First weekend with DL32R impressions

[MrDOS]

I was a bit nervous to leave the MixWiz and snake in the truck and use the new setup in an acoustically challenging room, but I bit the bullet. 
I used my regular FOH, amps & monitors, along with:
. iPad Air 2 with IOS 8.1.1
. Master Fader v3.0
. Apple AirPort Extreme Wireless Router with 802.11ac (very easy to set up and use)
. Mackie DL32R
. WD 1 TB Bus Powered USB drive

Here's some impressions:

1)  Lots of compliments on the mix, and audio quality was comparable to the Allen Heath board
2)  Although I did not need break music for this gig, I preloaded over 2,000 48KHz .WAV files in the \Music folder on the USB drive.  On Friday, the music player would do nothing but spin as it tried to initialize.  The next day, I deleted all but 600 .WAVs from the drive, and the listing of songs came up as expected.  Maybe there's a practical limit to the number of files / size in the music player?
3) I recorded both nights 16 tracks.  16 bit the first night, 24 bit the second.  The file storage is fairly efficient with the POLY .WAVs, but I can't read them in WaveLab.  I downloaded a beta of Wave Agent, which converts them to mono .WAVs just fine.
4) To start a multitrack recording, you must create a name first.  If you hit record with the default name, it stops immediately.  Because I did not notice this, I missed part of the first set the second night.  For the rest of the night, subsequent recordings are automatically named _2, _3, etc., which is convenient.
5)  Because of the acoustically live room (high metal ceilings, tile floor, big glass garage door behind band), I did not use any reverbs all night.  For delay, the "Tape Echo" setting sounded just fine compared to the Lexicon I usually use.
6)  I returned home Saturday night a full 15 minutes earlier than usual, mostly because I did not have to break down that nasty snake and #14 50' extension cord I used to use at this venue.

Overall, it was a success, and there was feedback only once -- when the singer decided the mic needed to be in the throat of the floor wedge horn, while he looked at his lyrics

[WK154]

Glad to hear that everything went smoothly and now to convince RR to put up under it's own topic "DL32R" since it is a different beast from the DL1608/806. I already gave him a big hint to replace the useless Talkback Mic topic. A little help here so it's easier to find relevant issues. On that same note the MF should also be separate software since the hardware is certainly different enough. The "ALL in One" concept has it's limitations and this is one.

[Wynnd]

There are problems with "all in one" aspect to Master Fader, but for people who might want to jump from the dl1608 to the dl32, it's a no brainer.  They are already used to the interface and all the tools.  For Mackie it's the right move.   Someday, the dl1608 will no longer get updates, but by tying Master Fader to both, it will be a lot further down the road.

[MrDOS]

And another thing.  I'm hearing a little "hair" on the recorded signal on some of the hotter tracks.  During mixdown in Cakewalk Sonar, I started rolling off the extreme highs on lead vocals, some guitars, etc.

Here's an example rough mix from a live show 12/20/2014.

http://www.woodlawnsound.com/FTP/20141220_Maneater.mp3

Is anyone else hearing similar artifacts in their raw tracks?

Thanks!

[WK154]

And another thing.  I'm hearing a little "hair" on the recorded signal on some of the hotter tracks.  During mixdown in Cakewalk Sonar, I started rolling off the extreme highs on lead vocals, some guitars, etc.

Here's an example rough mix from a live show 12/20/2014.

http://www.woodlawnsound.com/FTP/20141220_Maneater.mp3

Is anyone else hearing similar artifacts in their raw tracks?

Thanks!

A little too much reverb for my taste which tends to muddy the vocals amongst other things. Not sure what you mean by "hair" I'm more into tech reasons. I deal with a Capella four part and they're currently having a bit of trouble singing current songs until their timing is fixed. This tends to also muddy vocal sounds (you have trouble understanding the words). For Solo it's a non issue but too much delay and reverb are.

[Ampli]

Hi i can hear the hair in your mix, but its more distortion, sound something is clipping or overloading
Myself had this problem with some cheap wireless clipon transmitter on mics,

[MrDOS]

Thanks for the replies -- I am going to isolate a track and upload a snippet; but I am thinking I might have had the trim too hot on those channels.

[WK154]

Thanks for the replies -- I am going to isolate a track and upload a snippet; but I am thinking I might have had the trim too hot on those channels.

If your using Sonar or any other DAW it should be quite obvious if the trims were too hot. Depending on the stems you have it should be easy to fix in mixdown.
A quick look at the MP3 in Audacity says your not clipping and I've seen a lot worst in released CD's. You do have a significant presence in the 13K range possibly due to the reverb. Individual stems would narrow this down.