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[Weogo Reed]

Hi Folks,

A friend has had his digital mixer require a re-boot during a show twice in the past couple years, and he is ready to move to another brand.

Digital mixers are glorified computers with audio-specific connectors and software.
They aren't connected to the internet and can't be used for
much of anything other than mixing, so
aren't subject to a lot of the perils of regular computers.
But they are still computers...

When I was regularly using a Yamaha 01V96 there were times when it didn't load completely, or loaded, but was wonky in operation.
A re-boot, or sometimes two, would clear this. 
Usually this was on initial start-up, so not a big deal.
I do remember a couple of times losing control of the mixer and
the only way to get it back was a re-boot during a song break.

In the early days of the Mackie DL1608, firmware updates
were coming pretty regularly(as were IOS updates),
sometimes fixing some bugs while introducing others, and
I can remember re-booting mine at least a couple times.
The kinks got worked out and now it is super-stable.

Early on with the Mackie DL32R, there were maybe a couple times
I had to re-boot to get a new firmware upgrade to really take.
Again, the kinks were worked out and the three I'm using now are super stable.

A local venue has an A&H QU board, and only once have I ever had to re-boot it.
This was during startup.

Another venue has a Midas MR18 which I don't think has ever needed a re-boot, other than a firmware update.

All of these mixers are on a UPS with at least basic surge protection, so power is fairly good.


How about your mixers?
Re-boots during initial start?  During a show?  How often?

Thanks and good health,  Weogo

[Tim Weaver]

I toured with a DL32>M32core>M32 foh setup for a while. All were switched on with one power switch, and sometimes one desk or the other would not get any input from the DL32. The desk looked and functioned fine otherwise, but would not send or receive audio. A reboot would fix it.

I've had VI6's freeze the surface a couple of times. The audio kept working and you could reboot the surface with no interruption of audio, which was kind of cool.

The only times I have to reboot my CL5's are when changing IP addresses.

[Tim McCulloch]

Only desk I've needed to reboot due to a showtime failure was an Avid SC48 that had a flaky TDM jumper, and that was a soft boot.  Final fix was physical disassembly of the PCI bus extender card cage, removal and re-seating of the mix engine cards, HUB48 card, jumpers and connections.  It's been flawless since.

[Art Nadelman]

The only system I ever had to reboot was an X32.  I was an early adopter of the DL251 connected to the X32 and it would occasionally lose contact with the DL251.  (Supposedly) Behringer has now fixed the issue.  I wouldn't know.  The last time it happened to me was the last time that I owned it.  I sold it and purchased an Allen & Heath GLD112 which never had any problems like that.

[Jonathan Goodall]

Had a Soundcraft expression 1 go totally black (apart from the power button which wouldn't respond). Had to re-boot to get it going.

[Douglas R. Allen]

I've had the yamaha 01v and for 13/14 years an 01v96. They both are still working fine. Not even a battery change.  No problems at all ever. Did replace a few faders on the 01v96. These have seen every kind of show and AC power and not a hiccup. Have a M32R now, so far so good. I find I have to turn on stage boxes first to get 0 connect problems. The board boots and will see them on and connect. If I boot the board first it is about a 80 percent chance for a good connection. When you think about how long analog boards have been out Digital is still for the most part "new" in relation to analog. So many features at a price point that when I started out 30+ years ago would have seemed impossible.  I'm sure and hoping with time digital will only get better. The down side of course is in the race to the bottom for the lowest cost, yet most features available, some end users will end up paying a price. Analog and Digital both have their good and bad points.

Douglas R. Allen

[William Schnake]

Just last fall, second week of October, I was doing a show mixing the opener for April Wine and  B.O.C.  We were using the house system at the venue with the exception of the mixers.  We had a M7CL on monitors and a Avid SC48 on house.  We got to the end of our set, next to last song, the biggest song for this particular band and half way through the first verse, the SC48 turns off and has to be re-booted.  All we had for the second half of the verse and the first chorus was monitors.  The board finally came back up and we finished out our part of the show.  Pissed doesn't even come close.  Anyway, during the April Wine set, the board took a dump again.  You can imagine how happy they were about it.  At least it gave us something to talk about after the show.

Bill

[Erik Jerde]

I've been regularly using DiGiCo SD series (8,9,10,11) for the better part of a decade now.  Haven't once had to reboot during a show.  I did have the left tile of a SD8 take a splash of water during a show.  I was able to move all channels off of the tile, remove it from the console, clean, dry, and reinstall all during the show without turning off the console.  Upon re-connecting it I just had to do a surface reset and it was back ready to go.  That was super impressive to me.

[John L Nobile]

I've had SC48's on rental a dozen times and have had them lock up on me twice. Fortunately, it was during soundcheck both times. Not sure if it was the same board but it was from the same rental company.

I have 2 - X32's in house and have had 2 lockups in 3 years.

I retired my O1V 3 years ago and have had it since it came out. Not one problem with that or the ProMix I had before it.

[Tim McCulloch]

Just last fall, second week of October, I was doing a show mixing the opener for April Wine and  B.O.C.  We were using the house system at the venue with the exception of the mixers.  We had a M7CL on monitors and a Avid SC48 on house.  We got to the end of our set, next to last song, the biggest song for this particular band and half way through the first verse, the SC48 turns off and has to be re-booted.  All we had for the second half of the verse and the first chorus was monitors.  The board finally came back up and we finished out our part of the show.  Pissed doesn't even come close.  Anyway, during the April Wine set, the board took a dump again.  You can imagine how happy they were about it.  At least it gave us something to talk about after the show.

Bill

And how did Avid take care of supporting your SC48?  The issue we had with the TDM jumper between mix engine cards was pretty much identified down to the component and Avid emailed me detailed instructions on disassembly and reassembly of the console.

We also had a hard drive fail and a stick of RAM fail, but I consider those to be consumable items in computers that are 5 years or more old.   The hard drive failed during sound check (got an error saying the user partition was corrupt and that the Venue software would use the system partition but that response would be slowed).  I called Avid, they diagnosed the HD problem and I went to the closest place to buy a hard drive (Best Buy).  The BE saved his show to USB stick, I replaced the hard drive, reloaded the Venue software and plug ins and restored the BE's show file.  Took about 30 minutes from first screw removal to restored console.

I will probably jinx myself but the only console brand I've not had a digital mixer glitch of some kind has been Yamaha.

Eric J's experience with DigiCo is not mine.  I've seen enough DigiCo failures in show that I wouldn't be likely to specify or approve the purchase of a DigiCo.  Any brand or model where I see a HOT SPARE in the vom nearest stage left... tells me there is a history of problems.  I don't care how good something is supposed to be if I must have a hot redundant spare awaiting a primary console failure.

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