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A few questions for those who have experience with A&H iLive T:
Ben Brunskill:
I'm the worship pastor at Elim International Church, Wellington New Zealand.
We're in the process of upgrading our FOH system this year, and for a FOH console, we are really liking the look of the iLive T system.
However, even after reading the manual, I have a few questions for people who have hands on experience with the system.
(I've never used one, will obviously hire one and try it, if we think it's going to be suitable.)
1. What are the options for recording and virtual soundcheck?
There's a video on the iLive website with an engineer using a MADI output card on the iLive to record a show and then do virtual soundcheck. As the the iLiveT doesn't have expansion slots, is there another way to record?
2. At first, we won't have money for a monitor console and second MixRack. What we are hoping to do is purchase an iPad and the A&H software app.
Long term, we will look at getting a R72 rackmount console for mons.
Is it realistic to mix monitors from the iPad app? or will that be slow and awkward?We're looking at 3-4 wedges for singers, and about 5 wireless IEM's for musicians. We are running 3 IEM's in mono now, but as part of the upgrade we plan to get some more and run them all stereo.
3. The other console/system we are considering is the Roland M-400 - which records via ethernet, direct into RADAR and is cheaper, meaning we could afford a M-300 for MONs. I'm pretty confident the iLive would sound better and be easier to use, but I'd appreciate any feedback you may have.
I don't think the LS-9 is going to work for us - we want to go to a digital snake, so that in the future when we get a monitor desk, we can use a high quality digital split.
We also have a recording studio at our facility, and it would be great to provide another split to go up there, if we want to record an event, or track a band/or orchestra which won't fit into the studio's small live room.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Ben
Silas Pradetto:
1. There are Ethersound, Dante, and MADI cards available for the "Slot B" expansion port in the T series fixed-format mixracks. This slot can only take one card, so choose carefully.
2. Mixing monitors from a tablet is completely feasible; I did it all the time. In fact, being able to be on stage adjusting mixes as you stand next to them is a really huge plus. I don't know anything about the iPad app.
Remember, that while you can add a surface to mix monitors, this doesn't add any channels. So for the monitor surface, you'll have to double-patch channels to get separate strips for monitor mixing, but you're still limited to 64 channels total per mixrack. So, if you got the iDR32 you could double patch everything with no issue, but if you need more than 32 inputs for both house and monitors, some sources will have to use the same input for both, or there will be some other compromise.
The alternative is to get another rack, like an iDR0 (no physical inputs) or an iDR16 with the MADI, ACE, Dante, or Ethersound cards, and have all the channels available on the network for both recording and monitors.
Ethersound, MADI, and Dante are all able to do network recording, with various pros and cons for each. Ethersound seems to require a soundcard, and so does MADI, but Dante can go straight into an Ethernet port. Unfortunately, Dante is the only one with very strict licensing for the virtual soundcard driver.
3. The M-400 does a great job recording 40 tracks to the computer over Ethernet, but unfortunately, if you are running a monitor desk via the Split port, you will sacrifice your recording capabilities.
The M400 can do splits with regular gigabit switches, but I've had lots of issues trying to get that to work.
Note: the iLive runs circles around the M400 in every way. And, actually, in the USA, the M400+S4000 is about the same price as an iLive T80+iDR32.
If you have any more questions, shoot me an email at silas@pradetto.com. I've used both consoles in question and might be able to help further.
Chuck Tuten:
Ben,
I own the M-400 and we just installed an ILive T at our church this past week (actually bought it from Silas). While I love my M-400, Silas is correct, the ILive is a lot more console. I was totally amazed at the clarity of the console and it replaced a Ramsa SX1, which sounds pretty darn good itself.
PM me if you would like more detail.
scott cameron:
Ben Brunskill wrote on Tue, 08 February 2011 15:27
2. At first, we won't have money for a monitor console and second MixRack. What we are hoping to do is purchase an iPad and the A&H software app.
Long term, we will look at getting a R72 rackmount console for mons.
Is it realistic to mix monitors from the iPad app? or will that be slow and awkward?We're looking at 3-4 wedges for singers, and about 5 wireless IEM's for musicians. We are running 3 IEM's in mono now, but as part of the upgrade we plan to get some more and run them all stereo.
At the moment, using the iPhone app you cannot mix monitors. It only offers master mix level, not the ability to send individual channels to mixes. This may change if there is a full blown iPad app coming out.
As for using a laptop, yes you could do it quite well running off the one mixrack. The iLive editor software offers sends on faders and all the other handy stuff, but something with a touchscreen would most likely be a lot faster than a mouse as I find that a bit slow.
Also, selecting channels on the console does not change selected channels on the iLive editor so both FOH and mons can be doing different things, on different channels without a problem. The same applies with the iPhone app. Meaning it really is possible to run mons off a laptop connected to the same rack.
I guess you could always use an iPad and run VNC to a computer running the iLive software until a full blown iPad editor comes out.
Edit - Quote.
Christian Tepfer:
1.
At the moment MADI is he leader of the pack around me, for splits and recordings / virtual sound check. MADI can be split further via various hardware splitters / format converters etc. This may get expensive, so:
We are waiting for Dante. For recording, Dante looks pretty because you lose the interface on the computer and just use an Ethernet port. (there are license fees after the first computer, that is free per hardware card but the fees are lower than the price of MADI soundcards)
There are some choices for card to mount in Port B (expansion slot).
2. monitors without an actual monitor desk.
I did that using PL-10 remotes for musicians and a shoutbox for the singing ladies with 32 inputs on a iDR32/T112 system, completely from FOH. I did split every channel for FOH/MON.
Worked flawlessly, I expect the iPad app to be even better. (although the fixed setup of the PL remotes was helpful, nobody was able to mess with other's mixes and stuff and the musicians loved them). For an engineer the editor plus iPad may be sufficient for a relatively controlled environment. Just keep in mind that there is only one cue bus, so either FOH or MON can cue signals at a time when they share one mixrack.
A R72 surface would not suffice as a monitor console, there must be a mixrack (engine) to connect the surface to. When doing digital splits, a small mixrack like the iDR16 would do, as there are no more analog inputs needed.
I always prefer an analog split when using 2 surfaces, as the engineers can set their own gains and there is a redundancy (2 completely functional desks). The cost difference is only an analog split plus a bigger mixrack for the second desk.
3.
That's interesting, I compared the M400 plus 4000 series stagebox and found it more expensive than a comperable iLive-T system here in Germany. May be due to the weak GBP at that time.
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