Tracktion software reports?

[Charles Tomaras]

Has anyone been using the affordable mixing software that Mackie is touting
lately called Tracktion?

http://www.mackie.com/products/tracktion/

Any comments about it to share? On the surface for $80 introductory price it
seems like a pretty good value.

[Bob Cain]

Charles Tomaras wrote:
> Has anyone been using the affordable mixing software that Mackie is touting
> lately called Tracktion?
>
> http://www.mackie.com/products/tracktion/
>
> Any comments about it to share? On the surface for $80 introductory price it
> seems like a pretty good value.
>
>

I downloaded the demo (as can you) and played with it a bit.
After about an hour I gave up trying to figure out how to
open one of it's demo projects in the edit view. There is a
"cut down" version of each project that you can open in edit
but a way of getting the whole project up eludes me totally.

Once I got one of the "cut down" projects open in edit, I
could then find no way to close it.

It relies on, but doesn't seem to provide, an external
editor for .wav files.

The look of it is pretty primative in a graphics sense and
anything but intuitive in its use.

It eschews the standard mixer paradigm in favor of a data
flow type of presentation. This could be interesting if I
could figure out enough about it to do anything.

The thing might have potential but it's not a "start it and
use it" kind of application and I don't have the time to
invest in its study to form much more of an opinion unless I
begin to hear raves from people I know to tell me that I should.


Bob

--

"Things should be described as simply as possible, but no
simpler."

A. Einstein

[Bruce]

Bob Cain > wrote in
:

> Charles Tomaras wrote:
>> Has anyone been using the affordable mixing software that Mackie is
>> touting lately called Tracktion?


It's horrid.

-Bruce

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> It's horrid.

Hard to get to working with your computer? Sounds bad? Lacks important
features? Poor (not just unfamiliar) user interface?

Perhaps it uses a different paradigm than the "tape deck" that you're
used to. Acid was strange to a lot of people when it was first
introduced, but it's now one of the most popular programs out there.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Bruce]

(Mike Rivers) wrote in news:znr1079186683k@trad:

>
> In article > writes:
>
>> It's horrid.
>
> Hard to get to working with your computer? Sounds bad? Lacks important
> features? Poor (not just unfamiliar) user interface?

Lousy, lousy interface. Example: Want to open an existing MIDI file? First
you have to create a new project and then you have to import the MIDI file.
That took several hours to figure out.

Then nothing plays. Turns out you then have to go back and tell each track
that it is MIDI.

Never did figure out how to access anything beyond General MIDI sounds in
my synth.

and so on....

and then you dump it because you haven't done anything useful. People don't
have time for a program that is counter-intuitive at every step.

[Bob Cain]

Bruce wrote:


>
> and then you dump it because you haven't done anything useful. People don't
> have time for a program that is counter-intuitive at every step.

But I found last night that it is the cheapest thing I know
of that will record from all six of the inputs on the Emagic
A62 I just got on separate mono tracks via its ASIO support.
That's something.

Gotta admit that I do like the way it connects inputs to
tracks and the data flow paradigm it uses. It just needs a
lot of rethinking about the buttons it has on its interface
and what they do.

The fact that it works the same on the Mac and the PC is
also nice. I hope it evolves a bit more.


Bob
--

"Things should be described as simply as possible, but no
simpler."

A. Einstein

[robin]

Bob Cain wrote:

>But I found last night that it is the cheapest thing I know
>of that will record from all six of the inputs on the Emagic
>A62 I just got on separate mono tracks via its ASIO support.
> That's something.
>
>Gotta admit that I do like the way it connects inputs to
>tracks and the data flow paradigm it uses. It just needs a
>lot of rethinking about the buttons it has on its interface
>and what they do.

Tracktion is too idiosyncratic and is mostly liked by the tracker
community.

For the same price I would instead recommend whatever rack-packaged
item Magix is selling these days (they seem to change the name every
year). OK, found it. It's called "MAGIX music studio 2004 deLuxe".

It has everything you need in one package, and is essentially two
apps: a stripped down Logic (better for MIDI) and a stripped-down
Samplitude (better for everything else). It's got 24-bit audio, ASIO,
FX, plugins, CD burning, 64 tracks, etc. etc.

If you ever find it too limiting, you can buy the best-ever multitrack
audio suite (Samplitude) for $30/month and low additional learning
curve.

-- robin

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> Tracktion is too idiosyncratic and is mostly liked by the tracker
> community.

What's the "tracker community?" Is this "tracker"in like what people
used to call simple MIDI sequencers?


--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[[email protected]]

"Charles Tomaras" > wrote in message >...
> Has anyone been using the affordable mixing software that Mackie is touting
> lately called Tracktion?
>
> http://www.mackie.com/products/tracktion/
>
> Any comments about it to share? On the surface for $80 introductory price it
> seems like a pretty good value.

Well, it appears I'm a lone voice in favour here ! I have a good
friend who is a producer and musician. He knows Cubase inside out and
has used a huge variety of music software over many many years. Today
I heard him say that he has got more done in the past six months with
Tracktion than he has in the past six years with Cubase. I am
experimenting with Tracktion myself as a result of his recommendation
and contrary to the other posters, I find it VERY intuitive. Certainly
FAR moreso than Cubase or Logic. Without reading a word of the help
file I had it installed, setup and recording midi & audio inside 30
minutes. In comparison, I've been 'fighting' with Cubase since V2 on
the Atari ST, and through every version since.

Charles, download the demo version and decide for yourself. After
all, one man's meat etc... For me, I find it is far easier to get
the *music* done with Tracktion. And that, surely, is the point. I'd
rather spend an evening creating music than reading help files and
hunting through layers of menus to perform one function. It gets my
vote to the point that I'm about to pay for it. Try it and see for
yourself.

Good Luck.

Kev.

[robin]

Mike Rivers wrote:

>> Tracktion is too idiosyncratic and is mostly liked by the tracker
>> community.

>What's the "tracker community?" Is this "tracker"in like what people
>used to call simple MIDI sequencers?

Yes, that's what I was referring to.

A tracker lets you arrange samples into patterns into songs. Fifteen
years ago this was an efficient way to build up pattern-based (pop)
music using limited resources (short samples). There are still people
out there who enjoy this way of working, and it informs the design of
popular apps like FruityLoops.

-- robin

[Bob Cain]

wrote:

> "Charles Tomaras" > wrote in message >...
>
>>Has anyone been using the affordable mixing software that Mackie is touting
>>lately called Tracktion?
>>
>>http://www.mackie.com/products/tracktion/
>>
>>Any comments about it to share? On the surface for $80 introductory price it
>>seems like a pretty good value.
>
>
> Well, it appears I'm a lone voice in favour here !

Well, I'm starting to like it too. Like everything it isn't
as idiosyncratic as it seems at first. It's a very cheap
way to get ASIO and VST plugs and is cross platform too.


Bob
--

"Things should be described as simply as possible, but no
simpler."

A. Einstein