LinuxMusicians

As F is aware, the file dialog prob was allegedly fixed back in October

http://www.juce.com/forum/topic/kdialog ... esult-path

http://www.juce.com/forum/topic/assert- ... le-dialogs

I also tried
too but that didn't work so until this gets fixed for real I think KDE users are stuck with having to uninstall or move kdialog if they want to use Tracktion.

The more I play with this the more I love it, I've made some real progress with it over the last few days. With some help from the kvr forum I have managed to find a way to use racks to make a pseudo drum machine (which can be as big as I care for it to be) using the built in Sampler, and managed to get sidechaining working which is really easy although not particularly obvious. The racks are just amazing and I can't wait to explore them further to see what can be achieved with them because I have the feeling I am only scratching the surface with them.

I will be reporting a few bugs I've discovered:

• the plugin scanner still doesn't work very well for me at all, still can't add new locations (I accidentally removed two of the default vst locations so I'm stuck with ~/.vst only), dragging and dropping vst in to the scanner doesn't work at all
• the scan itself seems to sometime freeze although if I open up the binary from my Downloads folder it scans fine
• some plugin guis are frozen when opening them (have to close the gui and reopen it and it's ok again, only happens occasionally)
• ladspa plugin gui is not great, you're not able to define specific values and the sliders act strangely, you drag them all the way to the right and the max is often a different value each time and not the actual max of the parameter

Aside from these bugs, which are not particularly huge, I love it. I've done more with in the last few days than I've done in months elsewhere. It's really quick and easy to compose a track and it's great to be able to do everything inside one application. I think I will be using this as my music making tool, I just can't believe how good it is so I'm desperately hoping they carry on with Linux development. I'm still missing LV2 despite being able to use a lot of the plugins I want through vst or ladspa versions.

Oh and Vex doesn't seem to save its settings

sysrqer:

I've noticed you've posted your bugs to the forum so they should see it there but I've been told they prefer you email bug reports to support@tracktion.com

5.2.4 is out now, at least for Mac and Win. I've lost the link for the Linux download now.

Ok, thanks danboid, just sent them an email listing the bugs.

I found the download for the Linux build again so I updated my 'REGISTERING T5 UNDER LINUX' post on KVR

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 2&t=404536

The website needs some work - its very confusing for Linux users who'd be forgiven for thinking its still on v4 as they've yet to update their main Linux page.

I'm really liking Tracktion right now. I think it's the most unique DAW in concept and design. It feels like they are trying to make music production more like painting a picture or building a model or puzzle or something. It's workflow is different and I feel like if I could get used to it it could be really amazing. I think it's the most "progressive" DAW if that means anything. It also probably would be the best suited for a touch screen environment. They must have done some pretty amazing stuff under the hood because it's the fastest DAW to load up for me now. I hope they can give more support to the Linux version and work out the bugs. Something tells me they are on the right track and this Linux version/touchscreen friendly design are in line with where the future of computing might be headed. Well played tracktion.

I agree with most of that but it doesn't load as fast and its not as lightweight as qtractor, which opens pretty much instantly even on old hardware.

Still, Tracktion is nippy and v.small in comparison to say Ardour / Mixbus.

F:

Did the Tracktion devs take you up on your offer to help squash bugs in the Linux build?

Did you get T5 registered and working?

How does Tracktion compare to Reaper and other apps of that price range? And to Qtractor?

EDIT: heh no idea to add/edit midi in this :/

His F'ness:

I can't say I was really holdng much hope for them giving you access to the source. If you were willing to do it full or part time and put some real, paid, effort in then maybe but I can't see you getting access to the soure on the promise of maybe fixing a few bugs when you get the time - as cool as that would be.

I'm sure plugin scanning would work if you got it registered but it seems you're really not interested in Tracktion at all if you can't be bothered to send them an email to get your registration sorted. Oh well! You're already too busy with your 2 beeelion other projects anyhoo!

studio 32:

See the square, red plus icon in the top right of the tracktion window? Drag that onto a track to create a new MIDI clip if you want to draw notes by hand.

I don't think its really fair to compare Tracktion with Reaper. As far as I'm concerned, and I'm sure many on this forum will agree with me, I've forgotten all about REAPER now that Tracktion is here with a fully native Linux build. Cockos have shown minimal interest in getting their Linux port functional - nothings been done in years and as it stands native Linux REAPER is unusable, nor would I hold your breath for them to improve the situation any time soon. I'd given up waiting for qtr and Ardour to fulfill my needs so I was going to use REAPER under OSX or wine but thats not a consideration any more as I greatly prefer Linux to OSX and Windows. Tracktion runs under Linux natively of course and brings all the features I'm missing under A3 and qtr - mainly tempo ramps (missing in both A3 and qtr) and the ability to quickly mix down MIDI plugin tracks without doing lots of patching and routing, which I think is a major failing of qtr.

Tracktion is MUCH easier to learn than REAPER, Ardour and qtractor - by a long shot. The other DAWs would require a total rewrite to compete in that respect so Tracktion wins hands-down in user friendliness and when it comes to offering a streamlined workflow. Tracktion also competes on an equal footing with REAPER in terms of its size, but none are as petite as qtractor. Then again, qtr misses a number of features present in Tracktion and REAPER. Ardour is a giant in comparison to the others, even though it'd seem a bit unfair to call Ardour massively bloated as its not really; not by modern app standards in these days when pro music apps can be shipped on multiple DVDs (although the extra space is admittedly normally took up by samples and instruments of which Ardour doesn't include any).

REAPER is the most easily configured exactly how you want it and also has its own scripting language which is absent from the other three. qtractor supports the most plugin types, followed by Ardour and this is a sore spot for Tracktion currently as it only supports LADSPA and native VSTs but that doesn't bother me as all my fave Linux plugins will work as VST or LADSPA.

In terms of stability I'd currently put them in the order of qtractor, REAPER (under wine), Tracktion then A3. REAPER has had more testing (under Windows) than the others but its not going to be quite as spot on under wine although it does run very well. There are no guarantees as such with wine. rncbc is intolerant to bugs so we've got to give the prize to him here, Tracktion isn't perfect under Linux yet but its a hell of a lot more polished than A3 is, which has a worrying number of open bugs in comparison to the others.

Thx, I'll try. Iirc I tried to drop that thing in the track, but nothing happens. The first midi sequencer I didn't find how to edit/enter midi, how intuitive

Makes me wondering whether the praise for this other commercial app is justified. Linux software might be more technical and could be improved in user friendlyness. But it wouldn't surprise me if pro audio engineers will prefer A3 and call Tracktion a toy. No fair comparison probably, because their aims are totally different. Might be more fair to compare Qtractor to it.
Maybe Linuxaudio isn't that bad, or commercial audio isn't that good after all ...

With Qtractor, Ardour3, NON, Carla, Renoise, Bitwig, Supercollider, it might be time to blame ourselves if we can't make a hit record

studio32 wrote: With Qtractor, Ardour3, NON, Carla, Renoise, Bitwig, Supercollider, it might be time to blame ourselves if we can't make a hit record

Can't say I agree with that really.

Danboid has listed the issues I experience with qtractor. I could make a track with it but it's not perfect and isn't suited to any workflow I particularly like (unable to reverse audio, have to use a plugin to change pan and volume for midi tracks, over complicated routing, no automation for aux tracks).

Ardour3 has some serious bugs with midi, the audio side is very powerful but it is useless for me when it crashes as often as it does when using midi (bugs have been reported but yet to be fixed). If the midi was upgraded a fair bit and was stable like the rest of the program it could be a contender.

NON, I never really gave it a real chance other than NSM, I found it strangely unintuitive, especially the sequencer.

Carla is great, no complaints at all.

Haven't tried Bitwig but it looks amazing. I've been using Renoise lately and I really love it.

It may seem like we have a massive choice and in some ways we do but it's not all quite as good as it seems, depending on what you need to do. After spending 6 months or so struggling with bugs and workflow problems in Qtractor and Ardour3 I tried Tracktion and immediately felt at home once I learned how to do a few things. I don't see how your criticism is valid just because you didn't know how to do something it in, try opening the manual. When you realize the general principals of the program then you'll see it is very intuitive.

Professional engineers can call it what they like, I simply cannot make the music I want to make in Ardour3 at the moment. Want to compare to qtractor? Well for one thing I can look for a sample or loop and preview it before importing it. Not a big thing but it's something that infuriates me.

Why don't you read the manual and learn what the program can do and then compare it before making a judgement based on whether you can guess what it can do?

Tracktion is no beta anymore and seems to have some important bugs. The website is still not up-to-date. Not a very positive attitude of a commercial app if you ask me.

Edit: I see what you mean concerning the red cross, but it doesn't work for me, it just bounces back
edit2: ah you are suppose to get a menu with options what to do with the clip, but that's hiding waaaay to fast. If I move my mouse aggresively to the left, I'm able to reach it. Software o my.
edit3: Ok it seems there are some fast functions in it, but overall the interface looks quite busy/distracting/fragile to me, with a lot of options and things. I'm not sure whether kids will find Tracktion more easy then A3 (which has mostly a pretty clear technical idea behind it)

studio32 wrote:Tracktion is no beta anymore and seems to have some important bugs

Unless something changed in the last 24 hours or so it is definitely still in beta on Linux.

I've not tried it yet but 5.3.3 is out now and claims to fix some probs with plugin scanning as well as introducing a number of new features:

5.3.3
- fix for restoring automation curve visibility
- ensured only fades within the marked region are copied when using "Copy Marked Section"

5.3.2
- fix for note lengths when apply grooves to selected notes
- fix for position of new rendered tracks
- fix for stuck notes with certain synth plugins when using the hold pedal
- added a setting to avoid reloading Edits upon launch (in the General Settings page)

5.3.1
- added an option to position the transport when dragging in the timeline
- fix for track location when pasting multiple clips including marker clips
- fixed a crash when rendering certain plugins
- fix for alternative key mappings
- fix for CPU usage of plugins on muted tracks
- fix for length of rendered clips
- fix for BWAV start time of recorded files

5.3.0

Fixes and misc improvements:
- fixed scanning for plugins that show windows during the scan
- fix for making new clips the size of the marked region
- fix for copy and pasting automation
- fix for recorded MIDI note lengths
- fix for a project not closing from the projects page
- fix for duplicating comps clips
- fix for edit clips being forced to re-render on project launch
- fix for the “Pass Through Filters” option not being used in track and edit clip renders
- improved audio comp rendering and allowed for creating copies of comps
- added a progress wheel and stop control to the file browser
- added support for MIDI polyphonic aftertouch. Select the current note by clicking on the piano keys
- add the ability to render multiple tracks together

New Features:
- new high quality audio thumbnails (these can be turned off from the options menu)
- new feature: Plugins side panel. Quickly search your plugins and drag them to a track
- new feature: Clip rendering. Quickly render multiple clips (including MIDI or step) to new audio clips
- new feature: MIDI Comping. Edit MIDI takes using swipe comping
- new feature: Create audio comps. Select any number of clips to create a new audio comp
- new feature: Record to note automation. Record MIDI CC messages directly to note automation for easier editing
- new feature: Multi-channel MIDI output. Select a number of channels to output overlapping MIDI notes to. Great in combination with note automation to get true polyphonic pitch bends.