Tracktion Waveform 13.x on mac : A mixed out of box experience.

[wpostma]

Traction Waveform's features are impressive at their price point, but at least on the Mac I tried it on, Traction seems pretty flaky.

I'm on mac os sonoma (not tahoe), where most daws that work well on mac, seem to be happy.

One really nice thing is that on first launch Traction Waveform, the daw seemed to auto detect my Audient audio interface, among all the attached audio devices as the output device. It would have been impressive if it also picked it as the default audio input device, but maybe it's just because A was first in the alphabet. Anyways.

Trying to create and open a project, I thought, let's see what the Singer Songwriter template does. Well what it does is break. Waveform gives you no error but also doesn't create a new project or open it, but it does leave a pile of broken files on the hard drive for you to try to open, but it won't open them because no file with a .tracktion extension is even created. It also does not appear to add the new project to the project or library list/tree inside the DAW.

The PODCAST templateTwo Channel Mixer template works, the singer songwriter one does not. What's surprising to me is that when something doesn't work I don't get any errors. I would have preferred to see some error like "Hey, this template didn't work, here's an error message: <Something not found>".

I do really feel impressed by the plugin scanning system, which took on my Mac's thousand plus VST and AU plugins and scanned them all, and even though one or two of them crashed the scanner host, it continued on bravely and got through the whole thing. That is better than a lot of less well know DAWs work.

The other thing that's quite disappointing to me is that it doesn't seem like there's a lot of richly integrated Midi Controller surface options for Tracktion Waveform. Googling around suggests there are add-ons for my novation launchpad but I still haven't tracked down if that's still something that works, or if it might be something from an older version of waveform, that is suffering from whatever bit-rot affected the singer songwriter template.

User interface wise, I find the font kerning and display quality, and the layout to be quite.... underwhelming. This is not a crisp looking high res UI. It looks rather like a super weird Reaper theme. But with bad kerning.

I kind of really like that a snapshot (edits seems to be the term used in the UI) model is built right into the project view. That seems clever and much nicer than just having a project with your own "v3_final_no_really" rename support. But the cost is that getting in and out of projects and understanding things is less intuitive. I feel like some use of color could be added to make default "go ahead/ok, continue, load, proceed" choices more clear in waveform.

The recent edits page is so handy that I wonder why the visual way of selecting from all recently opened projects wasn't just done in the project page too. Recents at the top, and a project tree at the bottom, but also expanded out so I can just pick an edit and open it with a visual thumbnail.

If the welcome page with its visual thumbnails of project-editable-openable-states is a more recent UI thing, then I'm pleased to see the UI becoming more friendly and intuitive than it was.
I do wish the default apple SF Pro font was automatically selected in the Waveform UI when first installing on a Mac. There does seem to be something wonky with whatever GUI library Waveform is using, in that 90% of the installed fonts you could select from the Font menu in the settings result in a UI with bad kerning, to the point of being unreadable. This may be a level in whatever framework/C++ libraries you're using (wxWidgets maybe?). It doesn't seem to be a QT app. If you could fix ONE thing with a point update, it would be to have professional clean kerning on whatever default font your app is going to use, or at least with some of the available fonts that come with most macs:



When text like "Clips" is rendered with the C hitting the letter l beside it, it reads as Oips. That's just an example. But it's frustrating.

It makes everything that has to be understood, harder to understand. Plugin names. Track names. Information message boxes. People with less than perfect vision would probably appreciate the ability to manually kern text and add extra space between letters, but if the program would respect mono space font spacing when the font is already mono spaced, that would be a step up too.

If I could read everything clearly on my screen, I'd be feeling so much more hopeful. If I set a mono font, and then restart, sometimes it stays correct, and sometimes it goes wrong after a while.

It looks like Plugin Sandboxing is something Waveform has. This makes it exceptionally advanced. Only Bitwig has that, besides Waveform, if I'm not mistaken. This is a powerful DAW. It does crash a lot more on me than Bitwig does tho.


I don't think I've ever seen a more intuitive UI-element on-off thing than the eyeball icon at the top right corner. This is lovely. So not perfect, but some parts of this are fantastic. I love all the hide/show control in one place.

I do think the separation of the menus into right click menus in the header area (where the only place is I can find the loop on/off mode control, which has no clear visual icon, for loop enable/ or not enabled, like other daws would have right in the transport control toolbar) is odd. It looks like the Waveform 9 UI was super cluttered and comparatively the modern Waveform UI is much more minimalist and efficient.

Out of ten times saving and closing a project, I have lost work 8 out of 10 times, with no errors on screen. I can't see myself trying to build a real musical project in this when it can't save my work without losing it.


Warren

[pough]

where the only place is I can find the loop on/off mode control, which has no clear visual icon, for loop enable/ or not enabled, like other daws would have right in the transport control toolbar

It depends on the width of the program window* and whether or not you have the controls panel open, but the loop on/off is near the transport and either a pretty clear icon or the word itself.

* Some things can appear and disappear depending on the space they have to be displayed.

[Watchful]

I think real-world, real-user reviews by folks like Warren are super-important. I think too much time is spent in professional reviews comparing Waveform to other, more popular DAWs and their more esoteric/advanced features, which doesn't provide a new user much help. Warren's review, above, is excellent at pointing out real features and real experiences.

I will add, though, that I'm not experiencing the issues he's reporting; I'm using Windows 11, and the fonts are very legible; additionally, I can't remember the last time I had a crash that I didn't cause (the last one was caused by me loading a plugin into a track while there was already one in there--AND the playhead was moving during playback; not smart).

It's frustrating because 80% of us are NOT experiencing these crashes; but I have no doubt that the 20% of us who do are experiencing them A LOT.

What's also intriguing about Warren's post is that I believe the application is generally coded on the Mac and then ported over to Windows. You'd think some of that weirdness would be the other way around.

However, Warren has some great suggestions that I hope the developers see, read, and take to heart.

[wpostma]

I am also happy to learn there is supposed to be a loop indicator.

The whole UI in waveform has a scaling setting which is a really essential thing in 2025 with the variety of screen resolutions out there.

I will keep fiddling and see if I can get more stuff to show up.

Is there a way to move the transport controls to the top as they are in many daws?

[pough]

Is there a way to move the transport controls to the top as they are in many daws?

Not that I'm aware of, no.

[wpostma]

Okay after twiddling with the main window size, and the scaling, I do see an additional set of transport controls show up.

I think if it worked like cubase where there were invisible splitters that you could drag, it would be preferable. That way I could stop using all that space on the bottom left of the transport area where there's a lot of stuff I rarely use.
Anything that doesn't fit and can't be show should just fold up into a drop down or a hamburger menu (the three horizontal lines menu, or a drop down arrow).

I've spent about four hours fiddling, and it's driving me nuts that I can't put the save action right on the top of the toolbar where I think it should be, The very most common options in all apps, file open, file save, should be there.

It's funny that waveform has no standard pull down menus like most apps, just a drop down called Waveform.

The only command there is Quit and things like "Services" which are there on every mac os app. It really feels like a windows app port to Mac, where the developer didn't know how Mac users expect things to be.
There should ALWAYS be a File menu, and File Open, and File Save should be there, and perhaps a File New and File New From Template. There should always be an Edit menu with Undo and Redo and the standard mac os undo/redo shortcuts.

I kind of absolutely love the note editor in WAVEFORM. It just does a lot of nice things for you. It took me a moment to realize that I'm seeing more than one tracks' notes in the note editor but it really makes life easier seeing the drum and the keys parts when editing.

I think there's as bug where if you are prompted to save, but you haven't saved with the Cmd+S save keyboard shortcut, and you say yes, it fails to save at all, quietly losing work. If you already saved before you are prompted, you don't lose any work, and I wonder if that's been lurking in there a while.

[pough]

There should ALWAYS be a File menu, and File Open, and File Save should be there, and perhaps a File New and File New From Template. There should always be an Edit menu with Undo and Redo and the standard mac os undo/redo shortcuts.

Tracktion started out being nonconformist and one could maybe argue that by using its own conventions it becomes OS-agnostic. At any rate the things you're looking for can be found at the bottom left instead of the top left. Probably. It depends on how you're displaying the Controls Panel at the bottom.

I strongly, strongly recommend that you open up the Controls Panel at the bottom to be in what we mockingly call "Useful Mode".

So many things can easily be accomplished when it's big. Things that new users assume don't exist at all.

[dysjoint]

There are so many ways to customise what you see on screen. By using keyboard shortcuts you quickly flick different panels open or closed. You can favourite actions and then just call up the 'favourites actions panel' or you can open the main fixed actions panel on the left and have access to the whole tree of edit/track/clip/plugin. You can have the bottom control/properties panel minimised and just open a floating version as needed. You can save layouts and flick between them if that's your thing. You can use macro commands or write your own and organise them in custom folders and call that up with a keystroke, basically your own custom floating hamburger menu. I will say that the API is a bit (lot) behind the development of the daw but you can still do a bit with it.

[jabe]

Okay after twiddling with the main window size, and the scaling, I do see an additional set of transport controls show up.

I think if it worked like cubase where there were invisible splitters that you could drag, it would be preferable. That way I could stop using all that space on the bottom left of the transport area where there's a lot of stuff I rarely use.
Anything that doesn't fit and can't be show should just fold up into a drop down or a hamburger menu (the three horizontal lines menu, or a drop down arrow).

I've spent about four hours fiddling, and it's driving me nuts that I can't put the save action right on the top of the toolbar where I think it should be, The very most common options in all apps, file open, file save, should be there.

It's funny that waveform has no standard pull down menus like most apps, just a drop down called Waveform.

...

There should ALWAYS be a File menu, and File Open, and File Save should be there, and perhaps a File New and File New From Template. There should always be an Edit menu with Undo and Redo and the standard mac os undo/redo shortcuts.

...

No. RIGHT-CLICK OPTIONS ARE THE WAY TO GO.

"It's funny that waveform has no standard pull down menus like most apps, just a drop down called Waveform."

Not funny: sensible, logical, simpler.

The endless unfathomable menus are the EXACT reason I opted out of Cubase 20+ years ago. Right-clicking on something and getting a short set of relevant options is far more sensible than moving my mouse half a screen away to make a dozen clicks on a one of a million menus I haven't learnt by heart.


""There should ALWAYS be a File menu"."

Pretend the set of options in the lower left corner are your menus.


"I've spent about four hours fiddling, and it's driving me nuts that I can't put the save action right on the top of the toolbar where I think it should be, The very most common options in all apps, file open, file save, should be there."

Right-click on the tab name. Those are near the top and give you options.


".. right on the top of the toolbar where I think it should be, !The very most common options in all apps, file open, file save, should be there"

You can create your own short-cuts.


"I think if it worked like cubase where there were invisible splitters that you could drag, it would be preferable. That way I could stop using all that space on the bottom left of the transport area where there's a lot of stuff I rarely use."

I assume you're referring to the infinitely useful Properties Panel, containing the properties of whatever is highlighted. Hide it if you don't want to use it. There are multiple ways to adjust most parameters.

[Watchful]

I concur that many long-time Waveform (and Tracktion) users prefer NOT to work like all the other DAWs. There are some definite advantages to Waveform's streamlined approach. There's nothing inherently logical about how most DAWs are set up--they basically mimic Cubase or ProTools. Waveform is set up like a well-organized physical studio, with everything within easy reach and generally visible. You can of course simplify it further or clutter it up as you need, but it takes getting used to because it is so different in that approach.