Sounds great but.... 
by Rich Ray from Jeffersonville, VT USA, June 2008
Music Background:  Recording Engineer / Producer

The eqs and compressors sound great and the liquid mix does help to free up processing power by leveraging its DSP engine and the interface works well to tweak the settings. However, I have found the software to be problematic and have encountered many issues with the liquid mix corrupting session files in pro-tools. The stability of the platform has been a significant issue for me. Once you learn the querks and bugs you can manage them, but make sure you have your sessions backed up before mixing and know to recover them.There have been some recent software fixes by focusrite, but so far they have not addressed all the problems yet. I hope they do soon !!!! For now I disconnect it completely when tracking and only hook it up when mixing after I have backed up my session files.

  The true fairness....... 
by Bigbruh!!! from Denver, CO!!!, March 2008
Music Background:  Producer, Recording Engineer...Money Making Doing Both!!

Beware of ProTools LE users. They will blame part LE's shortcomings (delay compensation) on this unit. PT's aside,if you have knowledge of how to use compressors and eq's and don't have shot ears, then you WILL hear the difference this unit makes. Like Air Jordan's shoes however, if you do not have a decent game to begin with, do not expect the shoes (AKA the plugins) to make you a professional! Focusrite has provided the tools in this unit and the DSP to support it. It is up to the user to extract specific value. Gripe 1 - new emulations slow to appear. Gripe 2-unit will think it's not connected from time to time (easy fix to disconnect and reconnect firewire) Other than that I believe this unit is solid and will give you what Focusrite advertises. Those who are unimpressed generally don't realize that the "REAL" units don't do very much for certain program material yet you don't have to spend 2500 or more for 2 channels to find this out. Personally, the Liquid Mix is a must have and has placed the vast majority of my native plugins on the "no longer needed" list.

  A MUST for any studio 
by David Rosario from Staten Island, NY, September 2007
Music Background:  musician, recording engineer, producer

I have a UAD-1 Ultra Pak and have been able to compare the two products side-by-side. First, you would NEVER be able to get this many plug-ins with UAD, as it would effectively be 64 instances (unless if you use the Neve 88RS channel strip, which is both compressor and eq). However, the UAD plugins have an interface that mimic hardware units and thus makes it extremely intuitive. That being said, Liquid Mix allows you to remove the "color" of the plugins (which UAD doesn't). For example, a Pultec MEQ5 will color the sound just by running a signal through it. Liquid mix allows you to disable any frequencies, effectively removing the coloration, and thus creating your own eq.

  Not sure it really makes that much of a difference. 
by ND from Idaho, July 2007
Music Background:  Project Studio Owner

I owned this, and sold it. I am a Logic Pro user, and while it was really nice to have tactile control over the compressor and EQ, I didn't find that this really made that much of a difference in my mixes.

I think a lot of project studio owners (and maybe professionals) are subject to a placebo effect with their gear. Make a box that emulates 40 different compressors/eq, and people all of a sudden think their pros. The truth is, what matters more than anything else is good mics and preamps. In Logic, I have found that the EQ's and built in compressor and multi-band compressor work just as well as anything I found in the LiquidMix, provided you know how to use them properly. Not only that, but their user interface is far superior, and the parameters are much more adjustable than the vintage equipment the LiquidMix tries to emulate. With GOOD SOURCE MATERIAL, I can make great mixes with Logic's built in plugins that in my opinion sound BETTER than the LiquidMix being used in the signal path.

Let's all take a reality dose, and spend more time honing our ears and our mixing skills than wasting our time and money on placebo boxes like the LiquidMix. You'd be amazed what you can do with the built-in EQ's and compressors in any professional DAW software, provided you are willing to take the time to get to know them.

And spend your hard-earned money on good mics, preamps, room treatment, digital conversion, and monitoring! Do the rest with your software and your good brain!

  Liquid Mix 
by Marvin Querido from Manila, Philippines, May 2007
Music Background:  Session Keyboardist, Arranger, Producer

I have very little (if at all) with most of the stuff that this thing is trying to emulate, so I'm not gonna be able to vouch for their accuracy of the emulations. But one thing i can really vouch for is that the emulations sound very good, and they sound better than most plug-ins i have (and i have quite a few). So, if you have a firewire bus you could dedicate entirely to liquid mix (i also have a duende, but it's in a different firewire bus), i think you need to listen to this one. I like having lots of compressors and eq's at my disposal, and i have a few good hardware compressors and eq's, and the liquid mix sounds as good.

  Watch for PC IRQ issues 
by huh@hi.com , February 2007

yes this is an awesome box, BUT if you are using any kind of firewire interface (ie, digi 002, and some of the maudio stuff) you will have some IRQ issues.... basically it wont work like it's supposed to... youll have to get a pci firewire expansion card to use the liquid mix.. but this still is an awesome box.. once its up and running correctly

  Seriously good EQ and Compression, 32 tracks at a time 
by Lownoterider from Whitewater, WI, January 2007
Music Background:  Recording Engineer, Producer, Programmer, Bassist

I added this to my ProTools LE set-up 3 weeks ago and have supplanted all my other EQ and Compression plug-ins. The hardware control is just OK, you have to scroll through menus on the controller to select the track you want because it doesn't lock on to the track displayed in the GUI automatically, but that's really the only functional issue for use.

The models are awesome. The presets are ALL useful starting points for the inexperienced. What you can do with Bass and Drums alone make this worth the price of admission, but the ability to basically add EQ and Compression of this quality to ALL of your tracks WITHOUT DRAINING YOUR CPU is the deal closer. The Super EQ is mind boggling. I can't recommend this enough.

One issue to consider. This thing needs it's own Firewire buss. DO NOT use the same buss as your ProTools hardware. I added a PCI Card Firewire unit. $30-$50 additional bucks make this trouble free.

Great product, great sound.

  I like this alot! 
by Brontosaurus from Hollywood, September 2006
Music Background:  HipHop Producer

This DSP plugin has drastically changed and improved the way my mixes sound. I was using other third party plugins but after taking a couple of weeks to get used to Liquid Mix, Im a believer.

  Wasnt Liquid Enough For Me 
by Chris Morris from Bay Area, CA USA, September 2006
Music Background:  Engineer/Producer

I am a real fan of the Liquid Channel so this was a surprising disappointment. The best part about buying the Liquid Mix was finding out how great Focusrite's customer service is. I even got a chance to speak to the developers in the UK to help with my issues.

But the Liquid Mix falls short of spectacular. The EQ's and Compressors aren’t bad, but they are all very similar in sound. Especially the compressors where there isn’t too much that can change with a compressor if the signal isn’t passing through real valves or tubes. Where with the EQ's they tend to differ a little more with the Neve and API being my favorite.

There is also a 2056 Sample latency when using it, so for every track you apply it on you must delay every other track that isn’t using it by 2056 Samples. I found that to disrupt the workflow immensely.

The best part about the LM is use of its DSP power and its kind of fun to change EQ's and see how they were unique from one another. But if you want the sound of the real thing...buy the real thing. Don’t expect more than a Digital EQ that can save you DSP power. I'm A LOT happier with the Digidesign EQ III and the Waves Renaissance EQ's.

Click here to Read the inSync Review for the Liquid Mix

Write Your Own Review!
We all love gear, and we all love talking about gear with our friends and bandmates. Why not share your thoughts with the hundreds of thousands of customers who regularly visit Sweetwater.com? Write your own customer review on this product! To begin, just Click Here!