Bruce Graham wrote:Hi Micha and welcome to the Forum;
Your question is hard for me to answer but I will give you perspective on things and my d8b's.
I have 3. Two working one just in case. They are all early versions and only 1 works all the time. Well almost all of the time. It has it problems. I know I will have to invest a few more dollars ($200.00 CDN) to get it running tip top only to know that, due to its age and a dwindling parts supply that someday, not too far away they will stop working.
I do this for fun and to keep my mind working and my ears "in tune". If I had to do this for money, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't use these in a studio where I have clients looking over my shoulders. I'd still have one a home, just not in a money making studio.
I think that because you have asked, you have answered your own question. There is no real future with this console. They have had their day. And they worked way beyond what they where designed to do. A tribute to The people at Mackie.
Yes they work now and may work for a few more years but it is a computer and the parts are harder to find and they get more expensive and it becomes less and less the format that the industry works in.
They have served us well, and unless you have a bag of money, a good supplier of parts and someone who will take the time to figure out how they work so they can keep them working I would not consider investing your future with this console.
Again, I have 3 and think they are great!
Hope that helps.
Cheers
Bruce
Hi bruce and old school.
While some things Bruce you have said are true, it not having a future due to mackie giving up on it so no real back up, i can see that side of things.
but a future i feel mine does have,
in that it is doing a wonderful job of recording my bands new cd,
and sounds the mutz nutz,
now to put things into perspective to take out my love of the d8b and hdr i am also in another 11 piece band with brass section where band members also have their own daws, protools, cubase and reaper,
on one track we did all of our own bits on our own systems using mine (from the d8b and hdr) with bass drums guitar and other bits as a guide sent to them.
For the vocals and brass section parts, we went into another ( proper !) studio to do these who also mastered the track, all submitting our own stem files,
of all the stem files submitted it was noted that the ones submitted by my d8b/hdr were great quality and sounded " clear as a bell with no clutter"
thats another studio saying that, i was quite pleased to hear that, life in the boy yet.
mine has a future and is helping me create, CREATE....and is more than keeping up with the joneses in terms of sound quality.
but i can see bruces point its future is down to availability parts but while there's moonlight and music and love and romance .....................
. If you can by the brain with the 5.1 activation codes ( I've seen them on Ebay) you could have a very useful desk to play around with. Let me know how you get on.
