Harrison Mixbus - the Virtual Analog Console in a DAW - is now available for Windows

[Harrison Press]

Harrison Mixbus is now available for Windows, OS X, and Linux.

Mixbus is a full-featured Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) with "True Analog Mixing": a combination of Harrison's world-renowned sound and features in an affordable, knob-per-function interface. Mixbus provides professional-level features to import or record an unlimited number of audio tracks to your computer, edit them, and mix them together. You can use Mixbus to record your band, mix a record, make a podcast, or edit the audio for your video.

What is different about Mixbus?

• Mixbus sounds better. Other DAW mixers are designed by companies with experience in computer sound, but no pedigree in world-class recording facilities. The Mixbus mixer is designed by Harrison, the maker of consoles used in the world's most demanding music, film, and live performance facilities. Harrison consoles are known for their great-sounding EQ, filters, dynamics, and bus summing. If you find a music recording from the golden age of albums that has stood the test of time, it is likely that a Harrison console was used during the production. With the Harrison sound and a logical knob-per-function mixer interface, Mixbus invites you to produce recordings that will stand with the best.
• Mixbus is open. Mixbus is largely open-source and is the collaborative effort of a worldwide team including musicians, programmers, and professional recording engineers. Many workstations provide "open" control or plugin protocols... Mixbus goes far beyond that. Like a good piece of vintage hardware, you can open the box and look inside. This transparency encourages Mixbus development to happen with integrity. We spend our time on the issues that users want and need; not just items that look good in an advertisement. In the crazy world of DAW software, it is nice to know that a sane option exists for your business or personal use.
• Mixbus is ultra-compatible. Mixbus now works on all 3 popular desktop operating systems (Windows, OSX, and Linux), and uses industry-standard I/O and plugin formats. You can collaborate with anyone, regardless of which platform they use.

Mixbus Features:

• Straightforward “knob per function” mixer layout based on Harrison's renowned 32-series and MR-series music consoles.
• DSP based on Harrison's world-renowned analog and digital mixing console experience.
• Precision algorithms for EQ, Filter, Compression, Analog Tape Saturation, and Summing.
• Unlimited stereo or mono input channels, each with unlimited plugins, sends, and hardware inserts. (limited only by CPU speed)
• Phase, Input trim, High-pass Filter, Sweepable 3-band EQ, Compression, and 8 Mix Bus sends on every track.
• 8 Stereo Mix Buses featuring Tone controls, Compression, Sidechaining, and Analog Tape Saturation.
• Stereo Master Bus that features Tone controls, Analog Tape Saturation, K-meter, Stereo Correlation Meter, and Limiter.
• Automatic plugin delay compensation to support effects such as parallel compression without time misalignment.
• Comprehensive "at-a-glance" metering with peak, peak hold, and compressor gain reduction visible on every track and bus.
• Extensive DAW features via the Ardour Digital Audio Workstation, refined by Harrison engineers to be smooth and stable.

Price: $219

Available for Windows XP Pro and later. Try the free demo at: Harrison Mixbus


Best Regards,
Press Desk
Harrison Consoles

[Solar]

Now we're talking! Thanx @Harrison for making this happen for Windows users. Thank you for listening

Gonna grab the Demo now

[Sinewave]

Hmmm, i have not kept up with the development of Mixbus since it came out ,well mostly because i don't have a Mac, i knew Ardour was OSX, so now it's compatible with Windows ?

[Mister Fox]

Finally! But the price is still a joke considering the issues I've read about (and experienced myself) and remembering the fact that ARDUR was once open source.

Release the Harrison plugins in native format already! There are plenty of tutorials available on how to use these plugins properly. Just read the Skip Burrows thread here on GS. This would boost your sales just as much compared to releasing a dedicated DAW that tries so hard to copy ProTools as best as possible. r

[woodwork]

Jack is giving me a headache ..
rewire native vst ARA much better

[Finnish]

So it's ASIO-based on Windows? The price is a bit steep I'd say (Ardour open source-based)

[prophet]

a serious DAW that runs under Linux - fantastic! I've been waiting for this a long time. hope the community catches up and drivers will be available for common interfaces, so one can acutally work under Linux.

However: no midi support? deal breaker for me. Although most of my work is recording, some midi work with strings etc is often needed. also, the price is a bit steep considering it's based on open source software and lacks vital features.

[lordward]

Does anyone know if it's possible to "insert" hardware (like in CUbase/PT) with full delay compensation? I figure it is but I thought I'd ask first.

DW

[rhythmtech]

no rewire support? how do i route tracks from another DAW into it on a PC?

[dxavier]

Mixbus on Windows? Oh I just wet my pants. MUMMY!

[muziekschuur]

When there is no midi on the pc, are remote controll options hidden?

Hmm at 2000 samples of buffer it aint sunshine here.

[Ghostmanagement]

looks and sounds exiting...but

1: Possible to Add VST plug ins??

2: Does the Harrison Channel strip sounds as good (or better) then the Waves SSL 4000 plug in cause the biggest headache in other DAWs to me is add an SSL on each channel, and still the Plug in looks to big..I allready got 2 Screens ( i can overview a max of 10 SSL)..i figured out the most important thing is to have a good Overview about my MIX..and when the harrsion channel sound good, i would get a way bigger overview cause its allready on each channel (and not as big as the ssl).. hope someone can answer those 2 questions.. i would even pay 300$ if the answer is yes seriously..cause the benefit would be great..

[Mister Fox]

To my understanding, Harrison MixBus offers no VST/AU connection. It's an all in one solution copied from ProTools, only that you have a full working Harrison Console within one DAW environment (in this case ARDUR).

The things that really annoy me are:
- it's darn slow and buggy
- it's "locked"
- it's built around an open source host and gets pricier with every update

I haven't played long with it, but this smacked clearly into my face.


Basically what Harrison does here is with nowadays console emulation plugins. But instead of loading it on insert 1 and therefore eating one insert slot, the whole DAW is the console (along with compression and EQ). Much like Record/Reason 6, or PT10's new concept.

They price would be worth it, if it's available as VST set, or if they'd allow rewire and other VST plugins. Else it's just a pricey DAW that still needs good ADC/DAC's and lacks behind in features. Unless you're totally into that (old console in pure software form). Reminds me a bit of the try with XTsoftware to bundle eXT with Behringer mixing consoles.


But hey, there's hope for a port if it's Windows now as well. I guess the thanks for the port go to the nice open source people in this case.

[stella645]

Originally Posted by Ghostmanagement

looks and sounds exiting...but

1: Possible to Add VST plug ins??

In Windows yes....on the Mac it's "coming soon".

2: Does the Harrison Channel strip sounds as good (or better) then the Waves SSL 4000 plug in.

Why not demo it & decide for yourself.

[Solar]

Something weird happened, I downloaded the DEMO yesterday and installed the Windows x32 bit version in my laptop (and from what I read, the JACK extension or protocol gets installed automatically for windows right)? Well guess what? When I launch Mixbuss, and select the automatic Audio port of my laptop, Mixbuss comes out with an error saying



Then I went and download JACK manually installed it and restarted my laptop and nada.

Anyone know how to fix this so I can give this a proper try. And while at it, as I mentioned in another thread, I hope Dev will consider taking out the "Noise" in the limitation Demo version. Simply hate these kind of "noise" protection stuff. Don't see the reason why, I mean almost every major DAW out there let you TRY their DAW without as limitation a "noise". Find something else but not the annoying "noise" or plain leave it for the user to Try it for whatever days 14 or 30 days.

Thanx

[scalawag]

Originally Posted by Solar

Something weird happened, I downloaded the DEMO yesterday and installed the Windows x32 bit version in my laptop (and from what I read, the JACK extension or protocol gets installed automatically for windows right)? Well guess what? When I launch Mixbuss, and select the automatic Audio port of my laptop, Mixbuss comes out with an error saying



Then I went and download JACK manually installed it and restarted my laptop and nada.

Anyone know how to fix this so I can give this a proper try. And while at it, as I mentioned in another thread, I hope Dev will consider taking out the "Noise" in the limitation Demo version. Simply hate these kind of "noise" protection stuff. Don't see the reason why, I mean almost every major DAW out there let you TRY their DAW without as limitation a "noise". Find something else but not the annoying "noise" or plain leave it for the user to Try it for whatever days 14 or 30 days.

Thanx

Try to install ASIO4ALL:
ASIO4ALL - Universal ASIO Driver

And then when launching Mixbus choose Asio and ASIO4ALL as audio card.
It should work.

[johnnynash]

Originally Posted by Solar

Something weird happened, I downloaded the DEMO yesterday and installed the Windows x32 bit version in my laptop (and from what I read, the JACK extension or protocol gets installed automatically for windows right)? Well guess what? When I launch Mixbuss, and select the automatic Audio port of my laptop, Mixbuss comes out with an error saying



Then I went and download JACK manually installed it and restarted my laptop and nada.

Anyone know how to fix this so I can give this a proper try. And while at it, as I mentioned in another thread, I hope Dev will consider taking out the "Noise" in the limitation Demo version. Simply hate these kind of "noise" protection stuff. Don't see the reason why, I mean almost every major DAW out there let you TRY their DAW without as limitation a "noise". Find something else but not the annoying "noise" or plain leave it for the user to Try it for whatever days 14 or 30 days.

Thanx

I had the same trouble. I used the taskmanager and force-quit JACK and restarted Mixbus. It worked.

[rhythmtech]

Originally Posted by rhythmtech

no rewire support? how do i route tracks from another DAW into it on a PC?

anyone?

[scalawag]

Originally Posted by rhythmtech

anyone?

I tried to do it with Jack (not the one that came with Mixbus) with no success so far.
Download from Using JACK on Windows | JACK
In order to use it with Mixbus you have to run this Jack server first and then launch Mixbus (it will detect an already running Jack server).
Note that this is not supported by Harrison in any way!
I had no success with Ableton. It doesn't detect Jack.

[Solar]

Originally Posted by johnnynash

I had the same trouble. I used the taskmanager and force-quit JACK and restarted Mixbus. It worked.

Thanx mate, but I just found out something, for All you who are trying or wants to TRY Mixbus, you ahve to be sure that you are running at least a computer that has 2 Core Processor otherwise you won't be able to RUN Mixbus.

I found that out by running the .exe app called : MSVCtest_app.exe that you find inside your Mixbus install folder. So make sure

And what happened is that I wanted to try it and installed it in old PC and laptop. But now gonna go and install it in my MAIN Monster beast PC and lets hope it will work and that I won't have to to JACK website to download the Windows drivers.

[scalawag]

Originally Posted by Solar

Thanx mate, but I just found out something, for All you who are trying or wants to TRY Mixbus, you ahve to be sure that you are running at least a computer that has 2 Core Processor otherwise you won't be able to RUN Mixbus.

I found that out by running the .exe app called : MSVCtest_app.exe that you find inside your Mixbus install folder. So make sure

And what happened is that I wanted to try it and installed it in old PC and laptop. But now gonna go and install it in my MAIN Monster beast PC and lets hope it will work and that I won't have to to JACK website to download the Windows drivers.

Yes 2 core cpus are needed for Mixbus. It's written on requirements.
But it works pretty straight forward. No need to worry about Jack, unless you want to "rewire" two aplications, wich i wasn't able to achieve yet...

[rhythmtech]

feck that, ive just ran a file thru mixbus and the same file in reaper with VCC, decapitator and UAD studer and it sounds better to me in reaper with the plugins.

[Solar]

Alright folks!

First yes thanx @scalawag for the confirmation indeed.

Now the real first test, installed it in my Monster i7 system and it started right away without any issue.

Now the first TEST I do with a DAW is drag and drop Audio files in it. And to start with and I'm going to be very honest here, the LOADING TIME is RIDICULOUS LONG. I don't know those who have been using Mixbus how they have been dealing with and how come the Dev Team of Mixbus haven't figured out to enhance this.

Check this out: I took 8 Wave files 24 bit 44.1k and drag them in Mixbus. Chrono time came to that I dragged them at 9h 32 AM and those 8 tracks finished at 9h 35 & 30 second. Thats in todays 2012 is completely UN-Acceptable. When the same amount of files if I drag them in Reaper, it would take me max 30 second. Right there, something is wrong and not well coded and just imagine, having a Client and he give you some files to load up and what, you go and start taking a cofee?

I mean used them all, PTools, Reaper, Cubendo, Studio One etc.. and I think Mixbus Wins on the "Too much time on loading Files"

Please if other can give just "drag and drop" files, I mean Wave files Stems of a song in and report back and tell me how you feel about it.

Gonna continue to hear what this Mixbus is all about in terms of Analog sound but already just with the loading time, for me its a TURN OFF. Sorry but gotta be honest

Will report more, Happy testing

[Mister Fox]

I can confirm the long loading times on Mac as well (the only real time I used it). It was a 32 track project and after 10 minutes we had to shut down the task in order to get working again.

[BenLoftis]

Hi guys, regarding the "slow import times":

1) Mixbus uses a very high-quality resampling algoriithm (one of the best available, actually, in this comparison SRC Comparisons see Secret Rabbit Code ). If you are importing a sessions-worth of files to mix, make sure that you create the session ( in Audio Setup ) with the same sample rate so it doesn't have to rate-convert. That will save some time.

2) We just verified that importing is about 8x slower on Windows than it is on Linux. Shame on us for not noticing this in the release version. We will check it out!


Best Regards,
Ben Loftis
Harrison Consoles

[gsuser]

Tried the Windows version. I couldn't find an option to point to scan certain vst folders. It only found one (Cakewalk) which I don't use.

[Solar]

Originally Posted by BenLoftis

Hi guys, regarding the "slow import times":

1) Mixbus uses a very high-quality resampling algoriithm (one of the best available, actually, in this comparison SRC Comparisons see Secret Rabbit Code ). If you are importing a sessions-worth of files to mix, make sure that you create the session ( in Audio Setup ) with the same sample rate so it doesn't have to rate-convert. That will save some time.

2) Go to "Options->Misc Options->Always Copy" and turn it off. Then turn off the "copy files" checkbox in the import dialog when you import. If you do this, it will just instantaneously "link" the file into place when that's possible (the file's sample rate must match the session sample rate). We shipped it with the "safest" default which might not have been the best choice.

3) We just verified that import on Windows is about 8x slower on Windows than it is on Linux. Shame on us for not noticing this in the release version. We will check it out!


Best Regards,
Ben Loftis
Harrison Consoles

Thanx Ben for clearing this up because honestly I was starting to be really disappointed with just the Loading time. Gonna try this.

Also, I think you guys need to do some Youtube Easy to watch Tutorials available for users who will join or would like to buy your product because i don't find it quite interesting to have to go to Buy a software with a "noise" as limitation and second, NO available Youtube Quick Tutorials to let you see how you set it up etc... but instead its like you have to BUY even the Tutorial before evening getting to know a bit how the DAW handles and work! I myself don't find that fair at all especially when looking at the Competition out there.

I can understand that Mixbus might have something unique that other DAW are not offering but i've looked yesterday over the internet and youtube and haven't seen a user posting something bout how the DAW works etc... but a strict minimum showing the Basic things just like the other DAW companies are doing is A MUST because when you open Mixbus, even look like any other DAW but the approach is a bit different. Just my 2 cents

Last and quickly, how do you change the TEMPO in this DAW, I doubled click on the tempo, roll up and down the mouse to change the tempo and NADA.

Thanx again for always responding to us

P.S And also, there is a problem with how Mixbus resizes windows and does NOT remember how you resize your windows. Example, when I hit Alt+M to show up the mixer and place it in the middle of my screen, when I quit Mixbus and restart the project back and Hit AltM, the Mixer goes up under my Windows Taskbar (because my Windows taskbar i put it above instead of below) and its kinda frustrating? Does Mixbuss recalls how you setup you windows? If not, that need to be checked out

[bishop666]

Originally Posted by gsuser

Tried the Windows version. I couldn't find an option to point to scan certain vst folders. It only found one (Cakewalk) which I don't use.

+1 scanning just specified folders.

[erikdrink]

What a mess

[BenLoftis]

Originally Posted by Solar

Last and quickly, how do you change the TEMPO in this DAW

Right-click on the tempo marker to edit it. Right-click in the tempo "lane" to make a new tempo or meter marker. Note that there are no MIDI instruments, so tempo is only useful for (a) recording to a click and (b) using it for the editing "grid".

Best,
Ben Loftis
Harrison Consoles