T2 comparisons...

[Paresh]

A friend checked out the T 2 demo & had these comments.Since I don't have experience w Cubase or Sonar, I wonder what others think?


I have to be honest, in that Tracktion is not the easiest or clearest piece of kit to work with and i'm afraid it doesn't even come close to the ability of cubase/cubasis etc when we talk about editng MIDI and using VST's. Also, in cubase/cubasis, sonar and logic it is a lot easier to control what you do and how you edit. There seems to be a lot of clicking and searching to get to specifc edit point in tracktion whereas in cubase/cubasis, sonar and logic all you have to do is click one button and then you get what looks like an audio mixer you would see in a real life studio, with sliders to control volumes and pans etc and thats it. You just edit to your hearts content.

well that's just my view on the software, but different people prefer to work different ways. It just seems a lot of work for the same result to me.

[rpc9943]

tracktion is my favorite, im a t2 fanboy!

RonC

[clueless]

that's hilarious. I tried Cubase and Cubasis (et al...) and just ended up staring at the screen thinking "WHAT?! WHAT DO I DO?!". I tried Tracktion and I just "did".

I honestly can't imagined being "stumped" by Tracktion's basic workflow and functionality.

[rpc9943]

hahaah i know i dont get it. yknow what paresh if its that hard, then freaking use cubase, whatever why even post this?

RonC

[Lunch Money]

Paresh, your friend is out to lunch. Sure, Tracktion's not to everyone's liking, but its very PREMISE is that it's NOT about pointing and clicking and digging for features.

He was probably just confused because there weren't a million windows and menus.

Whether he likes it or not, Tracktion is the opposite of what he claims it to be.

[IvoryTickler]

Paresh, I see what's happened: your friend has got Cubase and Tracktion mixed up. And is trying to use a mixer for editing.

Seriously, Cubase (I own both) is better for midi editing, Tracktion is better for absolutely everything else. I do relatively little midi editing so could not go back - no way Jose.

[Beno]

hahaah i know i dont get it. yknow what paresh if its that hard, then freaking use cubase, whatever why even post this?

RonC

Dude, he said it was his friends opinion. And I personally love to hear why people don't want to use Tracktion, it helps us make it better. But to be honest, Paresh's friend didn't really say anything specific enough to be helpfull. When I see complaints like this, that don't list specifics, it usually means that he just so used to doing things one way, that the tracktion way doesn't click for him. Which is fine. But I do hope that people who honestly give tracktion a try, and have issues with it, do continue to post their problems, so that we can examine them and look at getting them sorted if we feel it makes sense. How else can Tracktion take over the world?
Ben

[pHz]

you get what looks like an audio mixer you would see in a real life studio, with sliders to control volumes and pans etc

dont make me angry ... you wouldnt like me when im angry ...

slainte rob

[clueless]

dont make me angry ... you wouldnt like me when im angry ...

plus, you'd have to dye your hair a different colour...

[Paresh]

Thanks guys. And Ron, the reason I post this & other questions is just to learn & get perspective. There is a rich source of experience & expertise out there, including you, that I cd find nowhere else. Especially, the range of opinions helps me to find what works best for me. And I'll admit, I'm a musician formost and the whole aspect of studio recording doesn't come as easily to me.

[clueless]

I know this doesn't relate directly to your original post, but...

I'm a musician formost and the whole aspect of studio recording doesn't come as easily to me.

...then I would say Tracktion's yer man.

[rpc9943]

whoops sorry.

yeah as a musician i definately recommend it.

its like the features are really found in the vst's, everything else is cake

sorry i misread your post (i was at work)

RonC

[Frippertronix]

A friend checked out the T 2 demo & had these comments.Since I don't have experience w Cubase or Sonar, I wonder what others think?


I have to be honest, in that Tracktion is not the easiest or clearest piece of kit to work with and i'm afraid it doesn't even come close to the ability of cubase/cubasis etc when we talk about editng MIDI and using VST's. Also, in cubase/cubasis, sonar and logic it is a lot easier to control what you do and how you edit. There seems to be a lot of clicking and searching to get to specifc edit point in tracktion whereas in cubase/cubasis, sonar and logic all you have to do is click one button and then you get what looks like an audio mixer you would see in a real life studio, with sliders to control volumes and pans etc and thats it. You just edit to your hearts content.

well that's just my view on the software, but different people prefer to work different ways. It just seems a lot of work for the same result to me.

I guess I don't see the connection between a "mixer" GUI and track editing, so I'm not sure what the basis of that complaint was but, yea, if you want something that looks like a mixing desk, you won't find it in T2, but I honestly think that's a very quick and easy adaptation. I think there a few things left out in the editing feature list, but the workarounds aren't too hard. Mostly I find the editing workflow highly intuitive and direct, and the fact that it's "one stop shopping", with everything except project magnaging and global settings controls on one page, is much easier than something bulkier like Cubase. In that sense, your friend's comments seem misplaced.

It's true that Tracktion is a bit different in its approach, but I honestly think that after a few hours of working with it, you would find that it's well thought out and simplified in a lot of ways that increase efficiency. As far as VST's and VSTi's, I find the routing options to be quite adequate, but you will need to learn to use the "racks" (quite easy to work with) to get all the parallel/series and complex routing options, as well the ability to recall complex effects and instruments chains. I think you should give the demo a go yourself, but spend a few hours with it and go over the manual.

Dave

[Synthbuilder]

And I personally love to hear why people don't want to use Tracktion, it helps us make it better.

Right. Well I'm thinking of giving up on Tracktion and moving to Live.

Here are my reasons for doing this:

I use Reason a lot. And I use it in loop mode when rehearsing parts or simply playing around with a few bars repeating themselves. In rewire mode the first note each time it starts from the loop point is missed off. Live handles this very well.

Midi editor. The editor is a little too small for me and I don't want to have to keep on moving things around on the screen to keep it the same size. It would be nice to have a separate midi editing window. I currently don't like the look of the editor, but I understand that this is always a personal thing.

Also in the editor, Reason's named CC parameters are still left as CC#67 instead of 'attack time'. Live handles the rewire protocol more usefully.

Support for channel aftertouch. T2 currently will not allow you to record this.

In T2 only one automation control can be seen at once. Admittedly this is true of Live too, but not Reason.

Recording of the 'all notes off' command should be optional. This would help anyone who uses an older Roland keyboard that sends all notes off when you take your hands off the keyboard.

T2 does not support automation points to be retained within clips. They seem to be fixed at points in the track.

T2 needs a more stable midi clock output... mine is not quite right. I also cannot find any way of syncing to external midi clock either, but that might be me being stupid.

Reason takes a long time to load within Tracktion. Using Reason natively its very quick to load and I expect a host to handle things more slowly. However, Live appears to be much quicker in this respect.

I still get occasional midi timing problems when the screen redraws. This is difficult to fault find exactly, because it doesn't always do it.

These features may not seem much to many here, but to me it is enough to make me feel uncomfortable with Tracktion. I have given it a good go, and I'm not going remove it from my PC just yet. But I am very impressed with the Live demo and its new price of 233UKP is looking very tempting.

[Beno]

Hey Tony,
Thanks for the very usefull feedback. We do definitely appreciate seeing where we are falling short in your eyes. I do have a few comments though:

Midi editor. The editor is a little too small for me and I don't want to have to keep on moving things around on the screen to keep it the same size. It would be nice to have a separate midi editing window. I currently don't like the look of the editor, but I understand that this is always a personal thing.

You do know that in the miscelaneous settings you make it zoom to a larger size right? And also, there is setting in options for the default zoom level? Do either of these help things?

In T2 only one automation control can be seen at once. Admittedly this is true of Live too, but not Reason.

This isn't true. You can view as many curves as you have tracks. The curves for a particular plug-in can be viewed on any track. Just click the A and choose the item from the list. Or am I misunderstanding you?

I can say that you are not alone on a few of your wishes/gripes and they will be addressed in future versions. Hopefully you'll still be around to take advantage.

Ben