NOTE: beginning in version 10, Mixbus is available in 3 tiers: Mixbus, Mixbus PLUS, and Mixbus PRO.
The basic tier, Mixbus, now includes the 4-band 32C equalizer, expanded compressor, and 4 additional stereo buses from Mixbus32C!
The last version of Mixbus32C is version 9. The comments below apply to versions 9 and before:
In both Mixbus and Mixbus32C, you receive a full-featured DAW with unlimited audio tracks, unlimited MIDI tracks, and unlimited plugins.
Both Mixbus and Mixbus32C provide professional features such as VCA's, video playback, "ripple" editing, timecode display, LTC/SMPTE sync, and other features that are rarely included in an entry-level program.
Rather than charge less for "limited" versions of Mixbus, we differentiate the price by the "mixer" features, which is what Harrison is known for. 32C is the more expensive program, and it provides a bigger, more feature-ful mixer.
1) the EQ:
- The Mixbus EQ was specifically designed by Harrison to match our historical records of user's settings. 90% of EQ jobs can be handled with a 3band sweepable eq, and a high-pass filter. There are a few cases where you might need to add a plugin EQ, to solve a specific need.
- The Mixbus32C EQ is a recreation of our analog 32-Series EQ, which has 4 bands ( the top bands can be switched from shelving to peaking ), and both high- and low- pass filters. The 32C EQ requires a larger monitor, to fit all the controls on-screen. But feature-wise and sound-wise, it meets nearly any need for equalization; you would rarely if ever need to add an additional EQ.
2) Buses:
- Mixbus provides 8 stereo mix-buses, with send-levels on every channel strip. We expect this to meet the needs of users who are mixing 8-24 channels.
- Mixbus32C provides 12 stereo mix-buses, with send-level knobs on every channel strip. In addition, each bus send can be "panned" separately from the master bus pan location. This provides more grouping and effects buses, and allows you to manage a larger mix than the regular Mixbus.
The sound of Mixbus and Mixbus32C are largely identical. However:
In both products, the channelstrip EQ is "always in circuit" ... meaning the signal is always passing through the math, ( bypass simply means that the gain for the EQs is set to "0" ). In practice, if the EQs are both set flat or bypassed, the difference should be vanishingly small: similar to the magnitude of dither. But some people ascribe a huge difference to dither; so yes, the sound of the mixers will be fundamentally different to a discriminating audio engineer.