Ez mix 2 first look and some slight disapointment….

[norrie]

So the first thing I wanted to do was check out the guitar tones and I have to say that I am very impressed by them all !

Disapointed in the actual lay out of it all though.

I have to ask what is the actual point in the right hand side showing the out board gear pedals etc ?
I laughed when I seen this as it looks very much like a toy… Out board gear on a shelves so small all you can see is the words EQ and compressor….

Ok so it might look cool to some but whats the point ?
I for one don’t buy a plug in because it looks “cool”

If its not doing anything whats the point in it ?

I and others were hoping in this upgrade that the window would be able to be made bigger so we could see the text better but no…..

Still small text and this time wasted space on the right side with the what I see as pointless out board gear pictures….

Only being able to see the first 7 and a half presets on the list with out scrolling down is not great in my book.

The text looks very squashed together….

Why not make it so we can make the window to what size we wish and there for making the text bigger ?

Anyways still sounds great and gets the job done but will we see any of what I have talked about sorted in a update ?

Ive seen it talked about a lot on various forums about the size of the window and the size of text so was this taken in to account or is there a reason for this not being bigger ?

Dev team any answers ?

Whats everyone else think ?

Regards

Windows 7 (64 bit ) Intel I7 930 12GB OCZ Gold Sonar 8.5 Producer VS700r VS700c Superior 2 / MF/NY EZ mix Roland TD-20

Topic

[chrisharbin]

@pictures: a visual of what is being used is interesting. the first time I saw it I was MEH but now that it’s up close and personal, it’s fine.

@amp models: Seems fine, requires more testing.

@price: Good for updaters, not so much for first timers.

@preset manager: I didn’t mind the first one but this is SUBSTANTIALLY improved 😀

@size: When I first saw the viddy’s on this……I got the impression it would be bigger. I’m actually happy it’s not. Small, simple, to the point. I’ve modded my “filters” so that the small screen works nicely but if you want to be picky, I’d trade the “nice pictures for extra real-estate I suppose.

win7x64/i7 860/msi mobo/Reaper x64/8GB ram/profire 610/oxygen 61

[chrisharbin]

Oh yeah, kudos to TT for making the demo available so that it could be tested first. At this point, everything has worked…….for now! lol

win7x64/i7 860/msi mobo/Reaper x64/8GB ram/profire 610/oxygen 61

[Kip Count]

ORIGINAL: chrisharbin
Oh yeah, kudos to TT for making the demo available so that it could be tested first. At this point, everything has worked…….for now! lol

Ditto on this. Checking out the demo was enough to make me quickly snatch up EZmix 1 from Sweetwater.  I’ll upgraded to version 2 as soon as I have a chance.

In response to the original post…

In regards to the interface, I’ve always loved Toontrack’s graphic design team’s work on their plugins.  EZdrummer is outrageously pleasing to look at.  And the new EZmix has some of the same taste.  I like seeing which gear is in play in any given preset (and also what gear/effects make up what’s under EZmix’s hood.  Some might think it’s a waste, but I hate being in the dark when I’m using plugins.  I like real-life representations when dealing with digital emulations of things.  It’s the same reason I prefer amp sims that use visually accurate mockups of the amp(s) that are being modeled/emulated.  Sure it looks cool, but it’s useful to me as well.  It gives me a frame of reference that I’m familiar with (actual amps).  I can’t count how many times I played a chord thru an amp head, while looking directly at the amp head and it’s controls, thinking about what tweaks I need to make to get it to sound more like I need it to.
I know EZmix doesn’t have nearly that much control, so there’s no need to show the gear in any more detail than they do, but I think what they have going on was a very good choice and a very good compromise.

Plug-in size doesn’t bother me.  I have a standard resolution MacBook Pro, but I could see if I had the hi-res model the text might be too small.  I guess that all depends on your monitor and what resolution you are running.  Also doesn’t both me to have to scroll thru presets.  There’s not THAT much in each less that you get bogged down.  I’ve scrolled thru much bigger lists of things in my time and made it out ok.

OH, and I LOVE the amp sims as well. They really did dial in some great tones and captured them in the presets very well.  I just spent a little bit of money on Studio Devil VGA II and VBA, and I’m now wondering if buying VGA II was worth it (Though VBA for Bass is freaking great).  I also have Waves GTR3.  But even more variety couldn’t hurt.  I’ll probably end up using them together at some point.

Mac Mini M1 | Studio One 6 | PreSonus 68c | EZD3

[Scott]

Only being able to see the first 7 and a half presets on the list with out scrolling down is not great in my book.

You can hide the filter section of EZmix2 so that just the preset list is showing. The button to the right of the Favorites tab.

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[norrie]

My apologies for the double post in the forum earlyer.

Windows 7 (64 bit ) Intel I7 930 12GB OCZ Gold Sonar 8.5 Producer VS700r VS700c Superior 2 / MF/NY EZ mix Roland TD-20

[Tom]

In that deleted thread I wrote:

To start with something positive. Yes, I like EZMix 2 better, first of all because we now have a meaningful description of what the knobs do instead having to find that info in a text box and then translate it to a fix knob name.

That said I also think the right side looks like a toy shop. I would have preferred just a text description here, or at least something looking like a rack rather than messy shelves.

Also I happen to prefer faders to knobs. They are easier to adjust. But thanks for being able to adjust the knobs with the mousewheel. That facility always earns an extra star in my user reviews.

– – – –
With this addition:

If showing the hardware in visuals is a Toontrack thing, then at least make it possible in the next .1 version to turn of these visuals.

[Kip Count]

If showing the hardware in visuals is a Toontrack thing, then at least make it possible in the next .1 version to turn of these visuals.

Although I have no real problem with the graphical area on the right (I kind of like it), I’m all for an option to not see it, and possibly use that real estate to increase the side of the preset selection. But a pop-out, pop-in panel also works for me.

I’m also not opposed to a “rack view” for the gear. I had thought of this too when looking at the plugin objectively after reading this thread. It could take less room and also show more details on the effects. But a graphical change like that I wouldn’t really expect until version 3, or a major 2.5 release.

Mac Mini M1 | Studio One 6 | PreSonus 68c | EZD3

[Erik Phersson]

ORIGINAL: norrie
Dev team any answers ?

Happy that you like EZmix2! 🙂

We always listen to our customers and all requests and suggestions are taken into consideration. Many of them end up on our internal Feature Request list. Every time we are planning an update we run through the list and move stuff up or down. Since we almost never disclose what the next update will contain I’m afraid that I cannot say anything about your request. What I can say however is that we are very happy that we have users that cares about our software as much as we do!

Keep the ideas flowing!

Erik Phersson - Toontrack
Head Of Development

[norrie]

There was a good review that was posted a while ago.

http://www.sonicscoop.com…zmix-2-by-zach-mcnees/

“The first issue I had with EZmix 2 was that the plug-in itself could stand to take up much more screen real estate in general or at least offer the option to increase the size. The main reason for this is the graphical depictions of the outboard gear and effects take up about one third of the plug-ins space without providing any usable features thus making all the important text very small and sometimes difficult to read.”

I agree with that part of the review 100%

I find the artist pre sets are a lot easyer to find now and makes it a lot quicker to move around.

The amp presets are cool straight out the box I think the boogie emulation is awesome I love the tone the. are cool aswell.

Its a cool quick mixing tool and I like it I just wish they would do something about the size 🙂 and the toy shop on the right 😛

Windows 7 (64 bit ) Intel I7 930 12GB OCZ Gold Sonar 8.5 Producer VS700r VS700c Superior 2 / MF/NY EZ mix Roland TD-20

[Scott]

I kinda like the ‘toy shop’ on the right. It has been requested before that there need to be more graphic representation of what effect(s) are being used in any given preset. The ‘toy shop’ provides instant feedback to see quickly what effect is active.

IMHO, YMMV.

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[norrie]

I can understand haveing representation of what effects are being used in each preset but it looks very untidy and a black box stuck on a shelve saying eq or comp isnt really that great a feature.

Would have looked a lot better if they had put it on a rack or even better just listed down the right side what was being used in the chain rather than pictures.

I meen come one the efx pedals ? Are we realy going to know what they are when there that small ? … They are so small and have no names to them they are there for show and show alone same with the Amp head and 4×12 its taking up space that could be used for better things.

Windows 7 (64 bit ) Intel I7 930 12GB OCZ Gold Sonar 8.5 Producer VS700r VS700c Superior 2 / MF/NY EZ mix Roland TD-20

[Scott]

They are so small and have no names to them

My version has the name of effect pedals below the pedals.

In regards to the size, I suppose it depends on your screen resolution as on my laptop with a resolution of 1600 x 900 I can clearly read things.

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[norrie]

Thats strange as I dont recall seeing any names like boss etc on any of the fx pedals but then this would tell us exactly how the tone was made and I dont expect that. Seeing the likes of Wah Des cho I can understand but usualy people can figure out what was used in a guitar sound so not really seing the point in this when the text is about the same size as the image….

Windows 7 (64 bit ) Intel I7 930 12GB OCZ Gold Sonar 8.5 Producer VS700r VS700c Superior 2 / MF/NY EZ mix Roland TD-20

[norrie]

Also Scott no offence intended here but you work for toontrack so I can understand you will shoot down any comment I make about the things I dont like about the layout.

In regards to the resolution thats all a personal opinion as is my thoughts on the right hand side of ezmix 2.

Just because you can clearly read things isnt to say the next person can…
Each person is different.

Windows 7 (64 bit ) Intel I7 930 12GB OCZ Gold Sonar 8.5 Producer VS700r VS700c Superior 2 / MF/NY EZ mix Roland TD-20

[Scott]

No, they don’t list brand names for obvious reasons (copyright).

They do indicate what type of pedal/piece of gear that is used in a certain preset and I guess that would be the point.

I can load any preset, ’12-bit delay’ for example, and just by checking to the right ‘toy shop’ I see that the preset uses the ‘delay’ and ‘distortion’ effects. Could it just list it in some kind of text box? Yes, EZmix1 did and Toontrack had requests for more visual references.

Also Scott no offence intended here but you work for toontrack so I can understand you will shoot down any comment I make about the things I dont like about the layout.

You asked for Dev comments. I’m offering my opinion not only as an employee of Toontrack but also as a producer and audio engineer using the products. I’m not shooting down your comments. I’m offering my own perspective.

I’ll shut up now.

Scott Sibley - Toontrack
Technical Advisor

[Author]

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