Starship Krupa Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 (edited) Digital nostalgia time. I happened upon this review of what was then called T RackS 24. I guess T RackS began life as a 4 module mastering processor about 25 years ago? I didn't know that, and I didn't know that the product had been around that long. According to my research, it was preceded by SampleTank by a few years. Another surprise for me. The music software market has surely changed since then, hasn't it? Imagine paying $300 for 4 T-RackS modules. Taking a close look at the image of the UI in the review reveals striking similarities between the parametric EQ module and what lives on in T-Racks 6 as Classic EQ. Distinctive display with rounded ends, 6 black knobs just below it, frequency knobs just below those. Output level knob off to the right. I guess it's been "not broke" for a quarter of a century, requiring no fixing. The Tube Compressor is even closer to the current Classic Compressor that comes with T Racks 6 Intro. I'm not as familiar with Classic Multiband Limiter, but its current incarnation also looks pretty close to the version in this product. It also looks as if the block italic "T-RackS" logo hung around through T-RackS 5 and was only dropped for T-RackS 6. Wouldn't mind seeing that swoopy graphic with the purple oval and black tyrannosaurus rex make some kind of appearance, although it is definitely the most dated looking thing about that turn-of-the-century UI. Gotta hand it to the designer of those UI's. For something to stay so similar in 25 years in the software industry, and not look dated (to my eyes at least) it speaks to how right they got it the first time out. They even used a similar aesthetic for the much later One all-in-one mastering tool and it looks great. List price is still the same, but of course regularly deeply discounted (even without glitches) and you get 15X the number of processors that the original product came with. Edited April 17 by Starship Krupa 8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Osterday Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 4 hours ago, Starship Krupa said: Digital nostalgia time. Thanks for that - I never looked up the history that far back for T-RackS! All the "classic" plugin have been around forever. I started with T-RackS 3 in 2011 and looks like I registered Amplitube 1.0LE in 2008! (Think it was bundled with the Digidesign Mbox 2 Mini.) Even bought the T-RackS book ages ago... https://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Mastering-IK-Multimedia-T-RackS/dp/1435457595 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitrate Audio Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 Its been around a long time. https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/ik-multimedia-t-racks https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/ik-multimedia-t-racks-3 What I wonder about is how much the code and algorithms that are under the hood have been changed and optimized for some of the older plugins? From my general casual reading, things do advance in the music software world. Not that fast, but they do advance and newer techniques and optimizations propagate through the industry. There was a great talk at ADC on this stuff if anyone interested. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IK Multimedia Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 The yellow was muted/changed and I've seen mixed opinions on it but I don't mind it personally. I like the red Opto Compressor and don't think the color changed too drastically but the other elements changed a bit more. I see the dinosaur mentioned and surprised there's not a lot of back-and-forth but that has to be the most polarizing UI element we've ever had. He fought for his spot and evolved a bit but in the end more people hated him than loved him so he's gone. 1 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luc Posted April 18 Share Posted April 18 Interesting that you'd mention that because I was speaking with my Sweetwater rep recently and we noticed I had paid $225 for T-RackS 24 when it was released many years ago. Way more than I remembered it being. I can't complain because I was using Reason exclusively as a DAW at the time and there were no mastering tools in it yet. The mastering I did with T-RackS got me some great placements on TV shows over the years. But yeah, it was expensive! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starship Krupa Posted Friday at 04:02 PM Author Share Posted Friday at 04:02 PM 12 hours ago, Nitrate Audio said: Its been around a long time. https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/ik-multimedia-t-racks https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/ik-multimedia-t-racks-3 What I wonder about is how much the code and algorithms that are under the hood have been changed and optimized for some of the older plugins? From my general casual reading, things do advance in the music software world. Not that fast, but they do advance and newer techniques and optimizations propagate through the industry. It looks like the "Classic" UI wasn't present in the first iteration, but arrived pretty soon after that. I can say that some of the newer IK releases are leveraging the AVX extensions, because MODO Drums refused to install on my old laptop, whose 2nd generation i7 apparently lacked that instruction set. 1 hour ago, IK Multimedia said: The yellow was muted/changed and I've seen mixed opinions on it but I don't mind it personally. I like the red Opto Compressor and don't think the color changed too drastically but the other elements changed a bit more. Yes, less eyeball fatiguing colors is good, and they're at least in the ballpark of resembling their earlier forms. Red Opto Compressor looks good, and IIRC, has the M/S feature that I love so much. I wonder when that startedI was surprised to see that the 670 arrived so early. It was actually the plug-in that introduced me to the magic that M/S processing can do. I had been conflating it with M/S micing, so had no idea why such a thing would be included in EQ or dynamics processors. Ohhhh, it lets you process mid and side individually, same as if they were left and right, and that can do magical things to the stereo image. It was one of the presets that had something about widening in the name and that was the lightbulb moment and now I use it on everything. Started using it with the MeldaProduction processors too, most of which also have the feature, and any other plug-in I get my hands on that has it. 2 hours ago, IK Multimedia said: I see the dinosaur mentioned and surprised there's not a lot of back-and-forth but that has to be the most polarizing UI element we've ever had. He fought for his spot and evolved a bit but in the end more people hated him than loved him so he's gone. I understand not wanting to see a stylized tyrannosaurus rex on the face of every plug-in. Especially since IK are, IMO, the best at designing clean skeuomorphic UI's. You don't put in silly things that distract the eye, like non-functioning screw heads or wear marks, the UI's represent what is best about using hardware and that type of UI: you can see knob position and meter movement instantly, and when you move a control, it "feels" more analog. Also, they're just pretty to look at. As I said, you got it right 25 years ago, which is impressive in the software business. I'm thinking of XLN's recent facelift of Addictive Drums. When I first got the product, as part of a bundle, I paid less attention to it than I should have due to the fake brushed aluminum Johnny Space Commander control panel UI that screamed "I'm from the early 21st century!" Then they laid the free update to 2.5 on everyone, with the UI overhaul, and I took another look and saw that it's actually a pretty great product. Maybe I'm shallow. If the UI looks exciting, I'm more excited to use it. A dinosaur silhouette in a purple oval kinda doesn't fit that. He could be on the website somewhere in with the blurbs, though. I found the history of the product to be fascinating, and would also if more of it were described on the IK T-RackS product pages. I wasn't aware of the pioneering nature of the company. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Osterday Posted Friday at 06:39 PM Share Posted Friday at 06:39 PM I always hated the T-Rex/T-RackS logo. So glad they dropped it. Not sure what marketing genius thought that was a good idea! I think I read a while back about the name "IK Multimedia" but don't remember the story there - thought I was buying CD-ROM authoring tools not plugins! 😂 I get the IK part, but "Multimedia" threw me! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusicMan Posted Friday at 11:23 PM Share Posted Friday at 11:23 PM I believe a lot of the pro community complainied and didn't like the dinosaur logo, because they said it made them look unprofessional when they would open them up in a session with clients there, as they looked more like toys. I have thought it did look a little childish, but it would never stop me using them. Changing it and marking more people happy was a good move. They listened to their customers, which is what all devs should do. They get a tick for that one in my book 🙂 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FZ1 Posted Monday at 06:50 AM Share Posted Monday at 06:50 AM My ancient Roland VS1680 has T-Racks 1.0 installed on a hardware effects card. The interface is vaugely similar to the vst but on a blue on white 240 x 240 LCD screen that has to be navigated by buttons. Most of it works fine except the eq which can be frustrating to use fully. The clipper and multiband blew my mind when I first used them. They sounded quite different to the roland effects 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magic Russ Posted Monday at 03:42 PM Share Posted Monday at 03:42 PM Don't forget that before they were bought by Cakewalk, the Ultrafunk Sonitus package went for that much too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IK Multimedia Posted Monday at 05:44 PM Share Posted Monday at 05:44 PM Ah I see screwheads mentioned, I forgot to include that in my reply. I thought it interesting that we removed the screws but left the rack ears with empty holes. Overall it still looks way cleaner. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starship Krupa Posted Tuesday at 08:32 PM Author Share Posted Tuesday at 08:32 PM On 4/21/2025 at 10:44 AM, IK Multimedia said: Ah I see screwheads mentioned I've watched enough White Sea Studios YT reviews to look for the non-functional screw heads😄. Rackmount holes I can forgive, after all it is T-RackS. Moreover, as they are at the edges, they don't distract the eye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nitrate Audio Posted Tuesday at 09:48 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 09:48 PM I am always hunting for screw heads I can turn. there are surprisingly a lot of them in AT5 and T Racks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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