Connecting the Finalizer, How to. . . . Options

[holli]

PPS: T-Racks sounds WAY better when you can actually hear what you're doing with it ie: I occasionally use it via an Apogee AD-8000...a whole different ball game...otherwise, you are not getting the sonic picture via the apple's sound manager...!

Hi Teiwaz, do you mean that soundmanager doesn't present the whole picture even when it's internally routed through my 2408 main outs? I worked with t-racks for a while like this before discovering the waves masters. They are both indeed fine bits of software.

[Teiwaz]

T-Racks has no real audio driver support, which kind of lets it down a bit. To me, software designed like this is a bit like buying a finalizer with unbalanced outs on a minijack and s**t convertors. Having to route the sound manager through to one's audio interface can create problems...my 2408 works great like this but...dodgydesign's sound manager driver extension can cause a system hang whenever I try to route the mac sound out through it to my Apogee...no suprises there...

T -Racks was fine for mastering DEMOS as a stopgap for a while, but I actually don't use it that much anymore...I'm using Waves with TC Spark now!

That's not to say that it's not a cool thang - it's just that I got a little bored of it after a few months...

[holli]

mmm.. I see what you mean, my system crashed severely as well under similar circumstances. Also corrupted system files and the only way to fix was to reinstall the OS! Fortunately I don't have to put up with this anymore
T-racks can be a bit of a blunt instrument at times but notheless produces quick results - I recently mastered all the score to a film project to get a 'ruff and ready' sound with some punch, the audio track to the picture was no where near the quality of my tunes and using my usual choice of waves, the two elements were like oil and water when dubbed! The ear seems to gravitate to the higher fidelity and obviously this is a no-no for most underscoring.
Seriously though and totally on-topic, it's a hard choice to make when presented with hardware vs. software, especially when they're of similar price (TC and Waves Masters).
Think of it this way, the mac when harnessed effectively by software and with suitable interfacing can be every bit as powerful as hardware like the TC, and more. If we were comparing a beautiful vintage eq and comp's, we could argue the toss a bit more (character, warmth, quirkyness etc though arguably the job done by a modern mastering stage is a little different for sure ) ..but the TC is just some software running from ROM and EPROM with some DSP chips and some A/D D/A conversion.. in a big metal box!!
Since as a mac owner you have all of these elements and hopefully a sexy audio interface, why pay for them again?

If you compare Tc hardware and the waves masters and can't 'hear' the difference (foresaking charts, comparisons etc), buy T-racks, as with the utmost respect, it sounds as if it may suit your current requirements better and be more cost effective. T-racks is a great way to get into the mastering process. Luv Holli x