Tracktion (now known as Waveform) is a

digital audio workstation A digital audio workstation (DAW) is an electronic device or application software used for Sound recording and reproduction, recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software pro ...

for recording and editing

audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of sound ...

and

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and re ...

. The software is cross-platform, that runs on

Apple macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

, and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

History

Tracktion was developed by independent UK designer/programmer Julian Storer, and released in 2002 by UK-based Raw Material Software. US-based

Mackie Mackie is an American professional audio products brand. Founded in Seattle in 1988 by Greg Mackie as a manufacturer of affordable and versatile compact pro audio mixers, Mackie is the primary product line of LOUD Technologies. History Mackie ...

is a division of

LOUD Technologies LOUD Audio, LLC is a professional audio company based in the United States, operating in the U.S., Canada, and Shenzhen, China. Originally founded as Mackie Designs, Inc., the name was changed to Loud Technologies Inc in 2003 to differentiate its ...

specializing in studio recording and live sound products. It took over the distribution of Tracktion in 2003. It was sold in standalone, boxed retail versions and bundled with Mackie, Tapco, and Echo Audio computer-audio interfaces and digital-capable mixing boards. Although no official word came from Mackie, the user's understanding was that Tracktion had been discontinued as the company issued no updates, communication, or announcements on it since January 2008. However, at the January 2013

NAMM show The NAMM Show is an annual event in the United States that is organized by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), who describe it as "the industry’s largest stage, uniting the global music, sound and entertainment technology commun ...

, Tracktion's original developer Julian Storer announced he had reacquired control of the software and would continue developing Tracktion with his new Tracktion Software Compan

User interface and unique features

Tracktion was designed to be transparent and intuitive. Track object controls and parameters are context-sensitive; effects, MIDI instruments, and other software objects can be added to tracks or even applied directly to individual audio and MIDI clips using a

drag-and-drop In computer graphical user interfaces, drag and drop is a pointing device gesture in which the user selects a virtual object by "grabbing" it and dragging it to a different location or onto another virtual object. In general, it can be used to ...

system of ''filters''. Complex chains of filters can be created, stored, and recalled for later use as ''rack effects,'' which can be thought of as analogous to a saved

channel strip A ''channel strip'' is a device that allows the output of an audio device to be amplified to a line level and integrated into some other system. An audio channel strip may be a stand-alone unit or one of many units built into a mixing desk. It ...

setting in a traditional DAW/sequencer. Tracktion represented a move away from the

modal dialog In user interface design for computer applications, a modal window is a graphical control element subordinate to an application's main window. A modal window creates a mode that disables the main window but keeps it visible, with the modal window ...

boxes, multiple menus, and cluttered windows common to most legacy

sequencers and digital audio workstations, in favor of a streamlined, single-screen approach that presented the user with only the options they needed at any time, such as editing audio, adjusting MIDI automation parameters, and effects settings. In this way, Tracktion is often compared to

Ableton Live Ableton Live is a digital audio workstation for macOS and Windows developed by the German company Ableton. In contrast to many other software sequencers, Ableton Live is designed to be an instrument for live performances as well as a tool f ...

. Although, Live has two separate work areas (Session and Arrange), Tracktion has fully context-sensitive windows that automatically appear or hide depending on the current tasks. Both are also notable for their more abstract visual styles, rather than trying to replicate "real world" recording equipment or effects boxes. Tracktion's other innovations, later emulated by most other DAWs, were the development of "freeze", the ability to convert a MIDI instrument track to audio to free up RAM and CPU; and an inline MIDI editor that allowed MIDI to be edited in-track rather than in a separate window or dedicated editor. It was also the first DAW to adopt a fully vector-based, resizable interface.

Open source library

The underlying

C++ C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...

code developed to create Tracktion's graphic and audio capabilities was later released as an open-source library,

JUCE JUCE is an open-source cross-platform C++ application framework, used for the development of desktop and mobile applications. JUCE is used in particular for its GUI and plug-ins libraries. It is dual licensed under the GPLv3 and a commercial l ...

References

External links

* {{Digital audio workstations Audio editing software for Linux

Classic Mac OS software Digital audio editors for Linux Digital audio workstation software Linux software MacOS audio editors Proprietary commercial software for Linux Windows multimedia software

History

User interface and unique features

Open source library

See also

References

External links