I bought the 24 bit version of Ntrack 4.0.4 a few months ago.
Is it just me or do any other users find the program riddled
with bugs.
Here are just a few of examples of what I get.
1. Ask the program to record a mono track and the program
immediatly shuts down.
2. The program has a nasty habit of freezing for no apparent
reason.
3. I bring up a recording with say 3 tracks on it that I have
previously made in Ntrack. I then add another track and
save it under the original filename, ie overwrite the original.
[ntrack tells me the file has been altered and do I want to
save the altered file. I say yes] Everything seems fine.
Later I ask the program to bring up the modified file. What
happens. It brings up the original 3 tracks plus a blank track
with a large diagonal cross in it where my 4th track should
be. There is also an error message saying it couldnt find
a completely different file name that I hadnt even asked it
to find.
4. Tried and tried again but cant get punch-in to work.
5. Other assorted glitches I wont bore you with
As I see it any recording program MUST be very stable
because there may not be another chance to do the recording
again.
My own opinion of the program is that it is potentialy good but
that in its present state is unstable and inconsistant. Further
to that I would add that in my opinion Flavio should concentrate more on improving the existing program than in
adding extra facilities such as “surround sound” [ver 4.0.5.]
So, I’ve had my say but what do you think ??
I would be very interested in any comments other users have.
Good, bad, or indifferent I would be gratefull for your views
I guess I have been fortunate to avoid any significant bugs. For the money, I love N.
Can’t say I’ve had those problems. Are you sure you aren’t using the Beta version?
Although I am using v3.3 I find it a most user friendly recording software. All of the plugins that I have downloaded work in it. Then, you add in the assistance that is offered here and, well, then it’s pricelss.
I am sure other software can do the same job if not better. I would like to think that their forums are filled with experienced professionals that think nothing of sharing their valuable knowledge.
But, for the price of N-track, you can’t touch it!
I used ver. 3.3 for about a year and it worked great. It then started having problems. I recently reinstalled Win XP after a hard drive format. Reinstalled ntrack, and it now works like a champ.
My PC is used by the family, which had installed and uninstalled all sort of stuff on it over time. I can’t prove, but I think that after time the registry (or something) gets clogged up affecting the clean operation of some programs. n-track seems particularly susceptible to this sort of thing. Ver 4 may be even more finicky (haven’t used it). I know people that have similar problems with pro tools and Cubase. If your DAW is not a dedicated PC, processor-heavy programs can get bogged down after time. Win 98 is especially this way. Never was able to run Win 98 for more that a year with a clean reinstall.
It’s an incredible hassle to have to do a clean reinstall, I curse Bill Gates everytime. Let’s hope Bill’s next operating system is a little more stable.
N-Tracks is a nice piece of software, and one of the better features is that fact that Flavio keeps it in a constant state of upgrading. and keeps a stable version as well as a beta to try. But i must say that it is still pretty buggy, i have far more crashes on it that other softwares i use, but again for the price it has more features that any of the biggies.
Using 3.3.
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| 1. Ask the program to record a mono track and the program immediatly shuts down. |
Try setting the imput to “Stereo -> two mono tracks”, and setting one of the sides to "don’t record from this channel.
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| 2. The program has a nasty habit of freezing for no apparent reason. |
I find it crashes out to the desktop fairly frequently. This can sometimes be caused by a plugin (or manipulating one), sometimes it’ll happen after doing something minor, like an evelope manipulation. Normally, the more shit you start putting into a .sng, the worse it gets. I find ntrack is great for straight tracking, eq and levels in a rough mix. After that is uncertain territory, and it pays to save fairly frequently, which is a real shame.
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| 3. I bring up a recording with say 3 tracks on it that I have previously made in Ntrack. I then add another track and save it under the original filename, ie overwrite the original. [ntrack tells me the file has been altered and do I want to save the altered file. I say yes] Everything seems fine. Later I ask the program to bring up the modified file. What happens. It brings up the original 3 tracks plus a blank track with a large diagonal cross in it where my 4th track should be. There is also an error message saying it couldnt find a completely different file name that I hadnt even asked it to find. |
This means N has a reference to a certain track in the .sng file, but isn’t finding a wav file of that name. After recording, make sure you have saved the .sng, and not renamed the .wav file outside of n (or renamed it in N, and not saved the .sng). You’re doing something wacky there. Five dolalrs says that if you didn’t rename the tracks or whatever you’re doing, it will work.
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| 4. Tried and tried again but cant get punch-in to work. |
I’d like to see it work more like samplude - set which track to record, put in the punch in-out markers, start playback from somewhere before the bit to be recorded, and hit record. Everything plays back, even material on the track getting recorded prior to the punch in mark (which drops out when it gets to the punch in spot).
Currently I just silence the bit I want to replace and record to a seperate track, mix it in later. A mixdown of only the main track and the punch in tracks can make it one track pretty easy (mix down selected tracks, replace mixed tracks with new track).
Willy.
| Quote (demto @ July 08 2005,22:45) |
| I bought the 24 bit version of Ntrack 4.0.4 a few months ago. Is it just me or do any other users find the program riddled with bugs. Here are just a few of examples of what I get. 1. Ask the program to record a mono track and the program immediatly shuts down. 2. The program has a nasty habit of freezing for no apparent reason. 3. I bring up a recording with say 3 tracks on it that I have previously made in Ntrack. I then add another track and save it under the original filename, ie overwrite the original. [ntrack tells me the file has been altered and do I want to save the altered file. I say yes] Everything seems fine. Later I ask the program to bring up the modified file. What happens. It brings up the original 3 tracks plus a blank track with a large diagonal cross in it where my 4th track should be. There is also an error message saying it couldnt find a completely different file name that I hadnt even asked it to find. 4. Tried and tried again but cant get punch-in to work. 5. Other assorted glitches I wont bore you with As I see it any recording program MUST be very stable because there may not be another chance to do the recording again. My own opinion of the program is that it is potentialy good but that in its present state is unstable and inconsistant. Further to that I would add that in my opinion Flavio should concentrate more on improving the existing program than in adding extra facilities such as "surround sound" [ver 4.0.5.] So, I've had my say but what do you think ?? I would be very interested in any comments other users have. Good, bad, or indifferent I would be gratefull for your views |
Dude, asking this question here is sorta like walking into a strip bar and asking the guys if they like strippers.
There are too many variables from one persons setup to anothers. Some people get every build to work perfectly. Some can never get a build to work decent.
We are Flavios test group, and most around here seem happy to do it. If you aren't one of those, then maybe n-track isn't for you, that's all.
Cheers,
C
"bang for the buck, bang for the buck, we love the bang for the buck"
I agree with you about being Flavios test group.
I agree you get a lot of program for the money.
I bought Ntrack because I liked the layout of the controls
and because it didnt seem to be over specified with a lot
of unwanted frills that I would never use. [ I did have a try
of Sonar 4 on a friends computer but decided against buying
it]
Personally I would rather have paid more for a bug free
version of Ntrack. Low cost wasnt the reason for choosing
the program. Whats the point of saving a few £s and then
wasting hours trying to sort out problems.
Usually, when you have that much trouble, there’s something messed up in the system or drivers. I’m not saying that n-Track is fully off the hook, but it does run pretty robustly on a number of systems, so the troubles are due to differences from system to system.
Rule #1 – always download and install the latest driver from your soundcard manufacturer’s website. Don’t bother with the one in the box, it’s usually quite old.
Rule #2 – if that doesn’t cut it, try starting over with a reloaded system. Something I and many others have seen is that n-Track works fine, but then eventually starts getting flaky. Wipe and reload the system, and it’s fine again. The problem is lots of apps we install come with different versions of various system DLLs (library code modules), which get installed and change the behavior of the system. A DAW is a pretty finicky system, and the DAW program and soundcard drivers and a few other key OS elements are very tightly coupled, and any messing with that and all bets are off.
Oh – before reloading the system, be sure to try the usual suspects: try different driver styles (ASIO, WDM, and MME), and try both setings for “keep devices open” in each style. Some drivers are more finicky than others with respect to these settings.
I used 4.04 for my last project and it was pretty stable. Not quite as good as 3.3 but still not bad. Did a 36 minute CD, 8 songs - tracking, mixing, and mastering, with each song averaging about 20 tracks. Used several plugins including compression, reverb, flange, etc. I experienced 2 or 3 crashes through the whole process or recording and mixing - at least 40 hours of use. I don’t use punch-in.
I say the above to give you a benchmark. You are having way more problems than you should have with n-track.
I’ve been extremely happy with n-track but I started out with stability in mind. You may not want to go to these lengths but here’s what I have done to make my system as stable as possible.
1. I have a committed DAW. I built the computer from scratch with parts that were recommended by other forum members. The mobo is an ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe, for example, which has proven to work well with n-track and other audio applications.
2. Even though I have a dedicated computer, I have two different hard drives with an operating system on each. I keep one hard drive just for n-track and have no other software loaded on it. This keeps it clean from all the junk that can screw up the system.
3. I went with sound cards that are very common and proven to work well with n-track, the M-Audio Delta series. Actually I have two sound cards, a 1010 and a 66. The drivers for these cards have been rock solid.
4. I’m meticulous about where my music files are stored. Before I start recording I create a project folder on a separate drive. Each song has its own folder and I hit Save As and name the song before I record the first track. This insures that all subsequent tracks will be stored in the same folder so you don’t get the red X you talked about.
There’s a few other tricks but you get the idea. I have looked at other forums and talked to people who use other programs and I don’t think any of them are crash proof. Recording programs are complicated pieces of software and they depend on reliably interacting with the soundcard drivers in your system. What amazes me is that even ProTools users have a lot of problems and you would think that if anything would be solid, ProTools would be.
i use Ntrack with another pc (no internet connection, no games, no antivirus software, only for recording), i’ve got two hard disks, a very good soundcard and i’ve tried to optimize the system to work good for audio applications only…anyway Ntrack keep on crashes and sometimes find some new bugs (but a lot of them have been fixed in the last time)…i think Flavio should fix all the problems before going on to upgrade the software, Ntrack should be a more stable software…
I recently made a commecial CD (low budget though) while only using N-Track and only very few bits and pieces of other software. No glitch, no fuzz, no nothing.
This said, some builts are unstable. Once you get a stable one, stick to it for a while.
Ludo
P.S. Got the same MOBO and M-Audio as 8th-Note 
Yes, well big name audio guys use Ntracks. Dave Banta who’s worked with Tupac and some pop singers use Ntracks. And the soundtrack for a tv show (I can’t remember the show) was done in Ntracks by Dave Banta
who???
Dave Banta is a guy who now-a-days audio software companies GIVE him their products so that they can say he uses them. I’m pretty sure his name is Dave Banta. I’ve talked to him before and he’s a fairly nice guy.
Yep, Dyers is right.
Google search for Dave Banta and N-track
Mark
Yeah that. I think the proportion of pros using Ntrack is pretty small in comparision to Protools, Cubase and even Samplitude… Not to say pro results cant be gotten with ntrack, but it’s looked upon as a bit of a toy. Whenever I rock up to record a gig, people always ask if it’s protools they’re looking at on the screen because that’s all they’ve ever heard of.
The Sopranos.