Comparisons to Ableton Live™

Why does Mixbus’s Cue Window look so similar to Ableton Live™?

In the same way that Harrison developed many conventions of inline signal-flow, eq, bussing, automation, solo-ing, VCA faders and other console concepts which have been copied many times since 1975, it is our opinion that Ableton Live™ has defined the canonical ‘looping grid’ workflow. Rather than develop our own conventions, we decided to follow the familiar operations and layout of this well-known software.

Terminology Differences between Live and Mixbus

• When you trigger a horizontal row of clips, Live calls this a Scene. We prefer the term Cues, which is well-known terminology for triggering an event on a timeline. We want to reserve the word Scenes for mixer scenes.
• Mixbus uses the term “Cue Isolate” instead of “Remove Stop Button”.
• In the clip properties, Mixbus uses the term “Stretch” instead of “Warp”.
• Mixbus uses the term “Follow Options” rather than “Follow Actions”.
• In the clip properties, Mixbus provides a button to override a Clip’s length and instead define a Follow Length. This is comparable to Live’s “Unlinked” option which allows a separate Follow Action Time.
• otherwise, terminology and behavior should be largely the same for features like Quantize, etc.
  

What is different about Mixbus’s Cue Window when compared to the Session View of Ableton Live™?

• When you stop the transport in Live, the currently-playing clips are left in a queued state, which means they will play again when the transport is started. Mixbus does not provide that feature. Instead we encourage you to use Cue Markers to trigger your clips on the timeline ruler. This helps maintain the ‘phase’ relationship between multiple playing clips when you start and stop the transport.
• Live has a ‘Looping’ checkbox for audio and midi clips which allow them to loop forever even without a follow-action or follow-count enabled. Mixbus does not provide that feature. Instead you should use Follow-Count (for a specific number of loops) or Repeat Follow-Option (for unlimited looping).
• Mixbus has Cue Markers: Cue Markers allow you to define points on your linear timeline where a Cue (row) will be launched by the trigger grid. This allows you to develop your arrangement on a linear timeline while still allowing full flexibility of swapping clips and follow-actions before you commit to a final arrangement.
• Clip Groups: Live has Follow-Actions labeled ‘Next’, ‘Previous’ and ‘First’ which operate on a group of clips (groups are defined by clips that are vertically adjacent, separated by an empty slot). In our testing, many users (even experienced ones) did not understand that these terms apply to grouped clips. We also found it hard to use groups for arrangements, since it requires you to add empty rows to organize your groups, and that can impact adjacent tracks. Instead, we provide Forward, Reverse and Jump actions which can provide all the same operations of groups but do not require using blank slots to build a group.

*Mixbus does not currently allow more than 8 cues (rows), nor allow the user to re-order or create new rows. These features are currently in development and will likely be provided in the near future.

*Mixbus does not currently provide the option to print your clips and cues to a linear track (other than a manual ‘bounce’ recording from the source to a new track). That feature is currently in development and will be provided in a future update. You can use Cue Markers to arrange Clip playback on your linear timeline.

*Mixbus does not currently provide an audio ‘trimmer’ tool or a midi piano roll editor for the contents of a Clip. These features are currently in development and will be provided in a future update.

*Mixbus does not currently provide warp-markers or Groove templates. These features are also under development. You can edit a Region on the timeline using all the features of the Editor, and then import that region into a Clip.

*Mixbus does not currently provide the option to launch clips from a pad-controller using MIDI. Launch-modes Gate, Toggle, and Repeat are not currently provided. Those feature are currently in development and will be provided in a future update. The initial release of the Cue Window is intended to introduce nonlinear looping clips to our linear timeline, rather than DJ-style live performance.

Other differences between Live and Mixbus:

• Mixbus supports Jump Follow Options (recently introduced in Live v11) with the added ability to choose multiple clips for the jump target. This allows an additional level of pseudo-random behavior when using Follow Options to build your arrangement.
• Mixbus supports multiple MIDI channels in a single Track. This also works for triggered Clips: you can have up to 16 channels of MIDI, with patch changes, and deliver this to the track’s instrument.
• Mixbus can load Apple Loop (.caf) format audio files, so you can use the Apple Loop Content on your Apple device.
• Mixbus provides the ability to set many properties for rows, columns and ALL clips at one time. See Trigger Grid: Rows and Columns
• Mixbus does not have selections for “Global Quantize setting” “Global Follow Action Enable” “Back to Arrangement” “Phase Nudge Up/Down” or a “Crossfader Section”. These features are not currently in development, but they could be added in a future update if users find them desirable.

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