MFX Card

[screenshotartworx]

Hello Fellas,

i am totally new to the Mackie d8b and i am totally amazed by this mixer. it runs so smoothly and is totally intuitive. but eventhough there is one thing i can´t make work.

My desk came with one MFX Card and it has V5.1 already installed. But i can´t make the Effects on the MFX Card work. if i want so select them they don´t show up. Only "Vocalstudio" and "none" are selectable. When i go to the autorize page the plug ins don´t show up there neither. I got an email from mackie support that says that it seems that somehow the Effects are not installed. So I downloaded the Plug in service pack 3 and made 3 floppy diskettes. But my d8b won´t boot the diskettes. The LED on the Floppy Drive goes on for a few Sec, i hear some working noise from it, and then it boots in to the OS. I looked into the BIOS and the Boot Sequence is A,C, whatever... What can i do? The manual doen´t give much info on that subject either...

There must have been an UFX Card installed previously because a Drawmer and an Antares Plug in are unlocked at the Authorization Page. Wich brings me to my next question: the mixer came without any Autorization or Serial Codes for the OS V5.1 or the Authorized Plugs. Just in case, i need to reinstall V5.1, how can i ever do that without paying the fees für the OS and the Plug ins all over again?

Can you guys help me with this?

Cheers
Mark

[anyhorizon]

If you provide Mackie with the ESN on the authorisation page, they should be able to provide you with all the codes that are tied to the desk. The MFX card should also be in slot 1. Did you extract the floppies correctly? They won't load otherwise.

Peter

[screenshotartworx]

1. ah great!! ill will contact mackie right away for those codes.

2. well, the card seems to be installed in slot 1, at least it says so during the booting process.

3. what do you mean with "extract correctly"? i have done the following:

- i formatted all three disks in WIN 7. i unchecked quick formatting. i did NOT check MS-DOS Startdisk!!
- then i downloaded the d8b_Service_pack_3.zip by doubleclicking it
- then i copied them three exe files onto my desktop and started them from there "as administrator"
- then i had to doubleclick them exe-files without a disk in the floppy otherwise i would get Error N.5 during the process. i started the process, then it replied that there was no disk inserted. i have inserted the disk, hit try again andit it worked smootly.

thats all i did. isn´t that the proper way?

[anyhorizon]

I'm on a Mac so anything Windows is alien to me but follow the Service Pack 3 Instructions. That page looks weird compared to how I remember it but then again, the Mackie site is pretty random at the moment.

Peter

[screenshotartworx]

well i usually work on a mac too, but i have win7 in a VM. i did it in win because i heard that it is a pain to make bootable discs in OSX. i followed exactly these instructions when i did it. and still, this is where i am...nowhere

any ideas? i am already thinking that i better f... them internal plugs and use external processors again... got all them Sony DPSs here and think of buying a lexicon mpx1...

[anyhorizon]

I wouldn't give up yet. Have you tried another set of disks? There are often reports that some disks on the d8b don't cut the mustard. I wouldn't talk you out of an MPX 1 though. I have one and love it.

Peter

[screenshotartworx]

just shot one MPX on ebay a few min ago for 200EUR... a bargain...

no i haven't tried another set of disks. i can try that. But i have almost no hope anymore. but i won't cry about that, cuz eventhough i can't make it work i am still totally happy with the d8b anyway. for the last 3 years i was mixing only in cubase. had all my samplers and keys connected to my saffire 56. but mixing in cubase was a drag. i hated it. i was used to analog consoles. so the mackie is the perfect workflow for me...