Tracktion 3 review

This article is part of a series of articles I have written during my search for a good way to record and mix music. You can read my overview here or look into my articles labeled as multimedia.

Tracktion 3

Mackie is a company that is probably more known for its mixers and other hardware used by professionals over the world.

But they do also make some software - and today I am going to look into a product called Tracktion. At the time of writing Mackie have released version 3 of their software.

Learning curve

Mackie claims that the GUI is designed to be easy to work with and intuitive for newcomers. I disagree. The first time I started Tracktion the only thing that worked for me was the button. Honesty, I try lots of software, but do not often see anything like this. I did not touch Tracktion for another week and started reading the reference guide.

I still not think that Tracktion have a great user interface in terms of ease of use. But I think that when you have spent 10-20 hours with it you will start to be productive. In Tracktion you have everything available from the main page shown below.

Features

Unlike many modern DAW's you do not have the traditional mixer here. Not that I miss it. You can accomplish the same using output filters here, but it does not look like a conventional mixer.

In Tracktion you work with tracks, where mixers (and probably most other DAWs) works with channels. A track in Tracktion is always in stereo (two channels). You do not have output buses either, but you can send the output to another track.

Chaining of filters, effects and instruments is easy to work with(when you have learned it...) So is editing and automation.

MIDI

MIDI support is great. It is easy to record and edit MIDI. And with some of the third party instruments and effects you get with Tracktion you can have endless hours of fun.

Conclusion

I love the price. It is the right price for me. The price compensates for the high learning curve.