First live event with my mackie d8b

[tyler8wb]

about 2 weeks ago I was asked to run audio for a party. Being that I am obsessed with running audio and I knew I would over do it I said hmmmm lets see just how good my good ol' mackie d8b will do in a live setting. i set up FOH with some outboard pre's and eq's and had a full system going with a full band playing. The whole time I was thinking to myself "this blows away every feature that I can get on any live digital desk in anything under the 5k range. I use to run on a presonus studio live but the features are just too limited and I love motorized faders and large format consoles. After the last rehearsal yesterday, the band was very happy to say that the sound was very good and asked my how much money I dropped on my console. one of them even said $8,000. I just laughed and said nah man I got it on ebay for $800.00 and they all had faces like are you serious? ANYWAYS just wanted to share my story about how the d8b still rocks (12 aux sends came very useful in monitor mixes )

[sverred]

Great to hear that it worked well for you!

Personally I wouldn't take my d8b anywhere out of the studio, as I feel it is a bit fragile and too risky to use on the road. I prefer analoge boards live, because its so much faster to work with when the band's on stage, and you need to turn two pots at the same time etc. One knob for ever thing!

[tyler8wb]

yeah once I got over my fear of the power supply/cpu failing on me I racked it up and put my d8b in its road case and set out. Mackie needs to make an affordable (under 3k) live large format digital console again

[csp]

Tyler,

Glad to hear it all went OK, but I like-wise would not have wanted to move the desk.

Remember, Mackie did have a GREAT live digital desk --- the TT24 --- it was easy to use --- basically worked like an analogue desk, but with all the advantages of digital (ie full DSP, EFX, snapshots, etc) and 24 mic inputs (56 if you purchased the digital snake --- the snake was dearer than the desk --- well in Australia at least) and for a price that was very reasonable --- in the USA possibly a bit more than $3K, but not all that much especially for what it offered.

Production stopped because the factory in China burnt to the ground (or at least that was what we were all told!!!!!!!) and they said it would be too costly to re-tool up and manufacture elsewhere.

After using the desk for the first time, I wondered how I had done, what I had for the past ******* years, as it made everything so much easier and sounded great.

There is currently one sitting in a theatre that has been closed for three years --- covered in a very light piece of plastic that I believe is now covered in opossum and rat gook sand urine and a theatre that without air-conditioning has about a 95% humidity rating --- and because of government stupidity, I can't get access to it to try to rescue it before too late --- if not already. The theatre also has the most supurb lighting desk and lighting system (desk can handle 1500 moving lights) and the speaker/amplifier system is amazing (eg 10 x 7000W RMS amps, 2 x twin 18" subs, etc), all just sitting there rotting away.

Re a cheap desk, it will be interesting to see how the new Behringer digital desk will perform when it is released later this year and I think it is going to be very cheap ---- might even spur Mackie into action, but I am not holding my breath!!!!!

David

[sverred]

I haven't tried the TT24 desk, but I've tried a couple other digital desk's. The higher price, the better, of course. I have a cheap Phonic S 16 digital mixer right now, for testing, as my son's school for some reason bought it. They didn't understand it, and to be frank, I used quite some time to understand the patching idea in it myself. And that's still the digital mixers biggest problem, that they still don't have an equal menu-system, nor button function. The touch screen intergration helps alot, and it's getting closer every day. I wouldn't do a live job on a digital board that I haven't tried before. Any analogue would do...

The Phonic, btw, is crap. It feels so plastic and sloooow. Everytime you push a button, or the touch screen, it takes a second before it reacts. If it react at all. The screen is not very sensitive to my fingers at least. And when you switch between the layers, the faders move like they have been stuck for ages. Not smooth and fast like you can expect from a new digital board. And worst of all, the patching up and arming of the channels are plain stupid. To set up a channel with a compressor takes at least 25 pushes, in so many windows and on hidden buttons that looks nothing like the other buttons on the other pages etc. It's just confusing. I've used it for two gigs now, and I still don't feel I know it very well.

My guess is that Behringer will deliver something like this Phonic mixer.

[Crash]

Using the d8b live is not for the faint of heart.... Get to the gig early and if the rig fires up, declare yourself the winner and start micing stuff up.

[csp]

Sverred,

Just typed a response to your posting, but hit something on the keyboard and lost the lot --- can't be bothered doing it again.

However, although you can now only buy a TT24 second hand (ebay), it would be worth your while to go to the Mackie web site and look up the TT24 and have a quick read of the manual or promotional material.

If you do, I am sure that you will agree that it was a great desk with lots of very interesting and easy to use features. It is also worth downloading the "TTControl" software and having a look at it on your computer, as it is the computer version of everything that the desk can do and when it was connected to a TT24, everything you did on the computer operated on the physical desk. In fact, a number of users, sat in the body of their Theatre, church, etc, with a laptop and the TTControl software running and operated the entire production from there, while the desk was located elsewhere. There were also plans to have it fully remotely controlled via ethernet (eg being able to say operate it from your home) but this feature was never developed, but the socket was there.

A great desk that Mackie should not have killed off, as there was nothing else like it on the market, unless you paid many thousands more and even then, most of those megga dollar desks, would not do (or do as easily) what the Mackie desk could do. Sounds a bit like the d8B doesn't it!!!!!!!!!

Sure the desk had some technical/teething/OS problems, but they could have all been fixed or expanded upon, if Mackie had seriously put the money into it. The main problem I believe was that Mackie were taken over by Loud and they wanted to go in another direction ---- basically domestic/low end, rather than the professional company that Mackie was.

My gripe for the day --- now time for a stiff coffee and cream cake!!!!! AND hitting the Submit button before I hit another wrong key!!!!!

David

[Phil.c]

I'm with crash on this, great desk but you're taking your life in your hands with live stuff

Phil

[Axeman098]

See I disagree. While the D8B is fairly old, there's nothing really "fragile" about the Mixer OR the CPU case. I have my console in a road case and the CPU in an SKB rack case. No biggie. Amptron's stuff is industrial grade for commercial use anyways. If anything, I can't wait to use it as a control surface for live recording. Old yes, but I don't see it as fragile...

[Axeman098]

but I WOULD kill to get my hands on a TT24....WAY cool board....