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[John Roberts {JR}]

I'm seeing more and more rack mount mixers hit the market. I understand why someone would want this, but having to solely rely on a tablet device or computer to access my interface would personally scare the heck out of me.
I use my iPad to run shows all the time once sound check is done, but still find myself using the board with physical faders when I need to make deeper adjustments to compressors, gates & EQ.
Just looking to see what other opinions are in this popular trend, will it last or is it a fad and everyone will end up back to mixing desks?

Rack mount mixers are a fad that started decades ago...

They will fade away when racks go away too...

JR

[Randy Pence]

After a couple gigs with a rented mackie dl1608, I thought I might prefer real faders.

now, after a couple gigs with a rented soundcraft qu 16 using my laptop, including one with wifi connection issues, I might buy a midas mr18 this year.

If I was doing bigger shows, I might think otherwise, but I'm not, and the first qu16 gig was one of my best ever mixes.  Not running a multicore is huge

[Scott Bolt]

...  Not running a multicore is huge

My back certainly thinks so

[Scott Holtzman]

Rack mixers are here to stay for sure.  A&H are ahead of the game with the concept of a dedicated rack mixer and an independent head console.  It may well be that all mixers gravitate this direction so that rack mixers are the only thing out there in any venue.  The only thing that would be optional would be the remote physical console.

I agree the iLive is the right solution I just wish it was better executed.


1 - Backup PS connection is great
2 - The encoders are very nice and visible
3 - The screen is 10 years behind current technology, looks terrible
4 - UI is even worse
5 - You can get two M32's and DL32's for the price of just the iLive-80
6 - The software on the iPad is usable but so far behind the X32/M32 app anyone who has ever used the other product is going to be very frustrated.  It's a giant step backward


The Mackie Axis stuff is interesting.  The Mackie app is very good but the surface is all wrong IMHO.  It just doesn't work for me.


If MG would gut an M32 and make it a control surface so you could control a Core and a stage box from it would hit on all points for me.  Having an HA option for a pair of cores would be even more awesome. 


BTW I was with another IT geek last night and we commented on running two 5Ghz wireless networks with a second wireless NIC on a tablet and using a routing protocol for failover.  That would be slick.  Some kind of dock for an iPad that is easy to carry, has two industrial grade nics, an all day battery, a couple of audio interfaces for cueing would be really slick.

[Scott Bolt]

I agree the iLive is the right solution I just wish it was better executed.


1 - Backup PS connection is great
2 - The encoders are very nice and visible
3 - The screen is 10 years behind current technology, looks terrible
4 - UI is even worse
5 - You can get two M32's and DL32's for the price of just the iLive-80
6 - The software on the iPad is usable but so far behind the X32/M32 app anyone who has ever used the other product is going to be very frustrated.  It's a giant step backward


The Mackie Axis stuff is interesting.  The Mackie app is very good but the surface is all wrong IMHO.  It just doesn't work for me.


If MG would gut an M32 and make it a control surface so you could control a Core and a stage box from it would hit on all points for me.  Having an HA option for a pair of cores would be even more awesome. 


BTW I was with another IT geek last night and we commented on running two 5Ghz wireless networks with a second wireless NIC on a tablet and using a routing protocol for failover.  That would be slick.  Some kind of dock for an iPad that is easy to carry, has two industrial grade nics, an all day battery, a couple of audio interfaces for cueing would be really slick.

Haven't worked with the iLive so I can't comment on the implementation of the GUI   I was referring to the architecture.  Of course, many a great architecture has been over-shadowed by a poor implementation.

As far as a dual band wireless for fail-over, the problem is that the current wireless implementation of 802.11 requires a separate NIC for each connection.  Most tablets and laptops (all of them that I know of anyway) have only a single NIC inside them.  Some PC's have more.

What you are describing seems to be more like what might be found on a safety system where redundancy is critical to the FEMA.  Perhaps some day.

[Luke Geis]

The end all be all? Absolutely not. They are a tool that will be more acceptable for certain types of shows where mission critical is not a problem. I think you will see them more and more for bands, lower end corporate and dare I say mid level concert events where space is at a premium. It is not a fad that is for sure though. Until the box itself can be replaced, they will always have a home. I own one, love it and wouldn't mind expanding on it. When things are mission critical though, I still prefer a hard surface to work on.

[Scott Holtzman]

Haven't worked with the iLive so I can't comment on the implementation of the GUI   I was referring to the architecture.  Of course, many a great architecture has been over-shadowed by a poor implementation.

As far as a dual band wireless for fail-over, the problem is that the current wireless implementation of 802.11 requires a separate NIC for each connection.  Most tablets and laptops (all of them that I know of anyway) have only a single NIC inside them.  Some PC's have more.

What you are describing seems to be more like what might be found on a safety system where redundancy is critical to the FEMA.  Perhaps some day.

I should add we are IT geeks so a rooted android tablet with an external NIC running OSPF.

[Rob Spence]

I agree the iLive is the right solution I just wish it was better executed.


1 - Backup PS connection is great
2 - The encoders are very nice and visible
3 - The screen is 10 years behind current technology, looks terrible
4 - UI is even worse
5 - You can get two M32's and DL32's for the price of just the iLive-80
6 - The software on the iPad is usable but so far behind the X32/M32 app anyone who has ever used the other product is going to be very frustrated.  It's a giant step backward


The Mackie Axis stuff is interesting.  The Mackie app is very good but the surface is all wrong IMHO.  It just doesn't work for me.


If MG would gut an M32 and make it a control surface so you could control a Core and a stage box from it would hit on all points for me.  Having an HA option for a pair of cores would be even more awesome. 


BTW I was with another IT geek last night and we commented on running two 5Ghz wireless networks with a second wireless NIC on a tablet and using a routing protocol for failover.  That would be slick.  Some kind of dock for an iPad that is easy to carry, has two industrial grade nics, an all day battery, a couple of audio interfaces for cueing would be really slick.

The ilive is 10 years old. Of course the screen is old tech.

It was replaced 2 years ago with the dLive.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Rick Powell]

If MG would gut an M32 and make it a control surface so you could control a Core and a stage box from it would hit on all points for me.  Having an HA option for a pair of cores would be even more awesome.

IOW, the Behringer/Midas version of a PreSonus Cs18ai.  I think they'd say, the current X32/M32 line is inexpensive to the point that they wouldn't save you a lot of money if the preamps and mic inputs were stripped out to create a "control surface only" module.

http://www.presonus.com/products/studiolive-cs18ai

[Scott Holtzman]

The ilive is 10 years old. Of course the screen is old tech.

It was replaced 2 years ago with the dLive.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

I did not know about the D-live C Class.  I had thought the dLive was way above the iLive.  I see a C Class C2500 and a CDM32 can be had for about 10k.  I have only seen one dLive and frankly it was the most approachable big boy console I have ever touched.  Any time I have been in front of a large Digico or Midas (especially the Midas, what a steep learning curve) alway needed a lot of help getting around.  The dLive was very approachable.  I think someone with small digital mixer experience would fell quite comfortable on the C-Class.


I had been looking at an Digico SD-9 but had been holding back as I was concerned who would be able to use it except for a few folks.  I am going to give the C-Class a really hard look.


Timely post thank Rob!

[ProSoundWeb Community]