Sorry, got a little lost here. Are you talking about audio editing?

Yes. Cakewalk is one of the weakest DAWs on the market for that.

[jens]

Well, it - oddly enough - doesn't have slip-editing, so for that reason alone I would already have to agree...

[kperry]

Well, it - oddly enough - doesn't have slip-editing, so for that reason alone I would already have to agree...

Huh? When did you last use it (it's had slip-editing for decades!)?

[worldshaker]

How many plugins can you add to each track in Samplitude X5/X6? The pictures make it look like you can only have 5 max. Isn't that super low? Can you add 20 echo boys?

[KBSoundSmith]

How many plugins can you add to each track in Samplitude X5/X6? The pictures make it look like you can only have 5 max. Isn't that super low? Can you add 20 echo boys?

Assuming the number of inserts hasn't been reduced from X3, there are 8 insert slots (plus the per channel EQ for 9 total). But you could set up a Bus (or a bus into a bus into a...) and chain inserts that way -- effectively, you can have as many inserts as you want.

But don't forget there are 5 FX slots per clip via the Object Editor (which can be bounced inline as many times as you want) -- assuming you don't bounce the clip and use all of the channel's inserts, you have effectively 13 inserts + Channel EQ per channel, without inline bouncing of clips or using the above bus trick.