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[Andrew Broughton]

This was an Avid SC48

Ah. I guess I've been lucky enough to not have to use one of those more than a couple of times. If any digital console was predicted to have a crappy PSU it would be that one.

[Scott Helmke]

I wish I could say the same thing. We had a digital console that has dual power supplies and one of them died and it loaded down the other supply and shut down the console. One supply was on the UPS and the other one was on direct power. And this console had to be disassembled to get at the power supplies. We changed the bad one out and everything was good again. This was an Avid SC48 installed in a church.

The Avid consoles tell you when one of the power supplies is not working, which invalidates the following story. But still worth considering.

There was a bit of conventional wisdom back in the day about how when a big Midas console had a power supply failure it would take out the other power supply in the process.  The real story was the most people just hooked up both PSU's and never checked them individually, and what usually happened is that one PSU would fail but not be noticed until months later when the second one failed.

[Scott Mullane]

The only PSUs I've ever seen fail in all my years of Pro audio (which are considerable) are the huge PSUs used by the big analog consoles, chinese wall-warts, and computer power supplies.
I've never seen a power supply fail in a digital console, but still people send them out with redundant supplies. (and often without UPSs surprisingly!)

Almost everything else in the rigs fail more often and should have redundancy before worrying about a modern, quality switching power supply. Really, the consoles themselves crash or fail more often than their power supplies do.

I agree in general. The number of Midas XL200,250,4 power supplies I have seen fail are considerable. However, I have had an i-live power supply fail. Not in a show, but an install. It can and does happen.

[Nathan Riddle]

I've read all the dLive threads and this one seems most appropriate.

I recently had a short discussion about dLive's sound quality.

I'm curious as to what others here think about it (both the board and the conversation)?

I realize there's plenty of subjective opinions on sound quality, and hundreds/thousands of things that could have affected his perceptions besides just the board. But are there others on here that don't like dLive?

[Prompt: DiGiCo or dLive][In a HOW FB page]

Jonathan Lieurance 2 November 27 at 8:07pm:
I would take DiGiCo. The dLive sounds terrible and is convoluted and slow to work on. The DiGiCo sounds great and is laid out like a console. The work flow is clear and makes sense. The expand ability is tremendous and integration with other DiGiCo consoles is great. I know we have a lot of A&H lovers on here, and I loved my GL3000. It was a work horse for years. But after mixing on a variety of the new ones, I just don’t get the attraction.

Nathan Riddle  November 27 at 8:12pm:
Sounds terrible? Do explain.

Jonathan Lieurance November 27 at 8:32pm
To me it sounded muffled and thin at the same time. The high end articulation was disjointed as if phase shifts were happening, which caused the imaging of a stereo pair to be nearly imperceivable, all muddled together. The low end response was slow and flappy and suffered some of the same perils of the high end disjointedness. It was like eating bad BBQ, no matter how much sauce I put on, it was still dry and tasteless. And what is up with the blue light special buttons??! Who makes a console where you don’t send the aux from the channel? In all fairness, I loved the copy/paste functions. So there is that.

Nathan Riddle November 27 at 8:40pm:
Hmm, interesting experience. You sure it was the dLive board and not something else? Many, many experts (<-wrong word, professionals*) are saying it is the best sounding board out today.

Jonathan Lieurance November 27 at 8:46pm:
It’s always possible that something was amuck when I used it on a show...but We were using a Martin MLA rig that I use all the time and am very familiar with how it responds. The only variable was the console. I would question the “experts”, especially if they are integrators with good margins on the console sales.

Nathan Riddle November 27 at 8:51pm:
Agreed in general with your statement about sales; but the dLive has terrible margins for integrators so that is unlikely what is happening. Anyways, not here to question your experience. Just curious as to your thoughts as you're the first I've heard say it sounded "terrible" or even bad.

Jonathan Lieurance November 27 at 8:57pm:
Nathan Riddle I am definitely not alone in my opinion. Just not in this group. Haha.

Jim Slone Yesterday at 7:25am:
I haven’t heard anyone say that it’s the best sounding desk out today. Anyone. Remember that you are going to get a lot of bypassed feedback from people on a FB group where that may be the only desk they’ve ever mixed on. So to them, it may very well be the best one out today, but to others that have experience and time on other desks, their opinions may be very different.

Nathan Riddle 13 hrs:
Yeah I don't use Facebook as a significant source of info. Mainly to help people and gauge a community.

Benjamin Joyner 13 hrs Jim Slone:
I’ve owned SD10, SD11, and dLive. They all sound spectacular. I’m curious about your experience with the dLive and what the deal was. Sounds like something was off. FWIW, the dLive is awesome especially if one is working with volunteers. No bash on Digico, but the dLive is a killer beast.

[Tim McCulloch]

I've read all the dLive threads and this one seems most appropriate.

I recently had a short discussion about dLive's sound quality.

I'm curious as to what others here think about it (both the board and the conversation)?

I realize there's plenty of subjective opinions on sound quality, and hundreds/thousands of things that could have affected his perceptions besides just the board. But are there others on here that don't like dLive?

[Prompt: DiGiCo or dLive][In a HOW FB page]

Some guys breath different air than we do, too...

[Bob Leonard]

The only good sound you'll hear is the one you "see" the most. Put it all behind a curtain and most people will recognize "good" sound when they hear it. Unfortunately, many people don't know "bad" sound when they hear it.

[Spenser Hamilton]

I've read all the dLive threads and this one seems most appropriate.

I recently had a short discussion about dLive's sound quality.

I'm curious as to what others here think about it (both the board and the conversation)?

I realize there's plenty of subjective opinions on sound quality, and hundreds/thousands of things that could have affected his perceptions besides just the board. But are there others on here that don't like dLive?

[Prompt: DiGiCo or dLive][In a HOW FB page]

Guy is talking out of his ass. We demo'ed both a C3500 and an SD9 within a short time span, we went with the SD9 in the end but that had absolutely nothing to do with sound quality.

[Scott Holtzman]

Guy is talking out of his ass. We demo'ed both a C3500 and an SD9 within a short time span, we went with the SD9 in the end but that had absolutely nothing to do with sound quality.

Spenser can you share some of those reasons?  Did you by the tour pack of the SD-9? 

The SD-9 is getting up there in console age and the dLive is a new design.

[John Fruits]

Some guys breath different air than we do, too...

Some of them are fart smellers......Oops, I meant smart fellers.  Dang those spoonerisms.

[Tim McCulloch]

To fulfill JR's comment about posters telling what they know rather than answering the question...

Executive Summary - Everyone has an opinion and everyone has digestive gases.  Everyone has a preferred mixing console for whatever reasons he/she can rationalize or afford or specify on a rider.  The Real Mixerpersons® can deliver a sonically similar show every night regardless of Brand Name so long as the desks have similar capabilities.  Bad carpenters blame their tools, too.

Full Disclosure - I've not mixed a show on the new Allen-Heath mixers (haven't seen one "in the wild", either) but didn't really find anything sonically objectionable - for their place in the market - with the earlier consoles and doubt they got worse instead of better; I've mixed 1 show on an SD series and it's less confusing than the Midas UI I so thoroughly deplore, but I didn't hear anything that made me want to cut a purchase order, either.

I think some Mixerpersons are different than the rest of us - different, like a neurotic guitarist - and they really do breath different air from the rest of we mere mortals.  Some of them turn out exquisite mixes and tend to fully utilize (or not) the facilities of their preferred console; others turn out shit mixes and tend to fully utilize the facilities of their preferred console.  /sigh

I had 2 Mixerpersons on consecutive dates in the same arena... one of them called Avid S6L "absolute crap" but the other guy praised it as "in the top 3 mixers" and we were discussing sound quality, not ergonomics or configuration hassles or UI.  Neither was mixing their show on an S6L but they had strong opinions anyway.

Anecdote:  About 10 years ago we had a show with 3 artists, 2 of whom were carrying digital mixers.  The act without a desk had a BE that had never operated a Yammy M7 (or any other digital mixer) and that was our desk for support...  I helped him with sound check and assisted in navigating to things he wanted to change.  I was close by at showtime, too, and helped with UI things but left him to his work.  The other BEs were a bit condescending of this fellow but had no place; he easily had the best sound from the PA that night, mixing on a desk he'd never touched before.

Commercial perspective - We're more likely to buy either the console that can become a frequent line item on the invoice; or the console that represents the lowest cost that meets the technical requirements of the shows we do that will be accepted at least 80% of the time (and that can't be a separate, billable item).

[ProSoundWeb Community]