Mixcraft 6 Feature Requests

[Acoustica Dan]

Hi friends,

Please chime in with your most requested features for Mixcraft 6. All ideas are welcome, but give some thought to the features that you feel could level the playing field between Mixcraft and the other DAWs that you've encountered. What would push Mixcraft over the top for you? What do you feel it's missing most, that would appeal to the largest audience?

We're listening!

Thanks,
Dan

[SuperPunchInGuy]

Punch In/Out, for love of Gawd, please!

[Sungodv]

MIDI multi out would be nice.

[perihelion summer]

I just love this post! I get to pour out my mind's worth of ideas! Hehe. Here's my list:

1. More track automation - MX6 needs the ability to automate basic virtual instrument parameters, such as volume, pan, key range, velocity range, transposition, etc.
2. Ability to Save Effects Lists - You can save instrument preset lists, so why not effects lists?
3. Some wave editor features - The ability to split stereo tracks into individual channels of audio, and apply clip effects like reverse and inverse. (Inverted sound layed on top of normal sound creates silence by the cancellation of sound waves. Inverted sound from the left and right audio channels, when mixed to the proper channels, can be used to isolate or remove center-panned audio.) Also vocoder, or vocal remover/isolator would be nice if possible.
4. More master track options - Examples: master pan, master 3-band EQ, master mute, and master solo (for toggling 'exclusive mode' audio)
5. Auto record - The ability to have Mixcraft automatically start recording when volume levels pass a certain threshold point.
6. Some more 'Acoustica Effects' - i.e. Acoustica Vocoder, Acoustica Vocal Remover, Acoustica Stereo Delay, Acoustica Overdrive, Acoustica Stereo EQ, Acoustica 3D Stereo, and things like that. The Acoustica Effects are easy to use, and offer dead simple parameters that most people can understand.
7. Customizable library - A library where you can add your own sounds from your computer. Plus an area for storing virtual instrument loops and clips that you can insert into your projects.
8. Adjustable video transitions - The ability to select fade, dissolve, fade through white, and fade through black, for a video track's transition.
9. An improved area for controling MIDI parameters - The current area allows you to edit controls, but it doesn't snap to the note length or anything like that. Would be cool if it worked like the track automation area with envelope points and snapping instead of bars.

Thanks for reading! Keep up the good work!

[SuperPunchInGuy]

Some wave editor features - The ability to split stereo tracks into individual channels of audio, and apply clip effects like reverse and inverse. Also vocoder, or vocal remover/isolator would be nice if possible.

Agreed, I don't like having to go to audacity for these functions. Also, using the split into mono function, then reverse phase, you can make vocals disappear without a plugin.

Some more 'Acoustica Effects

A 31 band EQ and a noise gate with frequency selection please

Additionally, lets say i have a project with 20 tracks in it. I solo say 12 of them for some adjusting. Now I want to hear the whole project, but have to go unsolo each one. How about a button that deselects solo on all tracks? Same for mute.

[Sungodv]

Additionally, lets say i have a project with 20 tracks in it. I solo say 12 of them for some adjusting. Now I want to hear the whole project, but have to go unsolo each one. How about a button that deselects solo on all tracks? Same for mute.

Yes, I have asked for this before as well.
Since the Mixer window is one of the newest features in 5, why not more refinements to it? There are lots of things that could be done.
And I am still wanting the spacebar to start play when the Mixer is undocked.

[Acoustica Greg]

You can already work with the individual channels of a stereo sound. Just right-click on it, select Channels and then choose the channel you want to work with. You could duplicate the same sound on different tracks, select the right channel for one track and left channel for the other or whatever.

[*]Some wave editor features - The ability to split stereo tracks into individual channels of audio, and apply clip effects like reverse and inverse. Also vocoder, or vocal remover/isolator would be nice if possible.

[perihelion summer]

You can already work with the individual channels of a stereo sound. Just right-click on it, select Channels and then choose the channel you want to work with. You could duplicate the same sound on different tracks, select the right channel for one track and left channel for the other or whatever.

[*]Some wave editor features - The ability to split stereo tracks into individual channels of audio, and apply clip effects like reverse and inverse. Also vocoder, or vocal remover/isolator would be nice if possible.

I can't believe I never saw that! Well then, one half-down, 8 and a half to go!

[Pepin]

More track tagging ability - I know some of it is built in, but it would be nice if there was more depth to it. The least of it would be being able to fill out the artist and album name.

But what I think would be really cool and useful would be a feature that allowed someone to make an album. Currently we can kind of do that, but it is a bit separated. What I am suggesting is some built in function that allows for an album project where a number of songs can be made and kept track of that are apart of the album. You'd be able to order the songs in the album, see their details and upload some album art for the album. From the album page you could choose to any of the songs on the album and continue to work on them. I can imagine that when you would set the destination folder and all the album related stuff would be there.

A nice feature of this would also be that all of the track tag info would be available as well.

Track Presets - What could also be useful for is track presets. Yes you can do this in a way in Mixcraft by saving a project as a preset and then opening it and then doing save as to start recording the real song, but I think it would be very cool if there was a built in function that allowed to user to make track presets that they could select from when they start a song.

Better Layering - You can lay two samples on top of each other and they will both play, but it is hard to know if a track is layered. Having a show track layers function could be useful.

Drag and record - Kind of like in audacity where you can drag your mouse and record and you will only record for that segment of time, that would be very useful.

Relative recording folders - The default track recording place is in "My Recordings" located in my documents. I think that it could be more useful and organized to have the default to just be some folder in the same director as the mixcraft file. But my main point with this is that the recording folder should be located relative to the project file or at least that the user should have an option to make it relative. I don't think it works like that now because if I move the project file and recording folder, the recording folder in mixcraft will be set to where ever it was before and I have to reset it to the where it is now. I think that it would make the project more portable.

I'm expecting a reply telling me that "you can already do that by doing this", because that seems to happen to an awful lot of people on here.

[Sungodv]

I was startin' to think everyone was dogone happy with 5!
I know I've said it before Dan, but db markers on the tracks and mixer would be very nice.

[perihelion summer]

Another feature feature request I some how forgot to add to my lengthly list is audio-effect mapping. Essentially, this would take the audio of one track or clip, analyze it for volume, relative stereo balance, bass levels, etc., then use this information to apply an effect to another track, clip, or selection. For example, I had a project that contained two loops: 'Wind Strong 5' and 'Bass Drum Heartbeat'. I wanted the audio volume (amplitude) of 'Wind Strong 5' to determine the volume leveling for 'Bass Drum Heartbeat'. In other words, as the wind got louder, so would the bass drum; and as the wind became softer, the bass drum would also quiet down. (I ended up manually leveling the bass drum with clip automation.) Of course the effect wouldn't be limited to volume; you could mix and match stereo balance, volume, frequency levels, or any other property of stereo audio.

If you were working with volume, then you could specify input and output minimums and maximums for volume, or even invert the mapping so that loud volumes translated to quieter leveling. Similar parameters could be implemented for other measurements and effects. I think this type of automation could have lots of potential, especially with the range of outputs and applied effects, which could be just about any Mixcraft effect or VST effect parameter.

[Pepin]

I was startin' to think everyone was dogone happy with 5! .

Wouldn't say I'm unhappy, but new features that makes the program better is always a plus.

[Sean]

1) I'd like to see the Ctrl-Z/Undo take the pointer back to the original starting point.

2) Lyric transcription and lead vocal notation (Speech Recognition can take up a lot processing, agreed.) As a non-formally trained musician/songwriter, I like the idea of having my lead sheets properly transcribed. I could also see this with a great use in terms of closed-captioning videos or karaoke versions of the songs (watch the red ball bounce or the words change color).

3) More in-depth sheet music creation features. Maybe something that can generate PDFs too.

4) New transition options on the video and an 4:3 / 16:9 conversion system (black bars for older 4:3 source).

5) Green screen capabilities on the video (with a B-roll track or JPG background) like those old "Beat Club" videos from the 70s.

6) Beatcraft interface or feature.

7) More rock/country/analog/organic loops!

8.) Auto-self destruct if any Britney Spears song is performed on it (unless as a parody, so you will need to include a humor-sensing codec in it).

9) An "impress" feature - A graphical display that offers piano roll, staff, spectrum analyzer, oscilloscope, WAV form and as many flashing graphics. The chicks LOVE THIS!

10) Phase and spacial settings (to create Dolby 3.1/5.1 type effects without actually having to license it from Dolby).

11) Lower resolution graphics option to conserve processing power.

12) MIDI loops that can be used with any instrument (see Beatcraft reference)

13) Spin It Again interface for mash-ups (beat matching crossfades etc...)

14) "Bolt Cutter" option to steal more stuff from Garage Band (Doh! Did I just type that???)

Thank you - I hope that you have enjoyed my tongue in cheekiness. MC5 is an incredible tool!

*** EDIT ***
[forgot this one:]

15) A file naming feature. Instead of "01 Audio Track-10," how about all of the tracks get the song title/track number and segment number (i.e. "Acquiesce A01-S10". Loop tracks will have an "L" designation and "V" for virtual or "M" for MIDI, etc... This will simplify archiving and make it easier to take inventory of songs. I think it would also help when sharing tracks with others.

[Acoustica Greg]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

1) I'd like to see the Ctrl-Z/Undo take the pointer back to the original starting point.

We don't have that feature, but you can press Home to set playback to the beginning of the track, and Space+Ctrl+Shift to play back from the last time line marker.

11) Lower resolution graphics option to conserve processing power.

There's already a "conserve CPU mode" option in the Display preferences that does this to some extent.

15) A file naming feature. Instead of "01 Audio Track-10," how about all of the tracks get the song title/track number and segment number (i.e. "Acquiesce A01-S10". Loop tracks will have an "L" designation and "V" for virtual or "M" for MIDI, etc... This will simplify archiving and make it easier to take inventory of songs. I think it would also help when sharing tracks with others.

Here's what you can do with Mixcraft right now: double-click on "Audio Track" to change the name of the track and set name of the .wav file that is created when you record. You can also change the name of instrument tracks, but since the MIDI data is stored in the project file itself, it doesn't affect any external files.

[Sean]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Here's what you can do with Mixcraft right now: double-click on "Audio Track" to change the name of the track and set name of the .wav file that is created when you record. You can also change the name of instrument tracks, but since the MIDI data is stored in the project file itself, it doesn't affect any external files.

Greg,

Thanks for addressing my points. My whole idea with the suggestions is to keep Mixcraft as unobtrusive to the creative process. To give you insight to how I use it, Dan suggested I have a template that I load for each new project because I don't like a bunch of empty audio tracks as the default (deleting six tracks of audio every new project was my old M.O.). My new projects always start with one vitrual instrument track (now Pianissimo) and a single audio track. I am a total geek about that . So the renaming process is a tedious task when you get down to 20+ segments (I'll use another track for each punch-in, edit, crossfaded effect, etc.). Automatic naming, I believe, is another convenience that will continue Acoustica's "win 'em over" approach. As for the CPU/graphics thing, I was thinking a window indicating "RECORDING" and that's all. I like to record the whole take and have done multiple instruments at one time with my band. Bleed is an incredible thing, not having enough inputs is another.

Thanks and Acoustica proves it's listening! (Although I already knew that!) Now, is that Britney Spears thing I requested going to be implemented???