Soundcraft Ui-12 and Ui-16 Original DL Platform Contenders?

[Keyboard Magic]

There's a bit of a difference with being helped onto the stage and handed your guitar at 80 vs humping an entire PA and light show at 80 .

you got that right, as my Mom would watch me load the equipment she used to say,,,
"you should've taken flute  "

Amen to that! I think the weight of the gear is in direct proportion as to how old you are. The stuff is already getting too heavy, at least some days.   

[RoadRanger]

I think my amp rack with three stereo amps (about 6kw total power) in it is about 35 lbs. My active tops are 29 lbs each (I think) and my 2x12 subs are 34 lbs each. My monitors are about 25 lbs each. I don't think I can shave much more weight off of anything - although I do have a 4 channel 2U amp to swap in for two of the others in that rack .

[Keyboard Magic]

I think my amp rack with three stereo amps (about 6kw total power) in it is about 35 lbs. My active tops are 29 lbs each (I think) and my 2x12 subs are 34 lbs each. My monitors are about 25 lbs each. I don't think I can shave much more weight off of anything - although I do have a 4 channel 2U amp to swap in for two of the others in that rack .

You do have a wee bit there too. It's tough to cut back when you really need to have all that "wee bit" there most of all the time .

[dpdan]

how quickly times change, here are some comparisons of some gear I have had in the past and what I use now.

Crest two channel power amps............................. QSC PLD 4.5 four channel power amps       
8 channels of power,........................................... 16 channels of power
1200 watts per Ch. @ 4 ohms.............................. 1250 watts per channel @ 4 ohms 
each amp draws 30 amps.................................... each amp draws about 12 amps with four channels being driven close to clipping
weight 95 pounds each....................................... weight 22 pounds each 
four amps in a 14 space case about 500 pounds..... four amps in two SKB four space cases about 50 pounds each   

500 pounds verses 100 pounds,
twice the power,
twice the channels count,
a tenth of the weight,

cost of hernia surgery from the old gear 7 grand 

32 channel Allen & Heath console with snake and two effects racks,... about 240 pounds, but not including the table and power cable that it needs verses.....
a Mackie DL32R,... 18 pounds and replaces the snake and both racks of outboard gear, no table or extension cord needed. Not to mention expensive gaff tape.

tear down time of Allen & Heath analog console, effects racks, EQ's, and S wrap the 40 channel snake about 10-15 minutes even with multi-pin connectors verses.....
a Mackie DL32R about one minute.... = one four space case which includes way more outboard gear than the analog setup.   
 
My speakers have NOT been on a diet  And I wouldn't change those.

Absolutely amazing!   


 
 

[Greg C.]

500 pounds verses 100 pounds,
twice the power,
twice the channels count,
a tenth of the weight,

cost of hernia surgery from the old gear 7 grand 

Come on guys, real men use heavy f'in 15-20 year old Crest Audio lead weight amps!

Thanks one of my racks on the bottom. It's about 300 lb. 

I'm investigating light weight amps to power my stuff for someday when I have money. I've been told by my speaker designer to go with Lab Gruppen for comparable performance to the old iron. Not inexpensive...

[dpdan]

YEP! those are the amps   

Lab Gruppen is great, but severely overpriced IMO.

[RoadRanger]

IMO Lab Gruppen don't sound any different than QSC or Peavey IPR (also available as the somewhat "better" Crest Pro-Lite). The processing might be more useful to you though. Heck, even my Behringer NU3000 sounds just fine on sub duty - even 100% loaded (bridged into two Danley TH-Mini's).

[Greg C.]

IMO Lab Gruppen don't sound any different than QSC or Peavey IPR (also available as the somewhat "better" Crest Pro-Lite). The processing might be more useful to you though. Heck, even my Behringer NU3000 sounds just fine on sub duty - even 100% loaded (bridged into two Danley TH-Mini's).

The IPR2s do look interesting. Someone who did a teardown of it vs. the Crest version said the differences seemed minor. The main one being that they put the PCB upside-down in one vs. the other. I'm assuming the Crest uses a some more robust components in key places relative to the IPR2.

[RoadRanger]

The IPR2s do look interesting. Someone who did a teardown of it vs. the Crest version said the differences seemed minor. The main one being that they put the PCB upside-down in one vs. the other. I'm assuming the Crest uses a some more robust components in key places relative to the IPR2.

I was told that the IPR/Pro-Lite is a joint design - Peavey designed the power supply section and Crest designed the amp section. The Crest supposedly has a stronger power supply and better heat sinking - and has more of the DSP enabled in the DSP version. If I was looking for an EDM sub amp I'd definitely go with the Crest version.
Also if you have to meet riders Crest isn't on the "no fly" list .

[Keyboard Magic]

To get back to the OP, if anyone is interested? I ran the Ui-16 HTML5 app on my iPad Air 2 and it was very responsive. I then loaded it on my older iPad 2 and there was a significant noticeable lag in all the faders and different functions, very similar to the lag experienced with MF 3.X on older iPads.

The lag issue is of course subjective and probably wouldn’t be a big issue to a lot of people but it was there with this particular app and MF 3.X. This might suggest that they are more demanding on certain older iPad models. As evidenced by myself that this one and MF 3.X run as they were meant to on the new iPad Air 2.

My HTML knowledge is extremely limited and can't say why it would or not require more system resources to work properly. If the more learned here can chime in, it would be appreciated. 

[WK154]

Based on your observations the problem lies with the browser, which brings me to the question. What browser did you use? I would guess that it was Safari. It would have been interesting to compare it to Chrome.

[Keyboard Magic]

Based on your observations the problem lies with the browser, which brings me to the question. What browser did you use? I would guess that it was Safari. It would have been interesting to compare it to Chrome.

I was using Safari. Might be interesting to download Chrome to see if there's any difference.  It works great on the laptop under IE11 and Windows 8.1 update.

[Keyboard Magic]

So if anyone is interested? I just loaded Google Chrome on the old iPad 2. I wanted to see if the Ui-16 App would lag just like it did running under Safari.

There's definitely a lag in all the faders and functions running on Chrome, but not near as much as on Safari on the iPad 2. Like I mentioned in my OP, running the HTML5 app on the iPad Air 2 is the best, no visible lag at all. Of course this is all subjective to the person running the app. 

[James91104]

KM, so my report.

iPad mini 1/ iOS 8.0/ 32gig/ Safari, Chrome, Atomic Lite: no lag. Meters fluid. Scroll smooth. Multi-touch OK.

iPad 2/ iOS 7.1.2/ 64gig/
Safari : no lag. Meters fluid. Scroll smooth. Multi-touch OK.
Chrome : Tiny lag. Meters fluid. Scroll rough. Multi-touch OK.
Atomic Lite: Tiny lag. Meters fluid. Scroll rough. Multi-touch on EQ OK, faders limited.

iPad 1/ iOS 5.1.1/ 32gig/
Safari, Chrome: Slight lag. Meters choppy. Scroll is rough. Multi-touch OK.
Atomic Lite: Slight lag. Meters choppy. Scroll is bad. Multi-touch EQ OK, faders limited.

IMO and experience with the demo app, performance is as quick or quicker than any other mixer iOS app running on the aforementioned iPad mini. I look forward to a future real deal demo. Curious if a 24 channel version is in the wings ported over from SMPro.

[Topsøe]

I seem to remember that SM-Pro used to recomend the Atomic Web Browser for best perfomance on ipads