Samplitude (DAW for beginning, advanced and expert music producers)

[Master Mi]

Samplitude Music Studio >>> versatile & well-equipped semi-professional DAW for beginners and advanced music producers
Samplitude Pro X (Suite) >>> professional DAW for expert music producers and audio engineers (with huge extra content in the enhanced Suite version)
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Since there's already a thread for the DAW FL Studio, this might be interesting for everybody who wants to get into music production with a pretty powerful, well-equipped and still pretty low-priced semi-professionell DAW you can get for just 99 euros.

I'm talking about the new Samplitude Music Studio (2019) - the smaller brother of the Samplitude Pro X3 (Suite) version.
I was working with previous Samplitude Music Studio versions years before I upgraded it to the professional version Samplitude Pro X3 suite later on.

And since my beginning with the Samplitude Music Studio versions I was always a big fan of the included, very versatile and pretty realistically sampled VSTis (software instruments) which have been recorded with real instruments, a nice amount of different articulations (like legato/long notes, slides, staccatos, tremolos, fall-offs etc.), presets and effects (like drumming on a guitar body with the hands etc.) - dependening on the chosen VST instrument.

You often have a huge amount of those virtual instruments (up to 20 and more in the newer versions) in the basic equipment of the Samplitude Music Studio with which you can produce music within a pretty wide variety of musical genres.
Some of those intruments are actually a whole set of instruments (like Vita World Flutes oder Vita Folk or Vita Soundtrack Percussion) or even huger synthesizer sample stations (like Vita Analog Synths, DN-e1 or Revolta²) where each one contains hundreds of pretty nice synthesizers within different categories (like lead synths, chords, basses, synths, pads, voices, winds, drums or effects).

Besides the usual standard DAW functions, a really powerful and stable audio engine, some really useful metering devices or some good VST plugins that usually come with the Samplitude Pro (X/Suite) versions one of the biggest enhancements in Samplitude Music Studio 2019 is the possibility of using up to 32 different instruments (MIDI tracks) in a music project (former Music Studio versions were limited to 16 instruments - or to circumvent this you could bounce MIDI into audio tracks which was pretty annoying for your workflow if you had to change something afterwards).
Now - with the 32 instrument (MIDI) tracks per music project - you can realize much more comprehensive projects even as a beginner and without working around that much.

If you need up to 999 MIDI tracks for a music project, much more VST instruments, synthesizers, VST plugins or a really awesome virtual guitar amp called Vandal you can upgrade the Samplitude Music Studio into the professional Samplitude Pro X (Suite) versions later on if you want.
Sometimes there are also really compelling special upgrade offers (like some months before where users of a Samplitude Music Studio version could upgrade to Samplitude Pro X3 Suite for just about 150 bucks - instead of about 600 or the usual price of nearly 1000 bucks).

With each Samplitude Music Studio version you can also collect new Vita VST instruments (even if you buy some cheap older versions with some rare stuff and install all versions in the chronological order) you can accumulate a huge amount of good VST instruments which you can also keep if you upgrade the Samplitude Music Studio version to a Samplitude Pro X (Suite) version someday.   

I really like the logical structure of these DAWs - even without reading the whole manual and without having any experiences with DAWs in those days I was still able to discover lots of different functions just by exploring the task bar of the very smartly structured DAW interface and by trying out several things.

I am also a big fan of the clear interface, the free adjustable working place (depending on your momentary needs concerning the current stage of your music production process) and of course the pretty stylish and badass looking carbon skin.

The only negative things I could say about these DAWs are that it can crash sometimes if you have opened your browser and work with the DAW at the same time and that one or two of my virtual instruments tended to crash on my former AMD AM3 Phenom II X4 955 quad-core PC with 8 GB RAM (no problems with that on my newer Intel i7-6700 quad-core PC with 32 GB RAM).

If you got interested in the latest version of Samplitude Music Studio (2019) as a beginning or advanced composer and music producer check out the following link for additional informations:
>>> https://www.magix.com/us/music/samplitude-music-studio/#c844272

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If you wanna go for the Samplitude Pro (X/Suite) versions as a more advanced or expert composer, music producer and audio engineer with a strong passion for sound design at a professional level someday, check out this link for additional informations:
>>> https://www.magix.com/us/music/samplitude/

Even if you can find out a lot of functions just by exploring and doing make sure you have some time to read in the digital manual with nearly 1000 pages to get into all the functions this DAW has to offer.

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There's also something like a really expensive ultimate version Sequoia (the company's flagship so far called), which contains some pretty luxurious (but not desperately necessary) music production tools (like audio to MIDI conversion - although there 's something similar in the Pro X Suite versions already), the whole set of VST instruments and some enhanced features for broadcasting.
But since I'm not a member of a highly successful band who can drop the money like bees may drop the honey, I would never be thinking about paying around 1500 to 3000 bucks for this one if I can do all the music production stuff already with the Samplitude Pro X Suite versions.

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If somebody wants to have some further informations or personal experiences from my side just let me know.
And if somebody is interested in getting a version of Samplitude Music Studio or maybe Samplitude Pro X3 Suite, I could also give some hints for using these DAWs with most of its functions here in this thread.

Edited 1 hour ago by Master Mi

[Master Mi]

If you're still looking for a very well equipped high-end DAW, I've seen a pretty genereous special offer for my DAW "Samplitude Pro X3 Suite" (includes coming upgrade for "Samplitude Pro X4 Suite" in December and "Sound Forge Pro 11") for just around 200 bucks - special offer lasts until November 25, 2018.

I got the notice of a close friend whom I've recommened this special offer for his ambition to create some soundtracks for his planned RPG Maker game, that the versions are download content only (so, no DVDs - upgrades in the future will come with DVDs as I am used to, I guess).
If that 's acceptable for you and if you have a good internet connection, then have a look at this highly interesting special offer.

>>> https://www.magix.com/us/music/samplitude/upgrade/20180112-samplitude-pro-x/

Edited 4 hours ago by Master Mi

[Master Mi]

Magix pro audio division, including Samplitude and Sequoia, was recently sold to an American investor - and I'm anything but happy about it
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Based on my current knowledge of the approach taken by the new investor behind the former Magix DAWs Samplitude Music Studio (the semi-professional entry-level version of the DAW), Samlitude Pro X and Samplitude Pro X Suite (the professional DAW versions) and Sequoia (the professional DAW version with advanced broadcasting features), I wanted to advise against using these DAWs for the time being (unless you can still get an older version such as Samplitude Pro X8 Suite).

This is because Magix has sold its gifted pro audio section to the American video and audio editing developer Boris FX, which I was not familiar with until these days, and I will probably stick with my good old DAW version Samplitude Pro X4 Suite for the time being.

But take a look for yourself:

https://borisfx.com/products/samplitude/

While the familiar DAWs are certainly not going to undergo any major changes, a few not entirely irrelevant things have already come to my attention, giving me the well-founded impression that the American investor is threatening to rip new customers off and downgrade or slim down the product.

Here are a few examples:

1) The really good Independence Pro sampler, with its approximately 70 GB of high-quality VSTi sample content, plugins, and sound design tools, has been completely eliminated from the expanded Samplitude Pro X Suite - allegedly for licensing reasons associated with the takeover.

Strangely enough, the Independence Pro sampler still seems to be included in the really expensive Sequoia, according to the total installation size of approx. 90 GB.

https://borisfx.com/products/sequoia/

Since Independence was one of the core features of Samplitude Pro X Suite, which allowed you to do a lot in terms of composition and sound design, this is all the more sad.

Those who already had the Independence Pro sampler in earlier versions of the DAW will still be able to use it in future upgrades.
But for all new customers, this would be a real disadvantage.

You would then have to purchase Independence Pro Premium Suite for around 300 euros on top of that in order to get the full range of features you were used to from previous versions of Samplitude Pro Suite:

https://producerplanet.com/de/article/independence-pro-premium-suite-3121/

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2) Problems may arise with some of the collected VST instruments that are exclusively owned by Magix and whose licensing rights are therefore not held by the new investor. This could lead to problems, especially with older music projects that use some of the affected Magix VSTis, at least as soon as you upgrade to a current version of Samplitude or Sequoia.

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3) In this context, it is also not yet entirely clear how the old DAW licenses and a possible reactivation (for example, after installing a new operating system) will be handled, as these licenses were always managed by the parent company Magix.

As a precaution, I am expecting the worst in the long term, but I am still hoping for the best.

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4) The new advertising intro for the DAW with AI language tools worries me a little in terms of the usual professionalism of the product.

Presumably, one of the reasons for this is to save on personnel costs for voice actors and translators in typical American fashion, thereby maximizing profits.

But when these AI voices, which already sound inhuman and incredibly stupid, can't even pronounce the DAW's product name correctly, and apparently no one even noticed this during testing, I can't help but wonder how future versions of the DAW will perform and what the once-excellent support for queries and bug fixes will look like.

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I will definitely keep you up to date as soon as there are any new developments regarding the DAW in the wake of the new investor - maybe I'm just being too pessimistic and should give the new company some time and space to restructure.

Nevertheless, it will probably remain a mystery to me how an innovative, passionate DAW developer like Magix could come up with the unforgivable idea of selling off its legendary pro audio DAW series to an American investor (I would have had far fewer concerns, and even some hope for progress, if it had been a forward-thinking Japanese company in this field)...

... while the parent company Magix stubbornly clings to its immature, crash-prone toy DAW Magix Music Maker.

As I recall, I once wrote to the company to the effect that they should completely scrap this buggy product (if only for marketing reasons) and instead promote the well-functioning and stable semi-professional Samplitude Music Studio as the new entry-level product into the DAW world of Magix (because Music Maker is basically the ultimate anti-advertisement for the company, which at the time almost dissuaded me from upgrading to Magix's professional product line, which, in stark contrast to Music Maker, offers some of the best DAWs on the global market).
But if I remember correctly, the company really wanted to convince me that Samplitude Music Studio was too complex for many beginners and that Music Maker was very popular.

Does Samplitude Music Studio seem overly complex to you?

https://borisfx.com/products/music-studio/


I find it really hard to believe that, with such excellent products in Magix's pro audio division, the company's management consists of complete idiots who have no idea about the product or things like sales.
To me, it feels more like this takeover had been planned for a long time without many people knowing about it.

Sometimes a large sum of money simply flows behind the scenes, one hand washes the other, and suddenly a high-quality product that far-sighted developers and passionate people have worked on for many decades, or maybe even half the company, changes hands (or even continents) to the highest bidder.

It wouldn't be the first time something like this has happened, and money might rule the world even in such matters (once again to the detriment of true progress and higher human ambitions).

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Perhaps music, composition, mixing, mastering, and sound design need to be used much more like a powerful form of magic that fills people with such pleasure, lively intensity, and an engrossing otherworldly attitude to life when they listen to it that greed, selfishness, opportunism, and thoughts of status and luxury seem like tiny, completely insignificant things in comparison.

Edited 1 hour ago by Master Mi