Tracktion-who uses it & why you like/love/hate it.

[oyrgawd]

Another cool thing about Tracktion is you can download a fully-functional demo. So, that'd be a good idea.

[philbo]

FWIW, the DAW for which I left T2 is REAPER. Definitely worth a look. And very definitely in the <200$ category - - basically free, $50 to register for non-professional use, ~$200 for professional use.

http://www.reaper.fm/

Coded by the same guy who wrote WinAmp (before AOL bought it).
________
Uggs

[Winstontaneous]

Just checking--how has T3 been working for people in the last couple months? I have the full version of T2 but I've held off on T3 due to all the complaints regarding stability/basic functionality over at the KVR Raw Material forum.

[roygbiv]

Philbo wrote

FWIW, the DAW for which I left T2 is REAPER. Definitely worth a look. And very definitely in the <200$ category - - basically free, $50 to register for non-professional use, ~$200 for professional use.

http://www.reaper.fm/

Coded by the same guy who wrote WinAmp (before AOL bought it).

++1 on this - I wanted to graduate up from my Guitar Track 2 about a year ago, and started struggling with the Traction 2 that came with my Mackie Spike.

Not bad, nice clean interface and if you got used to it, I bet you could fly with it.

However, when I stumbled across Reaper, within about two hours of using it I was hooked. Very simple if you are used to tape decks/analog mixers/patch bays and simple DAW programs. Yet still waaaay powerful.

[chovie d]

Just checking--how has T3 been working for people in the last couple months? I have the full version of T2 but I've held off on T3 due to all the complaints regarding stability/basic functionality over at the KVR Raw Material forum.

If you are on a mac i would forget about T3. It seems it just never got over the bugs that plagued it on the mac and still isnt there yet. ON my PC it works flawlessly and i love the interface and workflow. When T3 first came out it would occasionally crash to desktop on me (known as the poof crash on the KVR forums). Althought i never updated the software, and many updated versions ahve since been released, it stopped misbehaving and now performs in a very solid fashion and I havent had a crash or even any kind of glitch in over 6 months.

It kinda feels like T3 took a good whoopin after the initial release and bug reports and flaming on the forums and like they (mackie) might not be too into supporting it in the future..Im not sure there will be a T4...it feels like the product really took some hard lumps and a big fall from T2 rock solid reputation and is kinda just layin low...too bad because it really is a great product at a great price.

[wedge]

Me usem Reaper to track with, and ProTools LE to mix with... I think Reaper sounds great, for one thing, and it's latency is nice and low, with a good ASIO driver, unlike PTs LE, which I've struggled with mightily re: latency.

Of course, PTs is a monster with mixing and editing, and that's where all of my plugins sit, so it works for me to use both...

pickle neck

[jrsgodfrey]

If you are on a mac i would forget about T3.

I'm using T3 on my MacBook with no complaints at all.

[kayagum]

I'm looking forward to using T3 on a couple of projects. I've used Adobe Audition more (mostly because of my theater sound design and restoration projects, more than composition), but most of the people I'm slated to work with (remotely) have been using Tracktion.

I'm hoping we can swap mix files as well as .wav files. Should be fun!

[chovie d]

I'm using T3 on my MacBook with no complaints at all.

awesome! I'm glad it works for you. I just see the mac people complaining on the forums still and eventually giving up and switching to other daws...perhaps the issues are specific to their plugins...who knows?
No personal experience on a mac using T3, just relating what I see on the forums from mac users. cheers

[Electricide]

I had no reason to upgrade to T3.

I had to clean install XP, and I lost my custom color setup. that was the biggest pain.

[percussion boy]

All the other sub-$200 boxes I've looked at seem to come with Cubase LE, which I'm gathering is not-too-highly thought of.

Huhn?

No clue from me whether LE is better than Tracktion, but LE works fine. Sounds good, does MIDI accurately. Only quirk I've run into is that with the asio4all drivers running to my lap's built-in soundcard, LE thinks there's a Big Ben attached for timing. Bizarre bug, but that's the only one I've hit. LE's mix bus sound is better than Sonar Home Studio or the full version of Ableton Live, at least up to v7.

Sorry for the detour. Hope this is helpful.

[;ivlunsdystf]

I just see the mac people complaining on the forums still and eventually giving up and switching to other daws...perhaps the issues are specific to their plugins...who knows?

Maybe Tracktion is too complicated for people who use macs.

OOOOOOOOH noooooo just kidding. I used T2 on a mac for a while last year and I remember being irritated by it for various petty reasons. A lot of it had to do with the relative paucity of vsts for mac, but I also remember it freezing up a bit too often. Is that the complaint at the mac forums?

[pixeltarian]

In thinking about it just now, and reading other's opinions - I thought the thought that traction is best for songwriters. it's good for pumping out tracks with ease.

I don't think it would be superb for digital music, but I just use reason and rewire for that.

check out some samples on the tonguesonpaper link. It's very "synth" heavy but all the mixing and editing was done in tracktion. so it can be done.

I don't really have any issues with tracktion at all. the volume/pan filters are a bit bothersome until you know exactly how to use them - for a while I kept panning when I wanted to change the volume and changing the volume when I wanted to pan.

also, if your new to software recording, tracktion is very helpful in letting you know what everything does when you hover over it. you can get extensive info in a balloon that pops up, or if that annoys you, you can turn it off, and see a short description in the upper right.

the more unique things I like about it, though subtle, are very nice to have - here are my top 10:
1. automatic time adjustment for microphones
2. the "abort and restart" option, so you don't have a ton of crap takes just sitting on your HD.
3. the "find orphan clips" function so you can delete anything that's not being used in the mix.
4. the ability to put a plugin right on the audio clip instead of the track itself. This saves you the hassle of automation and you can use the same track for many different things throughout the mix.
5. incredibly easy loop creation
6. the amount of options you get when you click on an audio sample: name, exact length editing, gain, pan, channel selection, fades, time strech, color, clip selection, auto tempo, markers, deleteion, source info, looping, audo crossfade, etc.
7. drag and drop inputs
8. great file management
9. quick external wave editing, as well as simple internal editing
10. salvages work if it crashes (which doesn't happen often)