I didn’t want to clutter the main forum… but how is N on stability these days? I have pretty much completely moved to Reaper… but I have some old projects that I would love to use in a stable version of N as they aren’t worth the effort to convert to Reaper… but getting rid of the aggrivation of crashes is worth the effort. What say ye?
Hi Bubba,
Here are my observations for it’s worth. The newer versions of n seem to be pretty stable. I too have pretty much switched to Reaper completely. My machine simply does not have the muscle to run n very well. High track counts and FX just kill it with n-Track since V4 pre-.NET. Reaper on the other hand plays and performs great on the same hardware using the same same plugs or the equivalent JS/Reaper plugs.
Having said that, I KNOW I don’t run as many VSTi’s and such as you so all I can say is download the new build and try it. I CAN use n but I get tired of the freeze - un-freeze drill at even the highest latencies to get smooth playback. It seems n is not nearly as efficient as Reaper.
D
This is why when I got to Version 3.2 I stopped upgrading. It worked, was/is stable and did everything I needed to do. I read others talking about the built-in drums and everything and yes, I get curious, but not curious enough to risk blowing a good thing.
Maybe this is sacrilege but does Reaper offer any functionality beyond what is available in Version 3.2 of n-Track? I ask because, even though I am a faithful n-Tracker, I must confess to a certain curiosity. BUT before I learn the ins and outs of new software I like to know that there is a decided advantage (being over 50 and all…)
Bill,
Reaper may lack some MIDI features but it’s getting better all the time… BUT if like me, most of your work is with audio, Reaper slays (no pun intended 
) when it comes to audio editing and routing. The routing takes a bit to get your mind around but man… if you think up a routing scheme, chances are Reaper can do it. The audio editing has so many neat features to make life easier it’s not even funny… Grab a copy and play with it for a while. Keep n around though… tools for the box man… tools for the box.
D
I use v 3.3 and have a pretty stable system. I tried Reaper but, since I only use mainly guitar, mic and MIDI, I couldn’t find any reason to make a switch. So I am still convinced that, for my needs, Ntrack is all I really need even though I still keep Reaper on my PC.
cliff
I also use 3.3 but I still question it’s use of resources & if it is affecting performance negatively.
Hi Gents:
I’ve recently been doing some maintenance on these studio DAWs I use here for my setup… The P-4 intel dual-boot machine I have is the Lexicon Core-32 / '98se machine that I track with… The Lexicon audio hardware only has drivers up to and including '98SE… So… as a result, I’m stuck with '98SE… with that desk…
Anyway, today I discovered that v3.3 build 1516… v4.2.1 build 2099 and the latest build of v5.0.6 is all installed-and-working on this machine… I went to the paths in the config to check for what projects are present and still working with build 1516 and there it was… The links to the files are still in place and running… The links to build 2099 are still in place and running… And the links to build 2246 are up-and-running… Later, I’m gonna do a VST scan to see just what plugs can be imported into builds 1516 and 2099 to see what can be used on these builds… Well see… 
Bill…
Alright, I’ll give it a try. I guess my question was more “is it worth registering for v5” as v4.x was more or less misreable for me. Workable eventually… but sheesh, lots of hoops.
Clark, I don’t mean to bash N having been an N fan for years, but Reaper is much much more flexible, STABLE, and very light footprint (aka, it is very light on the CPU). You can do things in Reaper you can only dream of in N. I personally don’t think the MIDI implementation in Reaper is any better or worse than N. N was never strong in MIDI as say Cubase or Logic might be and I would say Reaper is just as capable as N… for now. You will most likely want to use an external MIDI editor for the bulk of your work, but for VSTi playback etc, it works peachy due to its super low resource usage/efficiency and stability.
I guess what I meant to say was that Reaper looks fascinating and it is. After messing with it for awhile and seeing all of the routing, and different stuff it had to offer I found myself just playing with it. With N I know how to set up a MIDI track or add effects and I’m recording in a matter of seconds. And, like I said, my use of “stuff” is so minimal that clicking the red button and recording is pretty much what I do.
I’m just a hobbyist so, for now, I will save Reaper for another time. It sure looks inviting, but I just don’t want to take the time to learn it I guess. I should though, since my son gave me Reason this last Christmas and N seems to have a little difficulty with it (or, it could be me that has the difficulty) 
Anyway, I am busy trying to implement that program into my workflow and the learning is not going smoothly. 
Well, I’m waaaaayyyy off topic, so
sorry,
cliff
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I hate to keep raving here but last night I started recording a new project at home and I was stoked to find I could run Reaper at 2ms latency with no dropouts. I was to about ten tracks and at least one effect plugin on each and Reaper never flinched. I never could get n to perform as well…
D
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| Clark, I don’t mean to bash N having been an N fan for years, but Reaper is much much more flexible, STABLE, and very light footprint (aka, it is very light on the CPU). You can do things in Reaper you can only dream of in N. |
So can you please share some of your experiences converting an nTrack project to a Reaper project. The reasons you cite for using Reaper are appealing to me. If the current Reaper uses less CPU resources than nTrack 3.3, then I’ll definitely switch to it.
Well, the conversion is not fun. Essentially it is very manual. You’ll spend a lot of time with pen and paper writing down settings. If you are clever, you will save out your FX settings to presets and open those in Reaper. Then you will spend some time lining crap up… write down the off set, open Reaper and set the offset etc. It isn’t pretty. Moving forward I am doing everything in Reaper, but those old projects are a pain to bring into any other DAW, so that is why I was hoping v5 was better in the stability area. I wanted to work on old projects with out the conversion and without the crashes. However, some stuff I am brining into Reaper as it is quicker to do the conversion than 1000 submixes, freezes, dealing with VSTi crashes.
I can guarantee Reaper will perform better than 3.3 in the CPU department. It just gets out of the way and lets you work. really, it saddens me to fan boy another app as I was an N follower for years… but the time has come. Also, do you know Reaper has ReaMote? This allows you to run your FX processing on another machine over a network. You can link together as many machines as FX slaves as you want so you aren’t limited to the CPU power of a single box.
http://www.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/ReaMote
I wonder, do you think Flavio reads this forum?
Tell you why I’m asking, one of the things I liked most about n was Flavio’s almost instant response to bug reports…you report a bug…he issues a new build to fix it.
Great customer service, Steinberg could learn a lot.
But for years folks have been posting posts saying: "Cool it on the new features Flavio, just give us some stability on this version yeah?"
And that seems to have bin ignored, continually.
So OK, customer support…10/10
Listening to what custumers actually want…1/10.
ya know ,some of ya guys act like spendin 40-60 buxon the upgrade is gonna financially ruin you,im a hillbilly without a “real” job and i havent thought twice about it. if ya gotta go thrrough a buncha gut wrenchin over 40 bux,maybe ya should get a part time gig,or go back to school(although,some of ya already know everything at 27!!)
Nah…for me, its not the money. I actually bought ver 4.xx so I could get 3.3. My 3.3. does exactly what I want it to do…record, mix, etc. It doesn’t crash, pop, crackle or freeze. Most problems I have with it are things I am doing incorrectly. I don’t like monkey-ing around with software when I want to record some music. I’m so unprofessional I can’t really tell the difference between one brand of EQ and another or one piece of chorus plugin vs another. So what I have setup now works great…for me. Now, if there was some software out there that made me a better musician…well, I’d be all over that…
cliff
It isn’t the money for me either. I just don’t want to get down a road of time invested in a project in a DAW and then start banging my head against the wall if things crash and burn. My original question was much more “should I spring for v5 because it is more or less stable than v4”? My hope was folks would come back and say… “Heck yeah, v5 is super stable.” So I am not gun shy pulling old projects into it. With v4 I at least knwo what I am up against. v5 could be a whole new can of worms and crashes so far as I know. v4 I have figured out the voodoo to make it sort of stable most of the time… what plugs or combo of plugs will crash it, what window not to open at the same time as another, etc. With v5 will I have to relearn all my rain dances?
Tex, as for Flavio, I don’t know what to say. He used to be much more present for sure. Now he has a presence in the forum maybe 4 times a year. N has every gadget you could want at this point practically… but it is not stable. The variable speed function in the new v5 builds is barely usable as it is so resource intensive etc. and for a guy like me, that stuff has just gotten too frustrating to want to deal with anymore. Something like Reaper can do the varispeed deal at low latencies with out a hiccup. If N were to even go backwards in features and have that sort of stability and efficiency, I would still recommed and use it constantly and woul dnever have considered another DAW.
I know what you mean, Bubba. A user like you needs and uses all of the resources available in the software. Its not the $$. I think its just that no one wants to hassle with software glitches and stuff. I too am a little befuddled that no one has come out and said anything positive about the stability of ver 5.xx . I think I’ve heard a cliche’ somewhere about “silence speaking volumes”.
cliff
Hi Bubba and Guys on this topic:
I like this idea of this ReaMote… I haven’t opened the link you posted on this but will this ReaMote and n-Track work together? It seems to me that this might be something I could benefit from… In a “Nut-Shell” give us in LayMan’s terms a “What Does It DO”?
I find that I am running more than two and sometimes three DAWs with their hard drives cause that’s where the tracks are stored… That means that one timeline could be streaming tracks from as many as 3 - 9 hard drives… maybe more… with these drives spitt’in out their stored data…
Some of the tracks to these projects were manufactured using n-Track v3 and before, and, as well, by the versions of v4 - v4.2.1 and later…
I am unable to explain why I don’t seem to have many-if-any issues importing any of these tracks into any of the builds of any of these machines with any of the builds I have installed… v3.3 build 1516 v4.2.1 build 2099 and v5.0.6 build 2248, which is the current build of n-Track… and … Running the same .sng files run-and-stream on any DAW that is connected to the LAN system I have… here… AND… cross-platformed using '98SE and XP Home, and all… as the Operating Systems.
I have to be watchful, that the plugs I use will operate on all the versions/builds I use, or when I attempt to open an .sng file on the n-Track build I open… on whatever machine I use… a BIG X appears on the timeline for that track… instead of the .npk file… So, as a result of finding that out, I use only the plugs that all the n-Track builds recognize…
Here’s what I’ve found on some stability issues I find on this setup I have…
I import the .sng file onto the timeline of the machine-and-build and operating system I happen to be using, at-the-time… I will push the play button on the n-Track Desk…
The timeline may or may not begin to play right off the “Get-Go”… If-and-when it does play, the timeline cursor jumps and stutters and so does the audio… and all… That’s O.K. and all… I don’t give-up and cry Uncle… Sometimes, it takes a few PLAYS/Run-Through’s for the links to the drives, where the tracks are located to sort themselves out… The next time the timeline plays the repro is gonna be Better-If-Not-Perfect…
Sorry Gents…
“Before I got to complete these thoughts and post a reply I had to step out… I’ll see if I can complete this and get it posted”.
Don’t take this the wrong way, guys…
This DAW stuff doesn’t work the way I’d like to see it work all-the-time… In fact it can be really frustrating when It doesn’t go right when the Creative Mood strikes… 80% of the time, that seems to be the case… and I wish I was tracking the task on a piece of tape…
I see your replies wozz and g8torcliff… Great replies, there…
Generally, when something doesn’t go right when I’m in the Creative Mood I can usually track the issue down to something I failed to observe or pay attention to during the “Set-up” procedure for the session… I try to take all that into the next session and maybe my work ethics will improve for the next time the mood strikes…
I believe and seem to think that when tracking, none of the builds… be it 1516 2099 or the latest build works any better than one-another… The same goes when “Repro’ing”… As well, I find some of the features on any of these builds can be better for editing than others… I’ve found that when editing, you got to have a Clean operating machine that is “Trimmed” down with nothing else operating in the background… Each editing process requires a piece of the ram… so… don’t load up your ram and use the “Save-as” button all the time… or you can run out of ram and “Blue-Screen” your machine and loose your edits, and all… Well, that’s what I’ve found… It may be expressed another way… But…
I don’t seem to think that adding new features to the versions cause stability issues… If you’re not using the features many of them can be turned off or not running… For example… if your not using the “Standard Strip’s Plugs” like the n-Track’s Plugs,(they’re config’d as default, to run right outta the BOX)… go in there and config. the strips not to run them… Don’t have then turned on… they’re gonna eat up your available resources… If you need them on each of the strips, then go in there and turn each strips plugs off… separately… or something like that… Well… That feature came out in one of the v4 builds… But IT wasn’t there (introduced) back in build 1516, if I remember…
To sum this up and get it posted… If I thought that n-Track was behaving poorly, I’d be complaining my head off, up here on this Board… But… that would be after I’d look at these machines to see if there might be something outside of the applications I use along with n-Track…
I don’t think I’m a FAN of any one editor or plug in, however… I only use n-Track as the main multitrack editor, here…If n-Track didn’t work, I think I’d try to look for something else before I’d return to Tape… I think for the new-age trackers and editors and mixers, tape is almost a Thing-of-the-Past. If I had access to this stuff back in the early '60’s… I often wonder if I’d still be into this kind of work…
Isn’t IT easier to stick with one multitrack editor and See if it’ll work for your setup than to try several editors and not get one to work right?
Well… ?
Bill…
Hi Again:
I don’t want to speak for Flavio… He can do that himself… I’m on here almost every morning at 5 - 6 am … my time… I see him up here… I fact he was just here about an hour ago…
Don’t expect him to come up here to defend his position-and-cause to us and to waste his time spill’in his guts out up here…
I hope that talk’in about him doesn’t scare him off the Board… either… Sorry… Flavio…
Bill…