Mixcraft Pro Studio 7

Common to all DAW software efforts is the developer assumption that the end user prefers a "Real Studio Recording Platform" emulation, i.e. they all pretend to be physical mixers, effects units, and other hardware processors like grown-up producers might use.Also common is the piano roll type of track layouts found on multitrack hardware as individual channel assignments and mixing busses. Again from an aesthetic perspective, in most cases a variety of graphical interface treatments are used to infer the real thing except in this case on the computer screen. Usability varies greatly from brutally unintuitive approach's to bug invested hives of despair.Since composing music is an artistic endeavor, it should come as no surprise that software which insists on ignoring this obvious creative requirement is not helpful to the artist.What's great about Mixcraft's Pro Studio ensemble in, spite of its commonality to everything else on the market in terms of approach; is that one purchase provides a looper, a huge genre based library of content for composing, really stable and straightforward configuration, the best collection of free VST and commercial industry standard VST plug-ins with enough flavor to create highly listenable music.In the end real instruments and hardware works best in part by eliminating the computer, driver software complexity, unreliability factors while imparting the actual acoustical behavior of the instrument, timbre of voices and pleasing analogue characteristics associated with great sounding recording, but this is a great tool for adding the benefits of multitrack digital manipulation authoring, storage and mix recall and convenience at the click of a mouse button when combined with suitable recording interfaces and hardware.In terms of quality software this has been on par with "Reaper" for stability but way more fun use with instant gratification just minutes away if you have some experience with this kind of software.Compare to Sonic Foundry ACID or Fruity Loops, for loop features. Compare to Samplitude, Pro Tools (lite versions) , Sonar, Cockos Federation Reaper (great but heavily technical and unintuitive) for multitrack approach, Mixing methodology, Sub-mixing etc.GOOD THINGS-All in One Composer, Looper, Multitrack package-Very Stable-Large Included downloadable instrument library of all popular music genres.-Familiar, but really user friendly where it counts-Create music on your PC even without fancy grown-up recording hardware or physical instrumentation.ANNOYANCES- Keyboard arrow-key support for micro adjustment of numerous filtering options such as plug ins, or the mixer features. Instead, uses a lot of rotary knob types of controls adjustable by mouse only - MIDI control to a physical mixer avoids this inconvenience.Is it worth paying more for grown-up software? Not really unless there is a production environment requirement.Is this software so easy anyone can do it? No, like other software products of this kind, the developer assumes that the users has basic recording engineering skills either in a DAW environment of with using the real world hardware equivalent.

I run Cubase Elements 8 on my computer along with Mixcraft Pro Studio 7. I cannot BELIEVE how much more intuitive the Mixcraft software is. I spent 4 hours taking lessons on Cubase and I'm just getting my first tracks laid down. I was able to figure out the Mixcraft Pro software in less than an hour and cannot get over how powerful and simple it is to use. I come from the old 4-track cassette tape crowd and worked my way up to a Tascam 8-track digital recorder to record music on my Kurzweil/Yamaha/Roland synthesizer rig. The last time I owned midi/DAW software was back when I was running a 486 computer and a SoundBlaster Live card. I recently replaced my almost 15-year old laptop with a new top-of-the-line Windows 10 gaming computer and using my Yamaha mixer as a DAC and a USB 4-channel midi box, am getting remarkable results with the Mixcraft software. The built-in effects generators and Virtual Instruments selection are WAY more than you should be getting at this price point.Most of the sounds I'm using right now are coming off my synths, since I've had them for a long time and own a lot of sound software. However, the midi options Mixcraft affords me opens up my sound options quite a bit, especially when it comes to equalization and compression.It's a fun piece of software, and you can create music using soundclips right out of the box if all you want to do is lay a background music track to a Youtube video. I would absolutely recommend this software for a home user and will confirm that it runs perfect on a new Windows 10 computer.UPDATE (December 7, 2016): Mixcraft just announced that they will be releasing Pro Studio 8 in a few weeks. Don't buy this version unless you want to buy and download it directly from their website, which includes a free upgrade to version 8 when it's released. Version 7 is about to become obsolete.UPDATE 2 (January 27, 2017): Mixcraft has released Pro Studio 8. Instead of getting a free upgrade for Version 7, which I only purchased in November, 2016, I was invited to "upgrade" to Pro Studio 8 for $40. I wasn't happy about it (seems like they were a bit misleading about the free upgrades for Version 7 users) but I went ahead and did it anyway. Between Versions 7 and 8, I think 7 is a better package. I've been having plugin issues with Version 8 that don't happen in 7, particularly with Waves Audio plugins. The bugs need to be worked out of Mixcraft Pro Studio 8 before I'm going to be enthusiastic about its fairly minimal improvements over Version 7.

I'm still learning how to use, so I could say in the future that I love. When you are used to a DAW with many fewer features this has a bit of a learning curve to use all of the features. I'm still going through the on-line tutorials. On the other hand, the basics are so simple that I was up and recording within 10 min of finishing the set up of the program and the equipment.

After using it for a week, I have to say that I am really impressed with this software. After going through some of the EQ and mixing options after I recorded a couple tracks, you can really put a great sound to your instruments. Especially for drums, you can really bring out the bass and presence of the drums when editing. I love all the features, even though I haven't fully explored them, what I have seen so far is impressive, and you can literally tweak and fiddle around for hours to find your absolute best sound. It's very easy to get use to, it's not difficult at all, but there are still many things I have yet to do with this software, because there are soo many options to choose from. I played around with the loops for a bit, the selection they have is pretty good, but I would suggest getting an electric piano and just start creating your own with the presets they have available, or if you're really good on a key board.But for a first time purchase this is a luxury for me, and it makes recording such a breeze, and the layout is very nice. A must buy for any musician, big, or small, this gets the job done.

Have been tinkering with this DAW now for a couple of weeks, still need to check out the manual, but I am well surprised how easy it is to use, with others I have used it seemed a chore just getting things done, but with this its click and go, there's a host of toys to play with in this, it has the lot. In no time at all I was creating snippets of music, adding effects and more importantly enjoying doing so. Its so easy to upload your own tracks and to tinker with them as well. Now, its down to the serious side of it now which means I have to pick up the manual and force myself to read it. Happy Music Man I am.

arrived by estimated delivery date.have now used it extensively slightly altered to pro 6 version when changing key or when you want to change tempo .great new sound loops plus extra virtual instruments. also comes with a whopping big book which i wasn't expecting on hoew to usemixcraft pro 7 , MUCH BETTER THAN HAVING TO GO TO THE INSTALL DISC TO READ UP ON IT , like I had to with pro 6.

love this software. only thing I would sugguest is checking the rewire if ur gna add more effects as it does not work with waves tune rewire

so far love it