Harrison Mixbus vs DP's mixer

[Gravity Jim]

How many of ya'll are using Harrison's Mixbus or Mixbus32c as your mixing environment?

The interface looks a lot like DP's mixer, but... does it really provide better summing and a better sound?

It's on sale for Labor Day (as it often is through the year), and I would grab it, but only it provides clearly better results than I'm getting in DP.

[bayswater]

I've had it since V2. It does sound different, and sometimes better, but always good. Version 4 is pretty stable although V2 and 3 could be too flaky to use regularly.

It follows the setup of a traditional mixing board very closely and is nice when you want that. I've wondered why Harrison hasn't simply sold their summing eq and dynamics as plugins to use on other DAWs. Other than the simply layout and sound, it doesn't seem to have any real advantages. If you have a lot of edits and MIDI, it's not really your first choice.

You can use it in conjunction with DP. Render stuff in DP down to the main audio tracks of interest, and mix in MB, or link DP and MB and route audio in an out of the MB mixing engine while working in DP.

There is a limit to 8 mixbusses, which, as Harrison points out, it fine for a basic pop song, but not necessarily enough for other purposes. You can use Aux channels for more summing and effects, but these don't support delay compensation. You get an extra 8 mixbusses (and more sophisticated EQ) in MB 32, but that is a lot more expensive.

There is a bit of a learning curve. When you look at the UI, a lot of stuff looks like it will work the same way it does in DP or Logic, but it often works some other way, which is fine, but sometimes a bit of a mystery when you first look at it. The manual is OK, but not stellar for a new user. There are a lot of good, short on line videos for new users.

Another caveat: the mixer is very very detailed and busy. Imagine a real Harrison console squeezed onto your monitor. You need a big screen or you'll have trouble even seeing it, let alone using it. Not for laptops.

[Gravity Jim]

Thanks for the rundown. I may wait for the next sale, based on your comments. I have plenty of screen for it, but I don't have the time to learn a new package, and I've got DP dialed in the way I like it, of course.

Just wondering if it just knocked it out of the park compared to DP's summing. And you're right, they should just release their tech as a plug-in.

[bayswater]

No, doesn't knock anything out of the park. I got it originally for $39, and used it as an external effect with DP via Soundflower/IAC, so there was nothing much to lose -- just another cheap plugin as worst. Another thing I forgot: it's not CPU efficient, something Harrison admits and explains in their Q&A.