Beyond a DAW Controller: Requests

[intolerance]

I hope this is in the right place, I'm new to this forum and new to d8b. (picked one up today for a STUPID price) What (if any) features might be retained from the original console that could enhance this already radical project?!

I'll start:

Monitor Section:
I don't know if the the signal path of the monitoring section was any good to begin with, but it sure would be nice if we could use it! You know, Mains, Near Fields, etc. Did your firmware kill all functionality of those buttons/control? It would be cool if we could send signal in (Tape A, etc.) and utilize some of the routing features on this guy, totally separate from the DAW control. Can the "non-MCU" buttons in your soft/firmware be programmed/decoupled/used to work with the existing hardware routing? This would add HUGE value.

Cheers for hacking this. I'm sure I'll become one of your first-run of customers, ethically stoked for pushing money in your pocket for filling a much-needed gap in the market. Thank you.

[Marc Girard]

Hello there,

You're at the right place, that's why we created this space, for you guys to talk about D8Bridge.

The monitoring section (actually the whole audio routing section) is something we have in plan. We're still far from it as we need to reverse engineer the DSP control portion of the D8B. My goal would have to get some sort of a minimal audio routing (for people who track/use their board) and a working master section. I don't think the effects would/could be used but we never know.

Thanks for writing!

[intolerance]

Thanks Marc! Totally on board here.

Hacking the DSP section of the board to retain some of its basic audio routing would be fantastic. I'd be happy with just the master section -and/or- allow those buttons to control the 'Control Room Mixer' in Cubendo.

Awesomeness.

Being a virgin to the d8b, I was shocked last night when I powered the CUP/PSU for the first time; sounded like a fighter jet was taking off in my control room! Unreal. This thing just needs adequate DC voltage, correct? I opened her up and it looks like a standard server PSU powering a few daughter boards via fairly vanilla connectors. Any info here on the specs? I'm sure many of us would like to kick this thing to the curb. I'd like to build something smaller, silent, better. Liberate ourselves from that mammoth piece of vintage tech. I don't foresee ever needing that CUP/OS, just a power supply that's under 90db!

Again, virgin here. Just looking at this thing through modern eyes.

Thanks Marc. I'm placing my order today. $$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Marc Girard]

Being a virgin to the d8b, I was shocked last night when I powered the CUP/PSU for the first time; sounded like a fighter jet was taking off in my control room! Unreal.

Yes, mine is quite noisy too... You can attenuate the noise by unplugging the CPU fan, the Hard Disk and the Motherboard connector. It's quite easy, as the CPU fan and Hard Disk are connected on a splitter (on my unit). Be sure to pull the power off the motherboard and the noise should be reduced. If it's not, your PSU fan might be dirty, a good clean up will be required. Good luck!

[Axeman098]

Analog I/O would be my request. No need for FX, but being able to use just the boards XLR inputs for example, would be VERY useful. At least until I could afford 3 rack pre's. I think too that would certainly give your mod a bang for the buck arguement vs. a Digi C24. The Mackie Pre's are by no means "stellar", but they're not bad for average recording duties. Having the analog I/O available in an all in one package with the mod would be superb. And I would certainly pay to support that upgrade option.

And in that sense too, I suppose the basic monitoring mix out would be fine for me, although I currently use another interface's main outs for monitoring. That would be another stellar way to eliminate other gear and minimize the outboard gear required. It would simplify MY personal setup tremendously...No need for FX or processing off the Mackie, as we all know well that modern VST's are well beyond anything the Mackie onboard posesses. But basic ANalog I/O would be phenominal!

[madsoundman]

I have two Mackie D8B's in use in two very different applications, one is in a project studio, where concievably your software / serial cable hack could be put to use (that is, as soon as you can get it working with Pro Tools ), but as I will explain later would actually be a step backwards for my configuration.

My second D8B is used in a more unorthodox installation as a live mixing console for a venue where rack space is at a premium, so being able to at the very least access the first 24 audio channels would be toasty, this board also has two analog IO cards for a total of 40 inputs of which the basic configuration in this venue uses 34,... I've had all 40 running at one time or the other, so being able to use the Mackie Preamps, regardless of their less than current state of the art quality would be a big plus as I'm sure there must be folks out there like myself who do in fact route audio through their D8b, be it in a studio (My project studio still has an OTARI 2" deck for transfer sessions from old 2" tapes, and I've got a patch bay normaled into the 24 track returns so I can patch additional inputs in when I need them- I would lose all this functionality if I where to go with the 'control surface only' approach).

I've read somewhere that this is being looked into but thought I'd add my two cents to further stress just how important this little feature would be to a lot of us who bought the D8B because at the time it implimented the best of both worlds - a functional console with digital I/O capabilities with the best bang for the buck.

That having been said, I truely believe that adding the ability to once more, even at a basic monitoring and analog I/O level which would include the analog plug-in cards will once more create a package that will rock the socks off the D8B user base! I think this is so even if the analog I/O section of your software where offered as an expansion option to your DAW controller package.

One last note- I cannot stress just how great an achievment you have accomplished! While I've been thinking over the years what a great thing it would be to port the D8B software itself to modern hardware so that I no longer have to deal with crashed IDE drives. These are currently only being made by Western digital for laptops (yea, I've done a few OS re-installations for friends in this manner). Problem of course is that these drivs will not be available for much longer and that will essentially be the last nail in the coffin for traditional D8B users as drivers for SATA drives and ew motherboard hardware are nowhere to be found. You guys rock, so don't htink I'm looking at this as an 'incomplete' implimentation in any way. I't just that I believe there is a user base out there willing to pay (I certainly am at ny rate) for another patch that will breath life into the rest of the console.

Enough said. I'm going to get some dinner....
Cao!

[Axeman098]

Marc, if I could ask, for the sake of clarification, but by what means would the Analog I/O be implimented? In other words, how do you anticipate routing the Analog I/O from the onboard Pre's into the PC? I would imagine the serial cable alone cannot do this AND the current control functions. I got to thinking about this the other day and was curious how this could be resolved. Could the audio still be routed to the AIO-8 cards for ADAT Lightpipe transfer???

I'm just terribly curious how the 24channels of Analog I/O would be routed to the PC???

[Casey_Pittman]

The tape I/O slots, I think, would be the only way for audio in and out. I think it would just be a matter of writing in a patch matrix to the d8bridge software that would route the audio thru the mixer. Check out RME's matrix. Very versatile and easy to work in. Probably not the easiest thing to do!

Not only would the inputs be nice, but all the outputs as well.

But first, control room functionality. Really just need a way to select between the 3 analog inputs and the 2 digital inputs and to select between nearfield and main outputs.

Again, not the easiest thing to do I'm sure!!!
-Casey

[MikoWarhol]

+1 for the monitor section. Is there any kind of eta on getting this figured out? and if you do get it to work would it be a free upgrade?

[Axeman098]

I've mentioned this in another thread, but I'm curious how the Analog I/O would be seen/routed by the PC. Would the DAW (in my case Sonar X1d) see the Mackie Analog inputs as part of a "Sound Device"? I ask this because I've been pretty trained with audio devices to expect an ASIO config/tweak, etc. to establish drivers to drive the device. Would there need to be something like this sort of Driver install package to get the DAW to see the Mackie inputs? I would assume there is something in the DSP section to accomodate this that is part of the reverse engineering process, but I wanted to throw it out there...