by Esben Andersen » Thu Aug 11, 2022 7:41 pm
Hi,
I love the sound of MixBox but there are some major issues with ease of use. Here are my suggestions. Keep up the good work IK.
1- Customizable Default State for each rack
It would be amazing if you could customize a default state for each rack so that it opens with the settings that are most useful to the user. I for instance find myself changing the compressor to fit my sound every time I open a new rack instead of it starting at a setting that I’ve set once. It would be a real time saver and is something you can do in pretty much every other plugin I use.
2- Midi and automation control of Volume and Mix for each rack
I use Ableton 11 and I can’t control the Volume and Mix for the single racks. It is a huge bummer as I’ve wanted to both automate it while using the plugin in a track and because I can’t map it to midi controllers which I use all the time.
3- Volume control next to mix in main GUI
I keep going back and forth between the two ‘screens’ of the plugin just to change the volume and it is a complete waste of time. Really, this one thing takes the plugin from great to just ok. Ease of use is everything when producing music 10 hours a day. There’s plenty of space in the main GUI for a volume control per rack. It’s an absolute must for the workflow.
4- When an effect is bypassed, so should the gain stage of that rack.
If I have a compressor on slot 3 that boost the sound 3 dB and I therefore set the gain -3 dB on the slot if I bypass the compressor so should the gain stage. Otherwise A/B’ing is impossible.
5-Parameter unification
It is a shame that there isn’t any parameter unification between the different plugins within MixBox. For example attack should always be ‘attack’ when you switch between compressor models. So if you’ve set up a midi controller to be ‘attack’ on ‘Ratio’ on the ‘Bus Compressor’ it is also ‘Ratio’ on ‘Black 76’. And likewise High Frequency Gain could be exactly that across all EQ models. It would make it possible to set up great midi controllers for the plugin and through that control it like real hardware.
6-Saturation and Output linking
In Ie. ‘SatX’ and ‘Distortion’ it is crucial that you can link the gain and output stage. Otherwise the volume is just turned up a lot and you can’t hear what you’re doing. Again, it makes the plugin so difficult to use properly and is an easy improvement.
7-Add ‘Brickwall’ button to SatX
It is in the T-Racks version and is sorely missed in MixBox.
8-Add EQP-1A Bandwidth knob parameter
It is a huge shame that there’s no bandwidth parameter in EQP-1A and it means that I always get harsh highs from it compared to other Pulteq clones. Please add it to the MixBox plugin.
9-Next/Previous buttons for rack selection
It would be great for sound exploring to be able to choose next or previous effect rather than always open the browser. I’d love that for the times where I’m messing about and trying different sounds.
10-‘Distortion’ output knob
The distortion plugin badly needs an output knob and even better if it could be linked with the gain knob. Right now you gain 3dB then click to go to the back panel, realize you want to gain 2dB more and then have to go to the back panel again, etc. That is extremely bad workflow.
It’s already an amazing suite of plugins but if you think about expanding with more racks here’s what I think is missing currently:
A Juno-like chorus with mode I and II.
A simplified high quality Tascam tape model.
A simplified high quality Teac tape model.
A simplified version of the ‘Space Delay’.
Best wishes from Denmark,
-Esben
