Jumping into the DL1608 Phenomenon

[Fluddman]

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) 

The light on the Express will only flash green when you are have a working internet connection (as opposed to a local area network). You don't need to be connected to the internet for your network to be working between the ipad and DL.  Flashing yellow is the norm for me as I don't connect to the internet when I am using the DL at a gig.

Cheers

[Keyboard Magic]

JerryLee, you must have the right touch!  No I really don't know what I did 

Scott: Thank you for the correct startup tips!   

Fluddman: Thanks for that interesting point about continuous flashing yellow light and that you can still connect the iPad wirelessly just the same.  :

As long as it continues to work. "If it ain't broke....."

[Wynnd]

The Airport Express wants to see an Internet connection.  If you had one, the setup would take about 2 minutes.  I ran into the same issues.  Think it took me about 20 minutes.  I've had to experience of setting up an Airport Express at home.  (twice and recently a time capsule.)  I can vouch that the setup with internet goes quickly and easily.  And I also wanted the green light running on mine.  (Especially because I mounted it in plain sight beside the mixer.)  I've been trying to configure Airplay, but haven't had much time to work through all the issues.  (Result is Airplay doesn't work yet.  One of these days, it will become important enough to work on.) 

[Jerrylee]

Um...guys...really? 1st, the flashing goes away when you tell the express router to ignore the issue. It does not need an internet connection to be green fludd. 2nd as long as you are connected to the express router, which is simple, you will have airplay. Also very simple to use. This was one of the easiest parts of the dl setup to deal with.

[Keyboard Magic]

Wynnd;

Experience helps for sure. I'm a cough, windoze guy  That's probably my road block with the apple, sometimes I still get a little frustrated with the iPad, but I am plugging along and am slowly getting more comfortable with them.

As for AirPlay, I hate to say it,    mine worked right away. I plugged in the audio cable from the airport to the DL, connected my windows laptop to the airport wireless, loaded iTunes and selected the airplay option from within iTunes, and I was playing stereo audio wirelessly. It's more than likely beginners luck. 

[Keyboard Magic]

Soooo used the DL for the first time at an all day gig at the wife's school for public speaking. I used the remote ipad to mix and left the other ipad docked. It worked flawlessly. No sync loss at all. I even walked a fair distance out of the gym with the remote ipad to test the wireless signal strength. It didn't drop at all.  The response with the remote ipad was quite good. No obvious lag when moving a fader on the remote, to actual response from the mixer.

Having never used wireless mixing at all in my career, this was quite a treat to be free from sitting at the console all the time and running all over the venue to listen and mix. Fingers crossed that this experience continues for the life of my DL. 

[Fluddman]

Soooo used the DL for the first time at an all day gig at the wife's school for public speaking. I used the remote ipad to mix and left the other ipad docked. It worked flawlessly. No sync loss at all. I even walked a fair distance out of the gym with the remote ipad to test the wireless signal strength. It didn't drop at all.  The response with the remote ipad was quite good. No obvious lag when moving a fader on the remote, to actual response from the mixer.

Having never used wireless mixing at all in my career, this was quite a treat to be free from sitting at the console all the time and running all over the venue to listen and mix. Fingers crossed that this experience continues for the life of my DL. 

That has been my experience over and over again. Enjoy!

[sam.spoons]

You know, I have been worrying about the potential problems with the DL, dropped connections, white noise etc, but I haven't actually had a single problem which couldn't be put down to operator error in the 15 months (and around 30-40 gigs) I've owned and used it it. It's a damn good bit of kit and, TBH, I love it. 

[Keyboard Magic]

Not sure whether to post this here or not?

But...Since joining this great site, I've been doing a lot of reading on the positive and negative experiences with the DL. I'm finding a lot of negative ones (justifiably?) that make me wonder if this is a possible future in owning my DL. I will say that if any of my gear became undependable and let me down at a venue, I would give the manufacturer a chance to remedy the issue and if the said issue (s) were not addressed and kept reoccurring said gear would either be returned (if still under warranty) or dumped so fast that it wouldn't know what happened to it.

I want to give my DL a chance, 'cause it's so new and I really like it so far, but I am almost considering (almost!)(waffling) on if I should take it back before the 30 day exchange is up? Yes, I have had good experiences with Mackie in the past and Behringer too. But if there are so many potential issues? I am still leaning on trusting my DL for now. Fingers crossed! I understand if some people have been burned, I really feel. But it does make one think.

I guess I'd better stop before this turns into a small novel 

[sam.spoons]

I'd say some people have had some issues but I'm not aware of any having show stopping problems (and I follow this forum and a couple of others closely). While one or two have had sync issues (inconvenient, but not a show stopper) with a docked iPad, many more have had no such problems (I know a couple of people will be along presently with horror stories but I can only speak for my own experiences). If you had an analogue desk with a rack of outboard you'd expect to have occasional faulty cables, connectors or knobs/faders.

If it's working ok then keep it and if it subsequently fails you have the guarantee to fall back on.

[Jerrylee]

Although I no longer have the dl, and have made a huge jump to an x32 rack, the dl never failed me. It's a great board for what it is. Don't expect it to do something it cannot. Buy it, own it, and use it if it fits your needs. If you start finding limitations in the unit that you feel you want or need then it's time to move on.

I moved on for only a few reasons, but the rack has a lot more than a few advantages. For me the key was the programable gains. Once you have them you will never go back to anything without. It's just way too much of a convenience. And having 22 usable input channels helped my decision too. I also needed a recording interface and it suits the bill. I have also found myself using the front USB for 2 track recording. I leave in a Sandisk thumb drive. I have the ability to fully mix a seperate recording mix. But recording to the USB is just a bonus. The are a lot of advantages and feature the rack offers over the dl. But again, if the dl fits all your needs then stick with it. It has limitations compared some competition and yet blows away some of the others.

I will go back to my original reason for the switch. The programable gains. For a board to be truly remote you need to be able to walk away from it after all cables are plugged in. You cannot do that with the dl. You need to set gains. And if one is off you need to go back to it. I did a huge festival with my rack several weeks ago. I set it up, plugged everything in, threw it under the stage and never looked at it again. And this was hours before the band I was mixing showed up. The next day I did the same thing for my own band. I always try to tell people to give me a good loud check so I can set gains. But almost always there is an issue when everyone is playing. No more running back to the board to make small gain adjustments. Sometimes I have run the gains a little lower with the dl to avoid issues. But that didn't always work. The programable gains alone are worth the price difference.

KM in the US it's only a $200 difference (without coupons or deals. Less of a difference with one). I know in canada it's a few hundred difference at this point. I say this just in case you wanted to make a switch. But based on what you do the dl should be just fine.

[Keyboard Magic]

Jerrylee & sam.spoons

Thank you both for the encouraging comments. Yes you're right and for what I use it for, even a glitch once in a while is not something to make me get rid of the DL just yet. Wireless mixing is so cool!    Sure if it's a major fail, that's a different story. Some issues can be put down to, heaven forbid,    user error on my part.

As an example, I used my ZED10 today for a 2 track stereo recording of the school choir and the ZED would not record stereo through USB into my laptop running Sound Forge 11. I could hear stereo in the headphones from the ZED.  The 2 mics were in X-Y pattern hard panned left and right and the acoustic guitar was running off a direct box into a single mono channel. Dollars to donuts it was my problem and not the gear's fault. 

Sooooo, doing a little research and an enquiry to Allen& Heath just for fun.

[sam.spoons]

Given that the X18 is several months away the DL is the best desk in a class of one. I love mine for the great (in every way) desk it is. Yes, it has it's limitations but in the important areas, (sound quality, and reliability) mine has been great. As long as it stays reliable and has the features I need I'll try to keep it. Of course I may follow JL's path at some stage and buy an X32 but probably one with faders first and only replace the DL with an X32 rack when I find myself needing a stagebox regulally. And, IMHO, the Master Fader app is still the best out there by some margin.

[Keyboard Magic]

So, I just jumped out of my own DL1606 phenomenon today.  I decided to set up my system at home since I have a very important gig coming up this week. Since I've only used my DL in a live situation once, I felt it was a good idea. So I hooked every thing up and voila the DL wouldn't pass any audio to any outputs, even to the headphone jack. 

So I powered everything off and tried again. This time the DL wouldn't recognize either iPad, not even charging. I then tried different start up methods, no joy! I then reset the DL to factory, downloaded the firmware, reset both iPads and both issues (no audio, no charging/sync) reoccurred one after the other. I must add that both iPads were pushed iOS 7.1.1 updates today. This is probably why my DL crapped out. Maybe the next Master Fader/firmware update would have remedied this annoying issue, but without knowing when it will arrive made up my mind, especially with the upcoming gig this coming Wednesday.

I kinda think that a small iOS update shouldn't break the system? So this being the last day of my 30 day return policy at Long & McQuade, I very quickly took the DL back and got a full refund. So now it's time to regroup, wait for a while and keep researching. Actually if L&M had had the Behringer x32 rack, or was able to get one, I might have gone for it. For now I am going to rent. 

I think I am more disappointed than anything else right now. I really loved the using the DL for a very short time. Like I said in another post, if the DL becomes unreliable..... If I didn't have this important gig coming so soon, I might have kept my DL and tried to iron out these issues. But with the 30 day return up today....

I will be staying on the site because it's so good and I do enjoy it. Everyone has been so helpful and very informative.  Thank you one and all for all your quotes and comments. I look forward to reading more good stuff. 

[WK154]

Sorry to hear that your adventure with the DL ended abruptly, fortunately just under your return period. From what you stated before in your selection process I'm guessing that the QSC product would be a good match unless you wait for the X18 around Christmas. The X32 rack would be a candidate were it not for the steep learning curve compared to the others. Good luck with your decision process and remember the devil is in the details, and then there's Murphy.