Samplitude Pro X3 Suite sale $149.00 until Dec 20th

[telecharge]

Criky...that's one over complicated gui for a daw

Johnny Blade and Kraznet are obviously fans, but It's not as bad as it looks. I say this as someone new to Pro X3, but I've been a casual user of Samplitude Music Studio for years, and they're very much alike.

What you're seeing there is a zoomed in image of the Track Editor with all the sections expanded (they can be collapsed). The Track Editor is similar to what's called the Inspector in other DAWs.

[pekbro]

I like the UI quite a lot myself, although most of the skins are not to my taste.
Gratuitous screenshot of how I like the layout:

[Johnny Blade]

[telecharge]

I like the UI quite a lot myself, although most of the skins are not to my taste.
Gratuitous screenshot of how I like the layout...

Show us your DAW pr0n.

The default Camo skin is a bit drab for my taste. I favor the Carbon skin, particularly on the mixer.

Isn't there a skin editor? Does anyone know if you can edit the factory skins or do you have to start from scratch?

[pekbro]

There is an purchasable editor for the Birdline stuff, mostly color changes from what I could see. I expect skin authoring for samplitude is no simple matter sadly. I do own an unreasonable number of DAWs, and can say that Samplitude is one of the most flexible in regard to the UI, if not the most (yes I own Reaper).

-Cheers

[telecharge]

I do own an unreasonable number of DAWs

I suspect we might be chasing the same dragon...

...and can say that Samplitude is one of the most flexible in regard to the UI, if not the most (yes I own Reaper).

Well, now you're just asking for it.

[pekbro]

Heh, thats fine, I don't fear the Reaper (fans)...

[Coxy]

Criky...that's one over complicated gui for a daw

I share Johnnys thoughts, it's deep.

Lots of stuff hidden away in the menus, which is cool, especially as most of us are geeks, you find Samplitude can do most of everything very well - it's all there somewhere.

I like the GUI, effective and accessible though I would say it does look dated now. It's utilitarian.

Audio editing options are second to none. As are the included FX. I found most of the analogue FX suite better than waves of comparable type. (delay vs delay eg) The algorithmic reverb too is very very good. Hell even the 'essential' FX are great.

The audio transparency is also second to none. Like really.

The loop and sample browser whilst plain looking again is very advance and offers filter and features beyond most other DAWS, as well as simple drag and drop into tracks and auto tempo matching which is great.

Things I didn't like where the stability vs other daws I've used.

The lagging performance on a fully loaded VST project and general lack of single minded vision or focus in development.

Lots of "we'll bolt this on here and put a right click menu option for it (sound forge) integrate this in here (melodyne) whilst putting a plaster over that bit there" type development. Which further exacerbates the general stability issues - in my experience. Seems the dev teams limited resource is concentrated on but struggles with keeping up with competition.

Would I buy it for the sale price had I not got pissed off with it and migrated away from it? Yes. Lots of daw for the money - probably the vest features vs cost ratio DAW out there at sale price.

Main applications it shines are
Audio tracking
Recording
Mixing
Mastering

Would I recommend it for anyone using VST projects exclusively ? Definitely not. That's it's sticking point, stability with high load VSTs. VST3 is even more problematic on it. Though VST3 has it's own inherent issues that don't help the issue.

Even when I moved to Studio one as my main daw I still used Samplitude as a mixing and mastering tool for my own and others projects. But that part of my life is closed off now.

In my experience customer services are at best inept, at worst don't give a shit. And that's replicated up the support chain. However I acknowledge the long standings like Kraz will offer their own opinion to the contrary.

There you are, probably the most balanced viewpoint you'll get today on that as a former buyer/user for over 2 years.

[Kraznet]

All good and relevant points Coxy. Just one thing I think I might have asked you this before. What would you consider a high load VST project? Thanks.

Regards, Kraznet

[Hink]

you found comparisonics, an unsung feature, actually 3rd party and available to any DAW developer...I love it

[Hink]

In my experience customer services are at best inept, at worst don't give a shit. And that's replicated up the support chain. However I acknowledge the long standings like Kraz will offer their own opinion to the contrary.

I cant respond to the rest of your post Coxy as our needs are different but I could stick with any version from 11 pro on (or was it 10? Whichever finally gave us pre-roll) and still not use many of the features. But I will respond to this, sadly I agree 100% and the only saving grace is indeed kraz. I'm very good friends with Tim, he was always helpful but the truth is dont call the support line in the U.S. and expect to get someone who is even close to competent or professional. I have had to call only a couple of times including this month and was treated like I was disturbing the guy and got no help, he opened a ticket and I never got an answer. I emailed about it and got a response saying I had to open a new ticket because that one had been closed.

Imagine that, not even telling me they were closing the ticket, they just closed it and it was about their original deal offered here. If it wasn't for the extension I would have missed the deal and seeing how this was technically upgrading for me and I hadn't yet updated after a year of Pro X3 shows that I could have lived without it (in fact I still have yet to install prox3). It isn't just their pro end though, support for things like MEP is equally pathetic and I opened tickets years ago that never got answered. IMO Magix is a terrible company with a great product. With that said it's quite likely they have got the last penny from me they will ever see. I could go the rest of my years with what I have now and if it wasn't supported any longer I would find something else or just stick with FL and get an HD recorder for audio stuff.

I think the person I spoke with on the phone was a total embarrassment for Magix as basically a voice for the company. The fact this guy has a job but they let Tim go is beyond my understanding. Fortunately I love Samp as it is, I dont have much need for support and there is kraz and his videos (the forum is quite good as well which kraz now moderates, really smart and helpful users). I think the powers that be at Magix owe quite a few people huge apologies for they way they treat longstanding customers as well as new customers.

Dont get me wrong I still love Samp, but I really dislike Magix as a whole and think they are just pathetic jerks who rake in the money and laugh all the way to the bank at customers. Ignoring customer service tickets like has been done to me and many others is inexcusable on every level and while this applies to many companies it would be refreshing to see Magix rise above that. But they dont because the truth as I see it is the customers do not matter at all to them. Shameful

[Coxy]

All good and relevant points Coxy. Just one thing I think I might have asked you this before. What would you consider a high load VST project? Thanks.

Regards, Kraznet

45+ Individual VST Instrument tracks, each with at a minimum 2 VST Effect plugins per track, main tracks (non percussive) like synths would have many more (6+).

That may seem excessive/unnecessary to the traditional recording or tracking crowd but such is the life of a purely in the box trance and house producer.

No problem in other daws - For context I originally started on Cubase, using SL3 through to PRO8 for years did a couple years on Ableton Live, now Studio One but Samplitude used to groan under the strain when the project was worked on over a few weeks, crashes would creep in more and more the longer the project was worked on which made finishing a full on project almost impossible for me. It became a barrier to getting work done and more importantly stifled creativity.

As you know I tried many solutions and my Synth and Effect library was refined down to just the core plugins that brought me real value, all commercial and well developed plugins, point is I wasn't frivolous with random suspect / buggy plugins etc and liked to keep a lean trim system.

Unfortunately the conclusion for me was Samplitudes VST code base and implementation is just not up to modern standard (in terms of stability).

From a layman's perspective I'd suspect it didn't help with Samplitude being a late comer to the VST market. For reference Samplitude didn't add VST support until version 7 (2002!) in comparison Cubase (being the creator) introduced it in 1996, 6 years before. Emagic Logic implemented it in 1998, 4 years before.

Point I'm making is DAW's such Studio One, Live, have had the luxury of having been developed largely from the ground up around VST frameworks while a program like Samplitude with it's extensive code iterations and history and purely audio editing pedigree had to have it woven into its existing codebase - perhaps unreliably? I've no disrespect to the Samp devs, their work on the audio engine still astounds me.

Well, I digress, clearly.

[xphen0m]

This is now going until the 26th. I plan on getting this tomorrow.....when I see how much I have left over from all of my Christmas shopping.

[THE INTRANCER]

Typically I don't leave the inspector in Studio One open as it takes up valuable screen estate, so here's a comparison with what others have posted. I like gradients but I think too much gradient wise, is sorta overkill. I'm happy with Studio One 3.5 atm and working on new stuff. Thank you to those who gave in depth balanced reviews on Samplitude Pro and their experience with Magics customer service. I've used many of their earlier free revisions that have come on coverdisks previously 7 - 12 years ago and even earlier back in 2000 when I bought their first Midi based software.... Magix Music Studio Generation 6 which was essentially a Logic ripoff clone in every respect, right down to the design of some of the instruments. . It was inefficient then, my Athlon 750 couldn't play more than 3 of that daws instruments at any one time. I moved to Reason 1.0 and used that for 13 years up to version 7.

Anyway, here's how...I have Studio One 3.5 atm, just one of the several hundred skins I've created for it over the years. In case any one is wondering, other than changing colours, brightness and contrast, there are no skinning functions, nor any programs provided by Presonus to do this....but I found the way.

[VariKusBrainZ]

. Magix Music Studio Generation 6 which was essentially a Logic
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Thats because it was licenced from emagic so wasnt a rip off but a lite version of logic