Tracktion Collective: comparable to modern hardware workstations in sound quality?

[urlwolf]

I want something simple where I can dial in sounds (many acoustic) and get going with composing or recording.
In the past this was workstations; but now I see options for daw work.
How's the quality in Tracktion Collective? Would I get this immediacy that I'm looking for? Do I need a very powerful computer to run say a dozen tracks?
I'm thinking about doing it on linux, with an old (but powerful, i7) computer.

[rlared]

You can demo Tracktion and Collective I believe, give it a shot

[Examigan]

Yep, it has a 90 day trial.

[k2006]

Tracktion Collective is free with computer music magazine viewtopic.php?t=570427

[GaryG]

Tracktion Collective is free with computer music magazine viewtopic.php?t=570427 

I'd advise checking out whether the software is still available before spending any money. I've accessed CMs from a month or two back online (Readly etc) and found one-off deals like this (as opposed to new additions to the CM Studio) aren't always available, links no longer work.

I recall this was just a redemption code in the download from filesilo so fingers crossed this one will still work.

As for the original question, I was impressed by the sounds, wide ranging and well recorded. Not a massive fan of the GUI but all worked fine for me in Waveform and Reaper.

[Examigan]

Here are some factory preset examples I put together with no external effects added.

https://soundcloud.com/examigan/collective-demo

[urlwolf]

Thanks Examigan. Yes, I've listened to a few demos. My demo is plagued with the whitenoise from hell, and I haven't been able to fix it. Ie registration does nothing. But I'm more interested in your opinion if you are familiar with modern workstations (I'm not).

[Examigan]

Unfortunately I’ve never used a hardware workstation.

Collective is pretty versatile and well worth it esp. when they have a sale. I think it was only around $37 a while ago.

[zzz00m]

I want something simple where I can dial in sounds (many acoustic) and get going with composing or recording.
In the past this was workstations; but now I see options for daw work.
How's the quality in Tracktion Collective? Would I get this immediacy that I'm looking for? Do I need a very powerful computer to run say a dozen tracks?
I'm thinking about doing it on linux, with an old (but powerful, i7) computer.

I would say Collective covers many of the "bread and butter" ROMpler sounds. Plus you can go under the hood and edit the patches, or make your own, if that is your thing. It is a synth after all...

But the variety of factory patches in each category is somewhat limited, and you may end up spending a bit of time tweaking them to taste.

You may want to also take a look at AIR Xpand!2, which is often on sale for cheap.

It is older, but at one time it was an exclusive of Pro Tools, so the sounds are fairly decent, and there are something like 2500+ presets, covering just about every instrument category. It is 4-part multi-timbral, so it can be set to respond to 4 MIDI channels per instance. The main drawback is there is not much synth programming available, just some macro controls for the overall sound. But it is a quick sketching tool with a light footprint. Sample file size is only about 1.5GB.

Finding a good software "ROMpler" (comparable to a hardware workstation) for your use as an "all-in-one" is not an easy task for free or cheap. If money is not a big obstacle, take a look at the Korg Collection 3, where you can get the Korg Triton and Triton Extreme, with all of the expansion sounds included. That is a Korg produced software replica of one of their best classic hardware workstations.

But if you want to go Linux, your options would be more limited. I'm not aware of any mainstream hardware workstation emulations that run native under Linux. Collective might be your only option for that.

[gaggle of hermits]

Thanks Examigan. Yes, I've listened to a few demos. My demo is plagued with the whitenoise from hell, and I haven't been able to fix it. Ie registration does nothing. But I'm more interested in your opinion if you are familiar with modern workstations (I'm not).

if registration is doing nothing to improve the demo, you may have trouble running the paid-for version as it's the same copy protection being used. if you're on windows, it may be the good old run-as-admin issue, though.

and no, it isn't like a hardware workstation. it's a perfectly good rompler but if you're comparing against the way a fantom or similar is programmed, you're going to find it's too different. half the time, a smiley-face eq will give you the slightly hyped sound of a workstation on any rompler plugin. but out of the box, no.

[monkeygenius]

Tracktion Collective is free with computer music magazine viewtopic.php?t=570427 

I'd advise checking out whether the software is still available before spending any money. I've accessed CMs from a month or two back online (Readly etc) and found one-off deals like this (as opposed to new additions to the CM Studio) aren't always available, links no longer work.

I recall this was just a redemption code in the download from filesilo so fingers crossed this one will still work.

I just checked, and it is still available. You do indeed use a redemption code and Collective and the Beta Maxed sound pack will be added to your Tracktion account.

[GaryG]

Tracktion Collective is free with computer music magazine viewtopic.php?t=570427 

I'd advise checking out whether the software is still available before spending any money. I've accessed CMs from a month or two back online (Readly etc) and found one-off deals like this (as opposed to new additions to the CM Studio) aren't always available, links no longer work.

I recall this was just a redemption code in the download from filesilo so fingers crossed this one will still work.

I just checked, and it is still available. You do indeed use a redemption code and Collective and the Beta Maxed sound pack will be added to your Tracktion account.

Cool. Then those with a free Readly trial or library access can probably get it for nowt.

[Danilo Villanova]

I got it a couple months ago from CM. It was sn older issue and it worked fine. I haven’t used it much though so I can’t comment on the quality. Those hardware workstations have some pretreatment good sounds, depending on the make and model. This type of plugin sounds pretty generic to me but with the righ processing chain it can be made to sound good.

[Examigan]

Another bread-and-butter plugin (more of a rompler than Collective) you might want to check out is Purity.
https://sonic-cat.com/purity/

[zzz00m]

Another bread-and-butter plugin (more of a rompler than Collective) you might want to check out is Purity.
https://sonic-cat.com/purity/

Purity looks very interesting, but appears to be only Win/Mac, so not a native Linux solution.

I'm thinking about doing it on linux, with an old (but powerful, i7) computer.