My Experience with Mixvibe DVS

[Meph]

I want to talk a little bit about my experiences with using Mixvibes DVS for the past four years. A product that I bought, because I liked the idea of a software that would work with any sound card I wanted to use. I have used three different sound cards since I bought the software in 2007, and I have had some ups and downs. I don't want to complain too much about my experience, but there are some issues that I think need to be exposed.

First off, for a software that really needs a good community of support, the community has done nothing but give me headaches from the beginning. This is my biggest issue with Mixvibes DVS. I first bought the Maya 44 USB sound card, and it worked great, even though the latency was a little high, it was a solid card that worked great until the built-in USB cable frayed. One time, while DJing live in a club, Mixvibes had a glitch and would not work at all. I came to the community to figure out what to do, and the answer I got still pisses me off to this day. Instead of helping me, everyone told me that my sound card sucked and I needed to get a new one. It turned out not to be the sound card at all. There was an EXE file that I had to run that was in the Mixvibes directory that reset everything back to factory defaults, and after that I never had the issue again.

What really makes me mad is that everyone who told me that the Maya 44 USB was not good enough to use for live shows recommended that I get a "Better" sound card like the U46MKII. I ended up buying that card, and after about 6 months I had more problems with it than I ever had with the Maya 44 USB. It would crash constantly, and the right channel was always louder than the left channel, and there were no internal balance controls to work around it. I had to always use my mixer to compensate. I also tried doing a live set with it using Ableton, and whenever I would switch MIDI instruments it would crash Ableton.

Now I have a Hercules DJ Trim 4&6 and I'm very happy with it. The only thing that is lacks that I liked about the U46MKII was the Hi-Z input, but I can live without it. It's more stable, and stronger physically to handle playing in a club environment.

Now I go onto the Mixvibes website for the first time in a year or so, and I find out that the new version of Mixvibes DVS has support for VST plugins. Cool, right? But I have to buy the full package with the sound card to upgrade? That's BS. I just want the software. But whatever, I'll probably buy it anyway just because I support Mixvibes and everything they have done for nerdy digital DJs like myself.

BUT WAIT ONE SECOND. What do I see is the sound card that comes with Mixvibes DVS Ultimate? A re-branded Maya 44 USB. The same card that was supposedly not good enough for professional use, according to this community. Clearly the forums are not the place to go for answers.

I'm hoping that Mixvibes changes their mind and offers a software upgrade to reward me for my many years of use and evangelism of the product, at a reasonable price.

Regardless, big thanks to Mixvibes for providing me more hardware choices with my DVS software. I have played everywhere from Detroit to Miami to LA using Mixvibes DVS and I can't begin to describe how much this has improved and complimented my DJing skills and abilities.

[UncleVibes]

I'm hoping that Mixvibes changes their mind and offers a software upgrade to reward me for my many years of use and evangelism of the product, at a reasonable price.

You don't need to pay. To get the update DVS Ultimate go to the RC section of download as any DVS member. Update DVS 7.4 RC1 & releases notes

It's me who told you to do reset.exe in 2007

Do you mean that when you press play nothing move?
If it is the case it's a typical driver problem of the sound card.
Does the sound card still works on Asio with other softs?
Recording an Lp with adobe doesn't mean your setup was on Asio.
If not...
You should try to uninstall, reinstall the maya drivers.
Many events using your computers may alter some code in the register table of windows.
It can be a spyware
Mixvibes isn't responsible of hardware or drivers problem if its brand isn't on the product.
If yes...
go to mixvibes DVS folder & click on reset.exe, mixvibes must be closed.
Maybe it will help. It reset the register of xp with the original instructions of DVS.
Then redo your setup.

I also got yelled at by the DJ who filled in the slot, because I unplugged his Serato, which makes me wonder why I shouldn't just buy Serato and never have to deal with either problem again.

Your Serato DJ got his brain washed by something. Just see the serato forum many events & questions there too.

Offtopic.HorsSujet!

I agree whith Polocorp, the Maya44 usb isn't reliable & we had many posts on the subject. The best experience I got today is FA101 from Edirol & a PC with vista. U46MK2 & Mixvibes are making together a similar or even better sound & result than the Rane/Serato.

Full topic here: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7825&p=42363#p42363

First off, for a software that really needs a good community of support, the community has done nothing but give me headaches from the beginning. This is my biggest issue with Mixvibes DVS.

I still assume my answer & solution given in 2011 & I still use the same sound card FA101 by Edirol (but not with Vista with Windows7 ). I didn't try to cheat you in 2007 all advises were from my own experience & you had at least the solution to your critical situation.

This worked. Thank You. 99.9% of the time Mixvibes is very reliable with my Maya44USB. Honestly, this is the first problem I've ever had. It's comforting to know that I can use reset.exe if this were to happen in a live gig situation, and I don't have to reinstall the program.

BUT WAIT ONE SECOND. What do I see is the sound card that comes with Mixvibes DVS Ultimate? A re-branded Maya 44 USB. The same card that was supposedly not good enough for professional use, according to this community. Clearly the forums are not the place to go for answers.

In 2011 DVS Ultimate have a very competitive price in bundle with the U-Mix 44 a sound card similar to the maya44USB as 44 means 4 in 4 out. It's also an usb1.1 sound card in a plastic box... but it's not an ESI made sound card, I don't think it uses the same chip. It is a starting kit before getting much better performances when you have the level and passion for buying for much more money than DVS Ultimate a professional sound card.
Now I got to reward you for this part of your last post & I don't blame you to be oversea

Regardless, big thanks to Mixvibes for providing me more hardware choices with my DVS software. I have played everywhere from Detroit to Miami to LA using Mixvibes DVS and I can't begin to describe how much this has improved and complimented my DJing skills and abilities.

[daniel clark]

meph this is one of the first post that has respectfully adressed the weak points of a open fourm being used as a support /techinal issues first off i want to extend the invitaton to be a more active member on this fourm . our streangth is in experenced user giving info, advice, to help new members and musicans with problems and diffuclties my inital experiences where not pleasent but have enjoyed the community sprit and postive attitude here and have tried to help as best as i can

[Hannes]

+1 on Daniel´s post.

One thing i´d like mention though, the current soundcard sold with DVS (the U-Mix44) is not a Maya44.

The Asio-drivers are way better and so is the actual soundquality.

cheers
J

[Meph]

Wow, that is so great that Mixvibes continues to provide free updates four years after I bought the software. This is why I will never switch to another platform. Funny thing is that I keep Serato and Traktor installed, and carry Serato and Traktor records in my bag just in case, because of that experience I had where I got yelled at for unplugging someone's Serato. Most of the time it's not a problem, but the fact that I can transition to other programs without much of a learning curve says a lot about the software, IMO. Mixvibes is exactly what I always needed, a program that worked just like professional software that everyone else uses, but puts me in charge of the hardware.

And thank you, unclevibes, for your help in 2007. You gave me a solution when everyone else just wanted to tell me that my sound card was junk and I was a fool for using it. I don't care what anyone says, for the budget I was on back then it did exactly what I needed it to do and never failed me. Had the USB cable not been built into it I probably would have used it for a while longer. My only point was to show that it was a more reliable piece of hardware than what Mixvibes was recommending at the time, it may have performed better than Serato, but in my experience, was not stable enough for professional use.

But yeah, I would sure hope that the U-Mix 44 would have some improvements over the Maya 44 USB, considering that it's gotta be something like 10 years old now. HAHA. I'm just saying. When I saw what was bundled with the DVS Ultimate package, the first thing that came to my head was "re-branded Maya 44" and I thought back to that thread in 2007. I think anyone in my position would have rolled their eyes at that point.

As for participating in the forums more, I do believe I have a knowledge and experience in technology and music that would be very valuable to the forums here. It would be hypocritical of me to complain about the forums when I possess the capabilities to change things for the better. So I'm going to do my best to be more active here.

One of the projects that I have coming up (supposed to have just shipped today!) Is a partnership I am working on with a site called "Icrontic" (Online gaming and technology community) and HP, where HP is going to send me a fully loaded Envy Beats Edition and I'm going to be doing content with product placement for them, involving my DJing and music production adventures. Mixvibes will be a big part of that, so I'm sure that the forums will be interested in following along with my progress on that.

Thanks again, everyone. I hoped that by bringing attention to the issues I've had we could start a healthy dialogue to improve everyone's experience, and I believe that we have got the ball rolling on that. You'll be seeing more of me around here!

[daniel clark]

[UncleVibes]

You'll be seeing more of me around here!

a very good idea

[Jim B]

@Meph

Very good and interesting thread mate. Many thanks for sharing your thoughts

I first bought the Maya 44 USB sound card, and it worked great, even though the latency was a little high,

I agree with you. When I first went digital back in 08 I brought this card, and used it with VirtualDJ. It was a very reliable card for me. the only thing I could fault it for was the Output was quite low. I still have the Maya and use it as a back up, although I haven't had to use it with Cross so far.

Now I have a Hercules DJ Trim 4&6 and I'm very happy with it.

I tested the Trim 4-6 for Hercules while I was first using Cross. It's a superb soundcard especially using it with Cross. I can down to 2.2m/s (Latency wise) with no audio drop outs. Also the sound quality is top class.

As for participating in the forums more, I do believe I have a knowledge and experience in technology and music that would be very valuable to the forums here. It would be hypocritical of me to complain about the forums when I possess the capabilities to change things for the better. So I'm going to do my best to be more active here.

Please do stick around mate, with your knowledge and the knowledge of some of the guys here, like Uncle, Blackbrook, J-Kut, Christian and other valuable members of the MixVibes Community, it will be a very good Community indeed

[daniel clark]

little props to me and the cool smilie

[wazza]

If your updating from DVS 6 to DVS-U just for VST there are some bugs you need to know about that will save you some headacke's & ???? later...

1)...not all VST efx work in mixvibes DVS-U ...some do , but most dont....you will just have to try them all to see which one work for you

2)...if your using VSTi and playing them with a MIDI keyboard there is really bad MIDI/audio latency with DVS-U & Producer 7.4.1
its much better with Producer 7 .3.2 rc1

3)...when you put a VSTi into one off the decks in mixvibes ,you will see the VSTi popup window open up...than you play it & Rec it....but the VSTi pop-up window will not close ,it just leaves a big black hole on your screen

if your updating from 6 to 7 for a more stable DVS than DVS-u is the way to go.....but if your updating just for the VST, I would not do it because the way vst work now is not good & these bug will not get fixed any time soon