Mixcraft 9 not supported

[Dan B]

I have been using Mixcraft for quite a while and recently have upgraded to Mixcraft 9. So far I have relied on the included effects but I am now planning to expand my guitar tone range with a VST guitar plugin suite. After researching the market I found out that some of the most popular suites do not support Mixcraft 9. More precisely am talking about: Bias Fx 2, Helix Native and TH-U.

My questions are:

1. What are the reasons for this situation?
2. Does that mean that those products are not safe for using with Mixcraft and I should refrain from buying them?

Thanks

[jlouvar]

I have been using Mixcraft for quite a while and recently have upgraded to Mixcraft 9. So far I have relied on the included effects but I am now planning to expand my guitar tone range with a VST guitar plugin suite. After researching the market I found out that some of the most popular suites do not support Mixcraft 9. More precisely am talking about: Bias Fx 2, Helix Native and TH-U.

My questions are:

1. What are the reasons for this situation?
2. Does that mean that those products are not safe for using with Mixcraft and I should refrain from buying them?

Thanks

Hello Dan, welcome to the MIxcraft forum.

1). Probably a buggy third party plug-in.
2). I like the MX9 stuff and shy away from third party stuff.

Joe

[Mark Bliss]

Hi Dan,

The reason Mixcraft isnt listed as "supported" most likely simply means it hasnt been tested and therefore they cant fully offer assistance if (for example) you have trouble with your installation.

It is very likely any of those will work just fine using Mixcraft as your host.
The tip here is that most any reputable plug-in is available to trial or demo before you buy. Not just in Mixcraft, but on your specific system, to see how it works for you.

Each of the titles you mention is well known, and you should be fine.
Try before you buy, and if you find one you like, let them know! And be sure to mention that Mixcraft has a fully functioning trial version and that they might consider trying it and adding to their list.
There is after all a growing user base of potential customers.

And there is no reason to fear third party plug-ins. Theres a lot of great titles out there and you might find something useful to you.
I do suggest trying to avoid the temptation to collect everything you run across, clogging up your system and waiting for a thousand plug-ins to be scanned every time you load your DAW though.... Exploring them can be addicting.

[Dan B]

Hello Joe and Mark, thanks a lot for your feedback! I have tried both Bias Fx2 and Helix Native, and they both worked with Mixcraft 9, but not flawlessly. Each of them had some issues, i.e with Bias Fx2 I encountered hissing with some presets and with certain tones from their ToneCloud, while Helix would not load sometimes (Mixcraft would get stuck and I had to restart it). I have a brand new HP desktop with Intel I7-9700, 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD hard drive, so the system is definitely not the problem.

Regarding testing, I suppose that Mixcraft is quite well-know already so why would those companies decide to skip it? I mean why test Reaper and Studio One, and not test Mixcraft? Is there a bias against Mixcraft in the industry?

[Mark Bliss]

I wouldnt even venture a WAG at actual statistics, but I would venture that either of those have a much larger user base than Mixcraft.

It would be interesting to learn if the Bias preset "hissing" was consistent in other hosts. I bet it is..... Some programmers still insist on the idea that it is part of some analog modelling. But many plug in presets are found to be useless. I have guitar modelling plug-ins by multiple publishers, and feel I am lucky if I find one in ten presets to be even remotely useful personally.

Ive not used the Helix plug-in. But you description leads me to suspect it might be mildly buggy. Honestly, some do work better in some hosts than others too.

Most guys here seem to lean toward IKM Amplitude. Personally, while I think it provides better tones than most, I would give negative points on the user interface.
Still, a big seller.

[Rolling Estonian]

Tried out Bias and found it to be a pretty much cpu hog and the combinations of mods you can do was way more than I needed. Amplitube is my go to with the Fender Twin on #1 preset. Mark is probably right about the analog modeling being the hiss, they're going for realism and when using an amp there's going to be hiss, particularly if you have gain.

As for products that 'do not support' MC, it's most times not true, if not always. My understanding is that they just haven't done the testing because of MC not being very well known, though how hard can it be to test a plugin? My only experience with plugin issues was with Waves and their system of distributing their plugins, not very straightforward at all. Pretty much all the vst issues I've seen on the forums are due to free, buggy and/or just bad plugins.

As always a good idea is to ask here if you're not sure, I know there's a few folks here who really like their plugins and may have collections that they may be embarrassed to admit..... Maybe...... I of course am completely innocent of hoarding plugins, not me, nuh uh.....

M

[Dan B]

Lol, Rolling, thanks for your feedback!

I have also checked Amplitube 4 and I agree with Mark regarding the user interface. I know they are praised for the quality of their Fender tones in particular.

Personally I like the UI of Bias Fx2 and I think there is also potential in the tones, but I am still a bit worried about the "not supported" thing. That is why I wanted to get more info before making a decision.

If there are other people here who use Bias Fx2 with Mixcraft 9, please let me know about your experience.

[Rolling Estonian]

I demo'd it, worked fine except for being a cpu hog.

M

[Jmonster]

I use Bias FX 2 and Bias Amp 2 and haven't run into any problems.

[RaveyDavey]

I have Bias Fx and Bias Amp - no problems for me either.

[Dan B]

Hello Jmonster and Ravey, thanks a lot for your feedback.

[ste_p0270]

Hi,

I've been using Bias FX2 with 9 Pro Studio for quite a while. Not had any issues that i'm aware of.

[Dan B]

Hello Ste, thanks for sharing your experience with MX9 Pro Studio and Bias Fx2.

[ste_p0270]

No worries.