n-Track Studio Review

Blew me away...No pro tools but still quite a tool

Submitted by bellowd on Wed, 2009-03-11 01:53.
Author's Product Rating:
Ease of Use: 
Sound Quality: 
Effectiveness: 
Help/Support: 
The lowest price: 45.9$
You can buy it at RegNow for that price.
Pros:
Great routing capabilities easy recording Quickly learned navigation customizable window arrangement
Cons:
Hard to maneuver sequencing editor can be hard to navigate at first start up
Review:

At first glance, n-track studio seemed like a free ware program that the creators just wanted to make a quick buck on... boy did i find myself standing corrected. At first start up you may think "what am i looking at?!" as you stare at a cluster of windows with different level meters and symbols. However, as your eyes become a little less entranced by the mass array, everything starts to become clear. You have your master fader meters and effects, you have your input level meters, track lists, edit window, mix window, and just about everything else but the kitchen sink. Now naturally this seems like it could easily get out of hand in the midst of trying to record and arrange your music. This makes it great that n-Track really allows for the user to toggle windows on and off along with the customization of the window arrangement.
Once i got the whole lay out under my belt, I found myself able to push right along to creating new midi and audio tracks with out any problem at all. Just two click of the mouse and i was able to create a new track and route its I/O without any issue. On top of that, recording was a breeze, and worked like most digital audio workstations in that all you really need to do is press record and then perfrom. After I got some audio in the program I started playing around with n-Tracks editing window which is where i found this programs biggest flaw. I just wasn't able to navigate around the window, nor did i really feel like i could move and edit the acctual waveforms its self.The zoom feature were horrible and really left me pressing ctrl+z more than anything. Now i did get to a point where i was able to work within it, but a big part of having a good DAW (digital audio workstation) is that you can manipulate the audio and midi and do it easily and quickly. I just couldn't see myself spending time sequencing in this program with out pulling out my hair.
So as far as sequencing goes, this program hardly shines. But where it fails in arranging, it makes up for in its extras. For starters this program is rewire capable, which means you can use Reason, a software sound module, with it. N-Track does this just by allowing the user to simply... you got it! create a rewire track. This if you ask me is amazing, especially if you ever use pro tools which makes you jump through all sorts of hoops in order to do this. This program also has a "signal path" window which shows the visual representation of the routing that going on in the track you selected. It indicates this by a spider web type display where you can route signals to different effects and busses all by dragging these cool lines and nodes to different tabs, really you have to see it and use it to believe it... REALLY COOL.
This program also allows for automation of just about anything, and even allows the user to set up fades and cross fades which are essential for just about everything from punch ins, to stylistic moves. As far as its sampling rates you can record as high or as low as you want, since this program allows you to fill in your own custom sample rate, which is pretty weird if you ask me. As for bit rate, you can only record at 16 or 24, but if you are recording higher than 24 chances are you aren't gonna be using this program. Finally adding effects to the tracks in this program is just as easy as creating new tracks, you just click one button and choose from a list of effects and off you go.

Conclusion:

While this is certainly no pro tools, it is still quite the workhorse for the price. You will find yourself working through this program within the first twenty minutes.