Mackie Tracktion questions

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I like the overall look/concept of Tracktion. I have a few questions:

1) is there a full featured master section? i couldn't tell from the
screenshots or the online manual if there is a two-buss area where you
can put inserts over the whole mix and do precise metering

2) is there plug-in delay compensation on track inserts?

3) can you run Direct-X plugins in Trackion?


I *know* there is a demo, but it's a timed demo and my studio is down
right now for construction.

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

david morley wrote:

> I like it. Very easy to use and saves me using logic when I just want to
> get something going easily. Having said that, there is no reason why you
> can't use it as your main software. It's excellent.

I wish I could agree with you, but I just can't get a handle on it.
Maybe it's because I have a traditional notion of how these programs
should word (and, indeed, how some of them DO work) but I just can't
find things. For instance:

I can't easily expand a track waveform down to the cycle level so I can
see what it is that I hear to decide if it can be fixed or should be
re-recorded (we know the answer to that one, but most people would like
to only record once).

I can't find a button that will activate the meters on a track armed
for recording so that I can set the level without actually "running
tape."

I don't fixate on meters when recording a take, but I like to be
conscious of them. Tracktion has a neat feature where a screen-width
meter can be displayed on the track, but then it obscures this with a
translucent recording progress bar.

I don't think it has delay compensation for plug-ins, but the place to
ask for sure is the Mackie forum off http://www.mackie.com

It always surprises me when it opens (or doesn't). Normally, I have a
Digigram audio card in the PCMCIA slot in my laptop, and Tracktion will
work fine with its ASIO driver. But when I want to play with the
Firewire option in an Onyx mixer, I have to remove the VX Pocket card
and insert a PCMCIA Firewire adapter so I can connect the Onyx. When I
try to open Tracktion like that, it doesn't find the hardware it
remembered that it used last, and rather than open and ask what to use,
it closes. I can then open it again and it comes up with a message
about not being able to find the hardware the last time it was opened
and reminds me to go to the Settings screen and push it in the right
direction.

Then, it's always a surprise as to which Onyx outputs are positioned
next to which tracks. They aren't consecutive (Output 1-2 next to the
track on top, Output 3-4 next to the next track down, etc.) It's easy
to drag them around to what I want to use, but it would be nice if
there was a sensible default that always opened without first having to
select an old "empty" project. And why do the insist on calling a
recording or a project and "edit?"

Since it has no printed manual (and I'm too cheap to print out the
PDFs) I don't find that I'm learning about it very well. When it comes
to computer things, I don't learn very well just by doing.

Sorry, but I haven't yet become a Tracktion fan, though I continue to
blunder along with it when I feel in a learning mood.

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

It may be a great program, but after diddling with it periodically for
an hour I feel like shooting myself in the head afterwards. YMMV.
You may feel like smashing your halogen lamp on your computer.

Archived from groups: rec.audio.pro (More info?)

vdubreeze@earthlink.net wrote:
> It may be a great program, but after diddling with it periodically for
> an hour I feel like shooting myself in the head afterwards. YMMV.
> You may feel like smashing your halogen lamp on your computer.
>
Why?