Love the sound of the liquid Mix

I think that personally for me its better value, from what i have heard about the UAD you have to buy at least 2 cards to get anything near a usable amount of instances. Whereas with the Liquid Mix you have 32. In fairness tahts probably closer to say 20. But thats 20 Compressors and 20 EQ's. so really 40 instances. I have high hopes for the new version that that will rise to 32 (64).

The downside is you don't get any reverbs or delays etc. However the way i look at it is I have freed up so much processing power by doing all my compressing and bespoke eq outside the box, that i can use teh CPU i have saved for reverbs etc, and there are loads of great plugs out there for this.

In terms of sound I think the LM is FAT with a capital PH, just using the presets it comes with i was able to get a very fat mix. In fact that ones of my prefereed ways of working, I slap on a few preset to say the kick/ snare bass vocals etc. THi s very quickly gives me a good sounding mix, then i can hear whats working and not working and go in and tweak the presets to taste, add gating, carve out the eq so things stop clashing etc.

Particularly useful emulations i have found, SSL Channel strips, and SSL Mix buss, you can basically mimic a SSL mixing console, without buying a duende. The Mix buss really does sound the business.

The LA is excellent.

I really like teh Joe Meek SC2 compressor as well, I have always had a soft spot for Opto comps especailly joe meeks.

A mate of mine runs Logic and has 2 UAD's and the LM, and he says that he is now using the LM for pretty much all compression and EQ and only using the UAD for Reverb.

basically if you have a budget of £500 ($1000), buy the LM, if you have a budget of £1000($2000) then buy a LM and a UAD and use the UAD for its reverb and delay effects.

Actually given that the UAD does not play that nicely with SOnar, maybe think about TC Electronic Card/Box instead, there reverbs are the bomb.

G

Absolutely

I really like teh LM becuase it can almost act as an effect you can use it to colour and warm instruments. I then use the sonitus gate to tighen up drum and bass interactions. I find that usually tidies up my low end.

Then in the mids even if i have used the focusrite on guitar parts etc, I will often use the Gliss EQ by Voxengo after the LM to then surgically cut various different mid instruments and use Gliss Analyser function to ensure that they are all seperateed using a sort of feather eq technique.

This is great on multiple guitar parts which is why i mentioned it if you are working with a Blues bands.

Also the LM is great where you ahve a sparse mix, if you have a very exposed drum section the LM used well will just give it somethign extra, especially if you drop a really light and tasty shimmer of reverb of the top.

Did not get chance to try 2.0 editing took longer than i though, quelle surprise.

Will keep you all posted as and when.

Further observations from my Testing of the Beta

The hardware follows plugs is also a great idea, as you know I enable tabbing fro all my LM instances, and with the Beta as you flick through the Tabs the LM keeps in sync.

However I should point out that you can no longer choose an Instance from the Hardware in this mode, you choose it and becuase you are still in a tab in sonar, it will briefly flash to the instance you chose, before reverting to the one in Sonar.

However this feature is defeatable in the software so its up to you which way you choose to work. If you a hands on type, you can still do it all via the hardware

Sidechain seems very interesting, when you click it 3 new virtual knobs appear above the compression controls (these are controlled by the EQ knobs on the hardware while you are in Sidechain mode) Also the EQ curve window reflects the action of the knobs. You can basically use these knobs much like a gate i.e choose the frequencies that are triggering the compression, interesting to say the least.

Looking forward to experimenting more with this feature once stable non distorting drivers are available. ONe thing that would be massively great would be if the LM could be enabled to recieve MIDI, why, well then you could use the audio snap feature to convert audio to midi from say a bass part, and then input this midi into a LM instance on a the KICK track to duck it. This would be trueish sidechaing, or a fairly useful workaround to ti anyway.

G

G

Head up guys there is an even neweer version just out 2.0b40 This specfically fixs an issue with SONar, we are getting are own specific releases, talk about nirvana lol. Well done focusrite.

Please find included below the Read Me file, the great news is it seems that between 2.0b39 and 40 they have fixed all teh outstanding Sonar related issues, I have underlined the fixes relevant to us.

Most important for me they have fixed the data transfer issue which was causing me distortion on the previous Beta releases, but I think the other updates will help others.

The first opportunity i will get to test this will be Sunday as I have tracking session on Thursday and Sat and don't want to compromise my system before then.

I will update this thread with my findings.

Release Notes

2.0b40 - 22 May 2007

• Resolved crashes in Sonar when inserting LM plugins

2.0b39 - 17 May 2007

• Sidechain frequency on hardware now matches the GUI values at low frequencies
• Q should is now disabled for the Sidechain shelf EQs
• fixed a data transmission problem which resulted in intermittent distortion
• fixed a bug where the hardware didn't update the LEDs properly when switching between plugins
• fixed some spelling mistakes on the LCD display
• Left and right channels of stereo LM plugins no longer out of sync
• The LM sidechain monitor button behaviour fixed

2.0b29 - 1 May 2007

• fixed backwards compatibility issues with loading old snapshots
• fixed some crashes in Sonar & Ableton

2.0b26 - 24 April 2007

• fixed backwards compatibility issues with loading old sessions
• fixed some random crashes in Sonar & Ableton
• stereo link button now defaults to on in Wavelab

Known Issues
• CPU performance in Pro Tools is suboptimal

We are looking into these issues and hope to have them fixed asap.
Please report any new bugs or queries to beta@focusrite.com

Debug Log Files

During beta testing, it is very important to provide logs when reporting bugs and crashes.
To obtain logs of the Liquid Mix activity, you must create the following two blank text files:

C:\Documents and Settings\"Your Username"\Application Data\LiquidMix\LiquidMixManagerLog.txt
C:\Documents and Settings\"Your Username"\Application Data\LiquidMix\LiquidMixVSTLog.txt

When sending a report, please make sure to delete the contents of the file before proceeding to reproduce the bug. Clear the text file, then repro the bug, then send the text file with the steps to repro the bug to beta@focusrite.com.

Many Thanks!
The Focusrite Team

ORIGINAL: gordonrussell76

Head up guys there is an even neweer version just out 2.0b40 This specfically fixs an issue with SONar, we are getting are own specific releases, talk about nirvana lol. Well done focusrite.

Please find included below the Read Me file, the great news is it seems that between 2.0b39 and 40 they have fixed all teh outstanding Sonar related issues, I have underlined the fixes relevant to us.

Most important for me they have fixed the data transfer issue which was causing me distortion on the previous Beta releases, but I think the other updates will help others.

The first opportunity i will get to test this will be Sunday as I have tracking session on Thursday and Sat and don't want to compromise my system before then.

I will update this thread with my findings.

Release Notes

2.0b40 - 22 May 2007

• Resolved crashes in Sonar when inserting LM plugins

2.0b39 - 17 May 2007

• Sidechain frequency on hardware now matches the GUI values at low frequencies
• Q should is now disabled for the Sidechain shelf EQs
• fixed a data transmission problem which resulted in intermittent distortion
• fixed a bug where the hardware didn't update the LEDs properly when switching between plugins
• fixed some spelling mistakes on the LCD display
• Left and right channels of stereo LM plugins no longer out of sync
• The LM sidechain monitor button behaviour fixed

2.0b29 - 1 May 2007

• fixed backwards compatibility issues with loading old snapshots
• fixed some crashes in Sonar & Ableton

2.0b26 - 24 April 2007

• fixed backwards compatibility issues with loading old sessions
• fixed some random crashes in Sonar & Ableton
• stereo link button now defaults to on in Wavelab

Known Issues
• CPU performance in Pro Tools is suboptimal

We are looking into these issues and hope to have them fixed asap.
Please report any new bugs or queries to beta@focusrite.com

Debug Log Files

During beta testing, it is very important to provide logs when reporting bugs and crashes.
To obtain logs of the Liquid Mix activity, you must create the following two blank text files:

C:\Documents and Settings\"Your Username"\Application Data\LiquidMix\LiquidMixManagerLog.txt
C:\Documents and Settings\"Your Username"\Application Data\LiquidMix\LiquidMixVSTLog.txt

When sending a report, please make sure to delete the contents of the file before proceeding to reproduce the bug. Clear the text file, then repro the bug, then send the text file with the steps to repro the bug to beta@focusrite.com.

Many Thanks!
The Focusrite Team

Well done Focusrite? im still sitting here with a paper weight and i get basically one word answers and one email from them a day (sometimes every other day). not too great of an experience on my end. but i guess its majority rules right, im just f*cked.

OK an update following a suggestion from FR - get rid of the debug logfiles, and Sonar doesn't crash. Which is good.

The "no audio" problem was finger trouble on my part - I didn't realise that Sonar automatically bypassed the FX bin if you freeze. Obvious really.

This release has fixed two problems for me:
- CPU spiking and loud crackles when first pressing playback
- LM forgetting the track names

HOWEVER - my main problem is still and always has been the hang on load, which if anything is slightly worse. I cannot now load some of my older projects at all. Time to back rev.

Yiiiiiiiipppppppppppppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New beta as of last night: 2.0b45 - Focusrite says "- fixed a problem with loading large sessions in Sonar"

16 stereo instances opened in Sonar - At last!

This is great news guys, well chuffed, and I hope Somsto saw this before he took him LM back.

Ihtink my well done to focusrite was justified they really do seem to be taking the Sonar user base seriously.

G

Guys

THey have just released another Version 2.0b46 literally 2 mins ago. They are obviously working round the clock trying to get a stable Non Beta 2.0. I guess its worth checking out the site regularly becuase a) Its good to ahve all the beta version, becuase there is a chance one of them may work better for your hardware setup than the final Release, often the way.

Dunch have you e-mailed them about the distortion coming back, becuase 45 was aimed at fixing the load up problem which judging from PODS comments it has, however the slow load vs distortion on playback seem to be linked ie, there has not yet been a release that fix's both. Just worried they think that they have it sorted with 45 but have re-introduced teh data transmision error that causes the distortion.

I did not have time over the weekend to do any testing, will attempt to test both versions 45 and 46 tonight to see what the score is.

G

ORIGINAL: dunch

Hi Gordon,

Yes I'm swapping lots of emails with FR right now, and they are being very responsive, but they can't reproduce my issue back there. I'm planning to do a whole load of tests tonight/tomorrow morning to try to isolate what brings on the distortion - e.g. interaction with other plugins, particular emulations, latency, etc. I'll let you know how it goes. It would be good to see how other people get on - it might just be my setup in some way.

cheers
A

OK - well I haven't been able to find out what causes the distortion, but:
- so far I only get it in older projects
- I can work round it by deleting and re-inserting the LM plugin on each track. All then seems to be fine..

Early days but I'm feeling more and more hopeful..

cheers
A

Dunch

Just noticed your Reading based fella. I am a Londoner, but I have a few friends Reading way, have not been down in a while, are the purple turtle and Pavlov's Cat? still going strong? Happy days.

G

Ok I am a glutton for punishment, just undid the system restore so i was back with 2.0b46, the Sid Speeds were unchanged in teh registry so scratch that idea.

I am definately going to bed now.
G

the latest beta is out .47 !!! SUPPOSED to solve distortion on loading plus a few other bugs!!!

2.0b47 - 1 June 2007

• fixed the a problem with reloading sessions which could result in distortion within some DAWs
• fixed some inconsistencies with the alphabetic ordering of the emulations list
• fixed a few other typos here and there


ALso IF you create a debug log note focusrite advises to "
Please note: The debug log files require additional processing time and resources, therefore it is important that you delete the debug log files during normal operation."

Hi everyone,

We're sorry to interrupt the thread, but we're confused over here. This FW patch for SP2, Is it necessary for anyone who upgrades to SP2?

How can we tell if we already have this hotfix installed with our SP2 installation?

On newer systems, must the regestry be modified to increase the FW speeds to 400?

There is also some hotfix/patch for dual core/multithreaded CPUs and Windows. Must everyone use this as well for the newer systems?

My brothers and I would appreciate it if someone could provide any links to these subjects.

Thanks.

ORIGINAL: musicman100

ORIGINAL: dunch

Yep, have tested it out and for me anyway this is the best yet - distortion gone, projects load, all good so far. Apart from an annoying tendency for Sonar to crash if I load a project with LM in after I have just been working on another one (but that's what beta testing is all about I guess ;) ). Works fine if I always close and restart Sonar before working on a different project.

Still need to really push it, but the main issues I had seem to be resolved. Phew.

cheers
Adrian

I have a similar situation here on my setup upon a load of a new project, SOnar will lock up and task manager reports Sonar " not responding" I am assuming when you say "crash" thats what sonar does to you ???

Hi

Nope - that's the problem I used to have, where Sonar would hang on load. Checking the task manager showed two instances of Sonar both not responding. But beta release 2.0b47 (in fact I think it might have been b45) has resolved that for me - loading a project now seems be fine, if ponderous. I am going to do some more testing today. The issue I now have is I get a message "Unhandled Exception" followed by a Sonar crash if I close a project and open another one without closing and re-opening Sonar first.

So do you still get the Sonar hanging problem in b45 and later?

cheers
A