Harrison Mixbus - Virtual Harrison Mixer plus full-featured DAW for OS X

[Lvismydad]

Originally Posted by Coyoteous

MIDI is so 80's, anyway.

Never used hardware synths in the studio???...

sorry, off-topic and I always forget a reply will end at the bottom...again

[Coyoteous]

Originally Posted by Lvismydad

Never used hardware synths in the studio???...

sorry, off-topic

Of course I have and do. Though most of my hardware synths have no MIDI, and most of the recording I do these days has little to no MIDI or samples, of any kind. I was mostly joking and trying to make a point on top of that. Back on topic: I still don't think Mixbus or Ardour are for me, but I do like the work Harrison is doing, outrageous claims aside.

[vtone]

I just convinced a very good engineer friend of mine to buy Mixbus and he is going to work on a mix in the next few days. I'm curious to hear his reaction as he's been recording professionally for twenty years.

To me, the little tweaks that Mixbus needs are far outweighed by the sound and "feel" of the DAW. My recordings and mixes are happening faster, yet I enjoy it more. Go figure.

[j-uk]

Great update.

Still can't work out a good way of working with sends / returns in MB.
It's slowing me down considerably to have to:
a) create the send and close the window
b) open the send up again and set the output
c) rename the send - this bit is terribly inconvenient.

There must be a way to be able to create an aux and then have the name of the aux pop up as option in the insert just like Tools et al.

Cheers

J

[BenLoftis]

Hi J,

Sends have been dramatically improved in Ardour3, and these changes will appear in Mixbus when it is ready. Until then I'd suggest using the Mixbuses as sends/returns whenever possible. There aren't many, but they are right under your fingertips....

-Ben Loftis
Harrison Consoles

[WideawakE]

I know this is stupid but I use MTC on Logic to sync start times on tracks that I use my Akai MPC and EMU SP1200, can I do this with Mixbus?

I've been on the fence a long time, I think this will work better for me though since I don't use any of the midi features in Logic

[BenLoftis]

Yes, Mixbus can chase and/or generate MTC.

-Ben

[vtone]

Maybe this is the wrong thread but can someone help me figure out the best way to handle this situation?

I have drums going into Bus 1, guitars and bass into Bus 2, vocals and bv's into Bus 3, and reverb / delay returns going into Bus 4.

I'd like to use the sidechain input to duck the guitars in Bus 2, so that every time the lead vocal comes in, the guitars are attenuated just 1-3 dB.

How would I do that so that it triggers the Bus 2's compressor?

[BenLoftis]

Hi vtone,

Click on the "Sidechain" button at the top of Mixbus2. From the (admittedly complicated) dialog, select the outputs from Mixbus3 (or whichever track the lead vocal is on, if you don't want to trigger from the bgv's). Now click the tiny square under Mixbus2's fader to open the channel editor, and click the "Comp Sidechain" button.

Hope this helps,

-Ben

[vtone]

Thanks for your prompt response and succinct answer! I will try this tonight and see how it works!

[vtone]

Hey one more quick question-- How do we add the new "Pro Tool-ish" keybindings?

[BenLoftis]

Hi Vtone,

Unfortunately, we did all the work for the keybindings files and then left out the actual files at the last moment We've got another free update coming out very shortly which will include these along with a few other things.

-Ben

[diogo_c]

Originally Posted by BenLoftis

Hi Vtone,

We've got another free update coming out very shortly which will include these along with a few other things.

-Ben

Any updates regarding plug-in support? Some guys reported that Flux plug-ins are not showing up on mix bus...and since Flux Epure is the only surgical eq I have on my mac rig that's something pretty decisive for me when it comes to a purchase.

[spok]

Only thing I really want to have fixed is that open plugin windows always open on the top left of the main display. Please let Mixbus remember the screen positions.
It is a pita when switching back and forth between Logic and Mixbus and always having to rearrange all open plugins.

Apart from that everything runs smoothly as ever.
Thanks again !

[Kevin Kitchel]

My mac just died, so I'm switching to Ardour. If you want a linux tester...wink wink nudge nudge...

[vtone]

All my issues have been addressed by customer support, sometimes within minutes!

I only realized today that you can adjust faders, pan knobs, etc with the scroll wheel-- no modifier keys or anything, you just hover the mouse over the fader (or pot), close your eyes, adjust using your ears! Elegant. thumbsup

[hangember]

Originally Posted by spok

It is a pita when switching back and forth between Logic and Mixbus and always having to rearrange all open plugins.

Apart from that everything runs smoothly as ever.
Thanks again !

I second that annoying problem, all open plugins are stacked on each other.

[vtone]

What's the best way to comp loop recorded tracks? Switching between layers a bit confusing for me. Is there a way to give each layer a unique name?

[BenLoftis]

Hi vtone, sorry for the late reply.

Here is how I assemble vocal takes. Everyone works differently but maybe some of these techniques will apply to you...

It sounds like you are recording yourself using loop-recording, so you end up with several takes of each short section. The resulting regions are stacked as layers on the track's only playlist. To choose the best take, you can right-click on the region and select "choose top region". Set the transport looping around the section, and use the dialog to select the overdubs while it is playing back. (one caveat here: if you ever choose the scratch take as the top, then it will pop it on top of all your spliced-in pieces, so you probably shouldn't ever do that). The trick, I think, is to do a bunch of "which is better, A or B?" comparisons instead of trying to compare many at once. The dialog helps you do that very quickly ... while transport is playing, you just click on the item in the list that you want on top. You can bounce between 2 or more very easily this way.

If a vocal needs a lot more work (like syllable-by-syllable edits), then I make a separate track to record overdubs onto (sometimes using a playlist per take), and then I assemble the best bits back onto the original track. As I'm recording the overdubs, I'm listening for sections that were better than the original, and I make splits (the 's' key by default) around those places. This is why it's good to have someone engineer your recordings with you. Otherwise it can take a really long time to make those decisions if you're having to do it after the fact.

Once you have a few choice takes, you drag the good sections up to the main track (I usually do an alt-drag so it makes a copy). Note that the topmost regions are semi-transparent so you can see the previous takes underneath; I always trim the overdub section to put the transition on a word where the timing and level was visibly similar; this usually sounds the most natural to me. I don't listen to the second "overdub" track, it stays muted. I listen to the overdubs as I record them, then I only listen to the original track as I'm assembling to it.

If the edits are really short and tend to overlap a lot, then you might find that "Options->Layering->Latest is Higher" option works the best. This way, the start of every region takes over from the last and you don't have to manage the layers yourself.

You'll want to set your Edit mode to "Lock" so you don't accidentally bump a region out of time. Secondly, make sure Options->Crossfades is set to "short". This keeps everything clean-looking and if you need to make a crossfade longer, you can always right-click on it and convert to "full-length" later.

Hope this helps!

-Ben

[vtone]

Wow this is perfect, thanks so much! Comping wasn't covered much in the Intro To MixBus DVD so it's nice to have the workflow spelled out. This helps a lot!!

If I wanted to edit in Pro Tools and export to MixBus would I have to get Ardour Xchange?

http://www.avtoolkit.co.uk/

[egoEgo]

http://www.harrisonconsoles.com/mixb...4.1_Update.zip
1.4.1 fixes a crash bug that was introduced in v1.4, and provides a few small improvements!

...And I thought that the console has broken ...
"Delet" button now works!

[sonicdefault]

Thanks for the quick fix


-SD

[vtone]

Just installed, hopefully I can start using it this weekend.

I can't believe how quickly they responded and released this latest version..

Thanks Harrison!!

[dualflip]

Ben i would really like to know if there are any plans on releasing this for Windows?

[vtone]

Ben, how do you choose between recording 16 bit and 24 bit files? I thought I was recording 24/48k but it appears they are 16/48.

I've looked around Jack and Audio Setup pages and can't seem to find a way to choose this.

[BenLoftis]

@vtone: Options->Audio File Format->Sample Format. The default is 32bit floating point.

@dualflip: Yes, we plan to have a Windows version in the future. But it is not our focus right now.

[vtone]

Thanks Ben.

[bobos]

plugin delay compensation on v1.4.1 don't work...what did I wrong?....

[BenLoftis]

Hi bobos, As far as I know there was no change to delay compensation in 1.4.1. Send us a note on the support email and we will get it sorted.
-Ben

[Muser]

Hi Ben.

Mixbus doesn't support LAPSDA by any chance, does it ?