The only program I have used that does not have much MIDI functionality is Vegas by Sony (formerly by Sonic Foundy). That being said, I don't think you should overlook other apps just because they incorporate MIDI. It's not as if, on the programs i've used at least, the MIDI gets in the way. My recommendation is Cubase SX 2.0. It has the history feature you're talking about and it is an all around nice program.

Thank you. I definately don't mind the MIDI encorporation, I just don't want the programmer's focus to be more on MIDI and less on Audio.

Have you worked with Samplitude at all?

I haven't worked with samplitute myself, but there are a few users on this board who i'm sure will share their experiences. You might want to use our search feature for this also.

Adobe Audition 1.5 could be the program for you. Used to be Cool Edit Pro until taken over by Adobe. Has some way cool features, some of which are not available elsewhere at this price point (which is why I bought it even though I have SX and WaveLab). For someone with your requirements this is a very capable package for tracking, production and mastering. It even uses VST and Direct X plugin's.

kinetic wrote: Adobe Audition 1.5 could be the program for you. Used to be Cool Edit Pro until taken over by Adobe. Has some way cool features, some of which are not available elsewhere at this price point (which is why I bought it even though I have SX and WaveLab). For someone with your requirements this is a very capable package for tracking, production and mastering. It even uses VST and Direct X plugin's.

It is my impression that Audition is a pretty consumer-grade sort of platform, no? I don't believe it handles 192kHz either. I'm dealing with about 4 customers a week, endless projects....I need reliability and quality. As for plugins, I run a UAD-1

From memory (check out the Adobe site) the program supports up to and above 192kHz sampling rate. All internal processing is at 32 bit. The only draw back for me is that it can't play back at 24 bit. Since my card can't play 32 bit, I use the option where all processing and resulting files remains at 32 bit but the actual monitoring is 16 bit. No big deal.

True, Audition is not up there with WaveLab (but it may be!), which I would have thought would have been your obvious choice for your requirements (using Montage).

But I was very pleasantly surprised with the capablilities and specs of Audition. It way surpassed my expectations, especially at the price.

kinetic wrote: From memory (check out the Adobe site) the program supports up to and above 192kHz sampling rate. All internal processing is at 32 bit. The only draw back for me is that it can't play back at 24 bit. Since my card can't play 32 bit, I use the option where all processing and resulting files remains at 32 bit but the actual monitoring is 16 bit. No big deal.

True, Audition is not up there with WaveLab (but it may be!), which I would have thought would have been your obvious choice for your requirements (using Montage).

But I was very pleasantly surprised with the capablilities and specs of Audition. It way surpassed my expectations, especially at the price.

Isn't Wavelab a stereo recording/editing program? How is this comparable with a multitrack program?

Wavelab is a 2 track editing program which it's sole function is to supply the user tools to edit, normalize, crop, crossfade & some other stuff. Where as a DAW program does the same thing but with the ability to group several tracks (mono & stereo) together to form what is called "multitrack recording". I'm a user of Cubase SX and take advantage of all the features it has to offer, midi & audio. Actually, the editing features in midi kinda act the same way when I'm editing audio. But overall, take the time and learn the capabilities of what you're using. The programs nowadays are very good at what they are capable of doing.

Ya,

I've been working with Pro Tools for about 3 years, and had previously worked with 2 track editing programs for about 3 or 4 years prior.

I know what 'multitrack' is ;) My point was that a 2 track editing program should not be compared to any multitrack program.

I realize it's great to take advantage of all the tools provided, but I have not had any client who's needed use of MIDI so far.

I have Vegas & Audition. I use Vegas for tracking and Audition for all my mixing & audio restoration work. The reason I don't record with Audition is that it does not support ASIO and it records to a TEMP file, which is not a good thing when recording live concerts and such. For standard studio-type tracking I think it would work OK.

Audition 1.5 has some fantastic tools. Not sure about the previous comment about not playing back in 24 bit - that ain't right. It supports 24 bit hardware just fine.

Audition does have a few shortcomings in the MT editing area - no automation and the envelope editing is not the best in town. I have NO gripes about the sound quality, the quality of most of the native effects, or the CPU load it handles. The noise reduction is quite good and the new 'Frequency Space Editing" is a fantastic tool.

Download the demo and give it a test drive. If you have any questions, stop by [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.audiomas…"]Audiomasters[/]="http://www.audiomas…"]Audiomasters[/] and fire away.

If it helps any, I'll be tracking up to 16 live audio tracks, using Apogee AD16x via firewire.

Sorry dabmeister, you are wrong. WaveLab USED to be a two track mastering program, but since the introduction of Montage it has become a multi-tracking capable program.

mikecornett wrote: Thank you. I definately don't mind the MIDI encorporation, I just don't want the programmer's focus to be more on MIDI and less on Audio.

Have you worked with Samplitude at all?

Samplitude ROCKS!

I've been using it for the last 7 years and for me it is the best, why ?...well because it focus on audio, and it has a lot of nice features and the unique "object based" working style.

Btw, a co-worker uses Wavelab and it's not only an editor anymore, it has become a multitrack, but I still prefer Samplitude over Wavelab.

Audition = Kids Stuff (I don't even like the interface).

On a last note...the new version of Samplitude is coming...

http://www.samplitude.com/de/v8_feat_screenshots.htm

The only drawback is that Samplitude is not very popular, because of their crappy marketing, and the learning curve can be a little slow...but after seven years using it, I'm still discovering new ways of working with this jewel.

Wow. I had never seen samplitude before... looks an awful lot like Cubase. Cool! Muchas Gracias for the link Max.

David French wrote: Wow. I had never seen samplitude before... looks an awful lot like Cubase. Cool! Muchas Gracias for the link Max.

HEhehe...anytime David, well let me tell you that Midi, is not the strongest point of Samplitude, it's just a basic feature, and it is more audio and mastering oriented. If you want deep midi features Samplitude it's not the one, but for audio it's my software of choice, it's a little hard to learn at first because you have a lot of different ways of doing the same.

Hey guys, thanks for bringing me up to par on the wavelab stuff. It's been a while since I've used or kept up with the program, so I'll take another look at what it has to offer. I think I'll reconsider adding it to my arsenal of s/w tools.