What’s New in 32C v6

Mixbus 32C v6 adds the following new features and improvements:

• 5th generation processing engine including latency compensation and cue-monitoring.
• Mixbuses 1-8 can now assign to mixbuses 9-12, permitting their use as dedicated FX buses or matrix outputs.
• Graphical operation improvements, largely suggested by forum users, that improve Mixbus32C’s usability on smaller monitors.
• Foldback buses allow the building of multiple custom cue mixes for artists.
• Region List is redesigned and a new Source List that helps you manage recording takes and organize imported files such as loops.
• “Cut” Tool provides a faster and clearer way to split regions with a dedicated tool mode.
• MP3 import/export on Mac, Windows, and Linux.
• Virtual MIDI keyboard window allows you to “play” MIDI notes into a track when you don’t have a physical device available.

5th Generation Mixbus Engine

The v6 release involves several deep improvements in the 5th generation Mixbus engine.

The 5th generation engine incorporates almost 3 years of continuous behind-the-scenes development. Many subtle behaviors, like the ringing-out of reverb and delay tails after transport stop, should be greatly improved.

Mixbus v6 launches faster than v5, and the transport (play, stop, locate) is much smoother and more responsive. You should also notice improvements in looped recording, looped playback, and varispeed.

Some of the specific improvements are listed below:

Latency compensation:

• In addition to the Mixbus console (which has always been latency-compensated) it is now possible to add additional buses alongside the tracks, which can be used for additional grouping, fx sends, and other tasks. And these buses are now fully latency-compensated just like the regular mixbuses>master path.
• Plugin Delay Compensation (PDC) can now be disabled. This might be useful when recording live tracks while monitoring prerecorded tracks.
• To disable PDC, you must first click Preferences->Toolbar->“Display Latency Compensation Info” to expose the latency-compensation toolbox.

Monitoring improvements:

• By default, MIDI tracks will now monitor both the “input” and “Disk” when they are in automatic mode. Users can override this on a per-track basis and choose to monitor the input or Disk, only.
• Audio tracks can now monitor both the input and disk simultaneously.
• The SDIO ( separate disk I/O ) will also allow the addition of the “record-wet” feature (reserved for a future release)

Mixbus Routing to Mixbuses 9-12

• Mix buses 1-8 can now be directly routed to mix buses 9-12 with independent level control (and independent pan as well if desired). This permits mix buses 9-12 to be used as dedicated effects send buses or as matrix outputs.

Operational Improvements

• The Mixbus32C EQ now prints the Frequency and Gain concurrently in the channel slate, when the knob is turned.
• It is now possible to separately hide the Sends, EQ, or Input/Rec sections of the channelstrip. Monitors that meet our minimum recommendation (1200 pixels height) can show EQ and Sends simultaneously, as in v5.
• We recommend using monitors with a 1200 pixel height. For use with smaller monitors only one of the bus, eq, or input/rec sections of the channel strip are displayed at once, which is displayed is controlled by their respective buttons on the channel strip. Selecting none of them for display results in a larger plugin display area if needed. If desired, there is a Preference setting that forces the EQ and Bus Assign sections to be displayed at once. A vertical scroll bar will then be added for access to all of the resulting full height of the channel strip.
• Slates now show the track number and use a larger, higher-contrast font.
• Track number turns red if the track is record-armed.
• Renaming a mixbus will automatically display the new name beside the channel strip send knobs.
• Channel VCA and phase buttons are now always visible at the bottom of the channel strip.
• The EQ knobs now show “freq” rather than percent. This is a popular request from users on our forum.

*NOTE: In the original 32C EQ, and the Mixbus emulation of it, the frequency and gain knobs are labeled as if the “bell” knob were engaged, however the default mode is shelving. In shelving mode, the available gain is +/-18dB and the frequencies are different (because it is a filter corner freq, not a bell center freq). We have decided to keep the labeling of the knob the same as on the actual 32C console. Please note that the knob is labeled for a mode that is not the default, and the text display does not match the tick marks around the knob.

Source List + Region List

• The “Region List” has been redesigned to show only the regions actually in use in the current snapshot. The secondary function of the region list (showing the source files for every region) has been moved into its own dedicated section, the “Source List”

Region List

• The “Region List” shows only the regions that are used in the current snapshot. Selecting a region in the list will select the corresponding region on the editor canvas. This allows you to reverse-interrogate your edits by, for example, sorting regions by their start time and then selecting them.

Source List

• The “Source list” shows the file sources used by the session, whether they are used in the current snapshot or not.
• Sources have a “capture time” ( i.e. Take ) stamp, so the user can find other regions captured at the same time

Tagging Regions and Sources

Regions and Sources may be “tagged” together, which can help in session management. For example, you can tag all the regions that were part of a good overdub; or you can tag regions with the particular artist who recorded them. See Edit->“Tag selected regions” in the main menu.

Foldback buses

• Foldback buses are used to create headphone mixes for your talent (artists). Foldback buses represent a send to a headphone mix. The mix for a foldback bus can be the combination of any mixer strip, either pre- or post-fader; the foldback bus has its own plugins and fader, allowing you to create a complete custom sound for each artist. Furthermore, it is possible to remotely control foldback mixes from an OSC-enabled tablet or phone application.

Enhanced transport syncing

• Mixbus can now record when an external transport sync source is varispeeding (playing at a speed other than 100%). This improves the ability of Mixbus to transfer tracks from analog tape, among other benefits. It will also allow us to emulate traditional analog recording studio tricks. We plan to expose controls for those new features in the 6.x update series.

A new “Transport Masters” dialog is provided to display all current sync sources, and their speed and location. You can select which external synchronization source to chase on-the-fly. This is a huge advantage for demanding tasks like on-site live broadcasts or providing backing tracks for a live show.

! Due to unsolved issues in the v6.0 release, the external sync selection, and Transport Masters window, will be disabled until an upcoming hotfix release.

“Cut” tool

• Additional to the built-in region splitting capability, a Cut (scissor) tool is added similar to those used in other DAWs.

Virtual MIDI Keyboard

• An on-screen keyboard is available to enter rhythms and melodies when you don’t have a physical MIDI keyboard available. The virtual keyboard maps your QWERTY keyboard into a note-input device.

• The Virtual MIDI Keyboard can be accessed in the “Window” menu. By default, the Virtual MIDI Keyboard is connected to the input of the currently-selected MIDI track. For more details, see: Virtual MIDI Keyboard

MP3 Import

• In the past, only Mac could import mp3’s using the apple built-in decoder. Now Windows and Linux can also import mp3 directly
• On import, MP3 files are converted to a .wav file (inside the session folder) for internal use.

Default preferences and behavior changes:

Waveforms now Logarithmic

• Many of our users preferred the “Logarithmic” waveform display option. The default value for waveform displays has been changed to “Logarithmic”. If you weren’t using that option in the past, then you might notice your region waveforms now appear visually larger. ( you will not hear any difference, though )

Auto-Input behavior

• “Tape Machine Mode” has been replaced with “Auto Input does Talkback”, which is defaulted OFF. In the past, if you had Auto-Input engaged, the default behavior was to monitor the inputs when transport was stopped. In a multi-room studio, this can help performers hear each other and rehearse between takes. But this is not so useful in a typical DAW studio when everybody is in the same room, and it might lead to feedback. So we changed the default operation of Auto Input. If you want the old operation, then enable the option “Auto Input does Talkback” in Preferences->Signal Flow.
• Auto-Input is now defaulted “ON” for new users.

Elimination of Separate Sidechain Bussing

• The discrete sidechain bus of earlier versions is eliminated in V6. Sidechain controlled compression is replaced with a plugin-based approach.

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