anyone tried tracktion? work with PT?

[samrisio]

will tracktion work with the M Box and is it any fun?

[underbiteman]

I've tried their nfr version that Mackie was giving out for free last month with Mbox, and I gotta say it's pretty cool. UI is clean, file management system is great, comes with multiband compressor/mastering plugin, VST & rewire support and (gasp) non-real time rendering.

I'm used to working with PT, so there were some annoying differences between the programs for getting around and getting views that I wanted, but that could be attributed to my inexperience with Tracktion.

Tracktion 2 is supposed to come out soon, and I'm really considering buying a copy. I gotta say that Mackie made an excellent marketing move in giving out the program for free. Before I had tried it, I looked at the $80 price tag and just assumed it was crap.

[samrisio]

thanks for getting back to me..so it works with the m box? cool..why would you buy it if you already own it? 2 is going to be better as usual or is the free version skimpy?

[underbiteman]

The free version they were giving out was the same thing as the version they are selling except that it's nfr (not for resale). Obviously with a new version comes new features. I believe they are listed on the Mackie website.

I guess what I'm really looking for is to find an inexpensive way get away from having to use PT as my main sequencer. I hate that PT doesn't have rendering and that I need to have Digi hardware connected to it to use the program.

I'll look at what's added in the new version, consider how much they are gonna charge for it, then make my decision.

[samrisio]

so let's say you sequence in tracktion...do you then transfer it to pro tools as what? a midi file i guess right?

[underbiteman]

No, I'm hoping to not have to deal with PT at all. Track, mix, master in Tracktion.

[samrisio]

so you would bypass the m box and go direct into the soundcard?

[underbiteman]

Mbox and other Digi hardware can be used with other programs via ASIO driver.

[samrisio]

well the guys using power tracks from pg music say different...you cannot record audio into power tracks using the m box as a daw?

[underbiteman]

I went to the PG site and it doesn't say what soundcard drivers it supports, so I'm not sure if Power Tracks will recognize mbox's ASIO driver. But any decent sequencer will support ASIO drivers. Try downloading the demo and see if mbox shows up as one of the available soundcards.