IK Multimedia T-RackS RTAS Mac

mixing and mastering for 15 years on various formats

I've been using Tracks24.It's not self explanitory but tweaking will produce excelent results.

If you know some basic and advanced sound principals,this produces
great sound quality.It does have the ability to make very loud mixes if needed (more so than other plugs)but care must be taken not to ruin the mix.You can use their good presets as a foundation and adjust from there.The analog emulation is very realistic.

This was worth buying.I compared it to many other mastering software.It has never crshed on me and because it's a stand alone version, CPU usage doesn't bother me.Beginers may have a hard time but
the main focus is sound quality wich it does have.I gave it a rating of 9 because there is always something that can be improved,although I can't think of what that is.

I have been recording and mastering music for years. I am running various Macs with either MOTU Digital Performer or ProTools TDM HD2 systems.

The interface is good... and atractive, BUT it takes some serious fiddling to get it to sound A PARTICULAR WAY. It sounds good with most of the presets after a bit of tweeking, but if you are looking for a particular sound, it takes some getting used to.
The controlls all have "sweet spots" in about 5-10% of their range that you have to find, while the rest of the range is pretty much unusable unless you are looking for 'different' or 'strange' sounds instead of good, AND the controlls are very interactive with the others, so that takes additional getting used to. BUT it rules after you get it tweeked.

The presets are OK, but I made my own for different situations. This program has its place. If you are looking for LOUD and raw, this is where it is at. However, if you are looking for dynamic, clean and refined...then you might find another program like PEAK better suited to your needs. I do lots of metal bands, and this plugin rocks for getting huge in-your -face sounds...and much louder than most CDs out there.
ALSO, This program lies a bit about the EQ. After you bump down the mix, the EQ-ing that you performed in the program will become much more pronounced...I don't know why, but it is true. I found that the EQ section colors the sound a bit too much for me if I boost more than a few dB, so I use it for cut and slight boosts only. I wish that the low EQ's had lower ranges. I think that you can hack the cutoff point, but I have not tried it yet.
A FEW TRICKS are to always keep the output at -0.8dB...any more and you will overload the output section (you may be going for that though...I dunno), any less and you will not get the volume you want.
I use the outpyt section pretty much on Hard knee and then rotate the dial counterclockwise until I get the meter clipping a bit, then I back it off in CONJUNCTION with the saturation knob around 1 o'clock, tweeking it up to get the fullest sounding mix possible withoug too much coloration.
Make sure to set the release times with the music, and keep them as short as possible or the compressor will end up pumping WAY too much. I wish sometimes that the release time for the limiter would go below 100ms for death metal-type stuff above 200BPM though.
I usually normalize my tracks to -0.3dB below peak with another program BEFORE TRackS and then set the compression level until I get between -3 and -5 on the meter...and the same goes for the limiter.
These settings work best for me, and provide a nice starting point for most styles of music.

I think this is a useful program...well worth tha price if you end up using it as it is intended. It sounds nice and raunchy, but can clean up -sort of- to a warm analogue-ish sound too. The clipping is nice, but a bit harsh at times if you are not careful. It has never crashed, it uses very little CPU too. It is nice to dial in some analogue raunch without having to deal with the analogue HISS and hardware headaches.
I use it as well as Bias Peak, Spark and Digital Performer in conjunction with the Blue Tubes bundle for most of my mastering. It gets the job done for me.
I use it alone on most band demo projects on a tight budget since I can just pull up my presets and get a decent enough sound with minimal effort. I do wish that it had automation features, although using realtime processing and twiddling the virtual knobs usually is sufficient. I have found that it is best suited for rock, punk, metal and indie styles, but would probably not be clean enough for R&B, POP, light Rock or Rap...but I don't work with those types of bands, so I can't say definitively.

I've been recording in my basement for 23 years. First four track cassette and the moved up to the Roland VS880. I've been using the T-Racks Mastering plug-in with Pro Tools Free on my mac for a couple of years. I mostly record acoustic guitar and vocals.

Super easy to use. Select a preset to get started and tweak it all you want.

I think it sounds great! Gets maximum volume without overloading everytime. It can master sounds cleanly or it can warm sounds up with overdrive and "tape" saturation.

It has never crashed. I love it. A friend of mine had it and showed it to me and I went a bought one too. I know people get mad when reviews are too positive. But This plug in warms up digital recordings and can creat lo-fi crappy sounds - I like both!

I've got a Power Mac G4 with Dual 1.25Ghz and 512MB RAM, Pro Tools LE and Digi 002 through Mackie HR624's. Recorded a rock CD with my band in a pro studio and brought the data back to my house to mix and master. I couldn't get the volume that I needed with the Digi-Rack plug-ins so I looked for something else and bought T-Racks Mastering Suite. To get the volume I wanted with T-Racks, I had to sacrifice sound. Piece of advice: never sacrifice sound for volume! I later downloaded the trial version of Maxim from digidesign and now I wish I'd never bought T-Racks.

It's very easy to use, installation was easy except for the 953 character (exageration, but it seems like that many) authorization codes. The EQ is pretty good except it only has two Q settings. Automation is supported.

After trying out demos of other mastering plugins, I decided the sound is not worth the money.

Not worth the money. Spend twice as much to get five times as much. Don't fall for the good looks and ease of use. Follow your ears and spend a little more money.