New DL32R competitor

[Tayedrummer]

Agreed.  The berry xr18 air is the winner for me.  Built in wifi, all connectors in the front incl. USB.  iOS, Android, Windows and Mac.  I like the idea of using it as a stage box and not needing to run a snake.  I've been playing with the x-air app and it's quick to learn and easy to navigate.  In "thin" mode you have all your rails at your fingertips even on an iPad mini.  You can gang any number of channels together by dropping them one top top of another in EDIT mode.  It essentially makes subs but it combines rails into one instead of adding another rail to the desk.  Thought that was a great idea for touch interface.

The Presonus RM32AI was a contender but whose idea was it to ship with FireWire 800 I/O?  Don't they have a big user base who are holding onto their 2004 MacBooks?

Needing to carry a separate router or access point for the 1608 is driving me nuts for some reason.

[robbocurry]

 
31st March 2015

[Wynnd]

Firewire 800 is compatible with a firewire 400 laptop.  (Adapter was about $15)  Unfortunately for PC folks, Windows laptops don't do firewire very well.  MacBook Pros do firewire very well.  And if you have a laptop, the Momentus XL hybrid drive works very well.  It's fast, handles the solid state portion internal to the drive for frequently accessed files and generally ups the laptops performance over conventional drives.  (Yes a solid state drive is faster, but for serious space, they cost a fortune.) 

[James91104]

Firewire 800 is compatible with a firewire 400 laptop.  (Adapter was about $15)  Unfortunately for PC folks, Windows laptops don't do firewire very well.  MacBook Pros do firewire very well.  And if you have a laptop, the Momentus XL hybrid drive works very well.  It's fast, handles the solid state portion internal to the drive for frequently accessed files and generally ups the laptops performance over conventional drives.  (Yes a solid state drive is faster, but for serious space, they cost a fortune.)

Granted Mac is more plug-n-play friendly, to be fair however, tis more a generalization about the FW capabilities of Win Laptops.
In my experience, nary a burp or hiccup while recording/playback 32 channels on a variety of my FW400 equipped IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads running on OS`s Windows XPsp3 and Windows Seven 64pro. Ditto on the USB 2.0 ports.

[pti]

I've been very happy with my DL32R, but, for my needs, the QU-PAC looks like it might be as good or better all around.

1. Enough channels: I need 16 for the band, plus Talkback, plus a stereo feed. QU-PAC has that.
2. Shallower / lighter: The DL32R in a 6U rack with mic splitters is very heavy. I suspect I could make a rig at < 70% of the weight with this.
3. USB stick recording: Using a drive isn't bad, but rotating through USB sticks would be more convenient for my workflow.
4. Front panel controls: The only reason I am comfortable with the DL32R is because we are just using it for monitoring and recording, not for the house. I worry about losing connection for a variety of reasons and worry about errant software updates. With the QU-PAC front panel controls as a backup, I'd feel comfortable enough to use it for the house mix, and could possibly even ditch the splitter setup or modularize for use only when demanded by the house.

I am hoping beno is working on a DL1608 replacement that looks more like the QU-PAC.

[Wynnd]

OK, if you're only hooking up one Firewire device on a Windows laptop, that does work.  I needed an external FIREWIRE drive to handle my 16 channels of simultaneous recordings with Cubase.  The laptop was fast enough, but the internal drive couldn't handle the swap file and the recording at the same time.  My Windows firewire was fine UNTIL I daisy chained a firewire drive in with my Alesis Multimix 16 firewire mixer.  Windows was never happy with that.  I got tired of it and bought a MacBook Pro in 2010, the one I'm currently typing on.  Got my working firewire that has never failed to daisy chain perfectly, and I got a battery that would run about 10 hours on a charge and backlit keys for typing in the dark.  I've upgraded the internal drive and even today get about 7 hours of typical laptop use.  (Games suck that battery power up fast.  Portal 2 swallowed half the power in about 30 minutes.)  When I finally decide to swap out the battery, I should be back to about 10 hours again.  Go to any coffee shop and you will see the Windows machines always plugged in and the Macs more likely to be just running on battery.   (Yes, I know that Macs cost more, but I got more than I was looking for and a 5 year old laptop that you don't feel you need to replace?  That's easily worth a grand.)

[James91104]

I've been very happy with my DL32R, but, for my needs, the QU-PAC looks like it might be as good or better all around.

1. Enough channels: I need 16 for the band, plus Talkback, plus a stereo feed. QU-PAC has that.
2. Shallower / lighter: The DL32R in a 6U rack with mic splitters is very heavy. I suspect I could make a rig at < 70% of the weight with this.
3. USB stick recording: Using a drive isn't bad, but rotating through USB sticks would be more convenient for my workflow.
4. Front panel controls: The only reason I am comfortable with the DL32R is because we are just using it for monitoring and recording, not for the house. I worry about losing connection for a variety of reasons and worry about errant software updates. With the QU-PAC front panel controls as a backup, I'd feel comfortable enough to use it for the house mix, and could possibly even ditch the splitter setup or modularize for use only when demanded by the house.

I am hoping beno is working on a DL1608 replacement that looks more like the QU-PAC.

PTI, I am curious. It would appear that rack units are a preference or requirement of yours, more likely for mobile convenience. Interested to know what reason(s) a decision to acquire and incorporate the DL32R rather than a competing product at the time (when?). 
Regarding your DL32R, have you experienced lost connection to give you worry?
What has been the workflow and satisfaction of your recording process?
Is it a more lack of comfort or confidence?

Modularize? Can you expound on that?

[walterw]

Hi wynnd

Just watched a damming documentary about life in the apple factories, I imagine all work in that nation is the same or worse,

There is a high price to pay for our tech goodies, in the case of Apple, it's paid twice,

It suggests it would cost about 30 dollars more to build I products in the usa,

Shame when you look at the jobless in the uk and the rest  of the world.

it wasn't the discredited story by mike daisey, was it?

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/blog/2012/03/retracting-mr-daisey-and-the-apple-factory

[Wynnd]

As an Apple stockholder, I would love for Apple's production to start to move back into the USA.  On the other hand, more iphone 6 and 6+ will be sold in China than in the USA. 

[nottooloud]

I believe the cylindrical Mac Pros are made in the US.

[Wynnd]

Those are soooo sharp looking.  Love the convection cooling.  Pretty slick.

[Kev tyler]

Hi Walter
It was a British show I watched

Cheers

Kev