Members techristian Posted March 9, 2010 Members Share Posted March 9, 2010 Another program you might want to check out is Mixcraft 5. The price is right - $75! - but it has a ton of features, including notation, some really good-sounding bundled virtual instruments, video window support, etc. It's another one of those "anti-bloatware" programs that's very nimble and efficient, but nonetheless has a very full feature set.Again, there's a free demo so check it out. I'm reviewing it for Keyboard, and am quite impressed. I know Dan (Techristian) had problems getting Mixcraft 4 to run properly, but it's always performed well for me on Windows. I got most of the things to work but I don't remember all of the details now. I did "create" (with enclosed Mixcraft loops) a piece of music and was disappointed that it sounded alot like one at the Acoustica website, but that is to be expected if you work with someone else's canned loops. I'm sure that Craigs review is greater in-depth but mine for Mixcraft 4 was updated and can be seen at. http://teachmedrums.com/mx.html You can even hear some of the things that I produced with it there. Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Lee Flier Posted March 9, 2010 Members Share Posted March 9, 2010 Another thing that's worth mentioning, especially for some of you who use a lot of VST instruments and/or use lots of effects: Reaper natively supports effects networking. In other words, if you have an older computer lying around, and you put it on your home network you can use it as a slave to run effects, thus decreasing the CPU load and latency on your main DAW. Like I said, personally I don't even come close to taxing the CPU enough to need this, but for those who do, it's a pretty badass feature. Even better, you can run an entire FX chain remotely, so that the FX only have to be retrieved across the network once for the whole chain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted March 9, 2010 Members Share Posted March 9, 2010 Another thing that's worth mentioning, especially for some of you who use a lot of VST instruments and/or use lots of effects: Reaper natively supports effects networking. In other words, if you have an older computer lying around, and you put it on your home network you can use it as a slave to run effects, thus decreasing the CPU load and latency on your main DAW.Like I said, personally I don't even come close to taxing the CPU enough to need this, but for those who do, it's a pretty badass feature. Even better, you can run an entire FX chain remotely, so that the FX only have to be retrieved across the network once for the whole chain. Coupla questions... Does it use VST System Link or its own protocol? Also, I went to the web site and didn't see any mention of video window support. Do you know if they're planning on adding this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members N88 Posted March 9, 2010 Members Share Posted March 9, 2010 Speaking of VSTs, I recently updated a plug-in, and rescanned the VST folders. Reaper accesses the new version, while Sonar still opens the old. No paths have been changed, and this VST has been successfully modified many times before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Lee Flier Posted March 9, 2010 Members Share Posted March 9, 2010 Coupla questions... Does it use VST System Link or its own protocol? I'm not 100% positive, but I'm pretty sure it's their own protocol. Also, I went to the web site and didn't see any mention of video window support. Do you know if they're planning on adding this? It's already there... as with Sonar, you can't actually edit the video (unless there's some recent update that I don't know about ), but you can edit the audio for it. Just drag and drop a video file onto any track and you can move along the timeline and add tracks or whatever you want to do, and there's a video window. It will support any video format for which you have a codec installed. As of now, it doesn't put the audio back into the video. You have to render the audio back out as a WAV or whatever and then use a video editor to replace the old audio. But it's nice to have that much control over the audio when you need to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members spokenward Posted March 9, 2010 Members Share Posted March 9, 2010 Coupla questions...Does it use VST System Link or its own protocol? http://www.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/ReaMote ReaMote is REAPER's network FX functionality. They also have some collaborative networking IP that may be related. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted March 9, 2010 Share Posted March 9, 2010 I tried it a while back (early 2.x IIRC) and I have to admit, my reaction to it was similar to Rubber Lizard's - it just didn't seem all that logical or intuitive to me. And the MIDI stuff was indeed (as I believe someone else called it) "clunky" IMHO. Maybe I should give the current version a try. A few questions: How does it handle audio edits and crossfades between edits? Does it have any sort of time stretching capabilities (analogous to PT's "elastic audio")? Are they ever planning on getting the Mac version out of beta? It's been in "beta" since the last time I looked at it, which again, was a while ago... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mudcat007 Posted March 9, 2010 Members Share Posted March 9, 2010 How does it handle audio edits and crossfades between edits? ... Not sure what you are looking for here. The cross fades between clips can be completely adjusted. Project defaults can be set to reflect user preference. Does it have any sort of time stretching capabilities (analogous to PT's "elastic audio")?... Yes. They have licensed Elastique Pro so there are all sorts of time-stretching and pitch manipulation possibilities. Are they ever planning on getting the Mac version out of beta? It's been in "beta" since the last time I looked at it, which again, was a while ago... I know they want to get the Mac version out of beta but I'm a PC guy so I haven't been following its development closely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BryanMichael Posted March 9, 2010 Members Share Posted March 9, 2010 Why Reaper instead of ACID Pro? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rudolf von Hagenwil Posted March 10, 2010 Members Share Posted March 10, 2010 just one question... where do I tweak that the timeline cursor moves faster? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Synonym Music Posted March 10, 2010 Members Share Posted March 10, 2010 How does it handle audio edits and crossfades between edits? Good as any other. Does it have any sort of time stretching capabilities (analogous to PT's "elastic audio")? It does, but they're not used in a coordinated way like elastic audio. There are no tempo-based markers used to pull/push the tracks together. Though.. Some of the DiracLE time-stretching algorithms do sound better than any I've heard in a DAW. They're not very good for real-time previews due to substantial overhead, but that's not much of a downside considering you could render it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Melvin J. Posted March 11, 2010 Members Share Posted March 11, 2010 As of March 3, 2010 the Reaper Alpha for 64 bit OS X is available. I know Phil O'Keefe was interested in the beta gettting out of beta. Here's the link. http://www.cockos.com/reaper/download.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pbognar Posted March 16, 2010 Members Share Posted March 16, 2010 REAPER user here.Pros:1) Extremely stable2) Extremely flexible signal routing capabilities3) Virtually completely user configurable4) Excellent customer support & user forum5) Has a great set of bundled efx plugins6) No dongle7) Upgrades for two version cycles included with license purchase8) Free uncrippled demo let's you get a real feel for whether it will work for you before you purchase.9) Rationally priced licensing modelCons:1) It doesn't have a MIDI score editor (yet)I will probably never uses a score editor so there is no downside to REAPER for me.BTW - I know there is at least one user at the REAPER forums who has Protools on his system to get clients in the door then ends up doing his projects in REAPER. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a MIDI score editor. From past requests, it appeared that the devs weren't really into delving into what it would take to provide a viable score editor. What I would want from a score editor is just that: inserting, moving, deleting MIDI notes on a staff view. If I wanted to print a serious score, I'd import my MIDI data into a notation program. Reaper with Sonar's score editor, piano roll editor, ACID based groove clips, and matrix view would ROCK!! However, the UI and work-flow require a bit of getting used to. Some people take right to it - others don't find it intuitive. What endears me to Reaper is being able to track the incremental developments in the application. You can see people's feature requests implemented as the dot releases evolve. And the program has such a small footprint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pbognar Posted March 17, 2010 Members Share Posted March 17, 2010 Don't you just love being a "thread killer"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members coyote-1 Posted March 17, 2010 Members Share Posted March 17, 2010 Ceasars don't fear itnor do the wind, the sun or the rain (apologies if that's already been posted by someone else) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rudolf von Hagenwil Posted March 17, 2010 Members Share Posted March 17, 2010 just a reminder music notation requires usually musician who can read the sheet music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members philbo Posted March 18, 2010 Members Share Posted March 18, 2010 Yeah, I prefer a piano roll instead. Reading sheet music for me is like having a Portugese interpreter reading hieroglyphics to me.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cry Logic Posted March 18, 2010 Members Share Posted March 18, 2010 Yeah, I prefer a piano roll instead. Reading sheet music for me is like having a Portugese interpreter reading hieroglyphics to me.... Another vote for Piano Roll here. I've never liked traditional notation. It just doesn't make any sense at all. Notes don't look like that in my head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pbognar Posted March 18, 2010 Members Share Posted March 18, 2010 Yeah, I prefer a piano roll instead. Reading sheet music for me is like having a Portugese interpreter reading hieroglyphics to me.... It all depends on what one is brought up with. If one learned to read notation as part of taking music lessons, or being in band or choir in school, it makes all the difference in the world. I'm not a great sight reader, but to me, notation looks a lot more like music than a piano roll - however, I would want both, because piano roll allows you to look at MIDI data to find glitches (short unwanted notes) as well as fixing overlapping notes, getting exact durations set, etc. Ultimately both have great value. As someone mentioned here, Mixcraft 5 has a notation view which, while still maturing (you can't enter triplets) is a hybrid, in that notes on the staff have a gray duration bar, like a piano roll. Check it out: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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