What's your main DAW ?

[jens]

Went from Logic 5 (confused and dazed), to Cubase SX (buggy and always needing a decent bug fix rather than more feature dumping), to Tracktion 2 (great interface but midi sucks) and ended up on Reaper. I like the way Reaper is going, it is lean and mean and reliable for me. The developers are doing a stellar job and since moving have pumped out 3 tracks that I wouldn't have been able to do in Tracktion due to said midi issues like VST note hangs and the likes.

The other thing is of all the hosts I have tried, Reaper has the smallest footprint and taxes the CPU the least. I'm very happy with what can be done on it and am looking forward to further development.

nope - Logic is definetely lighter on the cpu than Reaper - Tracktion as well - did you do some reliable tests with Reaper? (I did)


Reraper is fantastic nontheless but it ain't too light on the cpu (switches off unused fx though)

[kevink]

That said, I'm actually more surprised at the relatively high percentage for Sonar.

As a Sonar user, I'm not.

First, Cubase and Nuendo are combined so the actual Cubase users may be closer to 20% (completely arbitrary, admittedly). The greater amount of Cubase users IMO is due to the fact that it is one of the few hosts that work on both platforms. Logic no longer does and Cakewalk never has.

That pair of facts have combined to give Sonar a bit of a boost, I think. The only reason I'm on Sonar was because of Logic being dropped for the PC just when I had to shift from Mac-based to PC-based DAWs. Even though Sonar's MIDI handling was wildly inferior to Logic at the time, it seemed like the best availabale alternative overall. I think a number of Logic refugees felt the same way.

[5.1]

Reraper is fantastic nontheless but it ain't too light on the cpu (switches off unused fx though)

Huh. I've got Samplitude Pro, FL Studio, Reason and Reaper, and Reaper has the smallest CPU use of any of them on my machine. Dual Core AMD on x64.

[jens]

Reraper is fantastic nontheless but it ain't too light on the cpu (switches off unused fx though)

Huh. I've got Samplitude Pro, FL Studio, Reason and Reaper, and Reaper has the smallest CPU use of any of them on my machine. Dual Core AMD on x64.

what tests exactly did you run if I may ask?

(just a small note: a host that performs properly shouldn't have any real infulence on the cpu-consumption of plugin as almost all the cpu-cycles are consumed by the plugin-code and that doesn't change if you change the host - however there's something wrong with Reaper and therefor it uses a bit more cpu while processing plugins than eXT, Tracktion, Samplitude, Sonar, etc.)


edit:

just to put this right: the consumption is about the same in Reaper as well but Reaper currently starts to choke much sooner than typical hosts so you can't use your cpu to the same degree as you can with these other hosts. I can't speak for every machine of course but I doubt that there'll be much difference concearning this.

[Pipelineaudio]

I only use a few apps, so I dont know quite how this applies, but reaper has consistently used more fx before choking than my used to be app

With the dual opteron system, I cant tell as I have never even come close to maxing out the plugins. With a non SMP app though I have and did in reaper before SMP once

Of course Im not Charles Dye and attempting to use every plugin in the universe on every single track in an attempt to smash the hell out of any possible sound either

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[.jon]

I agree with ttoz, jens you were unnecessarily rude.

That said eXT has all the same arrangment and clip editing features I used in Cubase SX2 (and VST, SX1) but they work more responsively in eXT.... IMHO. It's too bad that finding out those features is not easy at all, documentation is pretty weak and some features are just hidden. The interface of eXT is very uncluttered and simple, and that might give the impression of basicness- it does not give much clues of what can be done. Audio editing is very basic, though.

This is half strength, half weakness. Very good for dedicated users who know the key mods and functions, as the GUI is free of clutter.

That said I will not compare it featurewise to Nuendo, which IMO is the most advanced digital audio system in the world. If my hobby would be profession, it would be my host for sure.

[jens]

check out DP5 and Logic7 and even CubaseSX/Nuendo for a start. EXT to me is like a toy like floops and orion. Sorry but I am used to much more advanced audio editing capabilities than that. Oh i forgot, it has normalize and trim. LOL.

You're coming off like an arrogant twat who hasn't got a real clue here Theo.


My guess is that I use much more audio than you and eXT is the only sequencer I currenly use - hence it can't be that basic.

well you're being the twat because i was originally very nice about it and didn't diss the app and even said that I welcome version 2 with open arms.

no, you weren't nice.

I am used to traditional "arrange type" sequencers.

so am I as you should know

Energy Xt has a bunch of features, but when it comes to the "arrange page " part, i mean working with clips, it is just pathetic and WAY to weak for *me*, I need heavy editing features.

you're proving exactly what I was saying - you're are writing bollox out of missing knowledge - it's totally obvious that you only have a very vague idea about eXT. But still you feel the need to judge it.

Some of the great features of eXT's sequencer are:


- mutable parts (=clips)

- ghostable parts

- mutable events

- parts can be: midi, audio, automation, tempo, time-signature, (and marker)


So you can simply copy, paste, ghost and even mute automation-clips just as you can do with audio- and midi-clips and you can do the same with time-signature andf tempo-automation.

If you rename one ghosts all the others get renamed as well, the same goes for changing its color, yadda yadda yadda.

Just select a part and hit crtl+u and it is unghosted.


You can save any part in a dedicated folder (with the option to use sub-folders). Once saved you can access it from within any of your projects
by right-clicking anywhere in the timeline and chosing 'import part'->'xyz'

That way it is very easy to set-up automation-, beat-, etc. templates.

Audio-parts can contain as many channel as you like.

If you record in a loop each new take automatically gets placed to a new channel. Each channel cna be muted, soloed and panned.

Yadda yadda yadda. (i.e. I could mention much more)

These are all great features which make working in eXT's sequencer really fast, powerful and intuitive (once you got to know the basics). It is obvious that you do not know them and hence your 'when it comes to the "arrange page " part, i mean working with clips, it is just pathetic and WAY to weak for *me*, I need heavy editing features' is just hilarious.

Please don't compare audio and midi in EXT to something like Nuendo. And audio especially (ok midi in PT is shit) to something like PT.

why not? and b.t.w.: I didn't know that you are using Nuendo and ProTools.

And 'midi in ProTools is shit' is also just pubtalk.

I mean, you're obviously a fanboy but please don't become a BONES as soon as someone doesn't like YOUR favorite app. I am entitled to think it's basic, but you are not entitled to insult me for that, so i expect an apology.

Theo, I have absolutely nothing about criticizing eXT as long as it is founded on valid arguments. But you didn't give any argument. Someone asked you 'what features are you exactly missing?' and you just tried to steal away by mentioning some polular expensive sequencers (you are'nt known to use anyway).

You didn't name a single feature you are missing.

This is really pathetic and annoys me and hence you can't expect an apology from me.


I am flaming eXT a lot. That's because I know all of its weaknesses from the inside out from daily experience. Thus I can say in plain and clear words what is bad about eXT, what is currently missing, what could be better, etc.


Sorry Theo, but you really deserve this rebuke. If there is one thing I really don't like it is when people feel a need to judge about things, persons, etc. they do not really know. The worst thing is that others might believe you know what you are talking about and then take you word as truth. That way a lot of harm can be done.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[.jon]

ttoz jens's list is far from complete.

Of course eXT is not a toy, but neither a 1000eur DAW.

Stupid comparison as none of the big 5, or any other 23829830 as a matter of fact has the features eXT has.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

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[MotorsKill23]

...Energy Xt does not even tell you where on the timeline you clip is!
...
You can't even audibly preview an audio file you want to drop into your energy xt project, i mean, this is just bare necessities that it doesn't do.
...
Looping capabilities?
...
i want destructive track render

I think these statements prove jens point that you are clueless about XT

...

Jens, can you tell me one feature in the "huge" list of ext you just made (about how great it is) that does NOT exist in Logic or Cubase?

Well I'm tempted to invest sometime to rub your face in it...but it's not worth it. Besides I wouldn't want to encourage you to join the XT community. But 2 blaringly obvious features you should consider are:

• XT loads into all these other wonderfull hosts as a VST, providing many users increased features/flexability.
  It operates without a dongle

Enough said.

indeed.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[BONES]

already in the ext community. I have already said it is worth owning to use as a subhost, as an arpeggiator and to host vst plugins that sometimes act funky in the main host.

You mean your main host doesn't have an arpeggiator? If I felt the need to have a secondary host, I would be looking for a new primary one. Seriously, it seems to me that some of these ridiculously expensive toys that try to pass themselves off as high end are lacking some very basic features. And what good is an audio pool if you want to hear your audio dry?

[blaster78]

And what good is an audio pool if you want to hear your audio dry?

and now you've made me inhale my coffee.