ProSoundWeb Community

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  
Pages: 1 [2] 3 4   Go Down

Author Topic: Allen & Heath iLive 144  (Read 32731 times)

Bennett Prescott

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 8924
    • http://www.adraudio.com
Re: Next Steps
« Reply #10 on: September 28, 2008, 02:55:14 PM »

Found it, much better now. I'm running 1.31... What does the extra .01 gain me?
Logged
-- Bennett Prescott
Director of North American Sales
ADRaudio d.o.o.
Cell: (518) 488-7190

"Give me 6dB and I shall move the world." -Archimedes

Toby Mills

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 801
    • http://www.np.co.nz
Re: Next Steps
« Reply #11 on: September 28, 2008, 11:58:53 PM »

Bennett

Version 1.32 gives you the offline / online editor capability.
It is very nice, I used the online editor on saturday to give a drummer control over his own IEM mix using a laptop (you can connect up to 16).

The drummer was blown away and I didn't have to worry about constantly adjusting his send.

I've personally found the verbs to be pretty outstanding.
As mike says, the 480 patch is really something special.

I've had the usual 'digital console' problem with ambient light a couple of times and now just make a cardboard sheath that extends over the top and sides of the screen to stop lighting reflecting off the surface. Its also pretty common to black the roof of the tent when using a digi desk, why oh why are they always made out of white canvas? Even throwing a black drape over the outside of the tent makes a huge difference.

Have you found yourself having more fun mixing with this console than usual?


Cheers and have fun.

Logged
noise productions ltd
www.np.co.nz
"can you please turn down the shit knob"

Bennett Prescott

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 8924
    • http://www.adraudio.com
Re: Allen & Heath iLive 144
« Reply #12 on: October 01, 2008, 10:50:20 AM »

Well, that show is over. Can't say I'm happy to have to get back to a daily routine, it was nice to worry about nothing but shows for a few weeks, and hang out with old friends while working together under fire.

The iLive was a joy to mix on right through the last show, and as much as I hated to see it go, it was a joy to pack up as well! It took myself and my buddy Tony all of 15 minutes to completely un-patch and pack up FOH. There's a lot to be said for small and light...

http://bennettprescott.com/images/bige2008/Thumbnails/83.jpg

Rewind 48 hours, though, and we had Esteban on stage for the last weekend. I've worked with his engineer before when he was mixing Dian Diaz, so I had an idea of what was needed walking in, which was nice. Alex thought the iLive looked "cool", which I took to mean he was happy to see it, so we went over his rider and I built him a  scene. I then gave him the 5 minute tour (bus and VCA assignments, here's how to use the aux-fed subs, here's how to use the FX and how to adjust them) and sound check began. He was fine almost immediately, aside from a few small questions and a false move (that channel's still on because you're in FX-on-faders mix mode) there were no major hiccups. By the end of the first show he was happily mixing away and no longer stopping to think twice before making an adjustment. If that's all I have to do to get guest engineers up to speed on a fairly powerful digital desk like this, I'll be happy.

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful. Switch scenes to "Malo", mix Malo. Switch scenes to "Esteban", babysit Alex. Rinse, repeat. Automation safes kept my announcer channel (with the excelleny Charley Van Buskirk) and my playback channels freed up between shows, so all Keith (my monitor guy) and I had to do was move a few mics and channels around between sets.

Nothing else comes to mind right now, so here are some final weekend photos:

http://bennettprescott.com/images/bige2008/Thumbnails/33.jpghttp://bennettprescott.com/images/bige2008/Thumbnails/35.jpg
http://bennettprescott.com/images/bige2008/Thumbnails/39.jpghttp://bennettprescott.com/images/bige2008/Thumbnails/50.jpg
http://bennettprescott.com/images/bige2008/Thumbnails/52.jpghttp://bennettprescott.com/images/bige2008/Thumbnails/79.jpg
Logged
-- Bennett Prescott
Director of North American Sales
ADRaudio d.o.o.
Cell: (518) 488-7190

"Give me 6dB and I shall move the world." -Archimedes

drewgandy

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 588
    • http://gandymethod.com
Re: Allen & Heath iLive 144
« Reply #13 on: October 03, 2008, 12:32:34 AM »

Bennett Prescott wrote on Fri, 26 September 2008 01:08


The console arrives as a control surface with touchscreen and some local I/O, as well as a rack that contains all the "stage" I/O and the mixing brains, plus two power supplies.



Do I read the specs correctly that the "stage" rack weighs 93 lbs empty and the actual working pieces in the rack weigh 57 lbs? It looks to be a shock rack but isn't that a bit heavy for a 9 space rack?  

drew
Logged

Michael 'Bink' Knowles

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4279
    • http://www.binkster.net/index.shtml
Re: Things I Haven't Liked That Much So Far
« Reply #14 on: October 06, 2008, 10:37:37 AM »

Bennett Prescott wrote on Fri, 26 September 2008 00:29

...I also managed to clip some of the internal processing. That just shouldn't be... once I get the signal in, I should be able to beat it up however I please as long as I bring it back down so I don't clip my analog output on its way out of the desk...


That's a great idea! Which digital consoles currently implement it? The A&H iLive isn't unusual in this respect.

Of course, the idea would only be practical in the digital realm. Allowing the user to boost every band of EQ like crazy (for instance) in the analog realm while staying within channel headroom limitations would take far too much circuitry.

-Bink
Logged
Michael 'Bink' Knowles
www.binkster.net

John Roberts {JR}

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 0
Re: Things I Haven't Liked That Much So Far
« Reply #15 on: October 06, 2008, 12:04:43 PM »

Michael 'Bink' Knowles wrote on Mon, 06 October 2008 09:37



That's a great idea! Which digital consoles currently implement it? The A&H iLive isn't unusual in this respect.

Of course, the idea would only be practical in the digital realm. Allowing the user to boost every band of EQ like crazy (for instance) in the analog realm while staying within channel headroom limitations would take far too much circuitry.

-Bink


While I am a neophyte about things DSP it would take a lot of processor headroom to anticipate overload for every process, but there is a capability to monitor actual overflow of internal accumulators. I was involved with one early digital efx engine we used in inexpensive powered mixers and such. The digital boys used the overflow flag to light a LED, but the early low bit rate platform with gobs of HF pre-emphasis was easily overloaded, and differently for different presets.  

Since I was just an analog puke, I connected that overflow LED line to a simple FET shunt limiter and got a lot more usable headroom with that early digital black box. Since it was an effects only path, building in some unconventional limiting was less objectionable than being hissy and/or clipping all the time.

I have given this some general thought for digital consoles. Summing bus overload becomes a matter of limiting, a simple multiplication in the digital domain. More difficult is manipulating the input signal but there are already mic preamps with digital gain control.  If this was set up to transparently cut input or output gain to prevent clipping, you get the unintended consequence of turning down the overall level when you boost one narrow frequency band into saturation.

I guess it depends on the nature of the overload, but there is no magic solution for simply too much gain/boost for the path. Clipping the channel with less than unity contribution to the mix bus, means you can transparently adjust the gain structure down and then up to unity without changing the mix. However beyond unity feed to the bus It will hit the limiters somewhere in the chain.

Digital consoles are more powerful but you can't make them operator proof and give the operator so much control. A different EQ meme where instead of literally boosting/or cutting a frequency you dial in a target spectral balance, might be harder to screw up but some will miss the literal control.

I am inclined to just stop boosting when saturation occurs, but this could prevent some EQ for effect (?), and you wouldn't want it to go back and un-tweak your EQ settings.  Most of my though was done in the context of a recording environment so I was thinking of a global lock after controls were set and tested for expected levels. A saturation detector with long hold time advised you if you hit the wall during a take.

The future hasn't happened yet so who knows, not me.

YMMV

JR

Logged
 https://www.resotune.com/


Tune it, or don't play it...
-----

Bennett Prescott

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 8924
    • http://www.adraudio.com
Re: Allen & Heath iLive 144
« Reply #16 on: October 06, 2008, 02:09:09 PM »

drewgandy wrote on Fri, 03 October 2008 00:32

Do I read the specs correctly that the "stage" rack weighs 93 lbs empty and the actual working pieces in the rack weigh 57 lbs? It looks to be a shock rack but isn't that a bit heavy for a 9 space rack?

Drew,

Nothing struck me as particularly heavy (both pieces in cases are an easy two man lift), but the stage rack does appear to have some sort of metal framework (steel? Aluminum?) surrounding it that could add some weight, said framework also appears to hold the rack rails.
Logged
-- Bennett Prescott
Director of North American Sales
ADRaudio d.o.o.
Cell: (518) 488-7190

"Give me 6dB and I shall move the world." -Archimedes

Jim Duyck

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 439
Re: Allen & Heath iLive 144
« Reply #17 on: October 06, 2008, 04:54:50 PM »

is it just me, or does the casing A&H provided seem to be rather low end for such expensive equipment???
Logged
~jim~

Bennett Prescott

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 8924
    • http://www.adraudio.com
Re: Allen & Heath iLive 144
« Reply #18 on: October 06, 2008, 08:14:06 PM »

It didn't strike me as anything but good quality, but I don't know whose it is, or whether it is provided by default.
Logged
-- Bennett Prescott
Director of North American Sales
ADRaudio d.o.o.
Cell: (518) 488-7190

"Give me 6dB and I shall move the world." -Archimedes

Toby Mills

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 801
    • http://www.np.co.nz
Re: Allen & Heath iLive 144
« Reply #19 on: October 06, 2008, 08:19:49 PM »

+1

The roadcases with the I-Live are very high quality.
The only thing (which I believe they have now addressed) were the wheel locks on mine failed.

The cases are made by a company not far from A&H UK I believe, someone did say but I'll have to look it up.
Logged
noise productions ltd
www.np.co.nz
"can you please turn down the shit knob"
Pages: 1 [2] 3 4   Go Up
 

Site Hosted By Ashdown Technologies, Inc.

Page created in 0.039 seconds with 18 queries.