Somebody tried Harrison Mixbus for Windows?

[v1o]

Sorry to put a dampener on what 'looks' to be a great deal at the moment but.......this program and its whole development stinks of Mackie Tracktion part deux.

The original review in SOS stated that Harrison Mixbuss was soon to be incorporating MIDI functionality. That was nearly 3 YEARS AGO!

This kinda reminds me of Mackie and his gang of crooks promising people bug fixes,updates and 'guaranteed' future proof support for Tracktion 3,especially when they were offering a deal similar to the current MixBuss deal.Wheres Tracktion now?

I would never,EVER buy another Mackie product after what they did,not just with Tracktion either but with their entire digital product range.

Take heed Harrison....take heed.

Well its different because its based on the Open Source Ardour. I think that's the main thing thing holding back midi. As long as they are updates to Ardour, they will be updates to Mixbus as well.

But anyway at the moment i'd regard Mixbus as app for mixing audio not for composing.

[pwal]

But anyway at the moment i'd regard Mixbus as app for mixing audio not for composing.

same here, but we need midi for controller support, no?

[musikmachine]

^Exactly that. The rainebroadcasting videos give a good overview.

[SAW75]

None of your favourite plugins will work any more

Sounds like they don't work now. Will this be stabilized in v2?

[pwal]

we're already on v2.2

[SAW75]

we're already on v2.2

I mean before a paid upgrade to v3. I don't want to pay for something that is broken and then pay again to get a fix.

[v1o]

But anyway at the moment i'd regard Mixbus as app for mixing audio not for composing.

same here, but we need midi for controller support, no?

We do. But the problem is Open source development is notoriously slow. I remember waiting years for new features in stuff like Inkscape and the Gimp.

[pwal]

yes, agreed re the pace of os dev, but i'm a hobbyist and also have studio1 and live to play with, so i'm in no big rush... fwiw, if it were up to me i'd rather mixbus was a VST or Rewire device but i understand that harrison are using linux/ardour embedded into their digital hw desks (cmiiw) and the mixbus app is their "prosumer" offering that uses the same dsp? i'm happy to be "on board" for less cost than a night out, i can wait for the currently-missing features

[shanecgriffo]

God I can't even get a sound out of it trying to record in!.. Signal shows on my track input meter but doesn't show up no matter what I try, in the master track... When I import audio it works fine tho..
This is starting to look a big waste of $40! Aaargh
From a default load, making a new track and pushing the red button on the track , I should be able to hear it right? Especially if signal is showing on the meter?

Edit- so I tried recording something and it recorded and plays back ok
I just can't hear anything until it's a recorded track .. Anyone have some vital step I'm missing?

[musikmachine]

I think you have to set up the routing in the mixer, that's where jack comes in or maybe it's auto input? I've got audio in from my mopho monitoring through a track in mixbus so it should be working, i think you have to point your audio inputs to a track.

Thanks to Harrison i've been able to try it anyway and overall it's pretty stable, IK plugins crash so can't use those but the dsp is excellent for processing audio and the layout of the mixing console is quite intuitive.

I asked about a demo and they said as they're a small company the effort to maintain it was not justified and they'd rather focus their resources on mixbus. A lot of plugins do get blacklisted though.

For me it works well cause i can load maschine as an Fx (normal dll was blacklisted for some reason) and import my tracks from there, mix them with the dsp and export the tracks. I save the project with maschine and then save the maschine project and delete maschine then resave it as a backup in case it won't reload which has happened a few times. I would not have been able to work any of this out without trying it so i do think you need some way to test it before buying it. If you just want to use it for mixing stems or using the dsp to add warmth then it's well worth the $40 just for the headroom imo, no digital clipping!

I was looking at summing mixers recently so for me this is a kind of a no brainer, i can use maschine for composing and Mixbus for mixing. I've read you can route audio from your host using Jack but i don't know how well it works. It really is worth it for the current price imo and i'm not finding it too much trouble to pick up as i'm going but then there are plugins like Sonimus Satson but the bottom line is i'm really enjoying working with it. Ymmv.

[shanecgriffo]

Just found - options/monitoring- the default setting is 'hardware does monitoring' (huh?!)
I changed it to 'mixbus does monitoring ' and i can hear my audio input.. Is it just me or is that a silly thing to have as the default setting?

Ok did some recording (electric guitar and amplitube3)
It does seem to have something nice right off the bat with the sound , a studio/ thru the desk sort of fullness/body

[beau921]

I've searched online, read, and attempted to gather information about how well Harrison Mixbus, in it's most recent release version, works with Windows.

It's like that girl on the 'Little Britain' television show who always replied "yes, but no, but yes, but no, but yes, but no..."

It seems everything contradicts everything else.

The obvious is, the program, in it's current state, appears more as a mastering tool than a recording/composition tool.

I like that idea, and could live with some of it's limitations if there is an audible improvement in the sound.

I did, however, find one person who said their computer slowed down to the point they could no longer watch a video, even after uninstalling Harrison Mixbus.

Of course, everyone's computer is unique and that could have been attributed to any number of things, and there was no mention of which release version they had used.

So, I was wondering if anyone who has used Harrison Mixbus in any version on any platform has noticed any change for the negative in the performance of their computer?

[beauchamp]

So, I was wondering if anyone who has used Harrison Mixbus in any version on any platform has noticed any change for the negative in the performance of their computer?

Yes, this software is just about unusable on my system with Windows. I have Reaper and Samplitude running extremely well, also Live. Zero problems with these apps, for example Samplitude with 100 plus tracks in it, no audio files, just about zero CPU, similarly Reaper. Mixbus uses about half of my CPU capacity with no tracks in it. If I actually use it with any audio files, a couple say, it runs very poorly, staggering about at times like a flamenco dancer on speed. Click, clack, click, clack.

I now know why there is no demo of this software.

Be afraid, very afraid.

beauchamp

[beau921]

So, I was wondering if anyone who has used Harrison Mixbus in any version on any platform has noticed any change for the negative in the performance of their computer?

Yes, this software is just about unusable on my system with Windows. I have Reaper and Samplitude running extremely well, also Live. Zero problems with these apps, for example Samplitude with 100 plus tracks in it, no audio files, just about zero CPU, similarly Reaper. Mixbus uses about half of my CPU capacity with no tracks in it. If I actually use it with any audio files, a couple say, it runs very poorly, staggering about at times like a flamenco dancer on speed. Click, clack, click, clack.

I now know why there is no demo of this software.

Be afraid, very afraid.

beauchamp

Thanks for the reply.

I was leaning against buying it, but I guess, in light of it's potential [or hype?], I was hoping it had improved since it's first Windows version.

Sounds like it still needs a bit of work.

I think I'll avoid this one.

[scalawag]

So, I was wondering if anyone who has used Harrison Mixbus in any version on any platform has noticed any change for the negative in the performance of their computer?

Yes, this software is just about unusable on my system with Windows. I have Reaper and Samplitude running extremely well, also Live. Zero problems with these apps, for example Samplitude with 100 plus tracks in it, no audio files, just about zero CPU, similarly Reaper. Mixbus uses about half of my CPU capacity with no tracks in it. If I actually use it with any audio files, a couple say, it runs very poorly, staggering about at times like a flamenco dancer on speed. Click, clack, click, clack.

I now know why there is no demo of this software.

Be afraid, very afraid.

beauchamp

You must be doing something wrong for sure. Maybe using an higher sample rate and low latency settings, than you use on the others. I use Live and Mixbus and i feel they are equal on CPU. I even used both linked together with Jack without any problem...