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My First Impressions with MF 3.X and the DL1608. If You're Interested?

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Keyboard Magic:
Please note: These are my impressions and experiences. Yours may be different.  :)

Having MF 3.X on my iPad 2 and feeling comfortable with it…

I updated the firmware on the DL1608. Then loaded Master Fader 3.x. I called up the first show/snapshot at the top of the front end. The app crashed completely. I had to restart the app and reload my show/snapshot. This time it worked. I find that the screens open faster on the iPad 2 when it’s docked. Everything is more responsive except for the faders, but they aren’t too bad. I think in most live situations MF 3.X is usable on the iPad 2. If you were in a very critical situation that required fast adjustments, it might cause some frustrating moments.

I noticed that if you try to throw a fader/flick it up, it tends to keep going and could cause a huge jump in the channel level and some embarrassment too. If you move them slow and steady with a firm touch, they work just fine. But the delay is definitely there on the iPad 2 for sure. The vintage EQ works just fine on the iPad2. Modern EQ is very lagging. I don’t use it at all, so that’s not a big deal. I removed the iPad from the dock while I had some music playing and it rapidly switched to the wireless. No interruptions at all.  Nice. Screens are just as fast, everything else remained the same.  Then snapped it back into the dock, music kept going as expected, got Sync Window and voila! Reconnect. Perfect!

I’m fairly confident that I could use this configuration at my next audio gig this month with confidence.(<--- Really? confident, confidence?? Ughh, Sorry about that!) Almost forgot, AirPlay works flawlessly. The channel meters seem to be a little more responsive than v2.X too. Kool  8) And the Trim Feature is cool! Two thumbs up, indeed!  :thu: :thu:

I think/hope that the next update of MF 3.X will address that. I am considering retiring the older iPad 2 and going up to an iPad Mini 2 with the A7 CPU and more onboard system memory. This will give MF 3.X the horsepower boost it needs to run without having to second mortgage the house to buy an iPad Air 2.  :eek:

The best part, nothing melted down, no smoke and no disappearing into another dimension. (The iPad, DL or myself)  :lol:

dpdan:
nice thorough report :)

Keyboard Magic:
Thank you!  :thu:

WK154:
OK so you tested MF3.x and it gave you a 50/50 success rate. I hope you'll test that a few more times. So tell me what is the gotta have feature over MF2.1.1 you're trading control response off for ? Of course you're not using MyF (My Fader) so it won't factor in. It's unclear what you meant by what issue hopefully the next update will address?

Keyboard Magic:

--- Quote from: WK154 on February 06, 2015, 07:36:19 PM ---OK so you tested MF3.x and it gave you a 50/50 success rate. I hope you'll test that a few more times. So tell me what is the gotta have feature over MF2.1.1 you're trading control response off for ? Of course you're not using MyF (My Fader) so it won't factor in. It's unclear what you meant by what issue the next update will address?

--- End quote ---

For myself particularly, the digital trim control. I know it doesn't replace recallable gains, but it helps to tweak, when you need that little bit more, without having to run back to the mixer in the middle of a gig, even though you've set the gains to optimum not maximum, obviously, during setup. I don't use the effects or the iPad channel, didn't before, no issue. Though the trim control on the iPad channel may help to reduce the hot input from the iPad playback. I use airplay, that's not an issue either. No white noise, even though it's been remedied.

The initial MF crash when accessing the scene/snapshot page was worrisome. I am going to test the unit at home everyday until I'm sure everything is Kosher, before the show. If there are any major hiccups, I have the luxury of rolling everything back to v2.X. I don't have many scenes/snapshots to worry about losing. Wireless and sync the same, but won't know until it's tested live. I've been bringing a spare A&H ZED10 as backup for as long as I've been using a DL. It's just smart to have a backup whatever you're using just the same

I hope next update will address the slight fader lag and modern EQ lag on the iPad 2 & 3, for those that use modern EQ and any other issues Mackie finds. Oh and make the channel markings brighter.

So for me, trim control and I like the over-all look of the new software. And like I mentioned before, hopefully updates will make it even better.  :)

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