Focusrite Liquid Mix Opinions?

[James R. Coplin]

on the alternatives:
> 
> The thing that puts me off with the Duende, PowerCore, Universal Audio
> stuff
> is the price can keep escalating ending with you spending considerably
> more
> that you intended. Sure, they come with bundles and you don't have to
> expand.  But I just cant help thinking that extra pluggins are crazy
> money.
> I mean, the SSL stuff is free with LM yet a few hundred squid with
> others.

100% agreed.  This is the main reason I won't purchase any of these.  I
really wanted a Powercore for a long time as I've always been a TC fan.
However, in the end dollar analysis, it seemed that there was little value
in these packages.

> And regarding the sound of the various units; you cant go wrong with
> any.
> Sure, you will read the 'occasional' slating of one or the other, but
> ALL of
> the credible reviews you read of any of them says they are all
> exceptional.

That's kind of always been my take in the past regarding these.  I'm not so
much interested in a perfect replacement for the real thing, I just want
something that sounds great and these all seem to fill the bill in that
regard.  Consequently, the price point on the Liquid Mix seemed extremely
good.
 
> I would probably just go for the
> Waves stuff as again, sonically there is nothing in it and any DAW you
> buy
> today could probably run 32+ tracks with full dynamics on every channel.

I suppose this is ultimately true and maybe I should reconsider.  The
problem is, I think Waves plugins are *WAY* *WAY* *WAY* (that's a lot of
ways) over priced.  Their stuff sounds good, but one could buy killer, real,
outboard for the money they want for their larger packages. To me at least,
they don't sound that much better than much more reasonable priced plugins.
For example, Izotope's mastering plugin costs 10% of the total waves package
to get the same thing and I think it works and sounds *better* than the
Waves stuff.

> But one BIG advantage they all have over the LM is, the LM only does
> EQ/Compression.  

In my case, I'm just looking to add EQ and compression so that's why the
Liquid Mix kind of raised my interest.  I guess I'll probably sit tight
unless one falls in my lap.  I suppose I really should focus on
updating/replacing my main reverb unit.  I'm trying to decide what to
replace my M3000 with.

James R. Coplin