Any Mixcraft users here? What's wrong with it? ;)

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ferez21 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 12:55 pm
chk071 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 12:47 pm
ferez21 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 12:41 pm Well, I guess you don't agree with the workflow, that's ok, but to be honest most of your complaints are very very minor - if 1 seconds more to choose a VST (god forbid 3 clicks instead of 2)
Actually, it's much more than that. :) In Studio One or Cubase, you click on the VSTi you want to add to a track in the instrument browser, hold the mouse button, drag it onto the timeline, and that's it - instrument track with the VSTi added. In Mixcraft, if you use the mouse, and don't memorize keyboard shortcut (which noone who just looks into the DAW will do), you have to - right click on the track list area, choose insert virtual instrument, then click on the piano symbol, in the popup window click on the menu where you can choose which type of instrument you want to load, click on the instrument you want to add in the menu on the right, and then you're there. That's a blazing 5 clicks, hopping through menus, and through window dialogs. And, that's only one example. I think that pretty much says everything.

Why don't they just add an instrument browser at the bottom? They have a sounds browser there, which I don't give two farts about.
a VST browser would be nice but not nearly as crucial as anything else. With the longer process of selecting an instrument like you comically describe it (honestly man, this is a 1-2 second difference in reality) , I still find Mixcraft much quicker for me for laying out ideas, how do you explain that? :)
I can't. But, that's fine. I can't convince Reaper users that their DAW is so much more complicated, and overloaded menu ridden than anything else either.
ferez21 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 12:55 pm also, it's not fair to dismiss all the actually great features that actually save you time, like instrument chaining by default on every channel, including instrument effects, and the effect rack that is visible in the arrangement window, and comping, among many other features. Also Bitwig's like LFO and Audio modulator for every plugin, that was the feature that attracted me to try Mixcraft initially.

It's definitely not perfect and definitely not the prettiest, but it is much much better than you give it credit for, that's what I think.
It's not fair to say "it doesn't have feature X, it sucks" when you didn't bother to even check.
See, if it already struggles with everday tasks, and basic things I need every day there's absolutely no way I will dive into it deeper. If I realize after 15 minutes that it makes life harder for me than it is with other DAW's, then that's it for me. The procedure to load and use a MIDI out plugin is exactly the same in 5 other DAW's I know. It isn't the same in Mixcraft.

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Anyway, noone here should take my opinion for anything else than what it is. Download Mixcraft, check it out. Make your own experiences with it. Switch to it, if you feel like it handles things better than your current DAW. Only stating my personal opinion and experience here. I was quite positive when I approached. And quite negative now that I took a look into it. Wouldn't have expected the difference to what I'm used to to be that big.

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The dealbreakers that you present are personal, and I can't argue with that, there are some people who enjoy using Waveform and for the life of me I cannot understand it, but I guess horses for courses and different workflows for different fellas :)
But objectively, performing a certain action in 3 clicks instead of 2 clicks doesn't make a certain DAW a horrible mess.
Admittedly, I couldn't even figure out how to add an instrument in Mixcraft in the first 15 minutes, I am quite a slow learner, but to my surprise, after a bit of reading (just a little), and some actual use, everything became faster for me and I'm having lots of fun, and routing and setting up things doesn't feel as much as a chore as it felt with FL Studio (these virtual wires in the mixer to route to busses and sends, while an eye candy with all the nice subtle animations and glowing colors, are horrible in my eyes).

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ferez21 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 1:20 pm The dealbreakers that you present are personal, and I can't argue with that, there are some people who enjoy using Waveform and for the life of me I cannot understand it, but I guess horses for courses and different workflows for different fellas :)
But objectively, performing a certain action in 3 clicks instead of 2 clicks doesn't make a certain DAW a horrible mess.
Already told you that it's 5 clicks plus menu and dialog diving instead of one click and drag and drop. That's not really personal, it's objectively more work.

Reaper doesn't have an instrument browser either, BTW, but, at least it asks you immediately after you created a virtual instrument track which instrument you want to load into it. Like it should be.

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chk071 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 1:28 pm
ferez21 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 1:20 pm The dealbreakers that you present are personal, and I can't argue with that, there are some people who enjoy using Waveform and for the life of me I cannot understand it, but I guess horses for courses and different workflows for different fellas :)
But objectively, performing a certain action in 3 clicks instead of 2 clicks doesn't make a certain DAW a horrible mess.
Already told you that it's 5 clicks plus menu and dialog diving instead of one click and drag and drop. That's not really personal, it's objectively more work.

Reaper doesn't have an instrument browser either, BTW, but, at least it asks you immediately after you created a virtual instrument track which instrument you want to load into it. Like it should be.
If we gonna be pedantic about it, you press Ctrl+E, then left click on the piano symbol, then you can already type the name the VST you want to add to the chain. You can create custom groups, you can Show/Hide whichever plugins you want, you have a menu of last used plugins, and you can set a default icon for any individual instrument (that will be saved as a global default). When you Drag-and-drop like in studio one, you don't consider it as extra clicks if for example the browser was closed and in another category (you need 2 clicks just to get to the Instruments tab), but you do consider it as daunting in Mixcraft, I'm not sure why :D
Last edited by ferez21 on Fri Jun 04, 2021 1:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Again though, keyboard shortcuts are for advanced users who already spend a lot of time with the DAW, and want to make frequently used things in their workflow quicker. It's nothing for a user who just dives into the DAW, and wants to become familiar with it.

I use Studio One for years, and never use keyboard shortcuts to add virtual instrument tracks. I don't need to. It's so quick and easy that I have no need to further accelerate it.

Frankly, it's ridiculous if you need a keyboard shortcut for stuff like that. I use keyboard shortcuts for stuff like duplication, copying, or cutting MIDI notes, but not for things I can quickly and easily do with the mouse.

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chk071 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 1:43 pm Again though, keyboard shortcuts are for advanced users who already spend a lot of time with the DAW, and want to make frequently used things in their workflow quicker. It's nothing for a user who just dives into the DAW, and wants to become familiar with it.

I use Studio One for years, and never use keyboard shortcuts to add virtual instrument tracks. I don't need to. It's so quick and easy that I have no need to further accelerate it.

Frankly, it's ridiculous if you need a keyboard shortcut for stuff like that. I use keyboard shortcuts for stuff like duplication, copying, or cutting MIDI notes, but not for things I can quickly and easily do with the mouse.
When you Drag-and-drop like in studio one, you don't consider it as extra clicks if for example the browser was closed and in another category (you need 2 clicks just to get to the Instruments tab), but you do consider 2 extra clicks as daunting in Mixcraft, I'm not sure why :D
I can name countless of things that in Reaper aren't nearly as intuitive as in Mixcraft, each DAW has its pluses and minuses, but you *exclusively* concentrate on the negatives.

Look, if you're click-counting and expect the exact same workflow a few DAWs you are familiar with have, why are you even looking at other DAWs if you just want them to be the same? You are definitely not the target audience of this DAW.
I needed a change, the workflow change was good for me, I am not the brightest person on earth and Mixcraft is very very easy for me, and that's actually the first impression of many people (excluding the first 15 minutes of frustration).

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ferez21 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 1:47 pm I can name countless of things that in Reaper aren't nearly as intuitive as in Mixcraft, each DAW has its pluses and minuses, but you *exclusively* concentrate on the negatives.
No. I state the negative things I encountered in the first 15 minutes of using the DAW. If there's already a handful of negative things I encountered in that time, with really basic things, there's no need to go any further.

If your car breaks down after a 1 kilometre of driving it, there's no way to go on either. Or at least, it doesn't make much sense to go any further, if you don't want to risk a total loss. ;)

Again, this is my experience. I can only recommend everyone to download the trial, and check the thing out. Make your own experiences.

I'm not here to tell you what to do or use either. It's just that I partly tried Mixcraft out because of your positive recommendations, and, I really can't confirm what you are saying about the ease of use, or quick operation. Actually, I found out that it's quite the opposite.

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chk071 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 2:02 pm
ferez21 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 1:47 pm I can name countless of things that in Reaper aren't nearly as intuitive as in Mixcraft, each DAW has its pluses and minuses, but you *exclusively* concentrate on the negatives.
If your car breaks down after a 1 kilometre of driving it, there's no way to go on either. Or at least, it doesn't make much sense to go any further, if you don't want to risk a total loss. ;)
Great analogy, let me add that your car may have broke because you didn't bother to read the manual :D

You do need to put an effort if you really want to evaluate things, I did the same mistake of superficially evaluating different DAWs a few years ago, deeming most of them as convoluted crap just because I was too lazy to review them more thoroughly.

Bottom line, different people have different experiences, I would also suggest people to download and try it themselves, but at the same time understand it is different, but not in a bad way, it just taking a different approach that for me at least, really pays off. I didn't do any extensive manual reading, i just visited the forums a few minutes here and there, and read a page or two in the manual for some clarifications (and there are also very high quality videos on Youtube by Cameron from Venus Theory).

If you deem keyboard shortcuts and a bit of reading to clarify things as excessive, well, let's just say i hope you don't dismiss other things as easy as that when a tiny little bit of effort is needed, and that is coming from a very lazy person such as myself :D

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ferez21 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 2:12 pm
chk071 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 2:02 pm
ferez21 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 1:47 pm I can name countless of things that in Reaper aren't nearly as intuitive as in Mixcraft, each DAW has its pluses and minuses, but you *exclusively* concentrate on the negatives.
If your car breaks down after a 1 kilometre of driving it, there's no way to go on either. Or at least, it doesn't make much sense to go any further, if you don't want to risk a total loss. ;)
Great analogy, let me add that your car may have broke because you didn't bother to read the manual :D
Ok. What have I done wrong when I added an instrument track, and then added a virtual instrument to a track? Don't say that I needed to use keyboard shortcuts, because, I don't need those for such a simple task in any other DAW. And, I doubt you want to say that a user who tries out the DAW should read the manual, and memorize keyboard shortcuts for such a basic task either.

I really think you're being a bit too zealous about this DAW.

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chk071 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 2:19 pm
ferez21 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 2:12 pm
chk071 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 2:02 pm
ferez21 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 1:47 pm I can name countless of things that in Reaper aren't nearly as intuitive as in Mixcraft, each DAW has its pluses and minuses, but you *exclusively* concentrate on the negatives.
If your car breaks down after a 1 kilometre of driving it, there's no way to go on either. Or at least, it doesn't make much sense to go any further, if you don't want to risk a total loss. ;)
Great analogy, let me add that your car may have broke because you didn't bother to read the manual :D
Ok. What have I done wrong when I added an instrument track, and then added a virtual instrument to a track? Don't say that I needed to use keyboard shortcuts, because, I don't need those for such a simple task in any other DAW. And, I doubt you want to say that a user who tries out the DAW should read the manual, and memorize keyboard shortcuts for such a basic task either.

I really think you're being a bit too zealous about this DAW.
Look, I can't hide the fact that I am excited about this DAW, and for me it really felt like I've found a gem. I am a long time hobbyist and was so afraid to switch DAWs in the past, but Mixcraft was so easy and clicked with me almost instantly (minus 15 minutes :D).

I have my issues with it and I have some frustrations and I have my list of suggestions to Acoustica, but I still think it is an amazing value that many budget-oriented hobbyists can benefit from.

You did nothing wrong, it is understandable that Mixcraft's workflow doesn't work for you, different tastes, you seem to be the type of user who wants a new software to behave exactly the same as the other ones you know (nothing wrong with that, I am that kind of user when it comes to photo editing), and you don't accept a change in workflow and can't be bothered with opening the manual, but you cant go on saying that the software lack certain features just because you didn't bother to check, this is plain misinformation to anyone looking for a new DAW that happen to be reading this thread, and that's not the coolest.

Do other DAWs do *some* things better than Mixcraft? Yes.
Does Mixcraft do *some* things better than other DAWs? Yes.
Do other DAWs have *some* features Mixcraft doesn't have? Yes.
Does Mixcraft have *some* features other DAWs don't? Yes.

And you can replace the word "Mixcraft" with any other DAW's name and it will probably still apply :)

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Mixcraft is like Garageband for Windows, except it has a mixer, video editing, clip launching, MIDI notation editing and audio quantization. To me it's very intuitive and you could do a lot worse for the price. $30 for Mixcraft Home Studio and more at humblebundle is a great deal, and one could upgrade to Mixcraft 10 when it's expected toward year-end.

Version 10 is supposed to have high dpi monitor support and will hopefully address the MIDI input routing issue, although I'm able to user Scaler and just drag MIDI clips into Mixcraft.

It's probably not for pro studio use, but it's streamlined and straight forward and excellent for home recording and composing.

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pbognar wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 8:22 pm Mixcraft is like Garageband for Windows, except it has a mixer, video editing, clip launching, MIDI notation editing and audio quantization. To me it's very intuitive and you could do a lot worse for the price. $30 for Mixcraft Home Studio and more at humblebundle is a great deal, and one could upgrade to Mixcraft 10 when it's expected toward year-end.

Version 10 is supposed to have high dpi monitor support and will hopefully address the MIDI input routing issue, although I'm able to user Scaler and just drag MIDI clips into Mixcraft.

It's probably not for pro studio use, but it's streamlined and straight forward and excellent for home recording and composing.
For 30$ you actually get both Mixcraft 8 Home Studio and Mixcraft 9 Recording Studio. While Mixcraft 8 Home Studio would be closer to Garage Band, Mixcraft 9 Recording Studio is a full fledged DAW. Version 9 was a huge leap from version 8, feature-wise.

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Mixcraft is often compared to GB because it's beginner friendly, and the differentiating features I listed apply to Home Studio and I consider it to be a full fledged DAW. I think Acoustica have done a great job at focusing on the 90% of functionality hobbyists and musicians require.

If in version 10 they include some chord track features, it will be a fantastic composition platform, especially coupled with Scaler and Melodyne (Recording Studio).

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ferez21 wrote: Fri Jun 04, 2021 8:31 pm
For 30$ you actually get both Mixcraft 8 Home Studio and Mixcraft 9 Recording Studio. While Mixcraft 8 Home Studio would be closer to Garage Band, Mixcraft 9 Recording Studio is a full fledged DAW. Version 9 was a huge leap from version 8, feature-wise.
Tried using U-HE's Hive 2 in Mixcraft ? You can't scale the GUI without it screwing up the VST.. you are limited to the default. You might blame U-He for that, but when every other modern DAW handles this, it highlights issues.
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