Harrison announced the release of Mixbus 12 on their 'User Forum' June 30, 2026.

Mixbus 12 Release is here!

There are quality-of-life/workflow improvements& additions along with bug fixes.

Direct links for Linux, macOS & Windows downloads are at the bottom of the page, just after the bug fixes, Read the entire article for a better understanding of has changed/improved & an idea what may becoming later.

 

I don't recall which old version it was, but I tried it as a mixing console for a song exported from Cubase or Studio One as multi-track WAV files and noticed a fantastic, analog-style summing quality; it would be a shame if no further updates were released: perhaps something changed regarding the copy protection system?

 

No further updates? What are you referring to?

They just released v12 which contains updates.

I did see one comment making the point that updates/fixes could have been made and released as v11.4. I actually read that about two days ago, so I'm working from memory here, but I'm guessing their issue was that the company chose to wrap the updates in a new version and charge money for it.

 

Version 12 is actually a minor update to version 11 with bug fixes. CPU performance is slightly better but, still not good enough for all around production. Mainly mixing. Sent a massage stating that I could not load more than 2 instances of Omnisphere 3 without system usage spiking as compared to Pro tools whee I could load up to 64 instances. Reply from them was to use another DAW for production & to mix in Mixbus 12.

Not very promising.

 

Holy shite!

That's terrible! Their support will dwindle with that kind of attitude. That's just crazy stupid.

 

Sounds like they sprayed furniture polish over it and wiped it down. They're pretty boxed in with the whole console emulation philosophy.

 

The strips are resizable , the rest of the GUI not :/

 

What ACTUALLY makes Mixbus any good? Why does anyone even like it? At the end of the day, isn't it just because of their in-built saturation? Is there anything else about this DAW that makes a person say, "F*ck yeah! I need to use that!"?

 

Quietly released? Actually, I got a lot of messages from them about the new release.

 

Yeah, you're right... But Harrison does not want to be in the DAW business. They meant Mixbus as a mixing console.
I didn't get the concept behind that at all. One day you are the maker of 8 meter long mixing desks for the best and most expensive re-recording mixing stages in hollywood and the next day you take Ardour, fancy it up a litte and say "here, your new desk. use the mouse!".

 

I meant updates regarding scene releases or rather, new releases from R2R or by other teams and not actual software updates. Obviously, we are talking about the new version 12, but the latest scene release is Mixbus v5.2.191 by R2R: another seven major updates were released without any scene releases (only Mixbus 32C has advanced to v9.0.1 but the 32C really seems to be stuck in 2023 with the latest official version 9.2.172 listed on their website as legacy).

 

Message(s) yes, open announcement. no. I only received one message. Quietly.

 

No one uses this DAW "seriously". There are probably some people daily driving it, but I would say it's as fun as daily driving FL Studio as a mixing engineer. I see no reason why someone would subject themselves to this torture when they could use any other DAW that has actual support and resources. Like, why would you put up with it when Studio One/Pro and Reaper also have this "analog summing". Studio One even has multiple flavors of it (Tascam cassette tape, Neve, API, SSL 4K and 9K, tube, 15/30ips Softube tape, custom, just to name a few), and fully customizable to your taste.

 

So true, even ProTools has it's tape / tube emulation built in with heat.
We're talking about a DAW that doesn't even have a proper n-channel panner, but has a global tape emulation.
Who would waste a second computer plus all the audio interface shenanigans for mixing out of the box in another box that doesn't even have a proper controller like an s4 s6 or whatever.
Because the eqs sound better? I soooo don't get that product.

 

I would do all my production on another daw then export the audio stems to mixbus for mixing. Mixbus is too much of a cpu hog for vsti's.

 

A good reason for that kind of workflow is to produce in whatever application you like, and then loading the project stems into a DAW that is more desirable for mixing. Example, Logic users going to Cubase Pro or Protools to mix.

Doing that with Mixbus doesn't really make any sense to most users, because they are going from a more capable DAW to one whose main advantage is the console philosphy behind it, inside a less capable DAW. But for users who do not want to sink money into Cubase, Protools, Mixbus for $169 (or whatever it costs today) is not such a terrible option. They seem to still have a lot of Linux-based users. I wonder how it fares against UA Luna...