digital juice stack traxx

[sierra whiskey Profile Private message]

hi

does anyone have any comments on this product

steve

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

Pretty broad question you posed there. In what way, I ask? (I've got a number of them)

Dale

[debngar Profile Private message]

I have 14 of them and of what I've purchased, I like them. If you can get them at about $15-$25 each and don't pay any more than that, you should get you money's worth if you use the music considering the high cost of royalty free music per tune these days.

I've not done anything but placed full songs into my shows though. I haven't ever bothered to take any tracks out if you are wondering.

[sierra whiskey Profile Private message]

hello again

i was really interested in the overall quality of the product, that is both of the music and the sound quality.

i have some of their swipes and although i do on the whole like them some of them aren't of the best quality.

look forward to your comments

steve

[debngar Profile Private message]

I figure if you listen to them on the website and like what you hear, then buy it. If you don't, then don't buy it.

Some volumes simply don't appeal to me because of the cheap synthesized sound or style. It may appeal to someone else though.

I think the quality in the website demos is probably reduced so the one you get in hand should be better.

Also, I was looking forward to their worship stacks. The quality seems fine in the demo. But once I listened more carefully to the demos, I felt they were too much of one style music and vocals. That really turned me off to wanting any of them. I'm not saying they're bad, just that it was disappointing to me they put out so many that sounded the same instead of investing in a number of different people to write their songs and lyrics that have different styles. Having 10 of the same would get stale for me and so then I'm just not sure how much I would use that music in my case.

I also have Vol I and Vol II of their old Backtraxx stuff (no longer available). The quantity and variety of songs in those 2 sets I have make up for the simply awful songs also included in the mix.

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

By and large, I agree with Debbie. You may like what you hear ... you may not. I have about 25 of there's as well as Backtraxx 1&2. There's a wide variety. There's also a lot that I'll probably never use. But, if you can get it on sale or get a deal on them, I don't think you can go wrong. Also, you can shut off instruments that you don't want and so get a different slant on the song if you'd like. I have done a little of that but not a lot. But, it's also nice to have that ability. Overall, the quality is excellent. It's nice to have some music available that's royalty free when making shows... in case they're needed!

Dale

[jmeredith]

The main reason I stopped buying them is because the proprietary format (STX) is an unnecessary waste of time... why make me render out wav files when you could have easily fit them (each individual instrument track) on a DVD? Not a big deal to some but I don't have the time to fuss with 'em. The majority also sound "too synthy" for my tastes which is unfortunate given the multitude of virtual instruments available that they could have used which come with higher quality samples capable of producing realistic sounding music.

That being said, more often than not I use additional processing to change the sound ... (example - grabbed just the drum track - looped it with different effects added) and/or add my own vocals via virtual instruments (example - Elegy from StackTraxx Vol 3 Serious Stacks) so in that sense, they are quite flexible.

[debngar Profile Private message]

The main reason I stopped buying them is because the proprietary format (STX) is an unnecessary waste of time... why make me render out wav files when you could have easily fit them (each individual instrument track) on a DVD?

Could be to discourage people from copying the music and giving it to other people who haven't paid for it. Every set includes full song files in a compatible format usable in ProShow without having to use the juicer.

[jmeredith]

The main reason I stopped buying them is because the proprietary format (STX) is an unnecessary waste of time... why make me render out wav files when you could have easily fit them (each individual instrument track) on a DVD?

Could be to discourage people from copying the music and giving it to other people who haven't paid for it. Every set includes full song files in a compatible format usable in ProShow without having to use the juicer.

That same logic should be applied to all of their products then. The first 20-21 StackTraxx came with the full song files - later StackTraxx come only with the STX files.

Product Specifications:

Package Includes
1 DVD
Juicer 3 processing software

Technical Specs
Songs each with 4-7 remixable tracks
DVD file in proprietary and lossless STX format
Recorded natively at 44.1 khz, 16 bit
Compatibility

DVD-ROM drive required for layered files
Use the Juicer 3 to:
Browse, search & preview
Remix layered files
Batch export Wav & AIFF files

[debngar Profile Private message]

That same logic should be applied to all of their products then. The first 20-21 StackTraxx came with the full song files - later StackTraxx come only with the STX files.

I think someone once posted the same information a while back in either one of the ProShow forums or maybe the DJ forum somewhere. So I thought that too at first and without checking I was also guilty of passing that misinformation on initially.

Then I actually looked in all the folders in the later volumes and found out this is simply not true.

My collection of various StackTraxx span from #8 to #39 and every single one of them have full mp3 files of the songs listed.

You can find them under the "Juicer" folder!

I would say that Digital Juice is doing themselves a disfavor and losing potential customer purchases by not including that information in the specs!

[jmeredith]

So I thought that too at first and without checking I was also guilty of passing that misinformation on initially. My collection of various StackTraxx span from #8 to #39 and every single one of them have full mp3 files of the songs listed.

I'm fully aware of the existence of low quality/compressed MP3 files on the discs - I was referring to the fact that the product used to come with a CD containing all the songs (in an uncompressed format) that were still usable in a professional business setting. Low quality MP3 files may be fine for the hobbyist/others but they are wholly unusable for broadcast/film/other work and no client of ours would even consider using them.

[debngar Profile Private message]

I was referring to the fact that the product used to come with a CD containing all the songs (in an uncompressed format) that were still usable in a professional business setting.

Sorry, it wasn't initially clear to me that you were referring to those later volumes not having full uncompressed versions without having to process them through the juicer.

Probably a sign of the times unfortunately. Sort of like how some grocery stores now offer their bakery cookies in lots of 10 now instead of 12 (a dozen) in the package for the same price.

[sierra whiskey Profile Private message]

interesting comments...found the discussion helpful

thanks

steve