Finally letting go

[Dan Worley]

Hello,

It's been quite a while since I've been here. Glad to see that Peter has kept this board up. Looks great!

I was very active on the old Mackie d8b forum. I'm the one who came out with Frolicking Faders all those years ago. I hope some of you still find that useful/fun, and maybe even added to it.

I'm finally parting out my d8b because it has not worked for many, many years. After trying to fix it myself, and then sending it to two different repair shops who said they fixed it but didn't, and then trying to fix it myself again, I put it in storage and there it has sat. The problem it had was it would lose clock and stop passing audio after it warmed up. This happened with the Apogee clock card or with the stock clock card installed. Very frustrating! I checked and reset all the ribbon cables, and so did the repair shops (I think I may have even replaced some if not all of the ribbon cables. I don't remember). One repair shop also replaced some rail caps. Anyway, nothing worked, so I gave up and started working all in the box, which has worked out well for me.

Right now, I really only have questions about the power supply: I can't remember, is the power supply tied to the serial number of the console at all or can it be sold separately? Or are there any gotchas with the selling the power supply separately that you know of? I don't want anything to be a hassle for whoever buys it. I'm not trying to make a killing. I'm just want to get something out of it. I may have more questions as I get deeper into this.

Thank you very much.

And to those who were around in the old days, I hope you're all doing well and still making music.

c-ya,

Dan
--

[Phil.c]

Hi Dan,

It's nice to see you back here, I remember you trying to fix it, must be more than twenty five years ago, BTW, David from "Not quite the end of a saga" post has had a similar problem to you and has spent about a year trying to sort it, let alone the money spent on boards etc.

Take care,

Phil

[csp]

Dan,

Really glad that you are still around and sorry to hear that like me you had problems with the desk.

When reading your post (and before I read Phil's) I couldn't but think --- could the problem/s that I was experiencing be much the same as yours.

You say that it stopped passing audio when it warmed up. Just as a matter of interest about how long after booting was that and was it just that audio stopped passing or like the desk I was working on (Phil got it slightly wrong it was 18mths not about 12mts) did everything freeze.

Like you I tried both cards and I did change the cables twice from memory and as Phil stated I bought three boards, BUT all to no avail. I finally burried the desk ladst weekend.

Re the power supply licencing (and I am no expert here, but I am sure that either DOK or Y-my-R from the forum could definitely advise you), but I am sure that if you were to install the 5.1 Hack 2 program that it will completely negate the need for a licence or licence key. You might have to introduce yourself as they possibly might not know you. I am sure that Phil would not mind if you mentioned his name and I most certainly would not mind.

Off topic, but I had a brief communication with Ben Olswang a couple of months ago, he is now doing entirely different things.

Stay floating around the forum as your knowledge was exceptional and I am sure would still be of great value to many of the newer users of the d8b.

Also off topic --- I read yesterday that Rode Microphones (owned by the Freedman family) have purchased Mackie and intend to return it to its glorious past, Lets hope that they seriously think about re-releasing the d8b (or VERY similar) with all of its features, but with a full compliment of the latest mic pres and digital converters, effects, etc AND if course the full featured Automation.

Not only me (!!!!!!!) but lots of great things come from Australia. I used to have dealings (seems like 100 yrs ago --- actually about 1967/68) with Herny Freedman, the founder of Freedman Electronics at their then small shop in Ashfield (one of the inner western suburbs of Sydney).

So many memories and exciting times --- if ever I get the urge I must write a book --- has been requested of me numerous times, but I am just too lazy to start doing the research to be sure that I have all of the facts, names, etc correct.

Now definitely past my bedtime !!!!!

David

[Crash]

Right now, I really only have questions about the power supply: I can't remember, is the power supply tied to the serial number of the console at all or can it be sold separately? Or are there any gotchas with the selling the power supply separately that you know of? I don't want anything to be a hassle for whoever buys it. I'm not trying to make a killing. I'm just want to get something out of it. I may have more questions as I get deeper into this.

Thank you very much.

And to those who were around in the old days, I hope you're all doing well and still making music.

c-ya,

Dan
--

Hey Dan, I too moved on from the d8b, though mine was still functioning fine when I put it in storage. For me, the d8b just got long in the tooth for sample rates, input count, etc. The HDR suffered the same. I found a broken dxb on Reverb and thought I would get it and bring it back to life. I had worked at the mothership for so long with the d8b, I thought how hard could it be? Well...I got it going but it wasn't anything like the d8b on the inside. The dxb with ProTools, and the ability to actually do physical inserts for my rack toys has been awesome.

Here is the latest project I did with the post d8b rig.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2uO2Q9y ... 5NVryPJiFw

I think last time I shared a project with this forum, I sent out CDs, how far we have come.

While I have moved on, I still come over here every day and see if there are any nuggets of info. that I might offer. As for your question, The brain board (Eprom chip) and the hard drive did some sort of handshake as I recall, to keep the system simpatico. I think that was the way I remember it, though it has been many years, and it is getting fuzzier by the day.

Good to see ya around these parts again Dan, and may your next "thing" be a good one.

[Dan Worley]

Great to hear from you Phil, David, Crash.

Crash, that music sounds great! Is that your music or a client's? Whoever it is it's top notch in songwriting, arrangements, performances, tracking, mixing, mastering. It sounds great over my system. Job extremely well done. Thanks for sharing it with me.

David, looks like you spent a lot more time than I did trying to fix the issues. I was pretty much working more in the box anyway so it wasn't that hard for me to give up. But still, it's so frustrating and such a bummer that it doesn't work.

Yeah, guys, I think I'm going to give up on selling power supply. It sounds like there are some issues in doing that. I don't think it's going to help anyone.

When I took the d8b out of its box yesterday it really brought back a lot of memories and all the good times I had with that board. It's such a beauty.

I put my first DIO8 card on eBay. $50. They won't let me list more than one at a time.

Thanks again.

c-ya,

Dan

[csp]

Dan,

Not sure if you are going to be stripping the desk but if so I might be stupid enought to consider buying the CODEC and DAC boards as it could be one of those that is causing the problem with the donated desk --- now seriously wrapped in bubble wrap, boxed and placed in the corner of my garage along with all of the other goodies that I have purchased over the years but am now not using. A three car garage and not enough room to house my vehicle --- the "boss' naturally has hers garaged !!!!!!! Of course the grand piano doesn't help !!!!!

David

[Dan Worley]

Dan,

Not sure if you are going to be stripping the desk but if so I might be stupid enought to consider buying the CODEC and DAC boards as it could be one of those that is causing the problem with the donated desk --- now seriously wrapped in bubble wrap, boxed and placed in the corner of my garage along with all of the other goodies that I have purchased over the years but am now not using. A three car garage and not enough room to house my vehicle --- the "boss' naturally has hers garaged !!!!!!! Of course the grand piano doesn't help !!!!!

David

Hi, David,

If you're serious and would like to buy them, show me where they are so I can strip them, give me a reasonable price that you're comfortable with, then we can figure out the shipping cost from California to Au and they are yours, no problem.

Just let me know.

c-ya,

Dan

P.s. I put a post in the "For Sale" forum.

[csp]

Dan,

Thanks for that. I will wait until after the Festive Season and my Atlanta based Son and his family and my Sydney (Aus) based Daughter and her family have all returned to their home bases and I will give it some serious thought. There will be 10 of us ataying at my place !!!!!

Just for your interest, the two boards are two of the 20" (500mm) long boards that stand vertically inside the desk. when upside down at the rear RHS when looking from the fader front part of the desk. The first board (with all of the ribbon cables on its LHS) is the DSP Board (the one that for some noths has been giving me a LED indicator failure), the one behind it is the CODEC Board and the one behind that the DAC Board. They are a cow to get out if you don't want to drop a screw into the body of the desk and/or snapping off one of the surface mount components, BUT if gutting the desk, dropping a screw would be no real problemm but a broken component ???????

One of my big gripes with the desk over the past 18mths, is how badly the desk was mechanically constructed when it comes to servicing the desk. For example I have cut about 1/2" off the Brain Board tray to make it easier to remove, also it could easily have been about an inch narrower (allowing the Back Plane cage to be removed much easier) and the ribbon sockets on some of the boards could have been located with just a bit more access room, etc. MY GRIPE FOR THE NIGHT SO IT MUST BE PAST MY BED TIME !!!!!

Over the next couple of weeks, I will look uo what I paid for the DSP Board and go from there. Just a shame that you hadn't communicated a few weeks ago when I still had the desk upside down, as I would have bought them and had you post them to my son and he could have brought them with him, but he is leaving for AUS on Tuesday, so it would now be virtually impossible ---- would have been a lot cheaper and a damn sight faster than commercial freight.

David

[Crash]

Great to hear from you Phil, David, Crash.

Crash, that music sounds great! Is that your music or a client's? Whoever it is it's top notch in songwriting, arrangements, performances, tracking, mixing, mastering. It sounds great over my system. Job extremely well done. Thanks for sharing it with me.

Thanks Dan. That is my good buddy Bob Charles. He plays a pretty good guitar and writes well too. Those are my mixes with some "pre mastering" before it was mastered at Terra Nova in Austin by Jerry Tubb. It was a fun project and I really dig the tunes with horns. The horns were recorded in Nashville by Vinnie and the Hitmen. I wish we could have put horns on more of the tunes, I think some tunes would have benefitted from it.

As I said, I retired my d8b some years back and it was totally operational, just outgrown. I had mixed emotions about putting it away with my connections to Mackie and this console, but it was time as the track counts kept growing. I have to wonder, if I dug it out, would it fire up?

[Crash]

One of my big gripes with the desk over the past 18mths, is how badly the desk was mechanically constructed when it comes to servicing the desk. For example I have cut about 1/2" off the Brain Board tray to make it easier to remove, also it could easily have been about an inch narrower (allowing the Back Plane cage to be removed much easier) and the ribbon sockets on some of the boards could have been located with just a bit more access room, etc. MY GRIPE FOR THE NIGHT SO IT MUST BE PAST MY BED TIME !!!!!

David

You have to remember that the original design for this mixer was to have everything inside the console. There was not supposed to be a separate rack mounted power supply. My d8b had one of the only arm rests with a floppy slot (non functioning of course) just to the left of the jog wheel in the area below the master fader. There are pics of it somewhere on here I am sure. I can't be positive, but I am fairly confident that the innards, like the giant pan where the brain board attaches, were all holdovers from the original design.