Unofficial Mackie User Forums > DL1608/DL806/DL32R/ProDX Mixers

DL Meters

(1/3) > >>

WK154:
It's been a while back on the old Mackie forum that I checked the validity of their centerpiece on the iPad. I was hoping that they quietly fixed the problem but alas no luck. Before understanding the impact of this I suggest reading this for those not familiar with the various metering methods.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun00/articles/metring.htm
Meters play much more of a role in studio work and mastering than in live application. That said it is still unimaginable that the centerpiece of Mackie's mixer that gets 50% screen real-estate usage  is so inaccurate. The test involved a precision signal generator for input and a quality RMS meter for measuring input and output levels. I used two meters for speed. For the range of the signal generator max at 19 dBu to a low of -52 dBu a 71 dBu range the meters showed a range of 49 dBu. So what happened to 22 dBu? Well at the high end the meters were 10 dBu low and at the low end 12 dBu high. The only place they're even correct is at -6 dB on their scale. At 10 dB in either direction they are already significantly incorrect. So you say so what? Since the mixer doesn't operate in a vacuum and must play with other gear that typically understands dBu it matters. I have seen some really bad gain structures in my day so nothing surprises me anymore. Here's my take on this. Either fix them to be correct or relegate them to a 1" high graphic that shows all of them and use the freed up screen space for more useful information or control. Mackie is well aware of this but obviously considers it irrelevant, so much for quality. The mixer also looses 2.94 avg. dBu from input to output. This is with unity gain and input and output faders at 0. The clip indicator triggers at -5 dBFS not at -3 dBFS as stated in their manual. I call this just sloppy work.

RoadRanger:
Last time I looked in the manual (page 39 in the latest) it was quite clear that the meters have no scale - the scale you see near them is for the fader.
"Red [clipping] = –3 dBFS
Green to yellow = –18 dBFS
Green [bottom] = –90 dBFS"

WK154:
If you read the text it can't be any plainer " The input meters (next to each channel fader) displays the signal input level to the channel......" I just checked the transition from green to yellow and find it at -13.7 dBFS so much for their info.

RoadRanger:
How did you measure FS ?

Oh, and I agree it's rather silly to have the faders calibrated with a "nominal 0 dB", the meters in dBFS, and have them aligned physically like that but not with the same scale or at least an offset scale with the same "dB per mm" at a given position x( .

WK154:

--- Quote from: RoadRanger on February 20, 2014, 08:50:32 PM ---How did you measure FS ?

--- End quote ---
I made the assumption that something is correct in their specs and that 0 dBFS = 21 dBu measured at 7.38 dBu (1.84V RMS) makes the -13.68 dBFS. I also checked this a while back and actually got 23 dBu out of the DL (no speaker on) :).
Update: Actually there is a dead zone which covers = -13.68 to -14.45 dBFS for an avg. of -14.01. -18 dBFS my foot.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page