Cacophony Forums
Unofficial Mackie User Forums => DL1608/DL806/DL32R/ProDX Mixers => Topic started by: Rdmitch on August 17, 2014, 04:41:59 PM
-
Had the strangest thing happen last night at a show, never happened before and will probably never occur again. Had a digital "button" stick.
Working remotely from the audience area, after setting all the drum compressors and levels I moved back to the mixer surface for my usual riding of levels on the guitarist. I realized the ONLY control I had was volume. No EQ, no pan or FX. Couldn't even access any of the aux sends.
Tried reconnecting to the mixer and even a quick reboot. Still no change and still only main fader level controls.
Checked on stage to see if it was system wide or only on my iPad, definitely on my iPad.
As it was close to break, I figured I could hold until then rather then take a chance of messing something up trying to fix on the fly.
By chance I scrolled over to input 9 ( tom 1) and realized the fader button looked different, not fully lit, like the grow and glow appearance, but kind of in between that and regular. I touched the fader and it went back to " normal". Boom, all my controls were back functional.
Never happened again the rest of the show.
Has anyone ever experienced this ?
-
I can see that happening, but I agree that you probably won't see it again. Hasn't happened to me.
-
Yep that Mandolin needs a lot of tuning (Mackies name for their new communications protocol for mixers). Seems that error handling is in dire need of being implemented better or at all. ::)
-
I am surprised that you couldn't just force the app off and restart it. As a thin client, it should have released the stuck fader.
-
I was running the schools DL (able to borrow it) at a gig the other day, running wirelessly and 30 minutes into the gig, the audio just went dead. Master Fader showed audio passing, there was audio coming out of iPod (checked with headphones on iPod). No sound from speakers. Not a power failure or breaker. 20 seconds later, boom everything came back like nothing had happened. I set it up at home with same configuration, ran it for 2 hours, no glitches.
So, if and when the next update of Master Fader comes out (if at all) does anyone really think that there will be improvements to these little nagging annoyances? When it works, it’s a real treat to use it. I was seriously considering buying another DL, but now? Rats, it is a nice board.
-
Audio quitting? My take is that can't be blamed on the ipad. The mixer itself does all the actual changes and the ipad is just telling it what to do. (Exception is when the ipad is used as a sound source when docked.) Only thing I can think, is that the mixer had an internal chip either go haywire or more likely overheat and shut down. This one should be reported to Mackie. Hopefully it never happens again.
Wondering if there was any blockage on the mixer or if it was out in the sun. (Been keeping mine in the shade when outdoors.)
-
Wynnd;
Thank you for your reply. The DL was inside and there was enough space around it to let the air flow around it. It had a chance to get up to operating temperature but it happened exactly after 30 minutes. I actually looked at my watch when the sound died! And even though the unit is not mine, I am responsible for it. The school really doesn't know how to look after it.
I actually wrote an email to Beno the same day, describing in detail what happened to this DL. I am counting on a response soon? I'm sure that since I cannot reproduce this glitch on a regular basis, I don't know what Mackie can do. I would however try to convince them that since this unit is used by a school, a new replacement would be in order. Fingers crossed. ;)
-
This is a lot like the car that's still under warranty and decides to stop running. If it starts right back up, you drive on and don't think about it. But you might not want to wander any of those very lonely roads with no services for many miles. It's always going to be a worry on the mind.
-
Yeah, I was really thinking about running out to the van to get my backup mixer (you know). Like I said in my previous post, I really really like the DL, but like you said, if I may quote you "It's always going to be a worry on the mind." I think that for my piece of mind, if it's a small gig, just use my ZED10.
Still, I would like a reply from Beno and am going to push for a replacement for the school. Maybe I'm spitting in the wind? :'(
PS: my speakers are brand new and they were still powered up. Hopefully it wasn't them. What are the odds that 2 brand new cabs would quit at the same time for 20 seconds? Quantum Singularity again? :eek:
-
Might be the speakers, if somebody pulled the plug, and they were on a separate circuit. The first time I experienced white noise with this mixer, was when my lead vocalist wireless microphones had somebody else on the same channel and the squelch wasn't keeping it out.
-
Yeah, I was really thinking about running out to the van to get my backup mixer (you know). Like I said in my previous post, I really really like the DL, but like you said, if I may quote you "It's always going to be a worry on the mind." I think that for my piece of mind, if it's a small gig, just use my ZED10.
Still, I would like a reply from Beno and am going to push for a replacement for the school. Maybe I'm spitting in the wind? :'(
PS: my speakers are brand new and they were still powered up. Hopefully it wasn't them. What are the odds that 2 brand new cabs would quit at the same time for 20 seconds? Quantum Singularity again? :eek:
I see you couldn't resist GAS on new Yorkville toys (am I correct?). Fat chance it was the speakers. :)
-
I am surprised that you couldn't just force the app off and restart it. As a thin client, it should have released the stuck fader.
Come on Wynnd a thin client will only function if the server is listening as in this case with the DL which is obviously stuck waiting for a specific reply ignoring everything else. That was known in my days as sloppy programming.
-
Wynnd;
The speakers were plugged into the same circuit as the rest of my gear on a heavy duty
filtered power bar. Maybe, but I hope not.
WK; They are brand new Yorkie toys. And to be honest I've never had one fail on me out of the box, so far that is.
Anything is possible of course. Could be operator error too! (Moi of course!) Maybe just evil spirits >:D
-
Wynnd;
The speakers were plugged into the same circuit as the rest of my gear on a heavy duty
filtered power bar. Maybe, but I hope not.
WK; They are brand new toys. And to be honest I've never had one fail on me out of the box, so far that is.
Anything is possible of course. Could be operator error too! (Moi of course!) Maybe just evil spirits >:D
You missed the "Mackie" part of evil spirits >:D
Are you going to keep us in suspense on you new toys?
-
Ok. No more suspense. Yes they are Yorkville PS12Ps with the mandatory over inflated Yorkville power ratings. They are very nice, but a bit on the heavy side for my old bones. 60 pounds each! Ow!
-
60 lbs is not too bad......unless you have to put them on a pole :)
Us old guys don't want to risk that
-
Yes they go on tripod stands, but I'm looking at getting a pair of crank up stands. No way am I putting them on poles above head height. Maybe when I was 25, but that was a very long time ago! ;)
-
You really want those kids to listen up. :) Somebody should get that tech writer to pay attention and quit screwing up, fortunately the engineers got it right. Christmas came early ;) At 1440 watts something should get hot without a fan even class D amps.
-
WK: I think they are all playing a numbers game to sell product. Even Yorkville wants to be competitive. I don't for one minute believe 1440 watts program. Divide it by half and it's more reasonable. Even at 720 watts per speaker you can certainly damage hearing >:D As for heat generated, at the first gig at moderate levels, the amp/mixer module was just barely warm to touch after about 2 hours.
These cabs have two modes, Concert and Club. Club adds ridiculous bass at all levels. Not something I want to subject a 12 inch woofer to for very long at 45 Hz low end. Concert mode probably only goes down to 55 Hz, much easier on the 12. Still plenty of bass for most venues. Sorry for rattling on on specs, you've probably already researched these cabs :-[
I'm sure if they were pushed into limiting, they would get very warm. But I never ever in all my years running powered speakers have seen the limit lights come on on the back of the speakers. If I wanted to play that loud, I would be using a good sub and engaging the sub mode on the speakers. I do use a sub for school dances. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BASS!! Heh, Heh, Heh! >:D
PS: I must be getting old... How did we get to speakers from Sticking buttons ??? :facepalm:
-
I am surprised that you couldn't just force the app off and restart it. As a thin client, it should have released the stuck fader.
Come on Wynnd a thin client will only function if the server is listening as in this case with the DL which is obviously stuck waiting for a specific reply ignoring everything else. That was known in my days as sloppy programming.
That was bad programming when I was taking Computer Science back in 1980. Even in the micro computer world, wait states are usually considered bad technique. (Micro-computers are our laptops/desktops........ single user types. We've basically dropped the term and now only refer to PCs and Mainframes. Most of what we call mainframes today are actually Mini-computers. Power is coming in very small packages today.)
We know that the ipad isn't a multi-tasking computer. It would be surprise if the DL was able to be stuck in a wait state. Commands probably would be FIFO, but it shouldn't be stuck waiting for a single command. And there should be good error handling procedures built in that would reset looking for commands. As well as there should be command checking to see if the command is complete and executable. If not, it should be discarded. Even with 700+ controls on the ipad, that's a drop in a very small bucket to check in a fraction of a second.
-
A couple of points Wynnd, IBM zSeries is alive and well with a comparable price-tag for a mainframe. Definitely no mini. The iOS is in fact a multitasking OS albeit limited along the lines of RT11FB, that's foreground background tasking. They're trying to expand it and iOS 8 is supposed to be better at multitasking, haven't we been there before called Mac's OS1-9? DL of course is running uLinux fully multitasking but with a flat memory model (no real protection for tasks). You did mean timing loops since wait states are usually associated with hardware. Yes you can hang a uLinux app if you design your own flawed scheduling and communications algorithm called Mandolin.