KVR Audio

khanyz · Post by **khanyz** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 12:12 pm

What version did you use, 1.9.7 or 1.9.8? I didn't get any improvement when I tried.

Harrison are working on the issue as well as some others. No ETA on the release though.

gckilla · Post by **gckilla** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 3:24 pm

I used 1.9.8 on my desktop...I think I've got an older one on my laptop. I'll check later on.

khanyz · Post by **khanyz** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 3:42 pm

Thanks, I'll try it again. Harrison know about the problem and have reproduced it.

Another problem I had is that the Mixer Window is open, but it won't take focus or come to the top. This is in Win7 and the Mixer Window shows in the Task Bar and Alt-Tab previews, you can select it but nothing happens. I also tried the MixBus menu and shortcut options for opening/closing/switching/bring to top but nothing.

Anybody had that happen?

Johnny! · Post by **Johnny!** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 3:44 pm

from what I can see - a DAW without midi, with very very basic VST support, with interface 5 years behind current developments and they dare to ask people to pay for this? you gotta be kidding me. and no Harrison-console-superb-quality audio blabber will convince me. i find it strange that they consider this a completed product that just needs some refinements - it looks more like it stopped in the middle of the development because the dev team got so excited with the console sound quality marketing bla bla and thought this will be enough. ridiculous release especially given its $219 price tag

4damind · Post by **4damind** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 7:44 pm

Mixbus is more focused to mixing/mastering and not for arranging/composing. Think more of Pro Tools in the early days instead of Logic or Cubase.
Midi support is on the way but what I've seen with the Alpha version of Ardour3 is very rudimentary. Because Mixbus is based on Ardour2 with some improvements it will need a long time to have some proper Midi support (IMO).

The interesting thing is the workflow, the Harisson channel EQ/Comp/Tape saturation and the "hardwired groups" ("Mixbus") which makes Mixbus different and it works on Linux/Windows/MacOS.
The workflow with Mixbus will be: arrange in Cubase/Logic/Studio One etc, render all tracks to audio (it's always recommended to have all tracks as audio files) and than use Mixbus to mix the song. For mixing use the 8 groups "Mixbus" to pre-mix similar sounds (drums, vocals, leads,...)

So I see more a "problem" with this workflow. Some users will have a different workflow where mixing is not a extra stage. If a sound is programmed/recorded and the track is composed, EQ/Comp etc is added and the track is pre-mixed. So it's more a part of the arranging/composing process in the same DAW. A part of this would be to use some groups to group similar sounds (drums, vocals, leads, pads,...) for same processing.
But this "collection" of sounds in different groups is on the other side a design idea of Mixbus too...
It's the same while people compose in Logic/Cubase etc and than use Pro Tools for the final mixing and mastering... Different tools for different tasks.

khanyz · Post by **khanyz** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 7:51 pm

Also, you can connect MixBus to the main DAW outputs and use them together. That was the original idea behind Jack.

It takes some hefty CPU though. I managed it with v1 but can't with v2.

And the sound is very good. It's not transparent and does add something to the mix.

4damind · Post by **4damind** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 8:01 pm

khanyz wrote:Also, you can connect MixBus to the main DAW outputs and use them together. That was the original idea behind Jack

This remembers also to a workflow where Pro Tools running on the same machine. The main DAW (Logic/Cubase/etc.) will be used for composing and arranging. 8 groups will be connected "live" to Pro Tools with further processing.

But on Windows this needs the extra installation of Jack for Windows or some kind of virtual audio cable.

khanyz · Post by **khanyz** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 8:04 pm

I haven't tried it in Windows yet, but will be soon. I did it in OSX with Jack and aggregate audio.

gckilla · Post by **gckilla** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 9:32 pm

For anyone questioning the legitimacy of this DAW, one only needs to look to the reviews of the product. Ardour in itself is a great DAW - coupled with a professional console company's DSP makes it unique and valuable.

S-N-S · Post by **S-N-S** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 9:35 pm

khanyz wrote:Also, you can connect MixBus to the main DAW outputs and use them together. That was the original idea behind Jack.

It takes some hefty CPU though. I managed it with v1 but can't with v2.

And the sound is very good. It's not transparent and does add something to the mix.

that sounds interesting,but cant help thinking the price is a bit steep,gonna try it out,but think i will stay with the DAW im using now though

Johnny! · Post by **Johnny!** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 10:51 pm

I couldn't justify such expense. I understand the usage scenario proposed few posts above, I imagine this software (the whole idea behind it) could work on Linux, but on OSX and Windows? Nope, sorry but this is so immature there, i mean - JACK? Really? On windows? Correct me if I'm wrong, but most of the times I hear about jack anywhere outside Linux world it's connected to terms "crash" "unstable" and "how to make this bloody thing work". Now that it supports 64bit, ReWire should be the choice instead, it would be perfect for streaming audio from some well featured daw into that. Also - such poor plugin support on Windows makes this look like Reason's embrionic not yet developed brother. What makes this differrent from some console strip plugin is it's ability to run standalone and load some audio - imo that's a bit too little for $219.

khanyz · Post by **khanyz** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 11:17 pm

Jack on OSX is solid, for me at least. On Windows though, I can't get it to be. The only way I can get it to work is to use ASIO4ALL. This means I'm using WDM, ASIO4ALL, ASIO and Jack driver layers, which is nuts. On OSX it's only Jack and CoreAudio.

I'm hoping that MixBus ditches Jack and just does ASIO on Windows. Maybe Windows Audio too, whatever the new Win7 one is.

4damind · Post by **4damind** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 11:49 pm

Jack is a good idea, unfortunately it seems only work proper on Linux and MacOS. On Windows the jackrouter will not work with 32Bit applications but 64Bit applications... Registering of the 64Bit DLL (ASIO COM-Server) by hand... etc. Many having problems to get it to work.

But the good thing is, that Mixbus doesn't need a extra Jack installation to work. This is more a problem when users are interested to use all the features of Jack.

C-note · Post by **C-note** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 11:53 pm

khanyz wrote:Jack on OSX is solid, for me at least. On Windows though, I can't get it to be. The only way I can get it to work is to use ASIO4ALL. This means I'm using WDM, ASIO4ALL, ASIO and Jack driver layers, which is nuts. On OSX it's only Jack and CoreAudio.

I'm hoping that MixBus ditches Jack and just does ASIO on Windows. Maybe Windows Audio too, whatever the new Win7 one is.

Just tried it out on Win7/64 - installed easily and uses ASIO

khanyz · Post by **khanyz** » Sun Jan 22, 2012 11:59 pm

It could be my ASIO drivers. I've only tried M-Audio and EMU interfaces. I also have a Line 6 I could try.

Even so, I've never had an issue with the EMU drivers before. It could be the 64-bit thing mentioned above as I'm on 32-bit.

Somebody tried Harrison Mixbus for Windows?