Master Fader V2.0 Wants and Speculation

[vballDrummer]

WANT --> Open Source the Master Fader code - we'll add tremendous value and sales to the DL

[Harpman]

Another show with the DL ... man, I sure hope they add stereo input and aux linking in the next release ... for every show I do this is a real pain in the butt  ... at least with a hard control surface you can tape adjoining faders together ... can't do anything on an iScreen ... :|

I've been told by Mackie that two of the top features in the next release (1.5) will be channel linking and iPad input gain control. I don't know what else they will have in store.

[Harpman]

Hi, I'm new here.  My "want" is simple, but probably impossible.  I'd like to be able to record on my iPad off one or more of the monitor sends rather than off the mains, so I can control the recording mix better.  My band mates prefer to use their own amps on guitar, bass and keys, running only the acoustic, drums and vocals through the mains to the PA, so obviously, recording a show like that blows.  Thank you and thank you for making this forum available since Mackie bagged their own forum.

Once they implement stereo auxes it will be simple to just use a stereo aux for the PA and use the main L&R just for recording . I suspect it wouldn't be too hard for Mackie to switch the iPad recording to a pair of auxes too, quite a few folks have expressed a desire for that .

My work around on this issue is to mic up the amps (which I do for our guitarist and bassist). I would run them straight into the board but they say they don't get the same tonality (characteristic) they would from their amps. If you don't need all your aux sends for monitors, then run them into an audio interface like a Focusrite Sapphire and use an iPad app like Auria to record. Jeff, I too can't use LR even mic'ing up their amps because they tend to turn up their amps causing the stage to be already too hot.  Even without recording, this can be an issue.  This is the age old issue with controlling the stage volume so it doesn't overpower the house mix. Multi-track will not be a feature in the DL1608 (hardware prohibited). This has been confirmed by the Mackie PM (Ben) when I saw him at the NAMM show. I was looking at the Behringer iX16 which will support multitrack through your favorite DAW but that means you will have to lug around a laptop with your DAW software loaded. I used my solution above to record a show back in April consisting of a pianist, bassist, vocalist and room mic for ambient room recording. Worked out pretty well.  I did take back the Sapphire because I don't like the way they do their hardware interfacing (i.e. would rather have all combo XLR's versus SPIDIF, RCA, ADAT, etc as my inputs).

[sam.spoons]

The simplest way (and well documented on the forums) is to run FOH from one aux in mono (much debated here also) and record from the L/R onto the iPad. 

[RoadRanger]

September?
http://www.harmonycentral.com/t5/Live-Sound-Production/Strange-Problem-With-DL1608-I-think/m-p/35599895#M408117

[robbocurry]

Phew!! The amount of stuff I had to read to get to the point of your post. That's an hour I'll never get back RR

[sam.spoons]

I'm still wading through it 

[robbocurry]

I'm still wading through it 

I'll save you the bother - someone muted that Master Fader v1.5 was being released in September

[Jkowtko]

On my browser the link goes directly to that post ...

My question would be ... Why so long for the release?  Didn't Beno say that 1.4 was a big refactoring release, laying the groundwork to implement all those features we have been waiting for patiently since 1.3?

[RoadRanger]

Weird, that link I posted should jump right to the relevant post - it does on both Internet Explorer and Chrome here?

[RoadRanger]

My question would be ... Why so long for the release?  Didn't Beno say that 1.4 was a big refactoring release, laying the groundwork to implement all those features we have been waiting for patiently since 1.3?

Hopefully the delay is because there are going to be a boatload of changes. Pre-EQ and dynamics auxes, stereo linked inputs and outputs, master FX mute, bigger or repositioned mutes, an "all outputs" page, iPad record and playback level controls, more FX (chorus?). Who knows how much they can cram into V1.5 ? Hopefully they can be somewhat competitive with the Behringer iX16 when it comes out soon .

[robbocurry]

Weird, that link I posted should jump right to the relevant post - it does on both Internet Explorer and Chrome here?

I was in bed with my (w)iphone
Like the bit about the ix16 out soon
Reaching for the tin hat again........

[ijpengelly]

I helped a friend out at the weekend at a charity music festival and got the chance to use the software for the Yamaha LS9/32 on the iPad. My friend had front of house and I was doing the monitor mixes on the stage. It was interesting to see how they present information to the user and how you access channels and various other features. Now, obviously the LS9 is a much more feature rich mixer, so to be able to access things requires a bit more than scrolling side to side (which incidentally it doesn't do :-) ). So a few more buttons to press to get to the desired channel and output, but there were some good things about this, like:

- Output masters page,
- Little overviews at the top for the various groups of inputs and outputs which showed level and fader positions,
- Long faders option, for better fine control
- Parametric or graphic EQ on outputs
- Linked faders (though I didn't see how you set those on the iPad, they were done from the desk)

Its also interesting to note that in a similar way to MasterFader, I also had some issues with latency and drop out at times. It was hard to pin down what was causing it, as there was no clear pattern of position or number of people between me and the router.

Overall, there majority of what I found was what has been requested in MasterFader 1.5 and whilst I enjoyed the differences, it didn't make me think that the Mackie interface was significantly worse or better, just that it has some room for improvement which would make life easier on occassion.

[nottooloud]

LS9 is my main mixer, and I've used their app, StageMix, from the minute it came out. The dropouts are part app, part OS. There are specific settings on the iPad wifi page that help, and they're different depending on which version of iOS you're running.

There are many things that Mackie does better than Yamaha. The Yamaha mixers won't support multiple control devices, it's strictly 1 iPad at a time, and that's a mixer architecture thing. The channel scrolling that you mentioned. Automatic resync after backgrounding. Control of dynamics and effects processors.

[Jkowtko]

"Computerization" is relatively new in this industry, so in a sense it levels the playing field amongst vendors.  Digital boards are really no exception since they require a totally different kind of programming than PC or Mac apps.  At this point I think vendor success will heavily depend on who they hire to design and write the code