Acoustica MixCraft 4
Estilo: Ferramenta para DJ / Tamanho: 43 MB / Idioma: Inglês

Normal boring day.

I found a gay though in my physics class. He was checking out, of all people, my crush. We were just sitting there talking, and I turned to look at him, and he was giving M the full updown like no other. The guy is pretty cute, but I dont' want him. Sadly, I bet M would go for him before he went for me. All day, I have been imagining how their relationship would be. I bet Michael would be so great to him, and lets get it straight. This guy (P) would so be the bottom. He seems like a passive, unagressive personality.

Later after work I chilled at my friends house. Now he is pretty delicious. Beautiful man. I seem to have a thing for hanging with the hottest of the hottest. ANYWAY, we ended up hooking up that night (he is "straight") and I must say, his penis is pretty large. After that, we talked about computers and Apple/Microsoft, stuff like that. I am a slight geek I would say. I mean, I can fix a computer if it is a basic problem, but don't come to me if it is something super complicated. I like geeky guys too, but neither M nor my hot other friend (B) are geeks. I would say P is though.

I have been fooling around like crazy with Garageband and this Windows alternative, Mixcraft. I am not so great at it, but I feel I am getting better. I am actually considering buying Mixcraft if I can expand it's loop library. I might put up some of the stuff I made on this blog, if I can upload it somewhere. Probably just archive.org

So today I was in physics, and I saw P check out M again, and that just confirmed it for me. For me though, M's body is driving me crazy. It is just so utterly amazing. And it isn't like I am seeing him shirtless, it is in his clothes. You can see his abs, and beautiful legs all in his clothes, and I can't touch. URGGGGH!!! I really need that man. No matter what friend I hook up with, it isnt him. Oh to feel up his body, would be utter and complete bliss. Sadly, P would probably get the privelege before me.

Well I am done. Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I got home, and went to sleep. I barely got a jack off session out.

My earlier comparisons between Sony Acid Music Studio 7 and Mixcraft 3 had Mixcraft winning on the usability and Sony Acid winning for MIDI support. With Mixcraft 4, Acoustica has evened the score on the MIDI front and they are still in the lead with the user interface. Sony Acid Music Studio 7 has been slightly less expensive, but both of these products should be considered a good deal and both are now good candidates to be your Garageband for Windows.

I'm adding a link to the purchase page for Mixcraft 4. From here you can get to the download page and the product details pages.

Initial impressions

Sony Acid gives you the impression that it can do a bit more based on a busy and complex interface. The interface is less friendly, less like GarageBand than MixCraft is. You quickly get the impression that you have a many more options to fiddle with as well. Click on this thumbnail to see a full view of the interface. (images are from the Sony site.)

Where are the Loops?

This was challenging. I couldn't find much in the help or the "show me how" tools. I looked on the web for help and found people had similar challenges. The answer was that the loops are not automatically installed with the product. The are on a couple of other discs that are included with the purchased product. This doesn't help someone that downloaded the trial version. The product page at the Sony site claims that Acid comes with 3000 loops. I couldn't find them at all. I downloaded a free loop that I found via Google and started testing the controls.

The interface for editing loops is pretty straightforward. You paint them onto the track with your mouse. From there, you have numerous edits and changes that you can apply. Bottom line, not as friendly as MixCraft, but equally, if not more capable. I liked how you could change the key for a loop pretty easily.

Testing MIDI

Following the loop effort, I decided to give the MIDI a quick try. MIDI support is part of GarageBand, but not part of MixCraft. The first thing you need is a way to work with MIDI signals and your PC.

M-Audio MIDISport Uno

I took the plunge and bought the MIDISport Uno by M-Audio. Guitar Center had it for $39.99. The MIDISport Uno is a USB to MIDI cable. It has a USB plug connected to a little egg shaped thing that has both a MIDI In and a MIDI Out plug attached.

The Results

There are some tricky elements to working with MIDI in Sony Acid. When adding tracks, you can add normal audio track, or a MIDI track. I added an audio track by mistake, armed it for input, and my MIDI keyboard was able to play normal piano audio into an audio track. This was a bit confusing when I was then trying to figure out how to adjust the instrument that was playing the track.

With a MIDI track, you can change with virtual instrument used to render sound for the MIDI signal. This virtual instrument capability works well in Sony Acid and was part of my initial goal for a suitable GarageBand for Windows product. I spent some time trying out the various instruments. I found the slap bass effect fun to play with. Some of the instruments seemed a bit weak like the various instruments on a toy keyboard. Others sounded appropriate.

The MIDI bottom line...

Bottom line for MIDI. I think it will fit the bill. If you need MIDI support, Sony Acid Music Studio 7 can be your GarageBand for Windows. If you just need just normal loop support and MP3 support, then MixCraft seems to be easier to manage. From a price perspective, I've seen ads for Sony Acid at a slightly lower cost than Mixcraft (about $5 less).

To be fair to MixCraft, they don't say that it has MIDI. I was making an incorrect assumption.

I checked out GarageBand's site on Apple, and they certainly support MIDI.

MixCraft 3.0 cannot be a full replacement for GarageBand if you need MIDI support.

(Acid from Sony appears to support MIDI. I'll try that next.)

Quick Screenshot (from Acoustica's site):

My son immediately wanted a turn with mixing up songs. Same thing. Seemed like using Mixcraft was second nature to him.

My turn. I decided to play with the loops. With this, you can pick various loops for different instruments and drop them onto a track. From there you can control various aspects of the loop. I found it very addicting to have the ability to tweak and adjust and control all the drums, bass, etc.. Again, it was very intuitive. I did have the advantage of watching my kids play with it, but they weren't playing with the loops.

Best part, it's a download. You get 7 days to try it out with no limitations. After 7 days, I don't think you can burn CD's, and something else is limited too.

Here's the direct download link: Download Mixcraft

Here's a link to the purchase page from Acoustica:
More Info... From there you can bounce around the site.

Next thing, I need to figure out how to connect a keyboard to test the midi part.