Harrison Mixbus Live console

[Frank]

I do not know if anybody uses Mixbus life.

I planned some time ago but i had issues many times with firewire AD converters. That problem was solved: We had a gig so i had a first go.

Setup

Macbook pro 17" Maverick 10.9.1 + 3 knob mouse.
Focusrite 56 Liquid : Focusrite Octopre MKII : and as spare Focusrite Octopre Dynamic.
This gave me 16 Channels input. Into the house PA. + monitors.

There was no real soundcheck: Just: i have input. The Focusrites have some metering wich is good for signal present and overload detection.

Four sets with different bands. Two saxes : two keys Two guitars, Bass. Vocals. Drums percussion.

No faderboxes : just the pad and the mouse.
All went smooth and easy: because all controls are at the right place: Tonecontrols at each stage are so fit for the job.
The sound was Superb !
No overloads no feedback etc.

The headroom of the focusrights is great : and with the extra hands of the compressoin in the bus at the right spot.

I knew i had to keep things simple : Use Gverb for reverb and 3Dtriple delay for FX
Made people happy.

Up to 40 quiality channels (or more) in my backpack!

I am used to quality gear like Midas , Soundcraft etc. But Mixbus beats in soundquality and portability.
I had some issues - with put that in the support channel.

[Gil Navarro]

I just purchased Mixbus on the Don't Crack group buy. I did a search to see if it can be used as a live console and I found your post. Right now I'm using SAC (software audio console) to mix live shows (around 100 per year). I haven't had a chance to work with mixbus yet but I'm glad to see that it CAN be setup and used as a live console.
What kind of latency or buffer settings are you able to achieve?
Thanks,
Gil

[Jouvert]

I just purchased Mixbus on the Don't Crack group buy. I did a search to see if it can be used as a live console and I found your post. Right now I'm using SAC (software audio console) to mix live shows (around 100 per year). I haven't had a chance to work with mixbus yet but I'm glad to see that it CAN be setup and used as a live console.
What kind of latency or buffer settings are you able to achieve?
Thanks,
Gil

Oh this is great. At last a SAC user (I don't know if you use SAW studio as well).
I am a Mixbus user myself, but when I came across SAW studio, i was interested in it ( A bit expensive though).
I am curious to find out how SAW studio compares to Mixbus in terms of overall sound, Latency, ease of use etc. For instance, I know that SAW is written in assembly language which is good especially for Windows users, since it bypasses a lot of Windows issues.
Thanks,
Jouvert

[Gil Navarro]

Hi,
I use SSLite to track the band sometimes. I think it's incredibly overpriced but it works well with SAC. I'm not much of a recording guy so I can't really offer you any comparisons. I know several people who use SS and are happy with it. I think most of the DAWs sound great these days, it's probably just a matter of what product best suits your workflow.
I'm interested in trying Mixbus for live use. I'll do some testing over the next few weeks and report back.

[Jouvert]

Hi,
I use SSLite to track the band sometimes. I think it's incredibly overpriced but it works well with SAC. I'm not much of a recording guy so I can't really offer you any comparisons. I know several people who use SS and are happy with it. I think most of the DAWs sound great these days, it's probably just a matter of what product best suits your workflow.
I'm interested in trying Mixbus for live use. I'll do some testing over the next few weeks and report back.

Thanks for the reply

[Frank]

it CAN be setup and used as a live console.
What kind of latency or buffer settings are you able to achieve?
Thanks,
Gil

Hi Gil

I am not so sure anymore : but i think it was at 64 (buffersize). I did use monitoring via MIXbus.
I think the latency is less critical life : since the soundsource is heard directly and the ear integrates the direct and the delayed signal . We did not use in-ear or headphones (yet).

The Focusrite range has a nice Monitor mixer for direct monitoring from the AD converters: but i did not use it (yet).

I did two more gigs: this time the performance was semi acoustical. Just enhancing the weaker instruments and vocals.

The setup just sounds very good. It is easy to make corrections. The tone controls seem to now what i want.
I did not have time to get the best out of it yet, but every gig sounded better with mixbus than with the gear available. (Mackie, Soundcraft) And i do get compliments for the sound quality.

I have used groups to to adjust the level of sections, and the mixbusses as FX busses so the mixbus sends behave as FX sends.

I miss that i cannot simple send a signal from one mixbus (FX bus) to another. I know i can make a send from a mixbus to a (stereo) channel, but that disrupts the logical flow (left right) , because i cannot insert the channel in between the busses.

[Gil Navarro]

Thanks for the reply. I have 32 channels of Focusrite Octopre Dynamics in my SAC rig. Love the pre's. I can live with a 64 output buffer setting. I prefer 32 but if I'm not mixing IEM's (we have a seperate SAC console just for that), then I can deal with a little more latency for FOH. I'm eager to try it out.