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Larry Shelby

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Reid Rosefelt

Reid Rosefelt

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Getting Mixcraft 9 at the $20 level is pretty sweet.

Any Mixcraft users?   I like to have a simple DAW now and then.

There are also a few instruments that seem to come bundled with it, including "Journeys," which I believe is the String Studio AAS expansion as it comes next to their Lounge Lizard Electric Piano, which  isn't  listed as Lounge Lizard Session, so if it's EP-4, that's a $199 list instrument, commonly sold for $99.   I'm not really familiar with the other stuff instruments   You have to really look on YouTube if you want info on their instruments.

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Brian Lawler

Brian Lawler

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

Any Mixcraft users?   I like to have a simple DAW now and then....

 

It is a pretty good starter or "quick, go to" DAW, but I kept being frustrated by the limited MIDI routing when using generative VST's (chorders, arps, etc).  I have Pro Studio 9 and I think I started around v7.  Version 10 is due this year, and Acoustica has hinted on their forum that it may be "soon".   If they address the routing, I will definitely upgrade and reinstall.  They have had reasonable upgrade prices in the past.  Perhaps the  "Recording Studio v9" in the Humble deal would open an upgrade path to v10, especially if you sit on the registration for a bit.

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kitekrazy

kitekrazy

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

Any Mixcraft users?   I like to have a simple DAW now and then.

There are also a few instruments that seem to come bundled with it, including "Journeys," which I believe is the String Studio AAS expansion as it comes next to their Lounge Lizard Electric Piano, which  isn't  listed as Lounge Lizard Session, so if it's EP-4, that's a $199 list instrument, commonly sold for $99.   I'm not really familiar with the other stuff instruments   You have to really look on YouTube if you want info on their instruments.

It's downfall is they way you have to work using Kontakt or Sampletank.  The GUI is nothing fancy which doesn't attract users.  When Sony got out of the software business, Acid users when to this DAW.   Speaking of Acid I still likes it's simplicity.  Too bad they never has a real separate window for sequencing.

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Starship Krupa

Starship Krupa

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

Any Mixcraft users?   I like to have a simple DAW now and then.

It was my choice when I got back into DAW use a dozen years ago. The lower system requirements, the price, and the company's motto is "Software Should Be Easy To Use." I had a Pentium D system at the time and SONAR's requirements were at the edge of my system specs, although I still had a SONAR license from the early 2000's that would have been upgradeable.

When DAW shopping, one of my tactics was to look at the support forum to see what people are complaining about and how the company responds, and at the time, Mixcraft won that one hands down. And it was correct, it was some of the most stable, bomb-proof software I'd ever seen. I was so impressed that I joined their beta team and even got my name in the credits for the next release.

I happily stuck with it until BandLab released Cakewalk as freeware. My first experiment was importing stems from a Mixcraft project to do a new mixdown, using as many native Cakewalk plug-ins as possible. I fell in love with the Console View and the flexible routing. As well as Cakewalk's silky-sounding playback engine. Mixcraft does gapless playback better, but I suspect that it comes at the price of this difference in playback sound. I'm not sure that everyone would notice it, but it was immediately audible to me. Mixcraft's recording and mixdown engines are the equal to any.

For the "all DAW's sound the same" crew, I have found that to be mostly true when it comes to recording and mixdown, but not playback.

It's great for getting ideas down quickly, but has some drawbacks. The aforementioned MIDI routing, the wasted real estate by not being able to collapse lanes. However, the way they handle folders is brilliant. Folder=submix. Clip grouping only affects moves, not other editing, so that's a pain in the editor.

It includes some nice features that CbB lacks, such as a pair of integrated samplers, and some interesting internal routing for modulation. They have a Matrix-like feature called Performance Panel that includes the features that Matrix users wish it included, such as the ability to record directly to cells. This is said to make it a better compositional tool, although I've not used it as such. I love the markers, which have "tails" that extend all the way down the track view. Makes it so much easier to line things up using markers.

At $20, it's a heckuva deal. As previously mentioned, upgrades to the next version are usually very inexpensive, and they are working on version 10. The Pro Audio version only differs in that it comes with more plug-ins, so if you're reading this, you're already covered in that regard.?

The bundled plug-ins are a selling point, but it's a mixed bag. Too many of them are old 32-bit versions of plug-ins that are now available in 64-bit. The A|A|S Journeys/Entangled Species soundpack that comes with it is what got me hooked on A|A|S' products, but they're the original single-layer String Studio 1 versions.

It's very much influenced by SONAR, so getting up to speed is....a cakewalk (sorry).

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ALC

ALC

Posted
Posted (edited)

Picked this up for $20 … will be using them within Unify—all of these Cherry Audio synths have been unified.

Already had CA2600 and Mixcraft from previous Humble Bundles.  Mixcraft came with a lot of content (loops, instruments, and FX), useful if just starting out.  Didn’t try to use them outside of Mixcraft, though.

I did upgrade to Mixcraft Pro for $19 last year (in August) just to get Melodyne Essential.

Edited by ALC
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djpuzzle

djpuzzle

Posted
Posted
23 hours ago, kitekrazy said:

It's downfall is they way you have to work using Kontakt or Sampletank.  The GUI is nothing fancy which doesn't attract users.  When Sony got out of the software business, Acid users when to this DAW.   Speaking of Acid I still likes it's simplicity.  Too bad they never has a real separate window for sequencing.

Mixcraft has come a long way over the years. It's a full fledge DAW with all the same essential features you would get with any other DAW. Sadly it's just for Windows though but the synths in this package work on Mac and Windows. The loops come in ACIDized wav and Apple-looped AIF (and some even have Recycle Rx2). Apple loops are great if you use Garageband or Logic because they have extra metadata for searching and matching keys etc. The creator of Mixcraft is a friend of mine. We both worked at Sonic Foundry in the 90s. He was programming Vegas and I was working in the sound development department editing the Loops For ACID product line. The company downsized after going public and 200 employees lost their jobs on Christmas break. We were among them. Dan moved on to create Mixcraft (and later on Cherry Audio) and I started my first loop company back then called Peace Love Productions which I sold in 2007 then started Soundtrack Loops with my friend Matt. I also made a LOT of loop packs over the years for Sonic Foundry, Sony, Magix, Soundtrack Loops, Roland Cloud, Antares, and many more. There's a lot of history there and the people behind these apps are musicians with a passion for music and creating.

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Starship Krupa

Starship Krupa

Posted
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3 hours ago, djpuzzle said:

The creator of Mixcraft is a friend of mine. We both worked at Sonic Foundry in the 90s. He was programming Vegas and I was working in the sound development department editing the Loops For ACID product line. The company downsized after going public and 200 employees lost their jobs on Christmas break. We were among them. Dan moved on to create Mixcraft (and later on Cherry Audio)

Cool. I have a great amount of respect for Dan and the rest of Acoustica. Beta testing for them was the first time I'd been exposed to the nimble development model. Their commitment to shipping a bug free product is like nothing I've seen. Cakewalk in the BandLab era is great, but with the advantage of a more modern (and considerably smaller) codebase, Mixcraft still has the edge in this regard.

They sent me feelers about a QA gig years ago, but I have no desire to be a pro QA engineer any more. Beta testing is fun, lets me keep a hand in it.

Vegas as it is today could benefit from Dan's commitment to quality! It's still my NLE of choice, but man can that thing hang if you don't have it all tuned up.

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kitekrazy

kitekrazy

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, djpuzzle said:

Mixcraft has come a long way over the years. It's a full fledge DAW with all the same essential features you would get with any other DAW. Sadly it's just for Windows though but the synths in this package work on Mac and Windows. The loops come in ACIDized wav and Apple-looped AIF (and some even have Recycle Rx2). Apple loops are great if you use Garageband or Logic because they have extra metadata for searching and matching keys etc. The creator of Mixcraft is a friend of mine. We both worked at Sonic Foundry in the 90s. He was programming Vegas and I was working in the sound development department editing the Loops For ACID product line. The company downsized after going public and 200 employees lost their jobs on Christmas break. We were among them. Dan moved on to create Mixcraft (and later on Cherry Audio) and I started my first loop company back then called Peace Love Productions which I sold in 2007 then started Soundtrack Loops with my friend Matt. I also made a LOT of loop packs over the years for Sonic Foundry, Sony, Magix, Soundtrack Loops, Roland Cloud, Antares, and many more. There's a lot of history there and the people behind these apps are musicians with a passion for music and creating.

Oh yes now I remember your handle.  I use to buy PLP loops and wondered what happened to them.

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djpuzzle

djpuzzle

Posted
Posted
16 hours ago, kitekrazy said:

Oh yes now I remember your handle.  I use to buy PLP loops and wondered what happened to them.

Oh wow thanks! Yes PLP was great fun and back in the day we were at the top of the loop game!

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