Some of Mixcraft’s existing plugins look a little old school but sound a lot better. These refinements and a series of pro features have come through regular updates over many years that have seen the software mature to its current ‘Pro Studio’ status, and its Computer Music scores have grown accordingly (from a not so great 6/10 for its debut to 9/10s from version 5 onwards).
There’s a well-featured mixer where you expect it to be and the UI is very welcoming indeed and easy to interact with, so the workflow is almost second to none on this platform. It’s a traditional DAW in the sense that tracks go top to bottom and arrangement flows left to right. Mixcraft has always offered a welcoming music production environment with a claimed ‘great ease of use combined with raw power’, and it’s hard to argue with this. (There’s also a cut-down Recording Studio version at $99 that lacks the Celemony Melodyne integration, a lot of the included plugin instruments and effects and other features, so we think Pro Studio is well worth the extra 100 bucks.) It might also not be on your radar because it’s a PC-only DAW, but if it is on your radar, you’ll know it comes packed with enough features to be a serious PC contender, and at just $199 for the top-end Pro Studio version on test here, it’s a bargain to boot.
