29 replies to this topic

[Elf]

Ok, I'll start:

I am a less technical person than I could be, and I came to Samp. 11 because I found that there always has to add-ons for DAW's. I was sick of the complications and wanted a single package that would do everything. I naturally thought that was a reasonable idea. Over the last few months I have made countless (meaning more than I can remember) installations and configurations, and shifting of my music; so much so that I'm a relative expert to what I was before.

#1 Fav: Reaper was great and I didn't miss the wave editor with it's automation, good plugins and meters - but two necessary midi functions missing.
Cubase SX3 was pretty good but - cannot undoc out of the battleship grey window, no wave editor. good plugins, average meters.
Sonar X1 Essential - I had to do it just to realize that you get what you pay for; compressors etc out of toy-town, terrible meters.

Now I've got 14 days left on my demo of Samp 11 Pro.

Have I found the the right quality to complexity ratio? I'll let you know in a week.

[Bill.Park]

I came to Sequoia for a similar reason.... I had been using packages that required me to have other packages to complete tasks. Over the years I used and/or beta tested for most of the major players, all the while mostly using a more obscure product. I had looked at Samplitude back in the mid 1990s, but went with Sound Forge at the time as a part of the whole list of programs that I had to use to get anything done. Eventually I just wanted it all in one program. I looked around, and a friend was pushing Samp on me. I tried it out, did not 'get it' and rejected it. Then I looked at Sequoia and something clicked (plus, Sequoia had the tools that I needed). From my experience for the work that I do, Sequoia is the answer.

Yes, a lot of things are not obvious. But the range of features is just fantastic. So I've found that if I just swallow my pride and ask here on the forum, someone (usually more than one...) will show up with one if not two or three different ways to do what I need to do. It makes me feel terrifically stupid at times, but there ya go.

I have often asked for a manual with examples. I learn from books, I'm an old school guy. draying through on line or windows help files gets me nowhere, and I'm always opening and closing windows, whereas if I had the book in my lap I would not only learn to do what I need to do, but I would also see other things while looking at my original search.

The next best thing is Kraznet's (and others...) videos. Step by step instructions.

A new program is always going to be daunting. I don't know that 30 days is enough time to get totally comfortable with a product as complex as Samplitude, but you should know by that time if this is the format for your work. Another thing that might help to open your eyes would be to get to see a more experienced user handle the program. I was amazed at how facile Tom Sailor was with the demos, standing in front of a crowd asking him, "okay, but how do you..." and seeing him arrive at the answer almost before they'd finished the question. The program is seriously deep and powerful, deceptively so.

[dbassist]

I guess, maybe others will chime in whenever they feel. My story goes a bit like this: I took a community class on audio production. Not a bad class & the instructor was very knowledgeable, just not enough "hands-on" to make you feel like running home and getting started. But he gave us a disk that had his powerpoints and some software on it. There were 3 DAW's, Cubase (early version), something I can't remember , and Samp ver. 6. I tried the Cubase first and didn't quite care for it. Opened the Samplitude and was amazed! Printed off pieces of the manual to get up to speed and that was it! I've since moved on to version 11 Pro. I can honestly say I don't need to "sample" mutiple DAWS on my computer. I have ZERO interest in the "industry standard!" I'm VERY happy with this one. I don't have to talk down about other DAW's because people are gonna use whatever works for them. Samplitude works for me. I look forward to heading to my studio any day to work on/create new projects. I learn something new all the time. It works good and it sounds good! So whatever works for you Elf, learn it to the best of your ability/creativity, and use it to make great music

Ok, I'll start:

I am a less technical person than I could be, and I came to Samp. 11 because I found that there always has to add-ons for DAW's. I was sick of the complications and wanted a single package that would do everything. I naturally thought that was a reasonable idea. Over the last few months I have made countless (meaning more than I can remember) installations and configurations, and shifting of my music; so much so that I'm a relative expert to what I was before.

#1 Fav: Reaper was great and I didn't miss the wave editor with it's automation, good plugins and meters - but two necessary midi functions missing.
Cubase SX3 was pretty good but - cannot undoc out of the battleship grey window, no wave editor. good plugins, average meters.
Sonar X1 Essential - I had to do it just to realize that you get what you pay for; compressors etc out of toy-town, terrible meters.

Now I've got 14 days left on my demo of Samp 11 Pro.

Have I found the the right quality to complexity ratio? I'll let you know in a week.

[dr funk]

For me, in order:

1. Sound quality
2. Workflow & features
3. Interface

In my former life up to about 10 years ago, I was the tech support/configuration guy for a pro audio distributor (the Irish PT distributor at the time) and my rig was Logic 5.5 PC with a Digi 002R (and PTLE, which I never used). I had no desire to follow Emagic into Mac land when they decided to sell to Apple and abandon their PC users back in 2002. I stuck with Logic until 2005, and by then the time had come to change to something that actually supported newer plugins.

PTLE was a no-go because I really didn't like the sound and I had already been using Logic as a front end for several years (previously with a Digi 001). Also the 002 hardware was just not good enough for me any more, and I felt that the deliberate omission of delay compensation was an insult to professional users. In my book, that's not the way to persuade me to buy PTHD. So, instead Digi got none of my money! I sold the 002 and got a Lynx AES16/Aurora 16 combo.

I tried Nuendo and didn't like the interface at all. Inserting a plugin should be possible with one click, not by opening a panel, turning on a power button, then opening another panel to finally get at a list of plugins. Maybe it's changed since, but that's how I remember it at the time.

A producer friend uses Sonar, so I'd seen it in action and I'd had a chance to spend some time with it. 'Nuff said...

That left Samp and SAW. I very much liked the sound of both, but the SAW interface was too weird and cartoon-ish for me. There was also something odd to my ears with the stereo imaging in certain circumstances, where Samp's imaging was always perfect to my ears.

And so the decision was made, and I became the proud owner of Samp 8 Pro!

For the first few months, I had to 'transition' into using Samp regularly, but the great thing for me was the OpenTL export from Logic and the free EDL Translate, which allowed me to migrate my Logic projects into Samp without too much fuss. No question about it, Samp absolutely blew Logic 5.5 away in the sonic department, and I couldn't believe how much better my Logic recordings sounded playing back in Samp.

FWIW, those first few months involved a lot of head scratching and hair pulling, and I felt like an idiot most of the time as I started to learn the ways of Samp. But, like anything else, if you commit to something, you'll get there. And then one day you realise that you're now comfortable and pretty fast, and you don't look back - except to gloat.

Hope this helps!

Frank

[Scott Shane]

Simple, the sound.

[Elf]

FWIW, those first few months involved a lot of head scratching and hair pulling, and I felt like an idiot most of the time.....

LOL, that certainly speaks volumes!

Thanks to all for the replies: There are some notable similarities there to my situation.

I agree that a DAW cannot be learned in 30 days, but I seem to have got to a point where everything is stable and clean and little or nothing seems to be out of place. ( I only need and regularly use about 4 or 6 midi tracks and 2 audio tracks.)

It's a constructive forum and any specific questions I've had have been answered really quickly with more besides.

And again, users say the sound of Samplitude? My ears don't have the experience yet. I have heard it said on forums that a DAW is a DAW and that this cannot alter the sound, only the quality of converters, pre-amps, mics etc, can actually make that difference. I'm quite open to being convinced though.

[Tim Julian]

When I first dived into hard disk recording, I looked for a solution that did everything, and settled on the now defunct Creamware TripleDAT. After several upgrades, tripleDAT no longer worked with windows XP and I needed to upgrade my PC, so I looked around to see what was out there. I tried Cubase SX3, to the point of buying it, but could not get it to work - some bug in it wouldnt let it record more than 2 sec's of audio before stopping. That was where I discovered the beauty of Steinbergs support - they didn't have any. I managed to get my money back via VISA and looked for another DAW. At this point I downloaded a trial version of Samp 8 and discovered it was very similar in look and feel (to me anyway) of tripleDAT. I purchased Samplitude V8 and discovered, once installed, that it was doing the same thing as Cubase... doh!!! I emailed Magix support, had an answer from Ed within hours, he sent the syscheck program, I ran it, sent the results back and within 24 hours the problem was fixed. From that moment I've been a firm believer in this program.

I won't say I haven't had my hassles with it - it's the nature of technology to get annoying little glitches every now and then, but Samp really rocks.

Cheers,

Tim

[gtrguy1@aol.com]

In the late 90's I REALLY hated PT. You would make an EQ change and it would need to render the file. Change compression---render the file. Samplitude sounded better, was processed in real time, 32 bit float instead of fixed point, master and burn your cd from Samplitude. Nothing else on the market did that! Fast forward 13-14 years it's still my fave by a mile.

[Silent Sky]

I started out over 10 years ago with Magix Music Studio V2000, a "lite-lite" version of Samplitude--I think it was limited to 8 tracks. Believe it or not, I found it in the bargain software bin at a local entertainment store for a whopping $5. I was totally new to computer-based recording, but after tinkering around with it for a short while, I was up and running, recording basic one-track-at-a-time demos on my Windows 98 PC.

Over the years I upgraded to Music Studio Deluxe Version 6, Music Studio 2004, Music Studio 2005, Music Studio 10, Music Studio 12, Music Studio 14, Samplitude 11 Producer, and finally Samplitude 11 Pro. I tried a few other DAW's along the way, but I've grown so accustomed to the Samplitude workflow and stellar built-in effects that I could never get used to anything else. But hey, when you start with the best, there's nowhere to go but down, right?

[Elf]

.....but I've grown so accustomed to the Samplitude workflow and stellar built-in effects that I could never get used to anything else.

I've hardly started dabbling in the native bundle of gizmos, but I've had some quick use of the stereo enhancer, et al, on the master section. It's got some great presets so a newcomer like myself can get going with very little problems; same with the room simulator and the basic dynamics plugin.

It looks like you're on a venerable Samp journey there Silent sky!

Well, my Samp. 11 Pro demo is running out and I'm just waiting for my boxed version to turn up in the next few days.

[siriusbliss]

I needed an audio editor to master some MIDI tracks that I had done way back in the Atari Notator days.

I discovered Samplitude V4.something back in the Sek'd days (still have the floppy disks somewhere), and the rest is history.

I've dabbled in many other DAWs over the years, (and spent a ton of time in PT-based, or Nuendo-based, or Cubase-based, or DP-based studios), but have always kept Samplitude in my arsenal of tricks

Greg

[roger//////gitarre]

Because I like German stuff.

[DJ Abercrombie]

I was sold on Samplitude when it enabled me to edit a two-hour mp3 file on Windows 98 using 64 MB of Ram.

Cheers!

[Elf]

....... using 64 MB of Ram.

LOL ! Now you could have gone to Reaper and used only half of that !

.......but oh yes, you would have had to download and install another program to do it. :-/

Sorry Reaper folks, keep it up, you're sure to be one of the best in the future - you're one of the best now and it was a close run thing between Reaper 3.75 and Samp 11 Pro, for me anyway. That says........something.

[Elf]

Now I've got 14 days left on my demo of Samp 11 Pro.

Have I found the the right quality to complexity ratio? I'll let you know in a week.

It would appear so.

[dbassist]

If you're not too "bashful," maybe you'll give us a "taste" of your first project...

Good to have you. Enjoy your new DAW!

Now I've got 14 days left on my demo of Samp 11 Pro.

Have I found the the right quality to complexity ratio? I'll let you know in a week.

It would appear so.

[Elf]

If you're not too "bashful.......

Shucks, I am Everything's in rough form and the vocal and trumpet are jammed, and at the moment it all still exists in Sonar, I've yet to even move it. I might cook up a taste in a few months when I'm more settled - holding your breath could be fatal!

I get the feeling it will be a year from now - I seem to have had that recurring for about 6 months now with the journey to get me here - and then, hopefully, I'll have a website to put up too.

[DJ Abercrombie]

....... using 64 MB of Ram.

LOL ! Now you could have gone to Reaper and used only half of that !

.......but oh yes, you would have had to download and install another program to do it. :-/

Sorry Reaper folks, keep it up, you're sure to be one of the best in the future - you're one of the best now and it was a close run thing between Reaper 3.75 and Samp 11 Pro, for me anyway. That says........something.

64 MB was common in 1997-98. Reaper arrived years later. I don't believe Reaper will operate properly on a 400 mHz computer using Windows 98. Maybe I will connect my old AMD K6 and try it one day.

Cheers.

[Elf]

......64 MB was common in 1997-98. Reaper arrived years later. I don't believe Reaper will operate properly on a 400 mHz computer using Windows 98. Maybe I will connect my old AMD K6 and try it one day.

Cheers.

If it did run, I wouldn't be that surprised.

I just pssed on a 2.9GHz X2 to a mate and when we installed his ( very ) old Cubase system with all the audio tracks he was working on, the CPU ran at "0" - zero! He was running a 1200 Duron before at about 50%.

When I put Reaper on my present system, it was totally clean and quiet. I put Samp on it and I needed to turn the power management up to a straight "performance" with no changes to get rid of the glitches. I think this was because Reaper was below the power management program?

I've got a box of CPU's here ranging up from about 100MHz, no motherboards though. I just found a 1300 Athlon Thunderbird in mint condition on an old family PC with no games on it. I don't think it's even been run warm. It'll be worth about half a million quid in 500 years!

I had a hard time moving from Win 98, but through XP, some Linux and now Win 7, I have to say, well done MSoft, I'l go for an upgrade to Win 8.

Hwyl

[Elf]

................pressed the wrong button. :-/

[DJ Abercrombie]

......64 MB was common in 1997-98. Reaper arrived years later. I don't believe Reaper will operate properly on a 400 mHz computer using Windows 98. Maybe I will connect my old AMD K6 and try it one day.

Cheers.

If it did run, I wouldn't be that surprised.

I just pssed on a 2.9GHz X2 to a mate and when we installed his ( very ) old Cubase system with all the audio tracks he was working on, the CPU ran at "0" - zero! He was running a 1200 Duron before at about 50%.

When I put Reaper on my present system, it was totally clean and quiet. I put Samp on it and I needed to turn the power management up to a straight "performance" with no changes to get rid of the glitches. I think this was because Reaper was below the power management program?

I've got a box of CPU's here ranging up from about 100MHz, no motherboards though. I just found a 1300 Athlon Thunderbird in mint condition on an old family PC with no games on it. I don't think it's even been run warm. It'll be worth about half a million quid in 500 years!

I had a hard time moving from Win 98, but through XP, some Linux and now Win 7, I have to say, well done MSoft, I'l go for an upgrade to Win 8.

Hwyl

Half a million quid

I learned a lot from Windows 98. Had I not use it I would have never learned how valuable backing up your files could be.

I have two very old laptop computers no longer functioning. I really have no idea why haven’t thrown them in the rubbish bin. One is a 200 MHz Pentium II while the other is, I believe a, Pentium III.

I wonder if Samplitude 11 will function on a Pentium III?

[Elf]

..........I learned a lot from Windows 98.

Yep, I used to pride myself on feeling like a technician because I could sit and watch the defragmenter working - a sad loss to my personal scientific development !

Backing up files too! Eeeeeeesential !

I've got an old Acer laptop here with a 1400 mobile CPU, I might give V12 an install on it when I've got nothing to do.

[tmgstudios]

samplitude is a very well coded well designed Daw period........and I've tried just about all of the major players......and settled here

[Sungodv]

What ever happened to this elf guy? He was a mainstay here for about six or so months.....
After trying about 4 DAW's I downloaded the Music Maker trial after hearing about it on another forum. Liking it, it lead to downloading a Music Studio 12 trial. I found I was able to instinctively do things with Samplitude that would require having to read a manual on other DAW's. About $600 later I haven't looked back. I do want to dabble in ProTools though. Someday it just may eclipse Samplitude overall, but we'll see. Until then, it's Sam all the way.
My hope is Samplitude retains what made it great while adding some of PT's features like its superb native plug ins.

[Elf]

What ever happened to this elf guy? He was a mainstay here for about six or so months.....

Hi Sungodv, I just ended up with no time for a while, I'll still be around from time to time. Thanks for the thought.