Question

Greetings! Im planning on getting Waves Dugan Automixer to use it in my church but before buying it im to demo it first

to see if its worth it because its expensive plugin. I'd like to know if there is specific set up for this plugin in live application.

Answer 1

You will need some sort of host to run plugins in a live application, since niether Capture nor UC Surface have the ability to host plugins. If you do not record the services, you could use something like waves multirack. If you record, then a traditional daw could be used.

Answer 2

The Dugan automixer is a great plugin for mixing a large panel discussion or a group of speakers that are unscripted. I run it using the Waves multi rack ( you can run a demo for about 30 days. The documentation is also very good.). The multi rack software can provide the automixing on all 24 channels.  In order for it to work you must connect to the mixer via firewire.( I'm running it on a 13 Mac pro w/a dual core I7 processor). The inputs to the multirack software are sent via the firewire, the returns are also sent back over the firewire so the channels that you want automixed must have the firewire return selected. As the Dugan is a "gain sharing" device I find it works better if you set the channels you don't want in the automix to bypass (in the Dugan software). When it is setup and working right it makes a large group with open mikes sound like the speaker is the only one talking...and it transitions between sources faster than a human ca do. I use it when doing our Az board or regents ( 20+ mikes in an echoy ballroom) and it sounds great. It will even make a 2 mike interview sound tight and wounderful. All of the major talkshows ( the view etc.) have been using Dugan mixers for years. You can still meet Dan at the trade shows...he still demos the product himself! He was selling units that you would plug into the mixer channel insert for many years before he ported it over to software. If you are dealing with a lot of speakers and open mikes this is the way to go.

Answer 3

What Presonus should do is licence and make a Dugan automix plugin for their Studiolive mixers

Answer 4

Could you please make AutoMix available in Presonus mixers?

Othewise our choice ir limited with *********/Midas mixers XR18 that mention in their description "Dugan style automixing", Allen & Heath boards have automixing built in (they do not disclose their algorithm), or Yamaha that have a genuine Dugan automixing feature.

The other option for talk shows would be to go Sound Devices route e.g. MixPre-10 II have their MixAssist plugin (their own algorithm) available separately. Sound Devices also is a fully featured 32bit multi channel recorder.

I think this is especially important for various talk based events; pannels and roundtables. Pannelist no longer want to share a single handheld microphone. Instead they need their own microphone due to COVID restrictions.