d8b / D8Bridge Dual Boot - Old School Style

[bitSync]

In case you haven't tried it yet, this is possible -



One cable goes to the d8b CPU and the D8Bridge cable goes to the DAW CPU serial interface. The common cable goes to the d8b Console Data Port. The switch box came off of eBay including a DB25 - DB25 cable, brand new NOS for $10, I think. Saves the hassle of climbing behind the board and wear and tear on the d8b Console Data Port. Plus it looks so retro...

[MOSHWITZ]

sUP?

SWEET

MOSHON
DAVE

[Marc Girard]

Oh nice! It's working fine? What about the mixer updates? The faders are behaving correctly?

[bitSync]

Oh nice! It's working fine? What about the mixer updates? The faders are behaving correctly?

Marc,

This is an update to my previous reply since at that time I only had partial D8Bridge functionality. At present, the A/B switch box appears to be transparent to your custom serial interface. Fader moves, solos, pans, mutes, etc., as well as transport controls, position indicators and even level meters pass without issue. It's pretty cool.

I'm not sure I can set up persistent audio routes first booting as a d8b then switching over to D8Bridge; I'm not optimistic about that. I'll have to try a few more experiments to be sure.

[Edited to revise reply]

[BBell]

Oh nice! It's working fine? What about the mixer updates? The faders are behaving correctly?

Marc,

This is an update to my previous reply since at that time I only had partial D8Bridge functionality. At present, the A/B switch box appears to be transparent to your custom serial interface. Fader moves, solos, pans, mutes, etc., as well as transport controls, position indicators and even level meters pass without issue. It's pretty cool.

I'm not sure I can set up persistent audio routes first booting as a d8b then switching over to D8Bridge; I'm not optimistic about that. I'll have to try a few more experiments to be sure.

[Edited to revise reply]

Did you ever determine if you could hot swap between d8b and d8bridge? If so, what were the effects of doing so?
Did you lose audio when you switched to the d8bridge and reinstate it when returning to the d8b? I would also think you would need to refresh each time you swapped?
-Bruce

[bitSync]

Hi Bruce,

I've only tried one experiment so far - booting the d8b as designed, then flipping the DB25 data switch and reinitializing the console with the D8Bridge software. Whatever d8b audio route(s) I had prior to booting D8Bridge (I don't have a record of that) went away upon re-initializing with D8Bridge. Not a big surprise there. I have been intending to do a more rigorous evaluation but I haven't had time and I've also recently gotten an audio summing capability (Audient Centro) that now handles all of my monitoring requirements when in the D8Bridge DAW mode, so I haven't been especially motivated to research the dual boot behavior further. In fact, I'm loving the whole D8Bridge/DAW setup so much I'm wondering how much longer I'll be interested in the d8b as a digital mixer. I'm not there yet, but I could see my possible eventual migration to in-the-box only happening.

I regard the dual boot data switch as serving two basic functions, (1) a hard cutover between either using the d8b as it was originally designed or using it as a control surface for the DAW (that is, not necessarily for blended d8b/D8Bridge 1.1 operations), and (2) a means to cut down on wear and tear on the DB25 data connector on the back of the console. Both of these things, in my mind, were well worth the $10 switch and DB25 cable. Cheers.