Guitar Track Pro 3 Views
Cakewalk has updated its Guitar Tracks Pro software to version 3, creating a real contender in the audio-only multitrack wars. Version 3 boasts a new Loop Browser for Acid-style functionality; a navigator pane, allowing you to view a project in its entirety; a Tempo Map for creating tempo changes; and completely reimagined Edit and Mix views. These new features are among the changes designed to increase the application's capabilities and ease of use.
Don't let the name fool you into thinking that this application is limited to guitar-related uses. Guitar Tracks Pro 3 (GTP3) is a fully featured 32-track audio recording, editing, and mixing application. It can record and play back up to 24-bit, 96 kHz audio. It can import and adjust the tempos and keys of Acid loops. It comes with DX effects and can also use VST effects with the integrated Cakewalk VST-DX adapter. GTP3 can export songs in WAV, WMA, RealAudio, or (using an optional encoder) MP3 formats. Moreover, the Edit, Mix, and Loop browsers are just as effective with a full band, a string section, or vocals as they are with guitar tracks.
GTP3 features some extras that are geared toward the guitarist, including the LE version of IK Multimedia's guitar-amp simulator, Amplitube. The seven effects that Cakewalk designed for GTP3 are ones generally found in a guitarist's rack or stompbox collection, and encompass a tuner, an echo unit, reverb, delay, and chorus. The effects interfaces look like rackmount effects found in pro guitar rigs. The well-done demo song is a hard-rocking guitar affair. Unfortunately, GTP3 has no tablature interpreter or similar guitar-specific function.
Perhaps one reason that guitar-tab functionality was left out is that score and tab functions often involve MIDI. Except for compatibility with a number of popular control surfaces, such as Tascam US-428, CM Labs MotorMIX, and Roland U-8, GTP3 is a MIDI-free zone. A Generic Surface option can be used with most control surfaces, but other than that, there is no MIDI capability in GTP3. That can be confusing, because GTP3 allows you to instantiate a DX or VST instrument (DXi, VSTi) on an audio track, but it offers you no way to play them. According to Cakewalk, GTP3 works with most popular guitar-processors that have a MIDI out, such as DigiTech's popular RP and GNX models. That allows guitarists to operate the GTP3's transport controls and even punch in and out while keeping both hands on their axes.
Guitar Track Pro 3 Images
