PowerTracks Pro Audio 4.0 MIDI/Digital Audio Sequencer (PC)

by Jim Cara, Music and Computers Magazine, July/August 1998

A full-featured digital audio and MIDI recording program for $29?! With the major contenders in this field (Cakewalk, Steinberg Cubase, and so on) coming in at around $300, I couldn't believe a company could produce a competitive product at one-tenth the price.

PowerTracks' specs looked good on paper - 48 total tracks of digital audio or MIDI, built-in digital effects, mu1tiple edit views, and notation printing with lyrics. Most of the features needed by the average home composer or project studio are included, but there had to be a catch... or did there?

Let's Find Out. Installation was a breeze. The documentation is written in easy-to-understand terms, and even includes helpful information about installing soundcards. PG Music has gone out of its way to ensure that people can get PowerTracks up and running: You also get the PowerGuide CD, packed with two hours' worth of video tutorials that walk you through the program.

Once PowerTracks is running, though, you may form a false impression by looking at the screen. There are no fancy graphics, animations, or multicolor graphs, just a mostly gray layout. (See Figure 1.) But the text sure is easy to read.

MIDI Sequencing

The package comes with a small collection of demo MIDI files so you can get started right away. I loaded a Standard MIDI File and looked at the track layout. The instruments (i.e., the selected synthesizer sounds, or patches) were listed, as well as their volume and pan (stereo position} settings.

Most sequencer programs open with a screen that shows the track information to the left and the measure-by-measure structure of the song to the right, with highlighted blocks representing areas where data is present. PowerTracks makes you open another window to get to the structural information. The program offers several editing views, including bars, events, meter (time signature), guitar fretboard, notation, lyrics, and drum grid. (See Figure 2 on page 66.) You can have all windows open at once - even multiple copies of certain window types (such as notation view).

Standard sequencer editing functions such as quantize (rhythm correction), transpose, velocity change, timing offset, and randomize are supported. The program also supports MIDI Time Code (MTC), helpful if you're planning on synchronizing the sequencer to tape decks. (These sync features require support from your MIDI interface and the external devices.)

Changing a patch is as easy as clicking on its number in the "Prg" column. You're then offered a list of patches sorted by instrument name for the most popular soundcards. There's also built-in support for GM, GS, MT-32, and XG sound formats. A nice feature is that the built-in patch lists show the additional banks of sounds that are hidden to some users. Some advanced soundcards store additional banks of sounds beyond the 128 patch locations in General MIDI. Normally you'd have to enter a tricky bank-change command to get to these sounds. With PowerTracks, all you have to do is scroll the patch and bank busts, then click. (See Figure 3 on page 68.)

There's also built-in realtime GS editing, which lets you alter the sounds on compatible synths such as the Roland Sound Canvas.

Make a Note

PowerTracks' notation features should be enough to satisfy anyone wanting to print notation from a Standard MIDI File or create fakebook-style scores with lyrics and chord symbols. Don't look for engraver-quality printout here, though. The program does a great job at interpreting rests and note lengths and converting them into notation, but these automatic features may hamper users who try to use this software for elaborate notation.

There's no palette or menu from which to choose note duration, for example. Each time you insert a new note in a bar, the program automaticaly reduces the lengths of existing notes. PG Music suggests that you add timed rests to compensate for the automatic notation feature. (You can right-click on a note to change its duration.)

Digital Audio Demon

If you want to record voice, guitar, or any other acoustic instrument, you'll be using the digital audio tracks. The documentation claims that a basic Pentium system can typically play back 16 to 20 simultaneous tracks of 16-bit, 44.1kHz dig1tal audio. I was running a Pentium 166 with 64MB of RAM, and had no problem playing 12 tracks. (The test program that comes with PowerTracks claimed that my system could handle 19 tracks, but I ran out of ideas before I ran out of tracks.) I've tried other digital audio programs on this same system and they began to choke after eight tracks.

PowerTracks allows you to record a single (i.e., mono) track of digital audio at a time using the mic or line input of your sound-card, or to import a .WAV file and use it as a track. (Stereo .WAVs are assigned to two tracks.) My test package included the optional MultiTracks disc set, a three-CD collection of pro-quality digital recordings of songs. Genres include rock, blues, and jazz, with each song saved in a proprietary format that expands into four single-instrument .WAV files when you import it.

These discs let you play with professional tracks without first becoming a recording engineer. As you learn, you can use these tracks to jam along with or cut and paste the audio into your own compositions. (Audio editing options include cut/copy/paste and merge.) The MultiTracks add-on discs are a great addition and make learning how to edit digital audio a lot of fun. Advanced users may find these tracks a helpful addition to their clip music libraries.

Effects

PowerTracks comes with a collection of plug-in digital audio effects such as reverb, chorus, delay, flange, compression, and distortion. The plug-its are in a proprietary format, but PG Music provides the source code free, so third-party support may be available in the future.

These effects can't be applied in real time; instead, you apply an effect to a selected auto region and then wait for the program to render it. The rendering process was fast, though - processing a 40-second dip took about 30 seconds. The effects sound as good as any I've heard in Syntrillium Cool Edit, and have more parameters to play with.

Mixer

The mixer window lets you control the volume and pan of each MIDI track in real time. (There's a slight delay when adjusting digital audio tracks.) If your soundcard supports it, the mixer can also change reverb and chorus settings on MIDI tracks. Mixer changes can he recorded on the fly as MIDI continuous controller data and will play back when you play the song. You can edit the data, too.

Mixing down multiple audio tracks is a snap: Set the level and pan for each track, then choose the "Merge Audio Tracks to Single WAV File" option. PowerTracks will create a single stereo .WAV file ready to burn onto CD, convert to a Web format, or record to tape.

If you want to incorporate your MIDI tracks into the merged .WAV, you'll need to convert them into digital audio tracks first. This requires that your soundcard be capable of simultaneous playback and recording (or that all MIDI parts be played by external synths). To convert MIDI to audio, mute all prerecorded digital audio tracks and set up a new track to record digital audio. Set your soundcard or Windows mixer to record the output of your soundcard (or synths), and play back the MIDI sequence. Since PowerTracks can record only one digital audio track at a time, you'd have to repeat this process twice, once for the left channel and once for the right channel.

It will be almost impossible to line up the two halves of the recombined stereo signal perfectly (you'd have to be able to adjust one track by single-sample increments, and PowerTracks only supports 960 pulses-per-quarter-note resolution for audio events), but the "stereo" effect should be good enough for most situations.

Conclusions

PowerTracks' integration of digital audio, MIDI, scoring, and editing features is seamless. There's no need to switch out of the program to use any additional functions, including audio editing. I had my first song completed 30 minutes after I took the program out of the box.

Don't let the amazingly low price fool you. This full-featured MIDI/digital audio program will hang tough in most any desktop music setup. Graphically, it may not stimulate some users, but the money you save can buy some pretty nice artwork for your studio.

Description

MIDI/digital audio recording software

Requirements

Windows 95, 98, NT or 3.1; 8MB RAM, CD-ROM drive;any windows-compatible 16-bit soundcard; MIDI interface; 20 MB free hard disk space. MIDI features require 3867 processor or better. Digital Audio features require fast 486 or Pentium.

Suggested Retail Prices

PowerTracks Pro Audio $29 ; PowerTracks Pro Audio PowerPAK (Includes 3 MultiTracks Audio CDs), $49 ; MultiTracks add-on sets, Vol.1 and 2, $20 each.

Free demo
www.pgmusic.com
Contact
PG Music Inc.
1-800-268-6272
1-888-PGMUSIC
sales@pgmusic.com
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PROS

Loaded with features. Easy installation. Great documentation. Low resource requirements for digital audio support. Unbeatable $29 price tag.

CONS

Interface is not very stimulating. Lacks real-time effects processing. Only records in mono. Limited built-in instrument support.

BOTTOM LINE

Easy for beginners while still giving advanced desktop musicians the tools needed to create a quality final product. Don't be scared by the price - in this case, you get what you don't pay for.

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Jim Cara (www.caramedia.com) is the director of music and sound for the Prodigy online service. He reminds us that music and sound are part of a complete multimedia breakfast.

Article Copyright © 1995-1998 Miller Freeman, Inc., all rights reserved.

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