The mackie dl1608 white noise saga! (A new member, who has been a lurker)

[Fluddman]

I've never used apple Airplay before. Is it possible and reliable to steam music from my iPhone to the airport so that it plays through the mackie via the Ethernet cable?

If that's a good option then it probably won't matter so much if my replacement DL still has the white noise issue.

Unfortunately it provides unbalanced 3.5mm stereo out of the Air Express which you need to input to the DL's 13-16 TS in case you need phantom pwr.  No audio over Ethernet.

iBloke - i am pretty sure air tunes only works with an apple router - so an Air Express is a good option.

I am using air tunes more and more as it allows you to control the music from where every you are in the room (as opposed to having to hit start and stop on the docked ipad).

I hope your replacement DL works great!

CHeers

[WK154]

Excellent we can now state that the problem of white noise resides within the DL, not the iPad.

[iBloke]

I've never used apple Airplay before. Is it possible and reliable to steam music from my iPhone to the airport so that it plays through the mackie via the Ethernet cable?

If that's a good option then it probably won't matter so much if my replacement DL still has the white noise issue.

Unfortunately it provides unbalanced 3.5mm stereo out of the Air Express which you need to input to the DL's 13-16 TS in case you need phantom pwr.  No audio over Ethernet.

iBloke - i am pretty sure air tunes only works with an apple router - so an Air Express is a good option.

I am using air tunes more and more as it allows you to control the music from where every you are in the room (as opposed to having to hit start and stop on the docked ipad).

I hope your replacement DL works great!

CHeers

Yes but I still need to "waste" 2 channels on the mixer to plug a stereo cable in.

It would be nice to control air tunes remotely though..

[iBloke]

Excellent we can now state that the problem of white noise resides within the DL, not the iPad.

I hadn't tried that experiment the first cuppla days because when I docked my iPad I instantly installed the iPad locking thingo, so I wasn't able to just slide the it in and out.

[WK154]

Well it's clear now that a DL that generated white noise was disconnected from the iPad and the DL continued to produce noise.  iBloke. This means that DL code needs to be fixed. There are however several issues not connected with each other and that is loss of sync. The serial communication with Mackie's Mandolin protocol needs to also be fixed. Why didn't you offer Ben your unit it could be quite useful to Mackie. At least retain the serial # so they can get it if they want. Ben's answer should be quite telling. Love to read it.

[Wynnd]

Two things about airplay.  Last Friday, I had problems using my iphone 4S (2.4 Ghz only) I had drops and stops while using it.  I'm assuming this was a location issue because I've never had that issue anywhere else and my ipads which are communicating on 5 Ghz didn't have the same issue.  I didn't look to see if there were too many devices running the same frequency.  (Would need to bring my MacBook.)  On the other hand, no white noise at any time doing it that way.  (Not that I've had that issue before.  I haven't.)   Got to admit that it's pretty neat being able to start the music from any of my ios devices.  (It locks onto the first airplay connection and to change devices, you need to disconnect the first device before connecting the next device.  Shouldn't really cause any problems.)

[Jerrylee]

Wynnd, you don't get the white noise issue when using airplay. The issue is when the iPad is docked.

If anyone read my earlier post you will see that it's not just a Mackie dl thing.

[WK154]

Wynnd, duh. You don't get the white noise issue when using airplay. The issue is when the iPad is docked.

If anyone read my earlier post you will see that it's not just a Mackie dl thing.

Yes Mackie doesn't have the market on poor software others follow. Yes Airplay is convenient, No it's not reliable.
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20060512044141904
There are however too many other products without the problem to ignore.

[RoadRanger]

Excellent we can now state that the problem of white noise resides within the DL, not the iPad.

Yup, you win . Although I still can't imagine what in the DL could possibly generate something that sounds like white noise accidentally?

[WK154]

OK let's work backwards. The output drivers are feed by the D/A, any continuously bad data can certainly produce the noise. We still don't know the spectral content of the noise, a 5-10sec recording would shed some light on it. Big hint here iBloke  . The next stop up the chain is the DSP and it's processing of the signal, any bad pointer to the data can certainly produce strange noise. The ARM most likely gave the DSP the data location. Then we get to the USB packets received from the iPad with valid CRC and Ack's a less likely place to have problems without the iPad picking up on that. That's assuming there is some protocol check. Yes a simplification but it identifies the potential players. Now for the Vegas assessment. uLinux written in C or C+, drivers written by Mackie so my money rides on a pointer problem either overwritten or otherwise in a flat memory model. 

[iBloke]

Ok, so I don't understand any of the technical jargon..in fact I'm pretty clueless with anything more complex than soldering different value capacitors to the volume pots on my guitars to try and achieve an even roll off of sound when turn the vol up and down.


Anyway the experiments have continued and like I said earlier there doesn't appear to be any particular event that triggers the noise.

There is also no particular event that shuts it off .. Although force closing either iTunes, master fader, or both will stop the issue.

And now that I don't have to iPad locking tail piece in place anymore I can slide the iPad in and out when I feel like it.

More often than not that will stop the noise, but not everytime. And sometimes when I reinsert the iPad I'll need to force close both apps to get things working properly again.

Completely random.

I'm going to get google to find me some info on cleaning dock connectors. It's something I've never done, apart from the usual lint removal procedure that seems to come with USB, game boy, MacBook power connectors etc.

I don't however know what is safe to use to clean possible tarnish or oxide off those teensy tiny little pins.

[WK154]

I can understand some of the results your getting, for instance when you have noise and you pull the iPad if the DL is still functioning properly in communications it should stop the noise but at other times that control is gone. If you could record about 10 sec of noise out of L or R, doesn't have to be earsplitting I could look at the spectral content and it may give us more info. Did Ben ever get back to you?

[iBloke]

I haven't used the record function yet so I'll give that a try today.

No reply from my first email bug report to Mackie.

No reply from Ben either.

But from all I've read about mackie's current "customer service" I'm not holding my breath.

They got my money, so now they don't give a toss.

I'm just very grateful the shop I bought it from is looking after me. Decent people

[WK154]

For recording you can't use the iPad/DL it  needs to be out of the DL's L or R outputs onto another device. This thing can't walk and chew gum at the same time. It's either playback or record. We of course want it in playback to produce the noise.

[iBloke]

For recording you can't use the iPad/DL it  needs to be out of the DL's L or R outputs onto another device. This thing can't walk and chew gum at the same time. It's either playback or record. We of course want it in playback to produce the noise.

Bugger! Sorry I can't record anything for ya then. I haven't used a cassette deck this century, and the 3 old ones I have are stuffed. Some of the little wheels don't turn in 'em anymore.

Yes I know I'm a sound engineer and maybe I "should" have some way of recording audio, but the reality is I don't go anywhere near studio recording.

And 100% of the bands I work for own at least one of those little Zoom recording devices that they either plug into the RCA outs on my A&H (that ain't gonna be possible anymore with the DL), or they just sit it somewhere in the venue and record through the built in mics.

Sorry man

p.s. You've been very helpful and supportive during this saga and I appreciate that. Cheers.