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Author Topic: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?  (Read 6428 times)

Andrew Broughton

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Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« on: May 22, 2018, 12:42:39 PM »

I haven't had a chance to use one yet, but they sure seem like a great system. So many features that I wish other consoles had, and much more bang for the buck compared to the competition.So... What's the catch?
I'm wondering if anyone regrets getting one of these or what unresolved problems people are having with this system?
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Steve Litcher

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #1 on: May 22, 2018, 01:54:52 PM »

My only complaints are very few:

- Lacks RTA overlay on PEQ screens
- Only has 4 PEQ filters on Aux Outs

Aside from that, it's a truly excellent system. We don't get a ton of rider-driven shows, but did provide a C2500 for a touring band a few weeks ago. Their engineer raved about it - said the pre-amps were some of the best he's ever heard, and felt that the workflow was very intuitive. He had originally requested a SC48, but was happy to use the C2500 with CDM32 mix-rack.

New firmware was released yesterday that included integration with Shure QLXD/ULXD; can't wait to try that out. If they'd add the RTA to the PEQ screens, my complaints would be nil.
« Last Edit: May 22, 2018, 01:59:10 PM by Steve Litscher »
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Art Nadelman

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #2 on: May 22, 2018, 02:33:45 PM »

No regrets at all!  No issues!  Looking forward to new enhancements, but nothing that I can't live without right now.
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Christopher Irwin

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #3 on: May 22, 2018, 03:11:06 PM »

To be fair, I don't have or use a dLive - but, I was extremely interested in them this past year until getting my hands on them at NAMM in January.  From my research I was impressed with the feature set, quality, and pricepoint. However, upon trying to use one I did not like the user interface at all; if felt slow (too many button pushes to get to things) and difficult for people to walk up to without quite a bit of time learning the console - I work with a rotating pool of new employees needing to use our university consoles and so this was a big deal.  It did not seem super intuitive and I kept getting frustrated with expectations I didn't even know I had - things like you can only use the left screen for channel functions and only the right screen for maintenance type work (fx, console options, etc). 

So, I will repeat what I have heard - don't buy a console without getting your hands on it first! It certainly changed my mind, I was actually quite sold on it before actually having hands-on experience.  I was trying to be as unbiased as possible - I was looking both for my university (multiple venues) and my church. I had a friend's potential customer also at NAMM who quickly came to the same conclusion separate of me that they were not interested at all after hands-on time.

To be fair, I use and love Digico consoles, and this experience pushed me further in that direction. For church volunteers it pushed me more towards Yamaha consoles.
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Kevin Maxwell

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #4 on: May 22, 2018, 03:46:57 PM »

I used to use a lot more different brands and model Digital mixers then I do now. And the hardest thing was finding my way around. I found myself constantly knowing that I can do what I want but not remembering exactly how to find it. So familiarity is very important. What is simple and obvious to one person, usually because they have used it a lot, isn’t to another. 

This is related to a dLive. I had an A&H SQ6 (loaner) for almost 2 months playing with it and trying to get familiar with it. One of the things that I didn’t like was the soft keys that didn’t have any scribble strip so you could tell what they were set to do. My church has a dLive with the S7000 surface (I don’t mix there) and it also has a bunch of soft keys like the SQ6 that have no scribble strips. Also both consoles don’t have a lot of things enabled yet that you can make those soft keys do. The enabling can be changed in firmware updates. The lack of soft key scribble strips is a hardware shortcoming in my opinion. You will have to label on tape or something next to them. Not a deal breaker.

The people at church using the dLive really seem to like it. They used to have an Avid Profile with house rack and stage racks. The soft keys are the only thing they mentioned to me as a short coming.
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Aisle 6

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2018, 07:00:13 PM »

Excellent board with excellent sonics and easy workflow. I use many, many different boards when touring and do not get too fussy about the board unless I already know it well and know that it is not up to task. The d-live is super intuitive and sounds amazing.

It definitely has it's own way of working, but so does every other console. Like them all, you need some guidance to become familiar.

Definitely the fastest board to set up a show on bar none. Drag and drop features are killer it is super responsive.
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Dave Pluke

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #6 on: May 22, 2018, 07:19:44 PM »

Drag and drop features are killer it is super responsive.

A question, if I may;  Drag and Drop via tablet or the console's screen?

O.K., one more:  My experience is limited to an ill-behaving iLive installation (driving a stellar Danley system, FWIW).  With that software, there were differences between the Windows Tablet and iPad Apps.  Certain things were easier/possible to do on one, not the other.  I'd have to be hypnotized to recall an example.  That said, are the dLive apps improved?

Dave
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Mark Oakley

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #7 on: May 22, 2018, 11:30:43 PM »

A question, if I may;  Drag and Drop via tablet or the console's screen?

Both. I've been a happy iLive owner for the past 3 years. I got a chance to mix a show on a dLive S7000 a few weeks ago, so I downloaded Director, put my show file together and also had a chance to try out the software. Everything worked perfectly, and being used to the iLive way of doing things it was a pretty small leap to the dLive. A powerful, responsive and gorgeous console.

To this day I've never used the iLive Mixpad app; preferring to "remote desktop" iLive Editor on my PC from an iPad. The Mixpad app is not full-featured (lacking the ability to edit bus structure or Effect parameters). Plus I can control other PC programs from my iPad (SMAART, X-Link, Armonia, iTunes, etc.)

-Mark
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Peter Morris

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #8 on: May 22, 2018, 11:38:18 PM »

A question, if I may;  Drag and Drop via tablet or the console's screen?

O.K., one more:  My experience is limited to an ill-behaving iLive installation (driving a stellar Danley system, FWIW).  With that software, there were differences between the Windows Tablet and iPad Apps.  Certain things were easier/possible to do on one, not the other.  I'd have to be hypnotized to recall an example.  That said, are the dLive apps improved?

Dave

Drag and Drop on the console and the director software.  Not really drag and drop on the ipad but you can create three custom layers in a tap and drop fashion. Given this is a 128 in 64 out desk, this is a great solution to maximise its operation when you need to use an ipad.

The director software or desk can be used to set up the console, where as the ipad app allows you to look at it and operate it.

FWIW I have owned a dLive for quite some time - fantastic, powerful, easy to use and sounds great. Last week we did a theatre show - S5000 with DM64 plus a DX32 mounted in the roof of the venue.  The band/orchestra was located in 4 separate locations controlling their fold back with OneMix and the playback from QLab was via Dante.
« Last Edit: May 22, 2018, 11:44:55 PM by Peter Morris »
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Steve M Smith

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #9 on: May 23, 2018, 03:13:05 AM »

I haven't used one, but I went to DLive training in London last week and was very impressed.  Especially with the processing power.  The fact that everything you could ever wish to add, insert, etc. is already there and running was most impressive.


Steve.
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Peter Morris

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #10 on: May 23, 2018, 03:45:27 AM »

I haven't used one, but I went to DLive training in London last week and was very impressed.  Especially with the processing power.  The fact that everything you could ever wish to add, insert, etc. is already there and running was most impressive.


Steve.

Just got the dLive to work with Shure's Qlxd integration - RF strength, Battery level, signal level and gain adjustment on the
Qlxd.
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Aisle 6

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #11 on: May 23, 2018, 06:39:22 AM »

A question, if I may;  Drag and Drop via tablet or the console's screen?

O.K., one more:  My experience is limited to an ill-behaving iLive installation (driving a stellar Danley system, FWIW).  With that software, there were differences between the Windows Tablet and iPad Apps.  Certain things were easier/possible to do on one, not the other.  I'd have to be hypnotized to recall an example.  That said, are the dLive apps improved?

Dave

POINT#1 - drag and drop on the console surface and the director software.

POINT#2 - The Director software can be used as an offline editor or a control surface and behaves almost the same as the surface. The app. is like most other apps.
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Andrew Broughton

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #12 on: May 24, 2018, 01:17:45 PM »

Just got the dLive to work with Shure's Qlxd integration - RF strength, Battery level, signal level and gain adjustment on the
Qlxd.
But the "gain adjustment" you're showing is just the MixRack's preamp, correct?
Do you know whether if you connect a ULXD via Dante can you adjust the actual receiver output level like you can on the Yamaha?
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-Andy

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Thomas Dameron

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #13 on: May 24, 2018, 06:08:33 PM »

But the "gain adjustment" you're showing is just the MixRack's preamp, correct?
Do you know whether if you connect a ULXD via Dante can you adjust the actual receiver output level like you can on the Yamaha?

Wouldn't you prefer to adjust the analog preamp gain than the Rx output gain? 

I wonder if you were to bring them in over a Dante expansion card how that screen would look.

thomas d.
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Andrew Broughton

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #14 on: May 25, 2018, 12:20:51 AM »

Wouldn't you prefer to adjust the analog preamp gain than the Rx output gain?
That wasn't what I was asking. He said "RF strength, Battery level, signal level and gain adjustment on the
Qlxd
", so I'm asking if there is actually control over the Rx gain of the Q/ULXD receiver on the dLive or not.

Quote
I wonder if you were to bring them in over a Dante expansion card how that screen would look.
This.
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-Andy

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Peter Morris

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #15 on: May 25, 2018, 05:03:57 AM »

But the "gain adjustment" you're showing is just the MixRack's preamp, correct?
Do you know whether if you connect a ULXD via Dante can you adjust the actual receiver output level like you can on the Yamaha?

You are correct, the picture I have shown is the Mic-pre gain not the receiver's gain but you can also adjust the receiver's gain from the desk (from memory you just tap the RF info tab to access it) . The display on the receiver also changes accordingly.  The picture was a QLXD which does not use Dante. I assume if you have a Dante card fitted to the dLive you can do the same thing using Dante on the ULXD.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2018, 05:37:37 AM by Peter Morris »
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Scott Helmke

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #16 on: May 25, 2018, 05:47:38 PM »

But the "gain adjustment" you're showing is just the MixRack's preamp, correct?
Do you know whether if you connect a ULXD via Dante can you adjust the actual receiver output level like you can on the Yamaha?

Pardon me for butting in, but...   

When you adjust the "gain" on ULXD from a Yamaha desk, you are actually adjusting the transmitter* gain just as if you were doing it from the ULXD receiver front panel.

*yes, the transmitter "gain" is adjusted from the receiver - some sort of slight of hand with decoding the digital transmission and only assigning a "gain" setting at that point.
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Jordan Wolf

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #17 on: May 25, 2018, 08:39:41 PM »

Pardon me for butting in, but...   

When you adjust the "gain" on ULXD from a Yamaha desk, you are actually adjusting the transmitter* gain just as if you were doing it from the ULXD receiver front panel.

*yes, the transmitter "gain" is adjusted from the receiver - some sort of slight of hand with decoding the digital transmission and only assigning a "gain" setting at that point.
The gain setting on the ULXD & QLXD receiver units still adjusts the output gain of the receiver, it has nothing to do with the gain structure in the transmitter itself.

I am not certain how the Mic Offset setting affects this; I’d imagine it changes the weighting of how the signal ranges between the low- and high-gain stages of the transmitter. I would think that setting it too high could cause distortion.

Shure Article
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David Sturzenbecher

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #18 on: May 25, 2018, 11:00:15 PM »

The gain setting on the ULXD & QLXD receiver units still adjusts the output gain of the receiver, it has nothing to do with the gain structure in the transmitter itself.

I am not certain how the Mic Offset setting affects this; I’d imagine it changes the weighting of how the signal ranges between the low- and high-gain stages of the transmitter. I would think that setting it too high could cause distortion.

Shure Article

The gain setting on a CL/QL with Axient Analog does change settings on the transmitter itself.  I believe you have the option to adjust receiver output as well. Isn't 2018 tech pretty slick.
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Scott Helmke

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #19 on: May 25, 2018, 11:20:05 PM »

The gain setting on the ULXD & QLXD receiver units still adjusts the output gain of the receiver, it has nothing to do with the gain structure in the transmitter itself.

I am not certain how the Mic Offset setting affects this; I’d imagine it changes the weighting of how the signal ranges between the low- and high-gain stages of the transmitter. I would think that setting it too high could cause distortion.

The Mic Offset setting is there to make switching between handheld and beltpack transmitters work better, especially in installed (ie no regular tech to adjust things) situations. In a nutshell it allows a specific transmitter to change its gain to be different from another transmitter, so that the system can be set up with relative even volume levels between different (handheld vs. beltpack) transmitters.

I don't entirely agree with your definition of gain in ULXD, though. We could say that the output gain reflects the output of the transmitter - compared to a Shure analog system such as UHF-R, where the output gain does not affect the front panel meter, ULXD gain settings *do* affect the front panel meter. I think to some extent the ULXD transmitter gain is sort of a Shrodinger's Cat thing, where there really isn't a specific level coming from the transmitter until the receiver assigns a specific dB setting. The article you linked says there are two ranges, but the hardware itself resolves to 1dB increments.
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Peter Morris

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #20 on: May 26, 2018, 03:40:48 AM »

Pardon me for butting in, but...   

When you adjust the "gain" on ULXD from a Yamaha desk, you are actually adjusting the transmitter* gain just as if you were doing it from the ULXD receiver front panel.

*yes, the transmitter "gain" is adjusted from the receiver - some sort of slight of hand with decoding the digital transmission and only assigning a "gain" setting at that point.


The "Gain" shown in the picture (QLXD) changes - whats shown on this screen is also shown on the dLive's display.  I don't know exactly what its adjusting ... but it would not surprise me if its adjusting the TX gain :-)

https://www.facebook.com/protechm/videos/1938765042821510/
« Last Edit: May 26, 2018, 10:05:20 AM by Peter Morris »
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Richsoper

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Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #21 on: May 26, 2018, 11:44:39 AM »

If you bring in via Dante then yes providing your Dante devices and dLive are in the same IP range you can use the integration without running a seperate data line


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Anybody UNHAPPY with their dLive?
« Reply #21 on: May 26, 2018, 11:44:39 AM »


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