Pro Tools 8 LE and Focusrite Liquid Mix 16

[reycantong]

I'm planning on getting a Liquid Mix 16. Anybody here using it in their PT8 LE sessions? Any known issues? Thanks in advance.

[Obsidian Dragon]

I don't have a liquid mix but from another thread I was following, Digdesign has not officially certified that it is compatible (meaning not fully tested by Digidesign). However the poster was able to get it working fine after resolving the issue he was having was with the RAM and not the software. In other words, it does work with Protools LE 8.0 for someone and therefore probably will work if everything else is setup correctly.

[colinmansfield]

Originally Posted by reycantong

I'm planning on getting a Liquid Mix 16. Anybody here using it in their PT8 LE sessions? Any known issues? Thanks in advance.

I've had mine for nearly a month now and apart from the huge round trip plugin delay created (uncompensated in PT LE but not an issue in DP) it works well. Obviously the amount of delay depends a lot on your setup (I see about 4,000 samples delay in my normal setup so I use it for mixing, not recording).

You will need to run it from its own FireWire bus -- I installed an inexpensive FW card in my G5 for the purpose. Otherwise performance is poor to iffy... Run from its own card, it works as advertised. (BTW -- don't expect pretty pictures of expensive toys. The GUI is very generic but very functional.)

Be sure to download the latest drivers from Focusrite as is mentioned in the installation instructions, and on the Mac, you will need to run the Liquidmix setup program alongside your DAW to enable the box. I haven't tried it on a PC yet, but apparently it loads the program when the plug is instantiated, a minor difference in operation.

With so many EQ and compressor emulations, I have yet to completely plumb its depths. I do feel it's a good addition, though.

[flommer]

You will need to run it from its own FireWire bus -- I installed an inexpensive FW card in my G5 for the purpose. Otherwise performance is poor to iffy... Run from its own card, it works as advertised.

This seems particularly important..

iMacs need not apply...?

[colinmansfield]

Originally Posted by flommer

This seems particularly important..

iMacs need not apply...?

Riiight... I have a G5 and don't have experience with LM 16 and an iMac or MacBook. However, I'd imagine you would be able to use it with a USB interface (M-Box 2 but not Pro) or on an older MacBook with a cardbus FW adapter. The docs say it doesn't do well with FW hubs if I recall correctly, so probably best to stay away from it unless you have a desktop with a free slot.

[reycantong]

Thanks guys for all your inputs about LM 16. I'll take note of your suggestions when it's time to hook it with PT8 LE.

But on the other side, there are some issues that hinder me from getting the LM 16. I never knew that this is not officially approved by DIGI. Second, because of this issue with delay compensation, latency is a big deal here when using the plug-ins in a PT session.

Will DIGI still look into these?

[reycantong]

And by the way, my current setup is a MacPro 8-Core Nehalem (two 2.66 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon) running PT8 LE. In your assumption, will the latency be that bad? Do i need to install a dedicated firewire card for the LM 16 hardware?
Thank you in advance.

[colinmansfield]

Originally Posted by reycantong

And by the way, my current setup is a MacPro 8-Core Nehalem (two 2.66 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Xeon) running PT8 LE. In your assumption, will the latency be that bad? Do i need to install a dedicated firewire card for the LM 16 hardware?
Thank you in advance.

With your computer you should be able to set buffers quite low, which will reduce latency somewhat, plus the LM 16 has its own buffers which I would think could also be set as low as possible. However, the round trip still takes time, and I doubt this would be useful in tracking. I see it more as a mixing device.

Yes, a dedicated FW card is a must. The LM 16 needs a dedicated FW interface. However, I added a PCI card to my G5 and am running both the LM 16 out of the FW 400 I/O and a FW 800 drive from one of the other connections. So far, I've had no problems with this arrangement.