Is Tracktion now an orphan?

[PaulG]

Well,

Though I feel no need to reply, it's obvious (through the way that forum posts don't reveal intent or motivation) that some negative emotions may have surfaced from some misconstrued intent, and hopefully I can offer some clarity to help quell.

First, any sarcasm was simply pointed at the fact that complaining incessently doesn't solve the problem, no matter how loudly so. Don't believe me? Get married. She isn't going to listen, boys, no matter how much you yell.

You DON'T get it Paul !!!!

Sure, I do.

I've worked over 14 years in tech support and written music for over 24. You're the typical user whose computer won't work and whose life is ending because blah, blah, frickin' blah, call Dr. Phil. I've been on KVR quite a while, and those who have been here a while, too, know both my irreverent sense of humor and willingness to help, so don't be afraid to take advantage of either of those. If you PM me I'll gladly help you with any tech issues - or at least give you a second opinion from someone who'se been working in the tech support area for too long a time. So long, in fact, that I need to call Dr. Phil to discuss my fear of moving on.

Moving on...

This my friend is the reality of the situation. And yes My comp is completely optimized for recording (with CCleaner etc installed, defrafg daily etc etc), so please don't go undermining us.

Gabe, I don't have to undermine you - you just undermined yourself. If you've got to defrag DAILY then you've got SERIOUS hard drive problems. Get another drive as a secondary or consider retiring the hard drive.

You really need to rethink your analogy Paul.

No, I don't. It was thought up in two seconds and that's all I have disposition for.

don't go blowing your high horn and downplaying the users

I don't have a high horn and you're the one downplaying me. PM me your specific issues and I'll give you some suggestions from at least what I've experienced over this thankless job as a tech.

hear some of your stuff and also how many tracks you are using on an average per song ????

PM me. If you like 80's-style metal instrumentals, they'd be right up your alley. My production skills aren't the best so that's why I come to places like KVR, for the help and direction. I spent 20+ years focusing on composition and theory instead of production, so that's why Tracktion fits my mindset.

I can't help anyone that much with production tips, but composition, theory, and PC stuff? Sure, I've got a lot of experience. My PM is always open to anyone with an honest need and the ability to discern humor over the context-less forum of the internet.

Cheers, and Meffy, if you happen to glance upon this post, could you see it in your kind heart to end this thread from any more posts, if you deem this thread worn out?

[valley]

Cheers, and Meffy, if you happen to glance upon this post, could you see it in your kind heart to end this thread from any more posts, if you deem this thread worn out?

Meffy doesn't police this forum, though he often very kindly alerts me to things of which I should be aware.

As for me, I have no intention of closing this thread, unless it turns nasty, or mires down in a bog of disinformation and speculative bullcrap. Currently, it's (just about) doing neither, so I'm happy to let it roll.

I honestly don't know what the hell else there is to add to it, but that alone has never been enough to see a thread die gracefully, and it's certainly not reason to kill one.

[warbug]

sorry for the curse word. some forums let you do that.

[Gabriel_S]

Well,

Though I feel no need to reply, it's obvious (through the way that forum posts don't reveal intent or motivation) that some negative emotions may have surfaced from some misconstrued intent, and hopefully I can offer some clarity to help quell.

First, any sarcasm was simply pointed at the fact that complaining incessently doesn't solve the problem, no matter how loudly so. Don't believe me? Get married. She isn't going to listen, boys, no matter how much you yell.

You DON'T get it Paul !!!!

Sure, I do.

I've worked over 14 years in tech support and written music for over 24. You're the typical user whose computer won't work and whose life is ending because blah, blah, frickin' blah, call Dr. Phil. I've been on KVR quite a while, and those who have been here a while, too, know both my irreverent sense of humor and willingness to help, so don't be afraid to take advantage of either of those. If you PM me I'll gladly help you with any tech issues - or at least give you a second opinion from someone who'se been working in the tech support area for too long a time. So long, in fact, that I need to call Dr. Phil to discuss my fear of moving on.

Moving on...

This my friend is the reality of the situation. And yes My comp is completely optimized for recording (with CCleaner etc installed, defrafg daily etc etc), so please don't go undermining us.

Gabe, I don't have to undermine you - you just undermined yourself. If you've got to defrag DAILY then you've got SERIOUS hard drive problems. Get another drive as a secondary or consider retiring the hard drive.

You really need to rethink your analogy Paul.

No, I don't. It was thought up in two seconds and that's all I have disposition for.

don't go blowing your high horn and downplaying the users

I don't have a high horn and you're the one downplaying me. PM me your specific issues and I'll give you some suggestions from at least what I've experienced over this thankless job as a tech.

hear some of your stuff and also how many tracks you are using on an average per song ????

PM me. If you like 80's-style metal instrumentals, they'd be right up your alley. My production skills aren't the best so that's why I come to places like KVR, for the help and direction. I spent 20+ years focusing on composition and theory instead of production, so that's why Tracktion fits my mindset.

I can't help anyone that much with production tips, but composition, theory, and PC stuff? Sure, I've got a lot of experience. My PM is always open to anyone with an honest need and the ability to discern humor over the context-less forum of the internet.

Cheers, and Meffy, if you happen to glance upon this post, could you see it in your kind heart to end this thread from any more posts, if you deem this thread worn out?

Well Paul, reading your reply I'll stick to my guns. You still don't get it. It seems that if someone doesn't see it your way you have to write a book convincing us of your qualifications. No need for that my friend and I won't get into a flame war with you. That's certainly not my intent here. Sarcasm? Not always a good thing, especially on the web Paul. You know nothing about me and I know nothing about you but still you insist on throwing dry sarcasm my way. I know MUCH more about programming, PC's and recording than what you give me credit for. No biggy and absolutely no harm done.

Again I'll say it, we the customer have every right to complain if a non returnable software doesn't function as it should. If Beno or somebody from mackie were to intervene and let the users know that they are working on the fixes, or Christ, ANYTHING, this thread would have died a long time ago.

Thank you for keeping it open Valley, for the most part it has remained a very civilized discussion !!!

At least it lets us vent our frustrations in one thread rather than scattered throughout the forum.

Gabriel

[mrcleats]

PaulG, I think you are coming across as a little high-handed, especially in trying to end a fairly reasonable thread. Okay, the product works for you, but it doesn't work for everyone and this thread will be worn out as soon as someone from Mackie deigns to end it by tendering a response.

Tracktion is a great product. Mackie strike me as a good company. This should be a match made in heaven , right? Some people seem to believe that this is obvious and will inevitably see us all through to T4.

Hmm, I'm not so sure - I wouldn't blame Mackie at all for concentrating on the hardware products they have historically done so well, and jumping in bed with one or more of the software providers who they feel they can form an alliance with. You wouldn't deny that a Mackie control surface tightly integrated to, say, FL Studio, actively supported by Mackie and Image-Line, at a decent price-point, wouldn't be a tempting prospect to the market-place?

Anyway, we can all speculate - and we remain free to until there is some transparency over all this.

Some communication from Mackie to their customers is not an unreasonable expectation.

[lharless]

you guys still using tracktion? logic or cubase is where it's at. buy into something that's still being developed, and get back to work.

[lharless]

AHHHHHH! SHIT!!! let's fight!

[bbtr]

lharless, you're an ol' dirty sinner, and the devils have prepared a warm place for you in hell! unless you repent and swear to never use the word "shiat" again...

[lharless]

I'm indeed a smooth operator.

[a_of]

I guess I can share my experience here
I liked tracktion the moment I tried it a few years ago. I realised the most expensive, or the most well known, or the most used was not necesarily the best (Cubase, Sonar, etc.). This program was simple yet powerful, and you could focus in creating music instead of needing to take a small course to be able to operate those other programs.
I am not a musician, and I do this as a hobby, but I have created songs with like 15 midi tracks, some audio ones, 15 instances of VST instruments, more than 8 instances of VST effects (a CPU hungry one at the master section), and although I get high CPU usage, which has more to do with the fact that VST's use cpu power, than with tracktion itself, I have never had major problems.
So, I was kind of shocked when I read this thread. It makes it look like there is some kind of debacle or something. I don't know about mac, if there are really big bugs and problems with the software there, I agree that even a refund sounds acceptable.
About the PC part... I have been dealing with computers for more than 25 years. And one thing I have learned is that the major source of problems with software is not the software itself, or the hardware, but the living being between the keyboard and the chair. Also, a lot of times, there are hundreds of factors that affect computer program behavior, from hardware to software. When one software doesn't works as it should, the first thing people do is complain about how broken it is. But just take a look at how one of the posters here found that the slow startup time was because of an antivirus program and not tracktion itself.
From what I read here, there seem to be some bugs inherent to tracktion, don't know how serious these are, but I think people complaining that the software doesn't work for the majority is without foundation, it is probably the other way around and only a minority of people are having big issues with it.
I really hope support continues and bugs are ironed out so everyone is happy (which probably won't happen, there is always someone who isn't). But even if support stops, as someone mentioned here, it won't stop me and hundreds of happy tracktion users from enjoying and continuing making music, until I really need to change or somethin better appears, I did it with my Atari ST some years ago because there was nothing like it for years, and I don't see why I can't do it now. You don't always need the latest and greatest to get the job done satisfactorily.
Having said that, I really hope the concept of tracktion lives, it is too good to die and would hate to go back to the other programs and loose the great things it has.

[Spitfire31]

I have been dealing with computers for more than 25 years.

Yeah, me too. Started out with a Sinclair ZX81 which I upgraded to a whopping 16K of RAM (not a misprint - 16 kilobytes), then got a Sinclair Spectrum (48K RAM!) which I used for programming and even word processing; then got my first Mac Plus and never looked back.

And one thing I have learned is that the major source of problems with software is not the software itself, or the hardware, but the living being between the keyboard and the chair.

Agree completely.

However, the fact that Tracktion 3 Mac can't handle, for instance, major developers' plug-ins like WaveArts, is not due to user error. And the fact that the Mac plug-in bugs were acknowledeged by Mackie and still not dealt with, not even mentioned, in the latest (last?) T3 update, 3.0.4.8 of April 3, indicates to me that Mac users are pretty low on Mackie's priority list.

You don't always need the latest and greatest to get the job done satisfactorily.
Having said that, I really hope the concept of tracktion lives, it is too good to die and would hate to go back to the other programs and loose the great things it has.

Agree again. That's what attracted me to Tracktion 1, which I bought from Jules directly. I do occasionally use Tracktion 2 on my PPC, just for its intuitive directness and when I don't need the intricacies of DP or Logic. But T2 isn't Universal Binary and doesn't work even reasonably on an Intel machine. So…

The fact that there are fatal, outstanding bugs in T3 Mac that haven't been addressed in seven months is, to me, compelling evidence that Mac users on Intel machines had better look elsewhere.

Best,

Joey

[Gabriel_S]

I guess I can share my experience here

About the PC part... I have been dealing with computers for more than 25 years. And one thing I have learned is that the major source of problems with software is not the software itself, or the hardware, but the living being between the keyboard and the chair. Also, a lot of times, there are hundreds of factors that affect computer program behavior, from hardware to software. When one software doesn't works as it should, the first thing people do is complain about how broken it is. But just take a look at how one of the posters here found that the slow startup time was because of an antivirus program and not tracktion itself.
From what I read here, there seem to be some bugs inherent to tracktion, don't know how serious these are, but I think people complaining that the software doesn't work for the majority is without foundation, it is probably the other way around and only a minority of people are having big issues with it.

Hi A, I've read this analogy more than once and in some cases it is indeed true. But if this was the case I would be having the same issues with Sonar, Cubase, Reason, Acid Pro and Reaper wouldn't I?? Unfortunately the only host that chokes on me is T3. The only host I ever lost Data in is T3. The only host that ever blue screened on me is T3 and so on and so on. Now I've moved on to Reaper recently and am quite happy with it. Very easy to use, great company and a fantastic developer. No issues whatsoever so far. With all that said, I do love Traction for it's ease of use. I've gotten to know the program inside out, and feel very comfortable with it. I continue checking back here to see if Mackie has or will address some REAL issues. So far nothing, only the Feb 4/08 build.

I have a feeling that yes on some machines Traction will work fine on, may be the CPU in the machine, how much cache you have (Audio is really cache hungry) in the hard drives, the actual motherboard itself, your graphics card and so on. But if your machine, no matter how clean or powerful it is, doesn't meet those same specs you're going to have problems with it. I can't believe it has anything to do with the person between the chair and the PC. T3 just isn't compatible with all the different formats and they need to address that issue (especially for the Mac users).

I do find it appalling that Mackie won't even respond to their user base and haven't for months. If it works on yours and some other folks Computers that is great, but for the most part it doesn't hence this conversation will continue to grow till the issues are either resolved or T3 just dies a slow death.

Gabriel

[warbug]

Has any host ever disappeared in years past?

[headquest]

Muzys did. Probably others.

In the current crowded market though I wonder just how many hosts will gain sufficient market to justify the ongoing development costs.

[grymmjack]

phrazor..