Product Reviews

Professional recording studio equipment can be bewildering for the average musician, so it's hardly surprising that software that emulates professional hardware is often just as baffling. Mackie's Tracktion 3 is one of the few serious music-production applications that plays to the strengths of the computer interface.

The biggest break from tradition is that there is no mixer. Instead, all the components usually found in a hardware (or virtual) mixer are available singularly, and are dropped on to tracks or individual recordings. You build the mixer piece by piece as the need arises. This fundamental simplicity means you are not bamboozled with lots of inactive controls, and it helps you learn the principles of recording one step at a time.

Other than a settings page, the excellent resource manager and pop-up plug-in windows, everything fits into a single screen, with a properties panel that shows settings for whatever is highlighted. The resolution of the snap-to-grid function changes depending on the zoom setting, enabling copying from bar to bar or fine edits without you having to grapple with grid options. Waveform displays are quick to redraw and the mouse scroll wheel is exploited for fast navigation. Within days, we were working at a speed it took us months to reach with other music software.

Tracktion 3's pricing is also unusual. Most affordable music-production software

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is either aimed exclusively at home users, with a deficit of precise editing tools, or is a cut-down version of a professionally oriented and priced package, with restricted features in key areas. Tracktion 3 doesn't fit into either category.

The Project Bundle lacks the extra third-party virtual instruments included in the Ultimate Bundle, but otherwise it's just as capable. The number of inputs, outputs, tracks, buses, virtual instruments and effects that can be used is limited only by the hardware and processing power available. Recording is at up to 24-bit and 192kHz, with a 64-bit internal mix architecture. Tracktion 3 can make release-quality recordings without requiring expensive third-party plug-ins.

Version 3 comes with a few new features. There's a new MIDI-editing toolbar, and the quality of time-stretched and pitch-shifted audio is much improved. So too are the MIDI quantise options, with hundreds of groove templates and the ability to create your own, although you can't extract them from audio loops. Still, upgrade discounts are available for those moving to the Ultimate Bundle, at £119 including VAT.

The Project Bundle has a limited selection of virtual instruments, but the Ultimate Bundle has some superb third-party plug-ins covering acoustic and electronic drums, analogue synthesis and various other instruments, sample loops and a guitar-amp simulator. The quality is excellent, but the multitude of online activations that are necessary is a serious nuisance, and the extra expense is quite high. We'd be inclined to stick with the Project Bundle and buy third-party plug-ins as required, or even Cakewalk Sonar Home Studio XL just to pillage its virtual instrument collection.

Tracktion 3 is one of the friendliest music-production applications, though you must know your effects to use it at its best. Its friendliness doesn't come at the expense of power, and the quality of the effects makes this one of the best packages at any price.