Tracktion Software

luxgud · Post by **luxgud** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 9:28 am

Yes you are missing something, **nobody ever ** actually paid $149 for T1. That was Mackies marketing ploy.

T2 pricing is often compared with Cubase, Logic etc. This is unreasonable. If you want to work in a studio or teach electronic music, advanced knowledge of Tracktion will not look too good on your application form (cv).
Furthermore, producing Cubase, Logic etc involves many people. Tracktion on the other hand is the work (opus magum) of one clever man. In reality, then, Tracktion is proportionatly expensive.

Okay, you've given me a kicking already, finish me off

braj · Post by **braj** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 10:37 am

Ron says he paid $149.

pHz · Post by **pHz** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 11:54 am

ron says lots of things ...

slainte

rob

relayer2001 · Post by **relayer2001** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 11:54 am

luxgud wrote:Yes you are missing something, **nobody ever ** actually paid $149 for T1. That was Mackies marketing ploy.

If $149 price for T1 was a marketing ploy what's to say that the "final" price for T2 won't be below $199? Wishful thinking here.

However, I'll reserve judgement on whether the $199 price tag is too expensive or not until I play around with the demo when it comes out.

djsubject · Post by **djsubject** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 11:56 am

wasent $149 the boxed price??

lfm · Post by **lfm** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 12:57 pm

platinumears wrote:
lfm wrote: T also had some strange stuff with importing certain mid-files from other sequencers
What issues did you have, out of interest?

It's all here with sample files:
http://forums.mackie.com/scripts/forum/ ... 7&t=000176

I think there is as you say some confusion about how to write the mid-files. My guess is that is has to do with ticks/quarternote in each programs somehow and the written tempo that is there in the file. Sometimes the imported mid-file is completely different number of bars.

My reference is Jammer which is an excellent sequencer by which all other should be compared(in my view). But it uses only 120 ticks/quarternote fixed. It's common that you can choose up to 960 if you want.

But these sample files I tested load perfectly in all other midi software I have, but were completely destroyed in T.

IIRs · Post by **IIRs** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 1:37 pm

lfm wrote:It's all here with sample files:
http://forums.mackie.com/scripts/forum/ ... t_topic&f= 17&t=000176

Ok. I looked at the first two files in Cubase: The Jammer version has notes all of exactly the same length (12 ticks at 480 ticks pqn) while the Tracktion version's note lengths were all either 1 tick, 0 ticks, or much too long (ie; missing note-off).

My best guess is thst your drum pad is kicking out very short notes: Jammer, with its low resolution, is representing them with the shortest note duration it recognises(?) but Tracktion is attempting to do better, and failing!

Do you have any options to change the note-lenghts generated by your pads? The obvious answer is to stop generating really short notes in the first place..

Also I imported robert.mid in to Tracktion: there were indeed some strange note durations, but I used Tracktion's "Make all lengths equal" and "Quantise note lengths" functions to knock it into shape, and it seems to play ok..?

<edit> I suppose I should have posted that on the Mackie forum..

jens · Post by **jens** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 1:46 pm

headquest wrote:
braj wrote: And you can find Live4 for twice as much, not 2.5 times. It's normal street price is $399.
You'll probably need to invest in a new computer though. Tests that several of us have done consistently show that Live 4 uses more than 50% more CPU per VST plug in than Tracktion does... and it has no freeze feature.

apparently you have no clue about how Live works - you just don't need any 'freeze feature' as you can always render in a new slot with a simple click...

Also for the record, Live has no PDC, and only handles audio at 24-bit, compared to 64-bit in T2.

You're confusing sample bit-depth and internal calculation bit-depth. These two things are not related.

And to my ears (and several others who have posted) the sound quality in Live 4 is inferior and has a "metalic" colouration.

esoteric nonsense

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 1:59 pm

jens wrote:
apparently you have no clue about how Live works - you just don't need any 'freeze feature' as you can always render in a new slot with a simple click...

Er, well actually I do have a clue

And even though people claim LOive is so easy to use, the fact is that I've also rtfm, and sought help where I needed it over on the Ableton forum.

The reason that I would rather keep my clips in MIDI (and Freeze them) rather than bouncing things straight to audio is so that I can have (sometimes extreme) tempo ramps. Live 4's timestretch, which ever of the four algorhythms you select, will not allow you to tempo-ramp audio without unqanted artifacts.

Perhaps that's why Albelton are said to be working on a freeze function for Live 5... which I guess means that they also disagree with you about the need for one, Jens

You're confusing sample bit-depth and internal calculation bit-depth. These two things are not related.

Again, your judging me without chekcing out what I do and don't know. I'm quite clear on the difference between sample depth and floating bit for internal processing, thanks. And I record at 24-bit whichever software I use, because that is the quality of the hardware I use.

The issue here actually boils down to Live's capable at the mastering end of the process. I would suggest that Live is not capable, even using freat plugs like Oxone, of producing a professional sounding master. For example, dithering...

So any project I creat in Live will be exported to Adobe Audition for the mastering process. AA also has 32-bit internal processing and is very capable when dithering down to 16-bit for burning to CD, etc.

However, from Live 4 I can only export at 24-bit quality, whereas in Tracktion 1.6 32-bit export is included.

I hope this explains where I am coming from!

Muzik 4 Machines · Post by **Muzik 4 Machines** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 2:06 pm

CypherOne wrote:overpriced? with all those extra features? surely not...

yes overpriced with all those stupid plugins i dont need(nor can use on a mac) and a box and a manual i also dont need, i call it extortion, mackie style

jens · Post by **jens** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 2:08 pm

I doubt that you will be able to export at 64bit from T2...

(in reply to headquest)

pHz · Post by **pHz** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 2:10 pm

jens wrote:I doubt that you will be able to export at 64bit from T2...
(in reply to headquest)

IIRC the 64bit thing ONLY relates to the internal audio mixing engine ...

... but i may be wrong ...

slainte

rob

IIRs · Post by **IIRs** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 2:12 pm

Hmm.. I suppose that means we will need to dither down to 32 bit on export for mastering!

I don't think I have a dither plug with a 32 bit setting..

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 2:15 pm

jens wrote:I doubt that you will be able to export at 64bit from T2...

(in reply to headquest)

I don't want to. I want to export at 32-bit. Tracktion does this. Live 4 doesn't.

That's not to say Live 4 is a bad piece of software - it's not. I'm sure that it's great as a live performance tool as per its original core functionality. Where Live 4 fails imho is in providing a full-on music production environment back in the studio, although it was somewhat hyped that it [i]would[/i] provide that.

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 2:21 pm

platinumears wrote:Hmm.. I suppose that means we will need to dither down to 32 bit on export for mastering!

I don't think I have a dither plug with a 32 bit setting..

This would presumably be done automatically when you export to render.

Tracktion Software

KVR Audio

T2 is too expensive