Audio for Video Production: Digital Juice StackTraxx Production Library (page 2)

We reviewed the Power Stacks (Volume 2) for this review and, make no mistake, power is the right word. These are aggressive tracks, leaning toward heavy metal and power grunge, from a stylistic standpoint. While you won't be using these arrangements for productions such as realtor videos or wedding montages, they are a perfect fit for action videos and extreme sports like skateboarding or super cross. If head banging does not suit your clients, Digital Juice offers three other selections at this time: Extreme Stacks, Serious Stacks and Smooth Stacks (you can preview any of the tracks on their Website). At $249 per volume, it's a good variety for any buy-out library. Add the power of the Juicer and you have a great deal of flexibility. These tracks compare nicely in quality and variety to any of the other buy-out and royalty-free libraries on the market. There is a good deal of variation within each volume and, while the tracks have a sense of unity, there is no impression of boring sameness. I did notice some of the songs in the Power Stacks volume jump around a bit in their arrangements, but ultimately, they sound like a song and not just a bunch of chunks thrown together.

StackTraxx Layered Music Libraries fill a need in the video producer's bag of tricks. This tool combines the ease of buyout music with unprecedented power to remix the final track, without the hassle (or creativity) of a loop-based tool. StackTraxx gives you a different sort of control over the mix than the SmartSound products do and, better still, they let you modify your mix within any video editor without any sort of plugin. Video producers at any level can finally have some creative control over their music without having to hire a studio band. Instructions are sketchy and you should definitely preview the musical styles before you buy, but StackTraxx from Digital Juice take royalty-free music into a new realm.

Contributing Editor Hal Robertson is a 25-year production veteran and owns a media-consulting firm.

Version: PowerStacks Volume 2
Platform: PC and Mac
Operating System: Windows 98SE, 2000 and XP; Mac OS v9.22, OS X v. 10.1.5+
Processor: np
RAM: 256MB
Hard Disk: 256MB
Demo Version: Free Download
Upgrade: None

• Very easy to use
• Mixing flexibility
• Mac and PC

• Limited documentation

More flexible than buy-out libraries and easier to use than loop-based music tools, StackTraxx is an ideal way to get royalty-free music into your productions.

$249
Digital Juice, Inc.
1736 NE 25th Ave
Ocala, FL 34470-4854
(800) 525-2203
www.digitaljuice.com

• Digg This!
• del.icio.us
• Technorati
• StumbleUpon
• Reddit