Official T2 Notice

[jens]

I think it would be a very good idea if Jorgen did it like Jules does it: offering two different downloads - a minimal one and a bigger one with different skins, examples docs, etc. )

About resizing a clip: Just drag the right end of the clip while left-clicking.

When you want to use e.g. Wusikstation just right-click on the track-header and choose 'output' ->'add'


Really: You're partly right of course - eXT could be easier for a beginner, but: You can allways ask in the forum and someone quickly answers your questions - and once you know how to do it it's really easy.

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

I'm a musician, and bottom line if I can't use a tool within an hour of getting it, it's worthless to me and out it goes.

Exactly the way I felt with podium.
As for guides for eXT there's a pdf manual and as for skins they're on www.xt-hq.com

Playing devils advocate here.

Both docs and skins are online, alas. I downloaded the "standalone" installer, that should come with all I need to get started, right? Skins, docs, the works. After all every other demo comes that way, this should too, right? Why is it called "standalone" if I have to download a bunch of other stuff to get it to work or to figure it out?

Even the "installer" isn't, you just upzip it and hope for the best. Where's my desktop icon? Why isn't there a "setup.exe"?

Honestly, eXT looks like it was made for techies and hackers, and while that's all well and good for that class Mr. or Ms. Joe Average Musician (that are not horribly computer literate) will wipe it off their hard drive immediately. If techies are the target market, then it's perfect for that. I was just under the impression that eXT was being pushed as a potential replacement for other things.. like Tracktion..

ps. Podium died the same death for me. 10 minutes of trying to figure out wtf the thing was supposed to do and into the Recycle Bin it went.

pps. I tried that dragging trick Jens and nothing happened. Do I have to hit a one-pixel-wide line or something? And I did figure out the "add".. after 10 minutes of poking around. Hey, how about adding that instructional PDF to the ZIP file! D'oh!

*edit*

ppps. Ok, got the bloody thing to extend the clip. Had to turn "snap" off since I hadn't zoomed out and I did't drag past the snap size. Took me another several minutes to figure out how to zoom the damn thing too, feh.

*edit again*

And what's with the highlighted bar above the clip indicating loop area? Couldn't someone LABEL that or something? No, this is not a piece of software for someone wanting to learn computer music at all.

[jens]

I'm not a 'techie' - I'm a composer and producer and turning my ideas into music as simply and quickly as possible is my main concern - yes, it maybe took you ten minutes to figure out how to add a vsti but you only have to learn it once. - and if you would have downloaded the helpfile you could have found it out within a minute.

[jens]

Took me another several minutes to figure out how to zoom the damn thing too, feh.

crtl + scroll-wheel

[jens]

No, this is not a piece of software for someone wanting to learn computer music at all.

it is wonderful

[AD80]

Well since T2 still needs thousands upon thousands of hours of work, I might aswell get more aquanted with EXT. A lot of it is still an enigma to me. Jorgen needs to make somethings a little more intuitive (and I'm sure he will soon )

[jtxx000]

heh, one of the only official T2 threads has become a eXT evangelist thread.

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

I'm not a 'techie' - I'm a composer and producer and turning my ideas into music as simply and quickly as possible is my main concern - yes, it maybe took you ten minutes to figure out how to add a vsti but you only have to learn it once. - and if you would have downloaded the helpfile you could have found it out within a minute.

*sigh* Am I just not making myself clear? The average user is going to grab the one file and use that, assuming it's an installer that has everything. What if the DAW isn't on the Web, then what? Is that user, who may own Cubasis or Cakewalk Home Studio, going to bother going back online and digging around? Nope. The *average musician* - and I'm not talking about the computer-literate types that frequent KVR - does NOT spend time looking to see how to make a demo work, they throw it out and move on.

I'd love to give eXT to one of the local groups around here that uses GarageBand and see what happened... I'd bet $20 they'd toss it within minutes.

eXT is for tweakers, admit it. I'd hate to try to do an album in this thing! At least, until it's less blue.

ps. Of course, almost nobody outside of the online community has even heard of eXT, so maybe it all works out in the end. If you haven't heard of it, you probably can't use it!

pps. The damnable thing is still giving me headaches. Whomever decided to shove this in a ZIP without even a starter PDF should be beaten to a pulp and left out as dog food! There's obviously a lot here but it's f**king impossible to get to!

*edit*

ppps. Yep, I stand by the above comment. The lack of built-in help, the lack of an easy installer with some extra skins, and the lack of a nice two-page HTML "getting started" really cripple this for the less expert user. I'm still not sure I'll replace Tracktion with it, though, but there's a lot under the hood.. it's just missing some serious human factors work.

*Last edit of the night*

Too bad the demo won't even save or I'd do some serious testing. I had 3 VSTi and an audio track and CPU useage looked a lot higher in eXT than I see in Tracktion. I duplicated it the best I could and it sure looked like the same instruments + audio clips + inserts were within pixels of 100% in eXT and only about 85% in Tracktion. Anyone benchmaked these two against each other?

[Sage]

Very, very disappointed with this update. While it's nice to hear from Mackie, there is a distinct lack of useful information.

I realize that predicting the release of software that is as yet unfinished is risky business, but I was really hoping for some real info here -- preferably a ball-park figure on how long the wait should be. Even if the answer is "Tracktion 2 is still a ways off."

[Lunch Money]

I'm not disappointed at all.

Everyone's yammering "I wish they'd at least show up and say something," so Ben shows up and says something. He did exactly what was in his capacity to do. I wasn't expecting any details or screenshots, I was just hoping for a quick word that something was being done.

I got what I wanted, so I'm content. Of course, I'm also one of the people who has always planned to stick to T1 anyhow, not out of stubborness, but because it works for me and I see no real need to crossgrade.

Regarding eXT--

I LOVE this thing. I wanted to share it with people, so I asked Jorgen about having it as a prize for a comp, and was going to buy it from him. Instead, he offered a free license! Will his generousity never end??

HOWEVER, I'm experiencing similar 'starting out' problems... Jens, you're definitely a very helpful person in that regard, and you have always responded promptly and thoroughly to my questions. Thanks, dude! But I still haven't recorded a full song with it, except to use it to "Expand My Host" which is still Tracktion.

Greg

[AD80]

If I were a developer I think I would give a ridiculus ETA. Like if I thought the product was gonna be finished in January of 2005. I would say it was coming Q3 of 2005. I dont think theres anyway you could miss your mark by 9 months! I could be wrong I guess. But I like how Spectrasonics announced a released date. It prevented a lot of groundhogging.

[Shazbot]

Eh, glad I decided to kick down for Sonar 4 instead of waiting for T2.

Not that I won't be interested to see what the groundhog looks like when it finally comes out...

[Jeremy_NSL]

Very, very disappointed with this update. While it's nice to hear from Mackie, there is a distinct lack of useful information.

I agree. I haven't visited kvr much lately and I show up tonight and find this thread. Excitement mounts. It turns out to be total bullshit (no offense personally meant Beno).

I am fairly happy with Tracktion currently, but I'm very unhappy with Mackie's distribution/promotion of it - they give no info whatsoever on T2, while we also get no updates for important T1 bugs. I may take jens' advice and give the ext demo another try...

[cellular]

ppps. Yep, I stand by the above comment. The lack of built-in help, the lack of an easy installer with some extra skins, and the lack of a nice two-page HTML "getting started" really cripple this for the less expert user. I'm still not sure I'll replace Tracktion with it, though, but there's a lot under the hood.. it's just missing some serious human factors work.

Too bad the demo won't even save or I'd do some serious testing. I had 3 VSTi and an audio track and CPU useage looked a lot higher in eXT than I see in Tracktion. I duplicated it the best I could and it sure looked like the same instruments + audio clips + inserts were within pixels of 100% in eXT and only about 85% in Tracktion. Anyone benchmaked these two against each other?

I'm just going to throw in some comments: I am also in the early stages of demoing ext, and though i might agree that it would be wise to distribute the demo with a manual of some kind, it wasn't a problem to me. The manuals that are out there are easily found on the website, and i think they are pretty good at getting you going with the program too.

About there not being an installer: this is one of my favourite things with ext! I can understand that some people might want an installer, but it should never replace the no-installer version, just be added to it. I really hate programs that don't add system files all over or put entries in the registry but still only come as installers. Ideally i want to know exactly where each part of a program is on my HD, and with ext i have full control.

Finally, about not being able to save with the demo: i am very sure the demo saves, it just doesn't load saved stuff until you buy it. To me, this is the best demo restriction i have ever seen.

Just my opinions on the subject, i understand that some might differ.

[optilude]

If I were a developer I think I would give a ridiculus ETA. Like if I thought the product was gonna be finished in January of 2005. I would say it was coming Q3 of 2005. I dont think theres anyway you could miss your mark by 9 months!

You've not written much software before, have you old chap?