IKs MixBox

[cprompt]

(disclaimer : didn't wanna steal some guys pics so decided to link)

Hey, I'm some guy Seriously, I think the problem is that the text is over anti-aliased (or they used the wrong anti-aliasing algorithm, maybe "smooth" vs "sharp") so it appears blurrier than it should do. It's strange cos the text in the full T-Racks plugins is great, very sharp and easy to read, so I'm not sure what happened in MixBox.

I know people say mix with your ears not with your eyes etc etc but you do have to look at the plugin at some point and if it's even slightly blurry, it's very hard to use. Honestly, it does put me off a bit so maybe the gurus at IK will correct this in an update.

[pixel85]

Here is an example how it looks for the few ms after releasing LMB after resizing. Not super sharp but still better (except EQ81)
Ps. it's screenshot from video screen grab so it was compressed 3 times together:

[pixel85]

(disclaimer : didn't wanna steal some guys pics so decided to link)

Hey, I'm some guy Seriously, I think the problem is that the text is over anti-aliased (or they used the wrong anti-aliasing algorithm, maybe "smooth" vs "sharp") so it appears blurrier than it should do. It's strange cos the text in the full T-Racks plugins is great, very sharp and easy to read, so I'm not sure what happened in MixBox.

I know people say mix with your ears not with your eyes etc etc but you do have to look at the plugin at some point and if it's even slightly blurry, it's very hard to use. Honestly, it does put me off a bit so maybe the gurus at IK will correct this in an update.

It looks like it's a mix of anti-aliasing or another smoothing filter + graphics itself. For example, EQ81 is way more blurred than 670 while Sat X is somewhere in between.
And it's not only text but the entire GUI is affected by this filter.
I'm expecting a quick fix for this issue.

[simmo75]

Isn't there a hi pass filter/sc on the dynamic processors?
It doesn't look like it from the photo above.
Hmmm, strange omission that!

Edit: it looks like some of the compressors do have a HP/SC.

[DarkStar]

@ dionenoid

Confirmed - here is the Bus Comp in ST4, MixBox and TR5. Mixbox FX come from ST4.

>>> https://i.imgur.com/dNNZntR.png
Right-click the link for the full-size images

The knob shape / perspective and text font in TR5 is much clearer. I did think that the blurring may be down to the scaling factor, I tried setting them all to 1.0 (or 2.0 for HDPI screens?); the settings.properties files are in C:\Users\DarkStar\AppData\Roaming\IK Multimedia\<<productname> here. It helped a little.

[dionenoid]

(disclaimer : didn't wanna steal some guys pics so decided to link)

Hey, I'm some guy Seriously, I think the problem is that the text is over anti-aliased (or they used the wrong anti-aliasing algorithm, maybe "smooth" vs "sharp") so it appears blurrier than it should do. It's strange cos the text in the full T-Racks plugins is great, very sharp and easy to read, so I'm not sure what happened in MixBox.

I know people say mix with your ears not with your eyes etc etc but you do have to look at the plugin at some point and if it's even slightly blurry, it's very hard to use. Honestly, it does put me off a bit so maybe the gurus at IK will correct this in an update.

Yeah i already uninstalled MixBox so i had to find an example of the blurry interface and i remember seeing your post on GS.

What's weird is that MixBox is released like this. Hard to imagine that no one at IK noticed this, or even worse, that they decided to release a plug-in looking like this.

Made me go cross-eyed after using it for a bit, especially in contrast to the lettering in the menus and presets which were just fine.

And i have nothing against IK. Use a couple of their plug-ins all the time, good stuff. But MixBox feels like a rushed release, not only because of the blurry thing, but also because of some other stuff that i mentioned before.

[plexuss]

Unfortunately MVP still means Minimum Viable Product intead of Minimum Valuable Product.

[SiliconDeath]

11 pages is 4 days... wow, this has been a busy thread!

[Lotuz2019]

The number of videos on YouTube is growing too:



Don't forget to watch the IK Tech Talks Live - Complete MixBox walkthrough 9/22/20 @4PM (EST).

[stech9]

Post Edit: See the next post for details.

[simmo75]

I purchased MixBox recently. As I make time to walk myself through the app I offer the following (still trying to figure out a noise issue when modules are chained in certain sequences).

MixBox is indeed fuzzy on the PC, yet on the MAC is clear. CPU usage varies depending on the module (TapeEcho is noticeably hungry).

Latency is an issue. Attempting to run MixBox as a virtual 500 series hardware rack on a second system has proved trying.

There are a few modules that exhibit strange button behavior: 'Preamp' gain button does not grey out yet cannot be adjusted for 'clean, britac or mellow' settings & 'Digital Reverb' size button is counter-intuitive to adjust (you can click the text display and enter medium or large).

Here is a breakdown put together by this user, attempting to present a "module" duplication among the various IK Multimedia products.

Code: Select all

Processing Module • [application]
MB=MixBox
TR=T-RackS
S=Syntronik
A=AmpliTube
ST=SampleTank

American Vintage T • MB A ST
British Tube Lead • MB A ST
Cabinet • MB ST
Flexi Amp • MB S ST
Jazz Amp 120 • MB S A ST
Modern Tube Lead • MB S A ST
Preamp • MB ST
SVT Classic • MB S A *SVX-CL ST
Tone Control • MB ST

Channel Strip • MB S ST
EQ 81 • MB TR ST
EQ Comp • MB ST

Digital Delay • MB S A ST
Reverb Delay • MB ST
Tape Echo • MB TR S ST

Crusher • MB S A ST
Distortion • MB S ST
Lo-Fi • MB S ST
Overdrive • MB S A ST
Overscream • MB S A ST

Black 76 • MB TR S ST
Bus Compressor • MB TR ST
Compressor • MB TR ST
De-Esser • MB
Limiter • MB TR ST
Model 670 • MB TR S ST
White 2A • MB TR S ST

British EQ • MB TR ST
EQ PG • MB TR ST
Parametric EQ • MB S ST
Vintage EQ-1A • MB TR S ST

Env Filter • MB S ST
Filter Formant • MB ST
Filter Phaser • MB ST
Filter-C • MB ST
Filter-M • MB ST
Filter-O • MB ST
Filter-R • MB ST
LFO Filter • MB S ST
Multi Filter • MB S ST
Wah 47 • MB S A *Not Exact ST

AM Modulator • MB S ST
AutoPan • MB S ST
Chorus • MB S A *Not Exact ST
Chorus C1 • MB S A ST
Electric Flanger • MB S A ST
Ensemble • MB ST
Env Flanger • MB ST
Flanger • MB A *Not Exact ST
FM Modulator • MB S ST
Multi Chorus • MB ST
Opto Tremolo • MB S A ST
Phaser • MB S ST
Rotary Speaker • MB S A *Not Exact ST
Slicer • MB S ST
Small Phazer • MB S ST
Tremolo • MB ST
Uni-V • MB S A ST

Ambience • MB ST
ConvoRoom • MB ST
Digital Reverb • MB A *Not Exact ST
Hall Reverb • MB TR *CSR S ST
Inverse Reverb • MB TR *CSR ST
Plate Reverb • MB TR *CSR S ST
Room Reverb • MB TR *CSR ST
Spring Reverb • MB S ST
Stereo Imager • MB S ST

Phonograph • MB S ST
Saturator-X • MB TR ST
Tape Cassette • MB

Overall I am pleased with the purchase of MixBox. It has crashed a few times; this may be excused as the first couple of times I was flipping through the modules/settings like an asteroid shower. Is it worth it? It would be unfair for me to say when a demo is available.

Thanks for your time. It is getting harder to share thoughts without the listener jumping to conclusions, even when they didn't hear what you said...
Please note: This post was done so on KVR. I prefer this post is not copied and posted elsewhere, thank you.

Just wanted to correct you here.

It is blurry on mac too.

[Lotuz2019]

Official MixBox Wish List:

https://cgi.ikmultimedia.com/ikforum/vi ... 8ddb8beb69

[RafaelMorgan]

Here is an example how it looks for the few ms after releasing LMB after resizing. Not super sharp but still better (except EQ81)
Ps. it's screenshot from video screen grab so it was compressed 3 times together:

Honestly, as a graphic designer, I'm impressed by the lack of care in this UI design.

Besides being blurry, each module seems to be rendered in a slightly different perspective, with different lightning setups.

I mean, look at those shadows. They have different lengths and different softness parameters.

Besides, it's obvious that for such kind of plugin, an ortographic projection (flat looking render with no perspective distortions) is way better than that fake perspective on the knobs, which can be nauseating for some people. This has been discussed a thousand times on forums like this.

Very amateurish mistakes.

IK, if you're reading this, vector graphics are the way to go for GUIs. You can achieve the same level of realism with way better sharpness, infinite resolution and scalability and smaller file size.

Monitor resolutions are increasing so fast that it's just a silly compromise to make image based GUIs.

[pixel85]

Here is an example how it looks for the few ms after releasing LMB after resizing. Not super sharp but still better (except EQ81)
Ps. it's screenshot from video screen grab so it was compressed 3 times together:

Honestly, as a graphic designer, I'm impressed by the lack of care in this UI design.

Besides being blurry, each module seems to be rendered in a slightly different perspective, with different lightning setups.

I mean, look at those shadows. They have different lengths and different softness parameters.

Besides, it's obvious that for such kind of plugin, an ortographic projection (flat looking render with no perspective distortions) is way better than that fake perspective on the knobs, which can be nauseating for some people. This has been discussed a thousand times on forums like this.

Very amateurish mistakes.

IK, if you're reading this, vector graphics are the way to go for GUIs. You can achieve the same level of realism with way better sharpness, infinite resolution and scalability and smaller file size.

Monitor resolutions are increasing so fast that it's just a silly compromise to make image based GUIs.

Each module seems to be made by a different graphic designer without any guidance/documentation to keep unified design. Not to mention that resolution or render settings are completely different for each module (one more blurry, other less...). But tbh I don't believe that anything besides blurred GUI will be ever fixed/updated.

Yep its a mess. I can stand inconsistency with shadows and fake "3D" but blurry keeps me from pulling the trigger on MixBox. Not enough that it's hard to find display which is safe for eyes (in reasonable price range) and blurry graphics is making eye strain even worst. Idon't care that some audio guys are saying that graphics doesn't matter. GUI should be as important as sound quality.

EDIT: vector graphics seems to cause issues for some. Probably because another myth that any potato is good enough as graphic card for audio people, makes people use ancient or integrated graphic cards which are good for displaying word and excel.

[DarkStar]

Can you guys check the FX GUIs in SampleTank 4? Are they blurred there too? I think that (some of?) the GUIs in Mixbox are taken from ST4.