Anyone using Tracktion?

Karlis Abolins · Post by **Karlis Abolins** » 22 Sep 2006 7:56 am

I have been trying a whole bunch of different DAWs and recently downloaded a demo of Tracktion from Mackie. I find it very intuitive to use and well thought out. I will run it thru its paces and probably spring for a copy. The biggest drawback that I can see is the lack of support for DXI. It only supports VSTs.

Karlis

Steve Stallings · Post by **Steve Stallings** » 22 Sep 2006 9:41 am

I have a copy that came with my Onyx400F. I tried it but I really prefer Sonar5PE.

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Steve Stallings
The Songs

Jonathan Shacklock · Post by **Jonathan Shacklock** » 24 Sep 2006 9:53 am

I've been using it for a year or two on my mac and I love it. Very simple, logical interface yet very powerful, runs very smoothly, NEVER crashes, likes AU and VST plug-ins, doesn't need a very fast CPU to run loads of tracks, comes with the excellent Final Mix mastering plug-in amongst others and is very cheap.

Karlis Abolins · Post by **Karlis Abolins** » 24 Sep 2006 4:46 pm

Hi Steve, How is the help documentation for Sonar. I have Pro Audio 9 and Home Studio 2004 XL. Both are fine programs but I have great difficulty finding out how to do something that I am unfamiliar with. The Tracktion help files are much better. The interface is really nice for me because the functions are all in front of me.

Karlis

Randy Cordle · Post by **Randy Cordle** » 24 Sep 2006 8:00 pm

Hi, Yup. Tracktion is my Ap of choice. I used to use Pro Audio 9, upgraded to Sonar and have yet to ever get it to work for me. Mackie had The last version of Tracktion available for free before they went to the new version. I am so pleased with its performance that I doubt I'll ever go back to Sonar. I like simple, and I love their interface. See the post that I did as an introduction for how I use it. http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum22/HTML/000010.html

Steve Stallings · Post by **Steve Stallings** » 25 Sep 2006 11:34 am

Karlis,
The documetation and help files with Sonar are superb. They also have a very active and very large cakewalk forum with folks that will help virtually any problem. Sonar is as deep as you wish to make it. They have just released Sonar 6, so I will be upgrading soon. Different folks like different things. Sonar is not the easiest DAW program to learn. Once you get past the initial learning curve, it really starts to blossom.
Good luck!

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Steve Stallings
The Songs

Ben Jones · Post by **Ben Jones** » 25 Sep 2006 3:26 pm

Hi Karlis, I enjoyed meeting you at the Spokane show last may. I have been using Tracktion 2 for several months now and like it very much. Like yourself I wanted something that was intuitive and easy to learn. I have found Tracktion to be excellent in that regard and it suits my workflow perfectly. Be adivsed, the bundled software plug-ins that come with Tracktion 2 box edition, are mostly available for free anyway online, and not overly useful to begin with (some people love the RMIV drum machine..I dont really dig it). But the Mackie PLug-ins are pretty good. Especially the Final Mix plug as someone above mentioned. Hopefully we dont buy for the bundled plug ins anyway..the program itself is what matters and Tracktion seems very good, very stable. Bottom line, Tracktion allowed me to start recording pretty much right away with a fairly low learning curve and its reasonably priced..no complaints here. I should say I do mostly 8-12 track recordings of real instruments played in real time, not much looping, or midi, no video. Best of luck!<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Ben Jones on 25 September 2006 at 04:28 PM.]</p></FONT>

Karlis Abolins · Post by **Karlis Abolins** » 27 Sep 2006 4:53 am

Ben, Thank you for your review of Tracktion. I am using the demo and finding it really easy to accomplish a lot. The loop recording with multiple takes was easy to find and use.

Karlis

Ben Jones · Post by **Ben Jones** » 27 Sep 2006 7:42 am

Yeah, loop record, punch record, auto fades, templates, automation, the filter section is great, i havent even touched rack filters yet, there alot of stuff and its all pretty straight forward to use with a nice interface. Some people dont like that tracktion doesnt have a "mixer" window, and at first it was a little wierd, but you quickly get used to having the "mixer" section on the side in a vertical rather than the normal horizontal fashion and its always there , no window , so its very conveinient in a way.. You can tell i like the program...hehe.