Apr30

Written by:Garry Simmons
Friday, April 30, 1999 6:00 PM

When I first started paying attention to digital audio, the popular soundcards were the Turtle Beach Multisound and the DAL CardD+. Stereo analog ins and outs were the order of the day. Then the digital I/O cards arrived, and you could get various combinations of analog and digital (S/PDIF or AES/EBU) ins and outs on a card. Life wasn't too bad on the PC-DAW frontier.

Now, not that many years later, we have a bewildering number of soundcard choices. Multi-IO cards featuring eight or more ins and outs of various flavors of analog and/or several digital formats (Lightpipe and TDIF), plus all kinds of new sync options and converter options are available. Most of these multi-IO cards are powered by a DSP of some sort. The soundcard usually comes with a mixer applet gives the user varying levels of control over the signal levels and routing. Many users have wished for the ability to use any leftover DSP power to do audio processing for them, so that they could lessen the load on their host CPU. Which brings us to the subject of this review...

The Soundscape Mixtreme is the latest entry in the land of multi-IO soundcards. Soundscape (http://www.soundscape-digital.com) has been making digital audio workstations (the highly regarded SSHDR1) since 1993. The Mixtreme is their first venture into the Windows soundcard market.

I received the following package from Soundscape: one Mixtreme card ($549 list) with optional S/PDIF I/O ($149 list), two SS8IO-3 analog-to-TDIF I/O units ($599 list, each) and a variety of optional software plug-ins from Soundscape, TC Works and Wave Mechanics. Soundscape also sells the SS8IO-2, a Lightpipe to TDIF converter ($349 list) and the SS8IO-1, a pro quality analog to Lightpipe and TDIF converter featuring balanced analog I/O ($1695 list). There is lots of product info on the Soundscape web site.

Discounted package deals are also available. For instance, the Mixtreme plus SS8IO-3 lists for $999, a $150 savings. The Mixtreme plus an SS8IO-2 lists for only $749, $150 off the individual prices. Discounts on the Soundscape Audio Toolbox and Wave Mechanics reverb plug-ins are also available.

Hardware Overview

The Mixtreme is a PCI card that is powered by a single Motorola 56301 DSP chip. It features 16 channels of digital I/O using a pair of TDIF ports. A pair of RCA connectors provide wordclock (or superclock) in and out. A MIDI In/Out/Thru to 9 pin SubD breakout cable will provide for MTC in a future release of the software. There is no analog I/O on the card. Optional S/PDIF or video sync daughter-boards can be snapped onto the Mixtreme.

The Mixtreme card itself has a single TDIF port and a pair of RCA connectors. The second TDIF port and the MIDI port are mounted on a bracket that connects to the Mixtreme via ribbon cables (note the blue connectors on the card). The bracket can fit in the card opening for a spare slot, or you can use the "punch outs" on your PC case to mount them. Since I only ended up using one of the SS8IO-3s, I didn't bother installing the bracket.

Installation

My studio PC is a Celeron 300A (running at 450MHz) on an Abit BH-6 motherboard with 128MB of SDRAM. I use a pair of Maxtor UIDE drives for audio data. The review was done with a fresh install of Win98 and little else but audio applications installed. The majority of the review was done using Cakewalk Pro Audio 8.04 and WaveLab 2.02.

The manual that comes with the Mixtreme has detailed installation instructions. I found the installation to be pretty easy. I downloaded the latest drivers (1.03 at the time) and had them waiting in a separate folder on my hard drive before installing the card. Insert the card in a PCI slot, power up your PC, and Windows will detect it. Use the "Have Disk..." button in the Plug-and-Play wizard to point to the drivers you want to use.

The Mixtreme supports both MME drivers and ASIO drivers, but the MME drivers were not on the CD that came with the card. I needed to download the 1.03 software to get them. You can run the Mixtreme under Win9x or NT. I tested the Mixtreme using the MME drivers under Win98. As of this writing, version 1.04 of the drivers has been available for a while. No doubt 1.05 will be out soon enough.

I also downloaded and installed a variety of Mixtreme plug-ins. I installed the Soundscape Audio Toolbox, the TC Reverb, the TC Dynamizer, and the Wave Mechanics Reverb. Each of these plug-ins can be demo'd by simply downloading and installing them, but it takes a password (specific to your Mixtreme card) to unlock them for full use. Soundscape was nice enough to provide me with passwords for all the plug-ins as well. More on the plug-ins later in this article.

IO, IO, It's Off To Work We Go...

At its core, the Mixtreme is a multi-channel (16 ins and outs) digital I/O card. There are lots of digital I/O cards out there, so what makes the Mixtreme different? The most obvious physical difference between the Mixtreme and other multi-channel digital I/O cards is the use of the Tascam TDIF format versus the somewhat more common ADAT-compatible Lightpipe format. This makes the Mixtreme a natural fit for anyone with one or two Tascam DA-x8 MDMs or a Tascam digital mixer. If you find yourself wanting a Mixtreme, but already own gear that talks Lightpipe, you can use any one of several Lightpipe-to-TDIF converters, including the Soundscape SS8IO-2.

Most of the affordable digital mixers on the market let you use a combination of Lightpipe or TDIF (or AES/EBU even) interfaces via optional I/O cards. Chances are good that you can configure most digital mixer with the I/O cards that will let you use the Mixtreme as your audio interface to the PC.

Soundscape's inclusion of word clock (and superclock, standard) is an indication that they see the Mixtreme fitting into the world of post-production and video where the Tascam DA-x8 is much more common than the ADAT.

The optional Video Sync board ($149) includes a video input and an S/PDIF output and plugs on to the Mixtreme card instead of the S/PDIF option. This allows Mixtreme to sync it's internal sample rate to a video blackburst signal so that there's no sound to picture drift when working with video (for example if using Mixtreme as an audio output device for a video editing system). Drivers supporting the option card are currently being tested and the option appears automatically in the software as an additional item under the Master Clock entry in the Settings menu.

Finally, the MIDI breakout cable will support an (upcoming) MIDI interface. This won't be a standard MIDI interface (there are plenty of very nice ones out there already), but a connection for synchronizing to MTC.

D.S.P. (Don't Squander the Power!)

Far and away the biggest difference between the Mixtreme and other multi-channel digital I/O cards is the Mixtreme mixer application. Calling it an "applet" isn't really doing it justice. The Mixtreme uses the same DSP as the Event Layla and Sonorus StudI/O, but read on to find out about all the cool stuff you can do with the DSP on the Mixtreme.

Before diving in, I need to state the obvious. All DSPs have limits. Even the "digital mixer on a soundcard" products (with several DSPs) have limits. The key to using the Mixtreme is to figure out how to best integrate it into your system. I expect that many Mixtreme owners will use a combination of host-based CPU, Mixtreme-based DSP and perhaps some outboard processing units. The thing to remember is that the Mixtreme is *very* flexible, so it can adapt to *your* needs, not the other way around.

NOTE: The lower right corner of the Mixtreme mixer window displays two values. The "P" value is the percentage of DSP power being used. The "M" value is the percentage of memory being used. Keep an eye on these values as you experiment with various mixer configurations. The DSP required for track inserts (streaming audio to/from your app) is NOT included in these numbers. This will take varying amounts of DSP power depending on your system. You will hear very obvious pops and crackles if you go over the limits, so pay attention when you push beyond 80 or 85% of the resources used.

You can start by creating your own mixer from scratch, or you can load one of the many mixer presets that are installed. It's probably a good idea to play around with the presets to get an idea of the many ways you can configure a mixer before spending the time to roll your own.

To give you a feel for what you can do with the mixer, let's go through the options you have available and I'll provide my take on how to use them. I should note that the Mixtreme manual does a fine job of describing the mixer options. There were a few things that weren't obvious to me at first glance, so take your time and READ the manual. Lots of good info in there if you pay attention. So, let's create a mixer!

When you create a new Mixtreme mixer, you are faced with 128 blank channel slots. You work with the mixer in one of two modes. You are either in Edit mode (changing the mixer configuration), or Control mode (using the mixer). You can switch between the two modes by clicking on a button on the toolbar or simply hitting the "E" key.

In Edit mode, you need to select which "tool" you are going to use. Your choice of tools includes:
Create (add a new mixer element to a channel)
Move (change a mixer element's position in a channel)
Delete (remove a mixer element from a channel)
Mute (disable a mixer element from a channel)
IO Assign (lets you configure the ins and outs of channel)
Info (displays information about a mixer element)

The cursor bitmap changes to reflect the current tool. Let's take a look at using the Create tool since that is where most of the interesting stuff lives.

Once you are in Edit mode, and have selected the Create tool, you simply left click on a channel slot to choose the type of channel you want to create. The Mixtreme supports every combination of mono and stereo inputs and outputs you can think of. I expect most people will either use Stereo In/Stereo Out, or Mono In/Mono-to-Stereo Out. The "Mono to Stereo" output option basically creates a mono channel strip with a pan control for feeding a stereo output (much like the mono channel strips with pan pot on a typical analog console).

TIP: Stereo channels are more efficient than a pair of mono channels. If you plan on applying the same processing to a pair of channels, use a stereo channel rather than a pair of mono ones. This same approach applies to creating a stereo submix of, say backing vocals, in your audio application rather than creating separate mono channels for each backing vocal track.

Now that we have a channel created, we see an input source at the top (one of the Mixtreme inputs) and the output section of the channel, which includes the channel fader, a pan pot, the channel meter (pre-fader), solo and mute button, etc. There is a blank area between the channel input and the channel output. This blank area is where you insert additional mixer elements. If you need a taller channel strip, just resize the window and the insert area gets larger.

The next step is to insert mixer elements in the channel. Signal passes through the mixer elements in top to bottom order, so you have a lot of flexibility in designing the channel strip just the way you want. The standard mixer elements (available in mono and stereo versions) are:

Track (mono, stereo) - inserts a connection to the playback and recording drivers
2-band EQ (mono, stereo) - fully parametric, 2-band EQ
Fader (mono, stereo) - simple volume control
Sample Delay line (mono, stereo) - for aligning audio between channels
Peak Meter (mono, stereo) - small meter w/o numeric feedback
Send Pre/Post (mono, mono to stereo, stereo) – pre/post fader aux sends
Send Pre/Post w/ Equal Power Panning (mono to stereo, stereo) - pre/post fader aux sends

Most of the elements are pretty straight forward and do exactly what you expect they would do. It's worth spending some time talking about the Track and Send elements though, as they are very important to your mixer design.

The Track element is where the recording and playback drivers are connected to the channel. When I read the manual the first time, the fact that the track inserts applied to BOTH recording and playback was lost on me. I was expecting playback only. I should learn to read slower :-) As the manual notes, the ability to place mixer elements in any order lets you do things like process a live input with EQ and record the EQ'd signal. To do this, simply place the Track element after the EQ element. Want to record the straight signal but monitor it with EQ? Place the Track element just below the input (before the EQ) and you'll be recording the raw input. You can even have multiple instances of the same track element in one channel. This allows you to place the playback and record points at different places in the channel. Just mute the one you aren't using.

Having tightly coupled record and playback drivers (via a single track insert) works well enough, but I'd like the flexibility of having the two sets of drivers be more independent. It's certainly easy if you want to use (up to) 16 tracks of audio in your application and have those tracks feed individual channels on the mixer. It's much like using a tape deck with direct outs from a console hardwired to specific tracks on the deck.

I experimented with dedicating a stereo pair of drivers (15/16) for recording and only using 14 channels of playback between Cakewalk and the Mixtreme. I created two mixer channels that were fed by inputs 1 and 2 and routed them to recording drivers 15 and 16 (with no processing). I could monitor the channels in real-time because those two mixer channels were also feeding the stereo output. This worked well for me and also turns out to be a way to digitally record the stereo output of the mixer to hard disk.

The process of creating a mixer from scratch is easy enough, but can be a bit tedious. For instance there is no way to copy channels or groups of elements. I found that creating my own mixer template was the way to go. I basically created a mixer that had lots of (identical) channel strips that were loaded with mixer elements.

Now pay attention (this is important). Muting an element frees up its DSP resources. Bypassing an element does not. So my template mixer had mostly muted elements. I would unmute the ones I needed for any given project, and then save the mixer for that particular song.

I traded several emails with Soundscape about ways to streamline the mixer interface and editing procedures. I'm happy to report that most of my suggestions are already on their "To Do" list. They tell me that putting out solid, bug-free releases, is a higher priority than feature bloat. I'm happy to report that the software was rock solid for me during the review. Given the sad state of most music applications these days, that's saying something.

Get On The Bus, Gus

The Mixtreme has 16 buses. You can use them as 16 mono buses, 8 stereo buses, or any combination of mono and stereo that your project requires. Creative use of the buses is very important to mixer design.

If you left click on the input at the top of a channel strip (in Edit mode using the IO tool), you will see that a channel can be fed by any one of the 16 (hardware) inputs or the 16 buses. If the channel has stereo inputs, the inputs and buses will appear as odd/even pairs. Similarly, the output at the bottom of the channel can be pointed to the 16 outputs or one of the 16 buses. Channels that have stereo outputs will show the outputs and buses as odd/even stereo pairs.

Note that there is no "master" fader or stereo mix bus. By default, channels directly feed outputs 1 and 2. If you want a "master" fader, create a stereo in/stereo out channel that is fed by Bus 1/2. Then assign all your mixer channels to output to Bus 1/2. This new channel is your stereo master. Also note that you can insert mixer elements such as EQ and compression on this master fader channel, just like using master inserts on a console. This same approach can also be used to create subgroups if you wish.

The Send mixer elements are typically used to create effects sends and headphone mixes. Each send element has a destination, just like channels do. Sends can output to physical outputs or to buses. If you route a Send to a physical output, you could have a headphone amp or external effects processor connected to the output. In the case of an external effect unit, connect the effect unit outputs to a pair of Mixtreme inputs and create a stereo effect return channel in your mixer that is fed by those inputs.

Sends that are routed to the Mixtreme's buses are usually used for effect plug-ins. In this case, create an effect channel. Its input will come from a bus (usually stereo). It will output to the "master" bus. Insert the effect plug-in on this channel, and set its wet/dry mix to 100% wet. Now simply add Send elements to the channels that you want to apply the effect to. Set the individual Sends to the same bus as the input for the effect channel. Use the fader on the effect channel as your effect return volume control. You can add EQ or compression to the effect channel for even more control. The only limit to the number of effect channels you can create is the amount of DSP power the effects use.

Multiple Card Support

Multiple cards can be used together. The latest software update (1.04) provides a full set of drivers for each card. I didn't get the opportunity to try multiple Mixtremes (darn!), but here's my understanding of how they work. In essence, you still have two separate mixers, but they share a common user interface (the mixer window). When you create mixer channels in a multi-card setup, you are asked which card the channel applies to. You'll probably want to physically interconnect the cards in some fashion so they can share audio. Rumor has it that multiple cards will be able to talk to each other over the PCI bus in a future software update. Note that multiple cards do NOT require extra IRQs (just one for the original card).

SS8IO-3 Analog to TDIF Converter

The SS8IO-3 is Soundscape's affordable analog-to-TDIF interface solution. The SS8IO-3 is a half rack unit featuring 20 bit converters. It has eight analog inputs and eight analog outputs on the back (RCA, -10dBV). The front panel of the SS8IO-3 has two LEDs per input channel plus buttons/LEDs for changing the clock settings. The SS8IO-3 is powered by a wall wart. The SS8IO-3 is connected to the Mixtreme via the supplied two meter ribbon cable. You might get away with longer ribbon cables if you are careful about routing. If you need a longer cable, you can buy them from Tascam (Warning! They're not cheap!).

I measured the RMS Power level of recorded silence (nothing plugged into an analog input) using WaveLab 2.02. The Mixtreme/8IO-3 combo came in with a -99.6dB reading. That puts it in the same ballpark as similar I/O units. Not as quiet as the pricey gear, but still a bit quieter than 16 bit (which usually measures between -90 and -93dB). Test scores beyond a certain point don't mean a whole to me. To my ears, the converters in the 8IO-3 sound fine and are plenty quiet. Things like mic choice, mic position, and ambient noise in the room make more of a difference (to me) than the differences between converters in this price range.

NOTE: Since the analog I/O is unbalanced, you'll want to take the usual care with unbalanced wiring. Use good quality cable, keep cables short, and keep cabling away from AC power and wall warts. I have a mix of balanced and unbalanced wiring in my studio and generally don't have any noise problems. I really would have preferred 1/4" jacks instead of RCAs though.

Go to the Soundscape web site for product specs and photos of the unit (http://www.soundscape-digital.com/Products/Ss8io-3/).

Optional Mixtreme Plug-Ins

I had the opportunity to use Soundscape's Audio Toolbox ($325 list), the TC Reverb and Dynamizer plug-ins ($599 and $799 list respectively) and the Wave Mechanics Reverb ($349 list).

You get a voucher for 30% off list price for the Audio Toolbox and WM Reverb in the box with the Mixtreme. Additional passwords (for multiple Mixtremes) are available at a 40% discount off list price.

As I mentioned earlier, Soundscape provided me with passwords to unlock all the plug-ins that are currently available for the Mixtreme. This list includes the Soundscape Audio Toolbox, the TC Works Reverb and Dynamizer, and the Wave Mechanics Reverb. More are on the way…

Since effect quality is such a subjective thing, let me just say that all the plug-ins are good values and that the more expensive ones sound better (to me anyway) than the less expensive ones. I suggest that you download the demos and make up your own mind.

Here's some basic info and a screenshot on each plug-in…

Soundscape Audio Toolbox

The Soundscape Audio Toolbox ($325 list) includes three plug-ins: a very cool (but efficient) Dynamics plug-in, a Chorus/Flanger plug-in, and a 2-Tap Delay plug-in. The Chorus/Flange and 2-Tap Delay are useful enough plug-ins, but the real reason for buying the Audio Toolbox (IMO) is the Dynamics plug-in.


As you can see from the screenshot, the Dynamics plug-in provides a Gate, an Expander, three Compressors, and a Limiter (in series). A visual representation of the transfer function is shown to the left of the controls. The three compressors let you dial in increasing compression ratios to build your own "soft knee" compression. Having a gate and an expander is great for removing things like headphone bleed or amp hum (and is way faster than editing out all those bits in your source material). The limiter adds that final level of control if you simply don't want the level to ever exceed X. The individual sections (gate, expander, etc.) can be toggled on and off by clicking on the label above the controls.

My only complaint with the Audio Toolbox is the lack of presets (there are none). This plug-in is definitely worth the money since it can be had for about the price of budget compressor and you get delay and chorus/flange plug-ins along with the dynamics.

TC Works Reverb

The TC Works Reverb is not an inexpensive option ($599), but top shelf outboard reverbs are WAY more expensive. I really liked the TC Reverb. It's supposed to be the same algorithms as the acclaimed M5000 unit. All I know is that it sounds really nice to me. It's also highly tweakable (see screenshot) and comes with a wide variety of presets to use as the starting point for your own masterpieces. One thing to note is that it is a pretty DSP-hungry plug-in. Expect it to take about 30% of a DSP.

TC Works Dynamizer

The Dynamizer is a high-quality, multi-band (3 bands), look-ahead expander/compressor/limiter. I didn't really play with the Dynamizer much. I ran some mixes through it and played around a bit, but I was mostly tracking and overdubbing during the review. Given the large amount of DSP it uses (40% of a DSP), it's more of a mastering tool. It comes with a bunch of presets and has lots of adjustments (see screenshot). It's even more expensive than the TC reverb at $799 list, but this is a serious tool and is way less expensive than the equivalent hardware.

Wave Mechanics Reverb

The Wave Mechanics Reverb ($349 list) is available at a good discount with the Mixtreme. It is also highly tweakable (see screenshot) and sounds pretty nice. I preferred the TC Reverb (at nearly twice the price), but the WM Reverb is a fine value. I wouldn't have any problems using it on my projects. The WM Reverb comes with a ton of presets that are nicely organized (plates, rooms, halls, etc.). This reverb is the most DSP hungry of the bunch, using 42% of the DSP.

Summary

I really liked the Mixtreme. You have to check this card out if you find yourself wanting a TDIF-based digital I/O card that does a whole lot more than just I/O. The software is very solid and easy to use. There really isn't any competition at this point. I think the Mixtreme has carved out its own niche for the time being. It falls nicely between the I/O-only cards and the multi-DSP "digital mixer on a soundcard" offerings.

Although we'd all like to have the latest, greatest PC, it's a fact of life that many of us have to milk older systems while saving our pennies for a new one. The Mixtreme is an affordable way to extend the life of your system by offloading some of the host-based processing to the DSP and still get the multi-IO capabilities you need. Unlike some of the "mixer on a soundcard" offerings, the Mixtreme can run on just about any PC that will run Win9x and has a PCI slot. The mixer application doesn't use a lot of system resources, and runs at a low priority so that your audio application can have the CPU when it needs it.

I traded several emails with Soundscape about where the product is going and it has a very bright future ahead. More native plug-ins have been announced, including offerings from Aphex and a new Dolby Surround plug-in for 4-channel sound (LCRS). One somewhat glaring omission is the lack of automation. I have been assured that full automation (including plug-ins) is a very high priority for the product and will be included in a software update.

I want to thank Chris Wright and Jerry Breiner from Soundscape for patiently answering many rounds of questions via email. They were VERY responsive and knowledgeable folks. Don't forget to check out the Mixtreme info on the Soundscape web site (http://www.soundscape-digital.com). Soundscape also offers a "Users Corner" (newsgroup) on their site for users to help each other out. The only catch is that you must be a registered user to access it.

I really enjoyed my test drive of the Mixtreme. Once I figured how to best utilize the card for my needs (music production), it just quietly got the job done. Can't ask a soundcard to do more than that. My only complaint (for my needs) is that I occasionally ran out of DSP power when trying to run more than a dozen tracks with lots of processing at the same time (such as the TC reverb). To be honest, I bet a two Mixtreme system would really rock, and given the low list price, buying two isn't that big of a stretch. You don't hear a lot of buzz about this card online, but Soundscape has a real winner here if you ask me. Don't be a sheep. Check it out!

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