Samplitude: a first look

Geoffrey
I took advantage of their insane $149 deal.  Here are some preliminary observations from a 20-year cakewalk user.
1)  Sound forge 11 causes a blue screen of death.  It also hosed SF 10.  I uninstalled both, reinstalled 10.  Still blue screen.  Waiting for customer support to get back to me (2 days).  Does not instill confidence.

Yea, it's old and out of date which I think is why they are bundling it with Samp Pro X 3 Suite. It is still supposed to be very good though - I've personally never got into it over the years. They are developing a brand new version though and the new light version is out now. I had a crash issue with it too. It was caused by scanning VST folders. SF is currently still 32bit so I suspect it was scanning 64bit VSTs that made it crash.

Geoffrey
2)  Samplitude is fine, as are my other audio apps.
3)  Preliminary impressions of samp are that it is amazing.  It has a reputation for a confusing GUI, but I actually think it is less confusing than sonar.  Go figure, maybe it's just me.  Many tutorials on the internet.  1000 page manual, 500 pages of tutorials (OK, the English translation needs work, but it is not horrible).  

It quite honestly blew me away. I had just bought Studio One when this deal broke, and I downloaded the demo. I spent about a day in the demo before emptying my bank account on it. I had never taken it seriously in the past (Magix) and just thought it was an overpriced toy. I was wrong.

Geoffrey
4)  Someone posted on the "beyond cakewalk" forum that samp does not have comping.  Not true: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbmh9tEgvWY

It has also been claimed that it's midi support is not good. This is not true. It has very strong midi support, as strong as Cubase by the looks of it. I haven't come unstuck yet.

Geoffrey
5)  Samp has a number of similarities with CW and other daws: horizontal & vertical zooms are the same as sonar, there is a channel strip on the side, "clips" are called "objects" but are basically the same.  Its touted object-based editing merely means that you can edit and put plug ins on a per clip ("object") basis as well as a track basis.  I have only been studying samp for a few days and I'm beginning to get it.  
6)  The mixer appears and feels more like a hardware mixer than the one in sonar.

I'm loving the mixer. I come from an analog background so it suits me fine, but I can see it maybe not being to the taste of younger recording folk who got into this during the digital age. However, it has all the features and routing capabilities anyone could ever want.

Geoffrey
7)  You can hide and unhide tracks, like sonar, group controls like sonar, and a whole lot of things feel like sonar.  Maybe they all do these things, I dunno.
8)  Notation is supposed to be good, but I haven't checked it out.  

It seems to be as good as any other DAW that includes notation. It's questionable as to whether Sonar really included notation as the implementation was broke, but having had a quick play it seems on par with Cubase. For any serious notation you will always want a dedicated notation system anyway. The Overture offer is great for that.

Geoffrey
9)  The general feel (on my fast machine) is pretty snappy.  Loads fast.  

Very snappy. This impressed me too. The audio engine is amazing. It will give you low latency on a monitor track while recording while working with a big project running at higher latency. It loads much faster that Sonar or Studio One. My test project turned into a full song so for me, the creativity is there even before I know the intricacies of the software. The workflow can fit in with you rather than you having to fit in with it, which I love.

Geoffrey
10)  I exported a project from sonar in OMF and imported into samp like a dream.  Keeps the markers, even, although they are renamed.  The whole process took like a minute. 

This is great to know. Thanks Geoffrey. I haven't started proting things over yet and was wondering how best to do that.
 

Geoffrey
    I have no skin in any games here, and if anything, I am biased towards sonar because of the time invested.  On the other hand, I now have an interest in pushing Samp should I stick with it, because I don't want it to go under.  If I sound like an evangelist, remember, this is after 20 years of CW and like 3 days of samp.  
More observations after more experience.  Maybe I'll just keep adding to this post.

Some other things I love about Samp;
The hardware controller set up and configuration utility. My ancient M-Audio ProjectMix was programmed to work with PT, Sonar, Cubase, Logic, but because of its age it didn't work perfectly with the current iterations and wasn't reprogrammable. In Samp I was able to completely program it with any feature I wanted assigning to any button, knob, fader and I also doubled the features by adding functions to the shift modified buttons. So it now works better in Samp than in any DAW it was ever designed to work with. That is immense for me.
 
Really strong, stable audio engine with good monitor latency handling.
 
I only had to spend about half an hour poking about before I got inspired and was able to start tracking a new song with VSTi drums, Synths and real instruments. While the feature set is huge, it is still usable while only knowing the basics so it has amazing creative potential. 
 
There's a help file and a huge 1000 page manual as you mentioned. Also a load of Vids on Youtube.
 
The content included is great and gives you everything you need for pro recording, mixing, mastering and media creation.
 
Getting multi outputs from a multi-output VSTi is quick and simple. Just load the instrument and select "Create track for each output".
 
The metering and analytics built into the GUI are amazing!
 
ARA and Melodyne. Spectral editing right in the timeline. Elastique Pro integration etc.
 
Everything can be saved as a preset, and multiple mix recalls.
 
The cons - so far;
Freezing tracks is more manual than in Sonar. For example, I was working with Addictive drums with each drum output to a separate track. I had to freeze each drum track manually and then disable the VSTi manually. Not a big deal but not as good as Sonar. Recording the VSTI may have been a better option.
 
VST management is fairly non-existent. Things just appear in the list as they are. In sonar, you could remove VSTs and display them in custom folders.
 
Loads of midi features but many only seem to be available via keyboard shortcuts - see the manual. The midi editor is really nice to work with though.
 
No track templates/presets at this point.
 
Included content - instruments, effects etc will not work with other DAWs.
 
All in all, I would really recommend this deal to anyone who does any kind of serious audio/music production work. I think the deal has been extended to around the 20 December.
 
By the way, the Magix website and forums are a confusing mess. Sound Forge registration will show up in your Magix account, but Samplitude and SpectraLayers will show up in a separate Magix pro audio account that requires a separate login. Also, there is a forum on the main Magix site and a dedicated Samplitude and Sequoia forum here which seems much better.

mkerl
I installed the demo and it killed my ASIO-Drivers (Quadcap) and replaces them with own driver. No Sound with Sonar or Studio One. So, it seems, this one is not for me. Terminated immediately.

Samplitude installs a generic "Magix Low Latency ASIO driver" (which is meant for folks using an audio interface without a proper ASIO driver).  You can uninstall this driver.
 
BTW, Cubase also installs a generic low-latency ASIO driver.
You can go into the Registry and remove it... and it will no longer appear in your DAW applications.
 
When there are multiple ASIO drivers installed, it can "bump" the driver in your DAW application.
It doesn't "replace" your original ASIO driver.  That driver is still there.
 
If this is the reason you're not looking at Samplitude, I'd suggest having another look.