Mixbus

[JoPo]

Hi..

Why I never heard about that daw ? :
http://harrisonconsoles.com/site/mixbus.html

It cost 79€ (I don't know if it's only for today !) ! And it sounds good ! I'm still looking for a good cubase alternative. The 300€ update are impossible for me to swallow. I had a question for Steinberg support one month ago and I just received the answer.

Who uses Mixbus here ? I would have some questions !

[dante]

If you do a search you'll find it has been discussed. On my system it simply doesn't work with Scope, this has been discussed in relation to its core audio engine (used with other DAWS) having issues.

[JoPo]

Thanks a lot, Dante !
How is it possible it doesn't work with scope since it's asio compatible ?

It's a pity : it looks interesting. I made some research here as you adviced me -> it's old discussions. I know that now, it's Mixbus 3, with midi, vst and all. But I don't find that much info on there site.

[jta]

It works - sort of.

I used one combination last night with Mixbus 2.5, Scope 3.1C, and Windows XP2. (I played 6 tracks 24bit ADAT from an HD24 via lightpipe to channels 1 - 6 ADAT A Source. To 1-6 of 2448 it went directly, and an ASIO2-32 Source 64 went to channels 20 and 21 of the 2448. From the 2448 DL1, DL2, DL3, DL4, DL5 & DL6 the 6 channels went to an ASIO2 Dest module - the module's Clk was not used.) It took some trying to get Mixbus 2.5 started, and at one point channel 1 stopped. But I stopped and re-started, and everything was fine. This was in 'demo' mode (I had 3 installed, but 2.5 was on a different CPU).

Now I'm trying to shuffle things forward. I think next I'll try to get Scope 3.1C to install on Windows 10. I'm expecting that to work. And then I'll try Mixbus 2.5 again.

Patience is useful here.

[dawman]

We recently use the ancient HD24/96 Alesis to record the band live.
Came out sounding big, very powerful Bass and Drums, Keys sparkled through the entire range and Guitars/Vocals perfectly recorded.
Have to give the FOH a raise now.
Before it was 50 bucks and all the booze and broads you could score.
Since he cant get laid he chugs booze instead.
Usually tell him to sit his old fat ass down and roll cables, I huff my own gear.

But love those old HDs from Alesis, ADAT sounds as good as all of the MADI?192k crap that costs thousands more.

[at0m]

Hi,

Been a while! I use Ardour, the DAW on which Mixbus is based.

[edit: see my follow-up post on jack]

Ardour, and hence Mixbus I assume, use jack to interface with ASIO. jack does audio/midi routing not unlike we're used to on Scope. On top, it supports networking, a single common transport between sequencers and connected devices (like Rewire), multiple input connections per output, and more.
My experience on Windows with jack is limited, and jack for Windows is pretty young. YMMV. The Linux and Mac versions are more mature.

Trying doesn't hurt. http://jackaudio.org/ has more on jack. Install and in jack settings, set audio driver to portaudio, then select Scope ASIO drivers. Then launch Mixbus or Ardour, Reaper,.. and jack will proxy between all IO, hw & sw, just like in Scope.

Have fun!

[at0m]

I stand corrected on the 'jack' from above: on irc://chat.freenode.net/ardour-windows, i'm told

many "first time" windows or OSX users frown on JACK (why can't Ardour use my card directly) and even resist the education why JACK is a very cool system. so we try not to push JACK on to these users. they need to find out by themselves why JACK rocks. that's the only way.

So Ardour and MixBus should be able to just use Scope's ASIO and MIDI drivers. So keep it simple, skip JACK :p

more info:
http://manual.ardour.org/setting-up-you ... t-windows/
irc://chat.freenode.net/ardour-mixbus

[edit]
JoPo: shoot all the questions!
dante: what 'doesnt work'?

[dante]

Atom : Mixbus hangs on my Scope DAW (XITE-1D, Win8 x64) when I select Scope ASIO. From what I make of Eanna's discussion below this is an issue between portaudio and Scope ASIO - but he was going to check that against all Scope ASIO variants (ASIO, ASIO 2 etc I guess) and fiddle with registry to try and nail it down.

http://forums.planetz.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33892

In the latest MixBus releases, I believe Jack was integrated into the install, seperate install not required. That was the case with mine - there is one latest release I havent tried yet.

[JoPo]

Please, Dante, if you have the possibility & time to try the last Mixbus version, let us know if it works better with Scope !

AtOm : Why should I shoot any question ? Poor question ! They didn't offend me and I don't like weapons. (or in other words, I don't get what you mean... )
There is other thing I don't understand : why are you using jack with Ardour ? Does Ardour recognize asio driver ? I can see one may use VST plugins but no asio ?

Thanks !

[dante]

Well, I have to go through their support to get the download, coz I lost the logon. Also, I think you may have to pay a monthly subscription to get the latest. I didn't bother following up because the Reason SSL mixer is way better for my purposes based on a few mixes I managed to do with Mixbus on Laptop (No Scope just onboard audio).

Besides which the MixBus plug-ins are way more expensive than Reason rack Extension counterparts.

I think Atom means 'ask questions' eg 'shoot' = 'ask'

[JoPo]

Ok, Dante ! Thanks a lot ! And for the translation too !

Yes : I'll go to ask on the Mixbus forum.

[hubird]

ask here, ask him, he meant

[JoPo]

ask here, ask him, he meant

Ah ! Thanks !
Δεν καταλαβαίνω τίποτα !

So I can ask here to him, right ?

--> AtOm --> I have questions mainly for Mixbus.. I'd like to know if there is a feature like cubase variaudio or Melodyne in Mixbus ?
--> On that page : http://harrisonconsoles.com/site/mixbus.html , I can read : "Over 50 ‘MIDI filter’ plug-ins including functions such as transposing, velocity scaling, etc" does it mean there is good midi tools like cubase transformer midi fx (if you know cubase...) or logical editor ?
These are tools it'll be very hard for me to live without..!

Also : Is it possible to assign a keyboard shorcut to every function in Mixbus ? And even midi short cut ?

What is the difference between Ardour & Mixbus ?
Are they lighter than Cubase to open, for ram, to close ... etc ...
Is it true that Mixbus crashes often ?

Ah !! You said "SHOOT" ! And now, I understand what you mean !

Can you hear easily any sound quality difference with Mixbus and other DAW ?
Do you have a single sister who understand that a guy can spend nights in front of his music gear and who would be around 35 - 40 years old ?
I can see that Mixbus has midi since the last update, is midi full of bug ?
Does Ardour support VST3 ?

I'm sorry, I have mainly questions about Mixbus and I'm not sure you use it.. But you can apply those questions to Ardour : I'm looking for a good cubase alternative and if Ardour can do it, I take it ! (I always prefer open source soft)

Thank you very much for any info !

[jta]

To Run Mixbus 3 on Creamware Scope - At least for one time

Start with a new hard drive (or a completely cleaned used hard drive)

Install Windows XP3 (I do it by installing Windows XP1, reboot, run Windows XP3)

reboot

Install Scope 3.1c

reboot

Install Harrison Mixbus 2.5

reboot

Setup Scope with a blank Project Window - 48k. 24-bit integer. Running ADAT lightpipe > into Scope 2448 > then the Directouts > into ASIO2 Dest. (Also, for me, an ASIO2-32 Source 64 went to channels 20 and 21 of the 2448 - I think you have to have at least two channels of some version of ASIO. Maybe just one, but why not two - ASIO seems to like things in pairs.) Change ULLI at the next-to-lowest rung. Save.

reboot

Open Scope

Move the 2448 out of the stream - direct Source to Dest - but keep the 2448 connected to the ASIO2 Source & Dests

Open Mixbus 2.5

See if Mixbus 2.5 records. Don't expect playback while recording

Stop the engine

Rewind and Play - 2.5 playback should work

Save and Stop Mixbus 2.5

reboot

Open the last Mixbus 2.5 session - make sure it still works

Stop Mixbus 2.5

Install Mixbus 3.0.1508-w32-nowaves

(the next step took some effort - keep trying - I don't recall whether I rebooted or not - you are looking for a green text (upper right) saying "Running" - to the left you should see:

Audio System: PortAudio (default)

and below:

Driver: ASIO
Input Device: ASIO SCOPE
Output Device: ASIO SCOPE
Sample rate: 48 kHz
Buffer size: 128 samples

Record as usual

Stop

Play

and then

Close

Try to re-open Mixbus 3 - sorry

Re-install Mixbus 3 and Open - sorry

Open Mixbus 2.5 - Beautiful

So that is where things are for my Mixbus and my Scope at the moment.

Has anybody gone beyond Scope 3.1c and an (ultra-shaky) Mixbus 3.0.1508-w32-nowaves combination? At least I know it works - barely. And Scope 3.1c and a stable Mixbus 2.5 seems to be OK.

best, john

[yayajohn]

[JoPo]

!! Ok !! I see ! All what I hate in computers !

[jta]

Two big changes:

1. Run As - I kept Current user, but I un-ticked "Protect my computer and data from unauthorized program activity"

2. I installed Mixbus3(x86) 1970

How it works: Start > All Programs > Mixbus3(x86) > Run as... > ticked = Current user (name\name) - unticked = anything else > OK

It runs - often over 95% DSP* with only 6 tracks - but not bad. I can experiment now. It's Mixbus3 on Scope. And it works!

*The +95% DSP mentioned is the Mixbus3 DSP; not the Scope DSP. And it's only during recording.

best, john

[Eanna]

Hi, tried out the Mixbus 3 product...

The only way I could start it, is to remove the "SCOPE ASIO" device from the list of available ASIO devices on my machine, by Exporting the key to the filesystem (so I could add back again), and then Deleting the registry key for Scope ASIO, under HKLM/Software/ASIO

I have proven I can add this key back again (by right-clicking on the .reg file, and selecting "Merge").

Mixbus is not so nice when I add the Scope ASIO registry key back in - it appears to still want to query ASIO devices each time it is launched... I now get a funky screen in Mixbus 3, now that I've added Scope ASIO back into the Registry (unprintable character in a frameless dialog window), and Mixbus is back to being unusable...

So, I can use Mixbus 3 on my system, but not if Scope ASIO is available on my machine.
Luckily, I have my Motu 828 Mk3 for ASIO duties, and can route audio into Scope over ADAT... I've two PCI cards, so I could have 16 channels at 48 kHz in and out...
So, this is strictly a workaround scenario...

Tested another DAW that used Portaudio for Audio Device interfacing - that others had been complaining about... Bitwig.
Latest Bitwig (1.2.0) behaves well if you temporarily remove Scope ASIO from the list of Scope devices, start Bitwig, choose your ASIO device, and close Bitwig again. Furthermore, it appears to persist what Audio Interface is configured, in its preferences file, and (nicely!) doesn't appear to try querying available ASIO devices again once the Preferences file is set to a (non-Scope) ASIO driver (the Motu driver in my case). So, I can configure Bitwig to use my Motu interface when Scope ASIO is removed from the Registry, then add Scope ASIO back into the Registry, and use continue to use Bitwig with the Motu...

Obviously, being in and around the Registry is something you must do with responsibility. If you don't know what you're doing, don't do it. If you think you know what you're doing, then make sure you can roll back your changes before you commit any changes. Use Windows Restore Points if you wish - they work well. If you screw up your registry, and leave yourself with no fallback position, there is nothing anyone in any forum can do you help you - it's a one way street, and you are on your own.

Think you get my point...

[Eanna]

Atom : Mixbus hangs on my Scope DAW (XITE-1D, Win8 x64) when I select Scope ASIO. From what I make of Eanna's discussion below this is an issue between portaudio and Scope ASIO - but he was going to check that against all Scope ASIO variants (ASIO, ASIO 2 etc I guess) and fiddle with registry to try and nail it down.

http://forums.planetz.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=33892

Yeah, unfortunately, my debugging sessions with Portaudio were not so fruitful.
I downloaded Microsoft Visual Studio for C/C++ (man what a crock of shit!!), and compiled Portaudio from Source (after some utterly unnecessary Microsoft library binding issues).
But, for the life of me, I couldn't recreate the bug with what was most likely an issue with the Scope driver in Pa_initialise() causing the bug.
Had a busy fortnight where I couldn't spend time on this... And last weekend, I fired up Visual Studio again, only to find that what I had in fact installed was a 30-day trial licence (wtf? I was sure it was not a trial version thing!), and that I had to log in to create some Microsoft Dev account... fook dat!

I know of a mate who likes coding C++ in Eclipse - I know Eclipse well, so I may well give that a shot.

I haven't given up yet!

The good thing is the Portaudio library sources look readable - well, they're well formatted and mostly well commented at least - some bits of it, I couldn't fathom - but hopefully, I won't need to fathom those lower level bits!

[JoPo]

Pfff ! This is too much for me ! I'll try it when it will work correctly !
I thought asio is a standard, so any asio software behaves the same with its environment.