I saw the Focusrite Liquid Mix in the magazines on the desks of all of the pros. I now see what all the fuss was about. To put is simply, this thing rocks. Within minutes I was up and running in Logic Pro. I opened a session that I had done earlier in the year consisting of 24 audio tracks and the first thing I did was slap the “SSL style” bus compressor on the mix bus…WOW!
I thought that if one instance on the mix bus made this much difference, why not replace the EQs and compressors on ALL of the other channels? First the EQs. Not only do you get emulations of 20 classic EQs, but creating hybrid 7-band super EQs from separate classic EQ sections is also possible. Next, the compression. With 40 classic compressors it took quite some time to narrow it down to my favorites for certain applications. I was like a kid in a candy store! As if 20 EQs and 40 compressors weren’t enough, there is also a wealth of great-sounding convolution files ready to be downloaded from Focusrite’s website.
All in all, I had about 13 compressors and 21 EQs running at once without even a hint of a hiccup, since the onboard DSP gives you 32 channels of compression and EQ without taxing your processor. Having hands-on control via the hardware controller is a definite plus and the onboard meters are very nice. I didn’t believe it until I used one myself. What are you waiting for?
