Live's Mix Engine vs. Tracktion 2 - 64-bit?

Graysun · Post by **Graysun** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 5:07 pm

I've been hearing a lot about the improved audio mixing in Tracktion 2, which uses a "64-bit mix engine for superb sound quality."

I would like to use Live for the complete music creation process - recording, editing, mixing, and mastering... using various plug-ins along the way.

But how does Live's mix engine stack up? Is it professional caliber?

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:14 am

Anyone have any input on this question?

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 7:50 am

I think that professional results are possible in any decent piece of software, depending on the user. HOWEVER...

As well as Live 5 I have Tracktion 2.1 and Sonar 5 PE, both of which have 64-bit mixing engines. I cannot tell of any noticeable improvements, and on their forums many have said the same. In theory a better dynamic range is possible, but I don't find that noticeable in practice.

There have been many reports of rendering issues with Tracktion 2, which I guess would adversely effect its ability to produce professional results.

There are many limitations to Tracktion, and a number of bugs/issues which have actually made it impossible for me to use Tracktion for some time now. In fact there are quite a number of previous Tracktion users who have now upgraded to Live because they found Tracktion so limiting and/or got fed up of the showstopper bugs and issues. I can't therefore recommend it to you if you already have Ableton Live.

Live 5 is simply a far more powerful, stable and superior programme.

leonard · Post by **leonard** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 8:10 am

Graysun wrote: Is it professional caliber?

people have been using 32 bit or less for how many years now? Suddenly 32bits is "not professional"?
I guarantee you if you heard the same track compressed to mp3, or mixed down to CD (44100Hz), you wouldn't tell the difference.

djadonis206 · Post by **djadonis206** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:47 pm

There's a really good article in the last Computer Music about this

but everyone is correct - you can get pro sounding stuff out of anything, anything

Ad

clipperer · Post by **clipperer** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:54 pm

djadonis206 wrote:you can get pro sounding stuff out of anything, anything

yep.

and after all alls, professional is just a point of view

gomi · Post by **gomi** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 5:55 pm

Graysun wrote:I've been hearing a lot about the improved audio mixing in Tracktion 2, which uses a "64-bit mix engine for superb sound quality."

and twice the cpu! especially if your running a 32 bit OS on a 32 bit CPU!
ha ha!

djadonis206 · Post by **djadonis206** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 6:06 pm

clipperer wrote:
and after all alls, professional is just a point of view

holla back - true dat!

A

djsynchro · Post by **djsynchro** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 7:18 pm

Well of course it's professional, the most important thing is never the equipment but what to do with it.

Having said that, Live uses the 32 bit float format which has some definite advantages (enormous dynamic range). But there are some real advantages to 24 bit integer audio processed with double precision. Apparently it is much easier to design good sounding EQ for an integer format

Pro tools mixes does the 24/48 bit mixing thing although they have 32bit float paths in their software now as well to deal with certain plugins.

There's an interesting article here:

http://www.rane.com/note153.html

eyeknow · Post by **eyeknow** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 8:00 pm

I notice lower quality in tracktion, no matter what plugs I'm using, no matter what settings, no matter what day it is!

Protools DOES sound the best, but allot of people don't like it.

Sonar is great........other than I cannot get it to keep crashing!

Live is really very nice. I feel I get a very accurate version of what I listen to originally.

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 8:49 pm

I'm really glad I resurrected this post from last February. It's great to get this feedback now that we have a couple of 64-bit summing bus apps around and we can compare to really get a sense of what is real and what's marketing BS.

To that end, do others also feel that Tracktion doesn't have the high quality of Live, Sonar, etc? And is ProTools really the best sounding, or is that just what's been spoonfed? Because I hate ProTools and any proprietary system that's overly expensive with a passion...

alan* · Post by alan* » Mon Jan 23, 2006 11:44 pm

I started off with tracktion but becasue of bugs and rendering problems never explored it long enough to be able to compare sound quality to live, the bugs were a blessing because I find live a lot more productive and I havent looked back since getting live although I still use tracktion for its final mix plug in if i want to polish up a peice I've done in live. Have to export from tacktion in wave though as there were problems exporting as aiff on mac, so thats no big deal, wave is just the same as far as I can tell.

eyeknow · Post by **eyeknow** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 6:48 am

Amen.......even with the quirks that are........not perfect, I find live a very very refreshing host. It's just so bitchin' for ideas and all. It's actaully really really close to being an "all in one" daw.

I love protools........but the only reason I use it is when I HAVE TO.....otherwise, I just use live and things get DONE!

Live's Mix Engine vs. Tracktion 2 - 64-bit?

Live's Mix Engine vs. Tracktion 2 - 64-bit?

Re: Live's Mix Engine vs. Tracktion 2 - 64-bit?

Re: Live's Mix Engine vs. Tracktion 2 - 64-bit?