Master Fader V2.0 Wants and Speculation

[ijpengelly]

Nottooloud, I think that my friend was running the latest version of iOS (6.11?) so any tips would be grately appreciated. I believe in the next revision of StageMix you'll be able to access dynamics and effects.

The ability to use more than one iPad / iDevice is something i haven't exploited that much, but I can see it being very useful, even if it is just so I can be greedy and have two iPads on the go at the same time. 
I hadn't thought of the auto-resynch, but yes great point.

Jkowtko, I suspect you are right and, whilst I will probably be flamed for saying it, I would rather that Mackie too the time to release a stable product than just firing out an update without thoroughly testing it. That is one thing I have generally been impressed with MasterFader, it very rarely crashes or hangs.

[nottooloud]

Nottooloud, I think that my friend was running the latest version of iOS (6.11?) so any tips would be grately appreciated.

There's lots of voodoo to try; forgetting and resetting the router, broadcasting the SSID or not, various models of routers. Connection may be improved by picking a static ip address. Yamaha mixers all use one, and it defaults to 192.168.0.128, so don't use that. The original iPad is stuck at iOS 5.1.1. On those you need to specify the router address. On iOS 6.nn (currently 6.1.3), you also need to specify the DNS, which is usually the same as the router address.

Once you get a stable setup, you should be able to forget about it. At the moment, I have an old Buffalo WHR-HP-G300N and a last gen Airport Extreme, and they're both solid. I had been using an old Airport Express, the one with a single ethernet port, but it doesn't play nice with my iPad Mini.

[ijpengelly]

Thanks, I'll give those a go.

[sam.spoons]

I had a look at UserVoice today and notice there are a couple of references to MIDI control of Master Fader. I suspect it may not be possible (and if it is it definitely won't be easy to implement) but what do you programmer dudes think? It would be great to be able to have an iPad and a Berry BCF2000 fader pack for FOH (wireless of course) best of both worlds, physical faders and touch screen. What set me looking is the boss has just bought a couple of BCF2000 to run the A&H iLive (with a PC for monitors and the T80 for FOH). I won't be selling the DL just yet either way but I'll bet the iX16 can do it 

[Jkowtko]

Since the DL itself doesn't support MIDI, I would think you'll need an app (iDevice or PC) that can talk both MIDI and DL.  If by chance the DL's protocol uses MIDI under the covers that might make it an easier programming effort ... but ultimately you would still need access to the DL's API -- or build your own equivalent -- to hook up this program to.

In general I think the future of digital consoles should be rack mounted I/O and DSP, with modular hard and soft control surfaces including sound consoles and personal monitor mixers.  MIDI would make sense as the protocol of choice for backward compatibility, but ideally something that runs well under wired or wireless ethernet.

[sam.spoons]

I'm thinking of the Master Fader app, I realise the DL can't be controlled by midi but if the Master Fader app could interact with a midi control protocol you could use a hardware midi control surface (like, say, Garage Band on the iPad can receive midi data over USB from a keyboard) to control the MF app and let all coms be between MF and the DL. I doubt Mackie will do it as they don't make a budget midi control surface but it could be a winner if it's possible.

[Mixfix]

I'd be willing to donate to a pool for someone to buy and investigate the innards of a DL, and or MF.

Funny, I was thinking of somthing along same lines myself. We should see how many of us are interested in investing in somthing and go from there.
 I am down to throw in!

[WK154]

As of 7/17/13 the top request from the Mackie site is as follows:

Channel Linking / Grouping and  Make a Stereo channel
Please add the ability to link channels together. Stereo pairs are critical, but offering true multi-channel grouping would be amazing
1,550 votes
Combine two mono channels into a stereo pair so they appear on one fader like the current iPad channel.
401 votes  The two top requests by far the most wanted with 1,951 requests
Parametric EQ options on all outputs
I would like to be able to select this option. It makes it real easy to filter out monitor mix feedback. And set a nice sounding eq
1,374 votes
Remove unused channels.
Get rid of all the clutter when not using all 16 faders. If I'm using 5 channels that's all I want to see.
939 votes
RTA overlayed on of the GEQ  and  Small simple spectrum analysis over 31-band graphic EQ's
For each of the GEQ's can you overlay a RTA on top of the GEQ display ? That way you can see which frequency band is causing feedback issues.
367 votes + 254 votes for a total of 621 votes
Add Break Switch
Many Mackie mixer's have a Break Switch making it easy to mute the mains and returns in between sets. In Master Fader, the break switch could mute all inputs and returns leaving only the iPad channel or a pair of user selectable input channels.
594 votes
Intergrate iPad music playback controls
At the top have a play, pause, next, prev, ff, rr button. When playing music with an iPad either docked, or streaming through express, it would be nice to have the controls available. This way we wouldn't have to double click or exit program to get to the controls. It would be super helpful especially when it comes to play and pause.
503 votes
Pre Fader Options
Please consider a pre/post DSP option for the pre send (i.e. pre/post compression, gate, eq).
It is much easier to get greater gain before feedback in monitors when the aux send taps the signal before the compression and gate. This is a very practical real world application.
315 votes
Delay on outputs
To drive separate delay stacks without the need of external delay's
297 votes
Stereo Aux buss
For IEM's etc.
289 votes
MONO OUT for a single (1) sub with (2) stereo tops. Aux 6? Not same as crossover idea. Just MONO.
I often use my system with just one subwoofer and two tops running in stereo. I probably do this more than I use two subs. The presonus board I already sold for the mackie had 3 main outs, 2 for left/right and a mono out that I used for my sub. They both actually have their own gain control. Can we use aux 6 to mirror all main signals and use the channel fader as a type of gain? And then if I raise or lower the main volume the aux channel 6 moves relative to the main signal, but…
249 votes

16 channel recording and playback..   and  ANDROID were among the top  requests but deleted for obvious reasons.

How many of these will we see in V1.5? Taking bets now!

[Mikeboltz111]

If they added these options I'd never need to update again.  For me it's all about function, so prefader auxes is a must. Rta overlay, parametrics on outputs, delay, and built in x over and I'm in heaven!

[Ampli]

Hi thougd that the separation of the main geq from stereo in l+r geq  or did they delete this one to?

[WK154]

The above 10 most wanted list is only a general gist of the features. The implementation will no doubt be different. If they provide one or two consider yourself lucky.

[sam.spoons]

The problem with UserVoice now is that any new ideas will start at the bottom (obviously), it didn't matter when there ere only a dozen or so ideas but with hundreds nobody will ever see the new ones.

[Jkowtko]

I think BenO (or whoever the current DL product manager is) should be well aware of the multitude of high demand and high visibility features on our lists.

One interesting part about all this is, with a DSP at the core, the same piece of hardware can be made to have either very low end or very high end feature set.  I would like to think that Mackie wants to max out the set of features that are capable on the DL box, and trust that we will move to higher end and more expensive hardware when we need the channel capacity and/or other I/O that the current DL hardware lacks.  Of course, if they don't do this, their competitors will ... !

[Mixfix]

For me it's all about function, so prefader auxes is a must.

The current features do allow pre fader aux but they are always post Ch eq and post dynamics which is a big PITA for most anyone trying to aux feed stage monitors AND still be able to make eq adjustments to any stage mics post sound check. Almost a great mixer but this is a majorly needed improvement/fix as far as im concerned.

[Mixfix]

 Features like an RTA overlay or even a simple feedback freq Id assistant would probably make for some nice appeal to the inexperienced or less experienced users more so than to me but seems like it would be a simple and effective tool to add to the current UI