Features overview
The Soundscape Mixer software runs on the DSPs of the Mixpander and Mixtreme 192 PCI cards. In keeping with the Sydec philosophy, it delivers ultimate flexibility, power and ease of use. In fact, it offers infinite possibilities and puts you in control right from the word go… because you can build any Mixer you want, according to your own specifications, within the limits of your chosen Soundscape system’s DSP power… and whatever your requirements, there is a Soundscape configuration to match them.
Soundcard manufacturers traditionally supply a somewhat basic mixing utility with their hardware, sometimes priding themselves on a vague resemblance to the mixer of one of the mainstream MIDI+audio sequencers. In contrast, Sydec Audio Engineering draws on over a decade of experience designing professional digital audio workstations to deliver a DSP-powered software mixer that will expand the possibilities of your studio and change the way you think about software...
The Soundscape Mixer is far more than a routing matrix between an external mixer or other sound source and a sequencer. There is no end to the applications you can use it for.
For instance, with 48 analogue inputs and outputs (one Mixpander with two iBox 48-TA), you could connect Soundscape format, real-time DSP-powered effects to the insert points of an analogue mixer. Imagine a dozen Drawmer stereo compressors for your tracking session, and it’s only a start. You could run many more effects including top-quality reverb by the likes of Spinaudio or TC, and still have enough inputs left to record multiple tracks into your chosen application. You could also, at the same time, create multiple cue mixes for the performers. This is a bit like having a hardware digital console inside your computer, except that hardware consoles cannot provide as much flexibility (create the configuration you want, use the effects you want, where you want them…). At mixdown time, the same DSP-powered effects can be used to process audio tracks running in the sequencer.
With VSTi compatibility, the Soundscape Mixer can also be used as a host for your favourite virtual instruments. You can power up your computer and start playing straightaway. No need to open a sequencer when all you want to do is play, quickly. You could create a configuration containing a selection of several well-loved VST instruments that will be loaded as soon as you start your computer, or you could create individual configurations for various VST instruments… you decide! Note that VST and VSTi plug-ins run on the CPU of the host computer, even though they can be inserted in the Soundscape Mixer just like Soundscape format plug-ins.
Of course, a choice of ready-made Mixers is provided to get you started. You can use these Mixers to experiment, or start from scratch. You can save Mixers (including all the settings of all plug ins), name and rename them, or exchange them with other users via email.
For more information on the possibilites offered by the Soundscape Mixer, you can also read The software: infinite possibilities. The full article is called “Soundscape solutions for PC native systems” and can be accessed from the Applications page of this website.
Mixers are built by inserting “mixer elements” into user-defined mono, stereo, 4-channel, 6-channel or 8-channel “mixer strips”. Everything, from an input to a track insert, from a fully parametric EQ module to an effects processor, is a mixer element. In this respect, even optional third party plug ins are considered the same as other Soundscape mixer elements, making for a consistent user interface and a totally transparent mixer creation process.
Audio signals can be routed freely to and from hardware inputs and outputs, between Soundscape mixer channels using internal busses (16 internal busses are available when using a Mixtreme 192, 32 when using a Mixpander), and between the Soundscape Mixer and your Windows applications such as MIDI+Audio sequencer or virtual sampler or instruments using the “Streaming” channels (up to 16 when using a Mixtreme 192, up to 64 when using a Mixpander).
Mixer strips can be assigned to any one of 99 Solo Groups and 99 Mute Groups. Monitoring is real-time and you can easily provide different monitor mixes for different performers by inserting send elements routed to any hardware outputs. Effects can be applied before or after recording. Of course you can bus signals as 6 or 8 channel groups and the mixer architecture fully supports surround plug-ins.
The Soundscape Mixer combines the traditional advantages of hardware (stability, reliability and a guaranteed level of performance) and software (running multiple instances of your effects and processing units, saving and loading configurations at will). A Mixtreme 192 has enough on-board DSP power to run the Soundscape Mixer with enough mixer strips to configure your I/O and streams routing as you wish, and subject to the sample rate setting, the built-in mixing engine can deliver high quality reverb, multiple compressors or take care of high-end processes that are not normally available without a very substantial investment in expensive dedicated hardware. If you use a multi-DSP Mixpander card (or even multiple Mixpanders), you will have staggering power at your fingertips for the most demanding mixing jobs, with the capability to run dozens of high-end DSP-powered effects and processing plug-ins.
As many Mixtreme 192 and Mixpander cards can be combined as the host PC has PCI slots and IRQ numbers available, allowing for instance 64 inputs and outputs to and from the host computer (with four Mixtremes) with vastly increased DSP power, or even 256 inputs and outputs and… probably more DSP power than anyone will ever actually need (with four Mixpanders). The cards run from a single instance of the Soundscape Mixer software. Mixtreme 192 can connect to Input/Output boxes from the Soundscape iBox range for compatibility with a wide range of formats including ADAT, analogue and AES/EBU, while the Mixpander Power Pak includes an iBox 48-TA, iBox 64-MADI-TA or iBox 64-MADI.
For a complete hardware feel, you can also control the Soundscape Mixer from just about any control surface via the free Soundscape Console Manager utility. This combination is a desirable alternative to a digital mixing desk. It integrates closely with the front end PC for display purposes, but does not suffer the instability of native systems where running multiple programs may cause audio glitches or other serious problems while you mix critical material. Yet it exceeds the capabilities of hardware digital mixers that offer only a finite number of on-board effects units, and rivals their input/output and format capabilities with the iBox range of Input/Output boxes.
And finally, since the communication between the Soundscape Mixer software and the Console Manager utility uses MIDI, you can also automate the Soundscape Mixer by recording the relevant MIDI data into your MIDI sequencer. Automation can be enabled or disabled individually for each automatable parameter of every mixer element.
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