MixControl Pro

I've bought Mixcontrol 1.0 in 2010 because of the promotion they had at the time.
For $39 i thought "why not!"
At the time i thought it was a very good Channel Strip, but with a simple and somewhat ugly interface. It was one of my first investmnent for my studio.
And now OMG! The new Mixcontrol, now Pro, is something even better!
The new interface is very pleasant to the eye and easy to navigate, and i think the sound is even better now. I love the 1st saturation (there are 3 saturation types to choose). It reminds me some sort of Tube saturation.
The parametric EQ is also a must. Very easy to work with.
TeamDNR is now called DNR Collaborative. They have change company name, but support is still TOP.
This is a Channel Strip everyone should have, and for that price you don't get better!

To me MixControl Pro is mainly a compressor that can do several other things, too. The compressor in MCP sounds very good on anything I have thrown at it. When used very slightly (about one dB reduction) it has a nice glue. That works great on single tracks or on the master. Controlling unsteady performances is easy to accomplish with it and sounds good. Plus this guy can smash things and still have a polite grin on it's face. It's so much fun! And all this was only the clean compression mode (#1).
The dirty variant (#2) adds lotsa possibilities as it sounds quite differently. The wow thing here is: The saturation is inside the compressor. The more it compresses the more it saturates. So it's not like two plugins in a row. Very cool. The sat mode sounds very good to me, very (sigh!) vintage.

The eq is good, no question. But my main eq is GlissEQ so there's no competition here. The MCP eq is a modern clean eq. So it doesn't necessarily add things to my palette. But having it available for some tone shaping in front of the compressor is very handy.

The limiter: To me this is rather the third compressor mode than a radical loudness factory. Sounds good. A Smoothie.

The Gate: Nothing spectacular, works OK.

Stereo: Again clever choice of effective controls but not too many. Three bands which allows for some cool multi widening tricks without having to set it up otherwise. Nice.

Sat: Good sounding and different than my other colouring tools. Nice addition to the palette.

OK, let's walk through the rating sections of the review!

User interface: Well, yes and no. I'm very picky on interfaces. While it's generally on the pretty side a few things don't click with me. It has tooltips whith mouse over which is nice when learning all the not so obvious but clever features. It's OK overall.

Sound: Yes, definitely. The compressor is a big wow factor for me. See my rant above.

Features: It can do a lot. MCP has a clever mix between usability and versatility.

Documentation: Mostly complete. A few infos more wouldn't have hurt but I must admit that I'm rather on the geeky side of such things. So for all normal questions there's an answer. ;-)

Presets: Hm, I really don't care. I don't use presets for such FX often and I didn't check most of the presets. There are quite some but no overwhelming amount, so this isn't a lexicon of audio engineering. But I don't think it should be either.

Customer Support: Great! Very friendly and responsive people who know what they are talking about.

Value for the money: Again, if this would be the compressor section alone it would be worth that money. Compared to other top quality compressors this is really good value for the money. And yes, it's not "only" the compressor!

Stability: Stable. Simple as that. Never crashed on me.

Resume:
If forced to I could mix a whole album with MCP alone while being happy with it. That's how versatile it is and that's how good it sounds. A good working professional tool. And if it would be for the compressor alone it would be worth to own it!

User Interface - 10:

The default user interface is kind of plain. But it is skinable and the library of skins is quickly growing (the sci-fi designer monkey skin is my favorite at the moment).

Please bear in mind that I am new to mixing and channel strips, but this is a very unintimidating plugin. I don't feel overwhelmed by all the knobs, buttons and meters. The interface is laid out nicely and is very user friendly.

You get 2 versions of mixcontrol (large and small). I simply use the large version for everything.


Sound - 10:

Given my limited experience - I am quickly learning how to shape my tracks with this plugin. Right now - it sounds great to me.


Features - 10:

For me - this is an excellent channel strip. I have an equalizer (highly praised by many individuals at kvr and gearsluts), a compressor (transparent and colored), a brickwall limiter, a stereo enhancer and a gate in a single plugin. It is perfect for my needs.


Documentation - 7:

A limited pdf manual is quickly available via menu drop down in the plugin. Manual is pretty much a brief overview of the plugin (system requirements, support, features, processor information, options/preferences, and a signal path diagram). It needs a bigger, better, deeper and more detailed manual.


Presets - 8:

It comes with 32 presets. Being new to mixing and channel strips - I need more presets. I would like to see some male vocal, female vocal, acoustic guitar and electric guitar starter presets.


Customer Support - 10:

I haven't had any issues with this plugin. I had an issue unzipping the download file. My question regarding this issue was immediately responded to with various suggestions, options and solutions by Reason Lahalla. The dev team is very active on the kvr forums and has a strong presence here.


Value For Money - 10:

The current price is $79.00. Definitely worth more than the asking price. This is an excellent value.


Stability - 10:

Mix Control is extremely stable and uses very little cpu. I can load 10 active instances in Ableton Live 7 on my dual core T3400 Windows machine and barely make a dent in my cpu %. This keeps my cpu freed up for some of my more hungry plugins. No crashes to date.