Blue Cat's MB-7 Mixer V2.11 is here - Now Includes Multiband VST Hosting!

[Nunyabiness]

I'm not sure if this is the best place for a MB-7 mixer bug... but, I instantiated the plugin on an instrument track. Setup as a single band. Added Camel Audio Alchemy 64bit VSTi and it worked flawlessly. Great job Blue Cat!!

So... I moved on to a Korg WaveStation 64bit VSTi on another instrument track. It begins to load the VSTi, and then bam - Pro Tools completely crashes and a reboot is required.

I realize this plugin wasn't created as the 'end all' for using VSTi plugs in Pro Tools 11, so maybe this behavior is expected and it only works with certain VSTi instruments. But if it is supposed to work with any 64bit VSTi, then I would say this is probably a huge bug - although it might be Korg's bug and not the MB-7 mixer.

Cheers to Blue Cat Audio for an amazing plug in. This thing has a gazillion uses and I plan on using them all. =)

[Blue Cat Audio]

Thanks for the feedback!

Some plugins may indeed have compatibility issues, but we may be able to fix them if you report them like this!

BTW, a preview of the next update is available from the download page you received by email if you purchased the plugin (click on older 2.x versions and check the 2.03 preview). Can you check it out and tell us if it fixes your issue? It has fixed a few crashes with some VSTs that can sync with tempo.

[cryophonik]

BTW, a preview of the next update is available...

Geez, do you guys ever sleep?

[Blue Cat Audio]

Cats never sleep, do they?

[Nunyabiness]

Thanks for the feedback!

Some plugins may indeed have compatibility issues, but we may be able to fix them if you report them like this!

BTW, a preview of the next update is available from the download page you received by email if you purchased the plugin (click on older 2.x versions and check the 2.03 preview). Can you check it out and tell us if it fixes your issue? It has fixed a few crashes with some VSTs that can sync with tempo.

Wow, cat's really don't sleep do they?

The 2.03 beta absolutely fixed the problem with the Korg Legacy Collection plugins. I thought for a moment that it was about to crash cuz it took a bit longer to load the DLL, but it came right up and plays beautifully.

And if you'd like I'll post any other bugs and issues I find here as well.

[Blue Cat Audio]

Great! Thanks for the heads up. Feel free to post any issue here, indeed, or send us an email (support [at] bluecataudio [dot] com).

[Blue Cat Audio]

We are happy to officially release Blue Cat's MB-7 Mixer 2.03, adding tempo synchronization capabilities, as well as AAX AudioSuite support for offline processing inside Pro Tools 10 or 11.

For registered users, the updated version can be found at the same place as the previous one.

Enjoy!

[LGK_Dude]

I really, REALLY wish you guys would consider having a mix knob for blending plugins with the original signal. This would put the plugin over the top as a mixing tool for me, as this would be adding something unique to the party.

I can see why protools users are enjoying this plugin for the VST support, but as a Cubase user I'm failing to see the real value here. Cant I get the same results as this plugin through splitting a single output to multiple tracks and use multiple multiband compressors to solo specific frequency ranges, and then add insert plugins on these separate tracks?

I must be missing something - right?

edit: sorry if my post came off bad - its late here and I think my brain just shut off watching the videos, haha. I'm going to give this a go in the morning and see if I can better understand it, but if anyone wants to chime in it would be appreciated.

[Blue Cat Audio]

Quoting our reply on gearslutz):

You can indeed probably achieve similar results with a couple of busses, third party plug-ins and routing. But how long will it take to set it up in your DAW vs simply getting this into a single plug-in? (Some people actually think that multiband compressors are useless since they can build their own this way... I guess it depends on how much your time costs). Controlling crossover frequencies/slopes and compensating phase with the setup you describe is probably a big headache. wworried

Also, with this plug-in you can save your favorite setups as presets and recall them with a single mouse click, which you cannot do with complex routings in your DAW.

But maybe some people who bought the plug-in may chime in to explain why they did it!

Have your tried the plug-in BTW?

I guess giving it a try and comparing both approaches is probably worth it.

[Nunyabiness]

We are happy to officially release Blue Cat's MB-7 Mixer 2.03, adding tempo synchronization capabilities, as well as AAX AudioSuite support for offline processing inside Pro Tools 10 or 11.

For registered users, the updated version can be found at the same place as the previous one.

Enjoy!

Sorry, another bug report. I realize with the 2.03 preview release I stated that all Korg Legacy plugins now worked. However with the latest 2.03 release, loading Korg Legacy Wavestation plugin instance now crashes Pro Tools 11 completely.

All of the other Korg Legacy plugins work ok using MB-7 as the host, but for some reason Wavestation will not load.

I realize it may be something with my system, so please let me know if 2.03 should allow Korg Wavestation VSTi as a VSTi.

[Blue Cat Audio]

We'll check it out and see if we an do something. As stated in the user manual, it is not possible to validate all existing plug-ins, and some will remain incompatible with some host applications (especially Pro Tools that is pretty different).

[Nunyabiness]

We'll check it out and see if we an do something. As stated in the user manual, it is not possible to validate all existing plug-ins, and some will remain incompatible with some host applications (especially Pro Tools that is pretty different).

Thank you, even having a handful of VSTi plugs working is way better than none.
I have no complaints whatsoever.

[Alexiz]

I have no complaints either. An excellent tool. Just wanted to report that AlgoMusic's M42 Nebula and Image-Line Cytrus VSTi's, when loaded into MB-7, crash Pro Tools 10 badly as well. (Once again, I understand totally that "using VSTi synths" isn't even an intended purpose for the MB-7; but, well, for a moment there I was hoping that would do the much wanted trick).

I guess, oddly, many are attracted to this mixer plugin not as much because of its multiband capability as because of its handy VST-to-AAX/RTAS wrapping option. (Well, I was going to purchase it for that option alone, since M42, Cytrus, and Korg WS SR are apparently going to stay VST forever; but I guess I'll have to continue relying on Vienna EP for this... MB-7 would have been a much sleeker solution though).

Kudos to the developer anyway.

[Blue Cat Audio]

Thank you guys for the feedback!

We'll try to improve support for as many plug-ins as possible anyway, but in many cases it involves getting their developers on board to fix/modify a few things so that they are compatible with Pro Tools.

Please also check this thread to add supported/unsupported plug-ins to our list!

[Blue Cat Audio]

Blue Cat's MB-7 Mixer 2.04 is here, improving compatibility with several VST plug-ins:
- Fixed: some reverb plug-ins used to have their tail cut.
- Fixed: some VST plug-ins sometimes prevented Pro Tools from exiting (Kontakt 5 for example).
- Fixed: when inserting plug-ins with different latencies on different bands, tempo and MIDI events were not always in sync.

Introduction offer for the plug-in and several bundles has been extended until October 15th, don't miss it!