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Just wondering if anybody has any experience with Acoustica Mixcraft 5. If so, what are its strong points and what are it weak points? How does it fit in to the arsenal and what would you use it for? Any input much appreciated
Follow That Dream Sam Karaoke King -------------------- Turning that corner again - I have to keep following that dream, no matter what
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Sounds TGTBT, but a recommendation by Craig Anderton is powerful medicine. Video editing? Notation? Acid loops? $75? Hard to lose. Just curious as to what you're using now and why you want to make a change.
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I was actually looking for loops and it cropped up.
I use RB mainly, Richard
Follow That Dream Sam Karaoke King -------------------- Turning that corner again - I have to keep following that dream, no matter what
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I tried a free version of it a couple of years ago, and it seemed to work well. If you get this, get the boxed version which puts all the loops on DVD. Otherwise you'll have to download them all from the internet.
Now that I have Real Band and realtracks, I don't think Mixcraft is necessary, but for the money could be any extra tool in the box. Of course there is always another learning curve, but it's not all that difficult.
Rob
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Sam,
I would approach this from a different angle:
What are the shortcomings with your existing tools that you think may be solved with other products?
If you don't approach a new DAW in this way, then it is somewhat of a crap-shoot as to whether the new DAW provides any tools that you currently don't have at your disposal.
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Yeah, what Scott said. I, too, tried an earlier iteration of Mixcraft and, although it did what it said it would, it was a duplication of tools already in my arsenal. Nothing unique.
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Mixcraft to me is the PC equivilent to Garageband. It takes built in loops and make tracks from them. Nice but it does less than RB for me. it has a nice basic DAW system, but not better than any of the others from what i can see.
Anything RB can't do, i can get from MTS or Sonar, or Reaper.
Lenovo Win 10 16 gig ram, Mac mini with 16 gig of ram, BiaB 2022, Realband, Harrison Mixbus 32c version 9.1324, Melodyne 5 editor, Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL, Presonus control app, Komplete 49 key controller.
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I read a lot about other people here (on the forum) using other DAW software and have to wonder why? Personally I am a big fan of RB and it does everything I want and more. It was the new loops feature that set me to look for loops to download and suddenly this software turned up. I was just wondering if anybody uses it and if so why.
Thanks anyway Rob and Scott
Follow That Dream Sam Karaoke King -------------------- Turning that corner again - I have to keep following that dream, no matter what
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Sam, I don't have RB and probably won't until the whole VST timing thing gets resolved (tempo information being passed to plugins in the right way), but that's because my main modulation effects that I use have auto-tempo features. Why did I switch to something else back in the day? ASIO. Plain and simple. I wanted to use all of the cool VSTi that were available; to PLAY them, not just pass MIDI data to them while recording the output. Once I got hooked on that drug, I haven't been able to do without it since. I went to the next cheapest product that did have that feature. As it turns out, I got hooked on the user interface as well. Now the DAW I use doesn't manipulate audio 1's and 0's any differently than any other. But the SPEED at which I'm able to do what I do with that DAW is markedly different. It maps to my mental model better than other DAW software does. That is not true for everyone. One of the things I can do faster in this software is nearly impossible with PG products. At one time, I spent 2 or 3 hours a week editing hour long lectures into 20 minute segments. In order to do this quickly, quick snipping and cross-fading is a must. With my DAW, it was almost effortless. Main decisions were which bits to keep and which larger sections to toss, not how to perform a cross-fade between sections. Each hour long edit had between 30 to 50 individual audio snippets. I was able to get that done in 2-3 hours - which is pretty amazing considering I had to actually audition an hour's worth of material. Granted, there were visually obvious 'pregnant pause' sections that I could zap without auditioning, but still - try performing any audio manipulation process 50 times on an hour's worth of material and see how long it takes. Absolutely no way to do it as fast in PG products' audio editor or in many other audio editors - some costing 10x what my software cost. Pro-Tools, the revered and vaunted product that it is, added this type of editing feature within the last few years as a pay-for add-on! I forget what they called it, but I can tell you, I've been using the feature for nearly free since about 2004. With the built-in snip and cross-fade function in my DAW it was ridiculously easy to make this happen. For that situation/application, it was a must-have feature once I started using it. I won't go back to something without that feature. So, before you go shopping for a new DAW, I recommend listing out what tasks you find laborious or downright irritating, and then do some comparison shopping. Loop handling is one feature that I used in ACID 2.0 that I bought at a local big-box retailer and really enjoyed, but it wasn't enough to make me abandon PTPA which I was using solidly at the time. Playthrough of VSTi - well once I sipped from that fount, I never looked back. It is a must-have, must work, no questions asked, no special handling of ASIO/WDM, no excuses feature for me now. I think I'm kind of an oddball on this forum with that requirement, but not on other DAW software forums. It's an expected feature. It is simply a non-negotiable item for me. I didn't care what drivers made this work. I could have used the grzbd drivers from some russian website if they would make this work. ASIO can be a cantankerous beast, but it is what it is and what made play-through capability of VSTi a reality in the 2000's. I can't describe to you the hours of fun I've had playing synthesizer models that simply are not available or have never been available in hardware form. One example that I recorded: http://rockstarnot.rekkerd.org/songs/2007Fall/rockstarnot%20-%20ambishot%202.mp3Anyways, don't jump ship until there's something on a different ship that you simply cannot do without.
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And what is this amazing DAW?
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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Quote:
And what is this amazing DAW?
I'll take a WAG and say Tracktion 3. I bought it on Scott's recommendation when it was dirt cheap and messed with it for a few hours but I didn't care for it. I haven't installed it on the new puter. It just wasn't intuitive.
But of course I was used to Cakewalk Home Studio 2004 and Sonar 4 PE. Totally different interface. They're also more intuitive for me.
But to each his own.
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Quote:
Quote:
And what is this amazing DAW?
I'll take a WAG and say Tracktion 3. I bought on Scott's recommendatio when it was dirt cheap and messed with it for a few hours but I didn't care for it. I haven't installed it on the new puter. It just wasn't intuitive.
But of course I was used to Cakewalk Home Studio 2004 and Sonar 4 PE. Totally different interface. They're also more intuitive for me.
But to each his own.
That's what is so interesting. Since I don't use a mixer for home recording - having to have a mixer on the screen is not a priority for me, but for most - not having it is a non-starter. The mastering plugin, FinalMix that came with that version of Tracktion is worth quite alot more than what was paid for the whole kit-n-kaboodle. I realize that Tracktion's non-standard layout and mental model just doesn't work for most people. If it did resonate with more users, it wouldn't be basically abandonware. To each his own is very true.
Richard, if you need to do voice-over editing or long speech editing, Tracktion simply rocks at this. I could walk you through the process in 5 minutes max. Even version 1 had auto-cross-fading, IIRC. I seem to remember that you bought in the $19 deal as well.
-Scott
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I have Mixcraft 5 that I sort of bought on a whim and didn't think things through very well as others above have said you should. I was having a problem with rendering to .wav both in BIAB and RB and I wanted a daw that had the capability of multiple midi tracks that another pgm that I had been using for a lot of years, WavePad, did not have. However, I was not and still am not very knowledgeable about daw's. I chose Mixcraft because I thought it looked easier than some others I had looked at such as Reaper. It's not too difficult and there's a forum that I got some help from on some things, but not always. For whatever reason, I am unable to render directly to mp3 with BIAB or RB could be due to my ext synth setup. I do like the soft synth in Mixcraft though even as compared to Coyote Forte. I did stumble across another pgm, DBpoweramp Music converter, that I really like to convert from .wav to mp3 because you can up the quality of the sampling rate. Now, having said all of this, I still consider myself a rookie on this stuff. However, I just got a new desktop and I like Mixcraft well enough to get it installed on the new puter. FWIW
Stan
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I have a copy of DBpoweramp...
Follow That Dream Sam Karaoke King -------------------- Turning that corner again - I have to keep following that dream, no matter what
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@shastastan:
This statement: "For whatever reason, I am unable to render directly to mp3 with BIAB or RB could be due to my ext synth setup. "
This is not possible with ANY DAW. What you are asking it to do is convert the analog signals from the analog outputs on your external synth, into digital format, while mixing and converting to .mp3.
This is not a feature of any DAW software.
You first have convert all signals to digital tracks in the DAW software. If you are using a soft synth (of which there are legion different types - you are referring to a general midi synth of some type in Mixcraft), then it is possible for the computer to convert MIDI data into a digital track on the fly.
With your external synth, however, you have to RECORD the output of the external synth into a specific audio track(s) first. Then mix to what you like, then render to .mp3.
-Scott
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First off i want to say that for the most part RB does a very solid job for me. Once they conquer the VSTi timing issue, stabilize the ASIO (for me ASIO actually works quite well), and upgrade the automation to a node based system, and it will be pretty much all i need. The projects i have done entirely in RB have turned out just as good as any other DAW package.
Where RB lacks a feature or two that i like on some projects, i prefer to use either Multitrackstudios (MTS) or Sonar X-1. Both do a great job, Sonar is more sophisticated, but MTS is more stable, solid, and reliable. Plus it has a far deeper and richer feature set than first meets the eye.
I find that with MTS, and BiaB/RB as a combo package i can do just about anything i want.
I also have the latest version of Reaper, which is a potent package, but i prefer the other two over it, just for simplicities sake.
I will admit that Rb takes me a long long way before i find anything really missing that is a deal breaker. The three things mentioned above are the pressing ones i hope for soon.
Lenovo Win 10 16 gig ram, Mac mini with 16 gig of ram, BiaB 2022, Realband, Harrison Mixbus 32c version 9.1324, Melodyne 5 editor, Presonus Audiobox 1818VSL, Presonus control app, Komplete 49 key controller.
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@Scott
Thanks for the explanation. I knew that it was something to do with my ext synth since I was able to do it before I got the SD2 with the soft synth. Now that you have enlightened me, I know why I could't go direct to mp3. I've had some really good results working with mp3 files in Real Band changing both pitch, tempo, and cutting and pasting. Now that I have a larger monitor, I'm hoping that I can see the sound wave window even better.
Stan
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Quote:
I read a lot about other people here (on the forum) using other DAW software and have to wonder why?
The answer in my case is that I don't have a lot of time to compare DAWs and as long as the DAW that I brought to the dance does everything that I need, I feel that its a waste of my time to shop around. The fact that I don't use RB is not a slap at the program, because I never had the time to try it. I've been using the same software for a long time and I'm getting too old to change.
Keith
2024 Audiophile Windows 11 AMD RYZEN THREADRIPPER 3960X 4.5GHZ 128 GB RAM 2 Nvidia RTX 3090s, Vegas,Acid,SoundForge,Izotope Production,Melodyne Studio,Cakewalk,Raven Mti
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Quote:
Sounds TGTBT, but a recommendation by Craig Anderton is powerful medicine.
The quote from Craig Anderton is from an article that is worth reading. He has a few negative things to say about the software too.
Keith
2024 Audiophile Windows 11 AMD RYZEN THREADRIPPER 3960X 4.5GHZ 128 GB RAM 2 Nvidia RTX 3090s, Vegas,Acid,SoundForge,Izotope Production,Melodyne Studio,Cakewalk,Raven Mti
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Interesting article, Keith. Thanks 
Follow That Dream Sam Karaoke King -------------------- Turning that corner again - I have to keep following that dream, no matter what
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