Recording - March 2013 - 44

...where we bring you follow-up articles
with application hints and upgrade news
about gear already reviewed in Recording

Acoustica Mixcraft 6
and Mixcraft Pro Studio 6
Finally, a feature-rich DAW that almost anyone
by John Rossi III
can use (without a manual)!
Mixcraft 6 and Mixcraft Pro Studio 6 are the latest versions of this DAW for
Windows XP/Vista/7/8, and both live up to the motto of Acoustica, which is that “software should be easy to use!”.

This is the third time we’ve looked at Mixcraft, and it’s amazing how far the program
has progressed since Version 4. While Version 5, reviewed in our October 2010
issue, was an easy-to-learn and versatile DAW that could be used in almost any situation, it did have a few limitations in functionality. Mixcraft 6 is an incremental upgrade,
with changes and added content that greatly increase the DAW’s usefulness. Mixcraft
6 and Mixcraft Pro Studio 6 both share the same upgrades in functionality, while the
Pro version, at twice the price, includes more virtual instruments and powerful new
effects. Let’s jump in.
What’s new?
Beyond a new look for some screens, the significant changes either fix flaws from
Mixcraft 5 or add new features. The mixer, for example, has undergone a facelift, and
it now allows selection of audio inputs and MIDI inputs directly from the channel strips,
and the audio track strips will accommodate any audio inputs available.
Output buses can now be created for grouping channels, and more importantly, for
routing signals to multiple hardware outputs, allowing unrestricted use of elaborate
multi-channel audio interfaces. The creation and use of multiple output buses in
Mixcraft was something I missed in past versions, since each of my DAW-capable
hardware platforms have audio interfaces that support a minimum of 16 audio output
channels. More so than any other DAW I have used, Mixcraft makes it a very simple
task to route multiple audio outputs to where they are intended to go. I still rely on external digital and analog mixers in my studio, and this capability is absolutely essential
for complex projects requiring external mixing.
Mixcraft now hosts ReWire-compatible music applications, allowing MIDI data from
Mixcraft to control ReWired instruments, and for audio data from the ReWired apps to be
brought back into Mixcraft for processing and output mixing. In addition, Mixcraft 6 corrects
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RECORDING March 2013

a deficiency in the prior version by supporting VST instruments with multiple audio outputs. So, now it is possible to route each output of a virtual drum machine to its own
audio channel, allowing independent control of gain, pan, eq and effects for each percussion sound. Used in conjunction with multiple output busing, this adds a very powerful external mixing capability. If you own
Mixcraft 5 and have a modern virtual drum
program or an audio interface with multiple
audio outputs, these new features alone are
worth the upgrade.
MIDI
New and improved MIDI tools in Mixcraft
6 include note duration quantization, randomizing humanization, note transposition,
velocity scaling, and other useful functions.
Like almost everything in Mixcraft, these
tools are intuitive and easy to use. I found
the note duration quantizing to be superb
when used with the new humanizing tool,
and I would pit these functions against those
found in any other DAW.
Mixcraft now also supports MIDI control
surfaces for controlling Mixcraft functions
as well as VST and DX effects and instruments, although I could find no documentation concerning what specific surfaces it
is pre-programmed to support. Mixcraft 6
failed to recognize either my Akai MPK49
or my Edirol PCR-500 control keyboards
as control surfaces, although it did allow
me to manually assign all of the pertinent
controller information for each of the keyboards, and manual setup of the controllers was a breeze.
Finally, both the Piano Roll and notation MIDI editors have been substantially
improved. In the Piano Roll editor it is
now easier to edit velocity, and MIDI note
names are now superimposed on the displayed notes. The Piano Roll editor also
has dual use as a drum map editor. The
mapper substitutes drum/percussion
names for the usual keyboard display,
and maps for some common drum
machines as well as all of the drum content in Mixcraft are provided. The notation editor now supports triplets and
allows selection of which staves are displayed. I found the Mixcraft 6 notation
engine to be much more predictable than
its predecessor in accurately reproducing
note sequences I played on a keyboard
in consort with a metronome.
Tracks and lanes
Many useful additions to recording and
track functions have been incorporated in

Recording - March 2013

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