MixPad displays tracks in a stacked series of little media players - an ingenious arrangement that let us configure, edit, and play each track individually without getting mixed up by the usual mixing console's army of knobs and buttons.

At the bottom is an integrated media player to the left, an optional task panel. These can be managed from the NCH Suite at the far right of MixPad's Ribbon-style toolbar. While installing and setting up MixPad, we took advantage of downloading some of the extra tools, such as WavePad Sound Editor and Express CD Ripper. It rips and edits audio clips, samples tracks, changes pitch, adds effects like beats and reverb, and supports low-latency recordings for best audio quality. It differs from the usual mixing software in that it doesn't try to look like a studio console but rather uses an easy-to-understand, drag-and-drop layout that takes its visual cues from Explorer and Office. NCH's MixPad Free is a studio-quality music mixing app that integrates with a variety of audio tools that, like this version of MixPad, are free for non-commercial use.

Mixpad multitrack recording