Jumping into the DL1608 Phenomenon

[Keyboard Magic]

I have to admit that headphones will let you know if something is wrong with your board that may or may not show up at the gig. And auditioning the effects without having to set up your whole system is a time saver too. But as a professional musician I rely 100% on my ears either when entertaining or running sound. I absolutely have to hear the room at all times. That way I can gauge on how to adjust my levels and or tweak the sound etc. etc. 

Except when I DJ school dances. Due to many years playing loud music in bands and my advanced age  I now wear isolation headphones. (only for the kiddies dances!) With the type of music requested and the above average SPL I really don't need to hear the room 

[Scott Campbell]

Good luck with the DL1608. I purchased one last July(2013) with a grant from the Trillium Foundation, to help with some fundraising concerts and such. It has definitely done most of what I need and I have to say I'm quite satisfied. Some things to note, if you haven't already:

1) all the inputs are MONO in. This sounds pretty straight forward as most of your mics/instruments will also only send a mono signal. but if you try to run a cable from a stereo source ( like an ipod/mp3 player) and pass it through the combo input ( channels 12-16) your going to lose one of the channels.  You need something appropriate to combine the channels into a mono signal, or a splitter to send 2 separate channels (not a copy of both channels) to individual inputs.
2)  Read up on the Effects thread (reverb/delay) it will save you some frustration
3) Get a reliable router.
4) Download a copy of Voice Recorder Pro( its Free) if you want to listen to something you've recently recorded. The super odd decision by Mackie to provide no way to listen to something that you have just recorded is a pit of a pain.
5) Get a sign/shirt that says your working   You wouldn't believe how many people thought I was rudely playing games on the ipad during some of the awesome performances while I was mixing from the crowd!


Edit: also keep in mind, it is a tool. Like most tools, is probably does what it's supposed to do well, and it can do a few other things if needed, and if pushed, can do things it was not intended for. For example, a hammer is pretty good at driving nails into wood, it can also serve quite well as a paperweight, and if pushed, you can use it to cut a board in two (with extreme effort, and generally unpleasant results). The upside is that through software, some adjustments can be made regarding its utility, but it will have its limits.

[RoadRanger]

5) Get a sign/shirt that says your working   You wouldn't believe how many people thought I was rudely playing games on the ipad during some of the awesome performances while I was mixing from the crowd!

Welcome! Oh, and we're gonna need a picture of that shirt for the FAQs .

[Scott Campbell]

If I get the budget approved, I'll make copies for everyone   And thanks for the Welcome!!

BTW, this forum is a gold mine of information!! Only found it yesterday. 
Why did Loud (current owners of the Mackie brand) go with FB as their official forum? So strange...

[Keyboard Magic]

Scott;

Welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the pointers, they are very helpful. I've been playing around with a free app from Focusrite called TAPE. It appears to be similar to Voice Recorder. But hey, I can always use another cool free app like that to play around with too!  As for the wireless router, I have an Apple AirPort Express. Haven't used it yet, but hope it's reliable? I plan to use it on the 5GHz band for less interference.

I love the suggestion of wearing an appropriate identifying T to let people know what I am actually doing with my iPad  Fortunately or unfortunately at the school I run sound at, they all know me too well. I seem to be a permanent fixture there. 

I have found this site to be very informative and all who post here are very helpful with their experiences and expertise. What can I say, it's great to be here. (no pun intended)    I think you will be very pleased!

And once more.... WELCOME!!! 

[Scott Campbell]

Thanks KB, fellow Canuck!

I was part of a video shoot for a young cellist a month or so ago (full disclosure: I'm the dad) and used the DL1608 for recording. I think it turned out pretty good audio wise. I didn't do any post recording processing on the audio, all of what you hear is pretty much raw from the DL1608. I've never listened to it on decent head phones, but it's seems captured quite well if you listen to is with decent speakers,  aka not laptop grade    

enjoy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud_AfgQbR_0

btw, if you have done any video work, my applogies. That stuff takes far too long !!

[RoadRanger]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud_AfgQbR_0

Wow, I think I'll just burn all my musical instruments now

[Wynnd]

Note on current version of airport express.  It will do simultaneous 5 and 2.4 ghz and I would recommend using it that way with different names for the different bands.  My iphone won't do 5 ghz and is the only backup to the ipad for control..  (Volume only, but in a pinch that should be enough.)  it would be better to have a second ipad, but right now, I'm not springing for one.

[Keyboard Magic]

Hey Scott';

Nice eh? Too Canadian? Good video, good sound and the talent was good too. I am impressed with the sound quality even on YouTube. I've been a professional musician for some 40 plus years and can appreciate all good talent. 

[WK154]

Yes on YouTube and most other social media they take your media and convert it to their current fare so don't expect audio to be what you recorded and in the case of Wave files or Aiff it will be compressed. After that you're at the mercy of the listener and their equipment. Yah think it will be the same? NO. Send the actual file if you need to be accurate.

[Jerrylee]

Wynnd I again disagree. When you are going over certain aspects of an individual mixer it is nice to use headphones. You can hear how eqs react, effects sound, dynamics, etc. But when comparing two mixers for sound/tonal quality it would not mater what you are using to compare. It's best to "compare" two mixers by using the very pa you will be using them through. If the room is going to affect one mixer, it's going to affect the other as well. That's what I would want to hear. How my mixers, with my pa, sound in a room. And headphone amps vary greatly in mixers. They don't always compare to the main outs.

If I wanted to hear individual effects, and compare them, yes I might use headphones. But that's not the point. The point is to compare the mixers as a whole. Not just compare the effects. And they can still be compared through a pa.

[Wynnd]

I would love to do a blind test of systems that are RTA flat.  I'm betting nearly everyone won't be able to tell the difference.  Now if your system isn't flat, you're comparing the systems and not the mixers.   You will get a huge amount of variance on systems that aren't flat.  That said, I do have one mixer that is mid range heavy.  But it's the only one that I've had that was that way since 1990.  (It's my recording mixer and I  don't plan to change it.  I can always clean things up in the mix down.)  I'm doubting that the MixWiz and the DL sound noticeably different when set up exactly the same.  (Channel EQs flat and no effects.)  Blind test is really the only way to move beyond opinions and into truth.   I'd be willing to volunteer my equipment, but I sold the MixWiz.  (Still a very nice mixer.)   

[Keyboard Magic]

So to follow up on my most excellent DL1608 adventure  I thought I'd try to set up my airport express router, (it is the newest version)to make sure I can use wireless for the upcoming gig Monday.  2 hours later and pulling out what hair I have left, it decided to go from front LED flashing yellow to sold green = connected. Please don't ask how I was able to do that, but blind luck, a fluke or what every deity intervened, it's working 100%  Hip hip hurray, let the bells ring out, I can run my DL wirelessly from my second iPad and even stream audio in stereo via AirPlay from my windows laptop using iTunes. whoo hooo!!

Aside from my audio/music gigs, I am also a part time computer technician and have configured too many routers and wireless routers, but I've really haven't come up against something as stubborn as the Apple router  . It is probably my ineptness with apple that caused all this frustration. But the Mackie quick wireless setup pdf assures one that set up is sooooo easy with any router and since I am using apple gear, it should be even easier? Guess not! My wish would be for Master Fader to somehow make connection painless. But in the real world that's a whole 'nother story!

Any way it's working and I for one am not going to mess with any settings to screw up my wireless. That's my rant and thank you all for listening. (well, reading actually) 

[Jerrylee]

It took me a couple of minutes to get my express working when I got it. Not exactly sure what you did.

[Scott Campbell]

I've found you have to be fairly precise on the order you turn systems on. If you just randomly plug stuff in and turn things on, it may take a while.
I tend to follow this pattern for best results:
1) connect everything ( all unpowered , except the Ipad)
2) power up the router and wait a bit ( sub 3 mins)
3) find the router on the ipad wifi settings (and connect)
4)power up the mixer
5) check (within MasterFader if the wired Ipad is connected)
6)remove the Ipad from the mixer, and check if it had synced to masterfader wirelessly

From there its usually pretty good.
I've used some Netgear voip router and also a Dlink battery operated thing (I'll check at some point on the exact models if anyone is interested)

I get plenty of drops/disconnects from the netgear thing, but the Dlink has been stable. Could be interference from the venues though, i haven't really tested it all out.

Bit of a pain if you set up your gear, power your mains, (with phantom on) then notice you can't get a wireless connection..... shut it all down, and start in the prescribed order.