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[Andrew Broughton]

Jumping off from this discussion...
Not really interested in discussing the pros and cons of mixing wirelessly, but am very interested in interesting solutions people have come up with for situations where you are mixing (or just controlling sound) wirelessly.


My solution currently is a dLive CDM32 which I control via a Microsoft Surface and/or iPad. Works great, gives me the mobility I want and it's a compact but powerful platform.
One issue I had run into though, is how to playback recorded music. Since the CDM sits on stage, I'd have to leave my phone on stage, plugged into the CDM. While I can obviously fade and mute the music, I didn't have a way to control it and I also didn't want to have my phone away from me, for obvious reasons.
So, I built a RPI box and installed MoOde player, and it's absolutely amazing. I can play music off it's micro-SD card, or USB flash drive, control it wirelessly, I can airplay and bluetooth to it, even play internet radio stations and Spotify from it. Can leave it on stage and control it from the iPad or tablet. Someone brings some music to play? No problem - airplay to it, or if you have USB stick. plug that into it and play it. Pretty cool.


One thing I'm missing though, is remote PFL.


I was looking at this, but it requires a computer on stage. If it could run from an RPI, then we might have something! I guess a wireless IEM would be one way, but wouldn't it be slick to have the audio show up on your iPad or tablet?
A while ago, I bought an audio streaming box, but the quality and latency were just terrible. Unusable over WiFi.


Oh, to get good solid WiFi is always important, so I have a couple of Ubiquiti AP's - the Nano and Nano-Loco. Flashed them with DD-WRT since the factory OS is a major PITA and they've been awesome. Would like to learn more about meshing and working with multiple APs, but not there yet...


Anyone have some cool "wireless mixing" ideas/solutions?

[Helge A Bentsen]

Not actually wireless mixing, but a wireless playback solution I use when I "walk the room" listening to the system.
I use my phone for playback and I control it from my watch.

If it's a bigger room I set my computer up for playback and use Spotify remote on my phone. My phone to computer connection reaches longer than my watch to phone connection.

[Dave Garoutte]

UI24 does it from a thumb drive.  Controlled from the Ipad.

[Andrew Broughton]

UI24 does it from a thumb drive.  Controlled from the Ipad.

As does the Yamaha and others. For whatever reason, the USB playback functionality of the dLive is useless.

[Roland Clarke]

Being that you can connect almost any console via cat 5, I’m not sure that it’s that much hassle to have a console placed somewhere in the room FOH.  Obviously there are advantages for tablets to be able to walk the room, climb on stage and listen to monitors with artists in situ, but, tablet mixing, however dexterous you are is ultimately unfulfilling in having subtle control.  I personally feel, that there is no substitute for a reasonable FOH mix position, everything else is an assistance not a substitute.

[Robert Lofgren]

While not completely wireless, on my berry mixers I have used the x-touch together with an EthernetOverPower dongle.

This has worked great for me and you get a tactile surface as well.

[Geert Friedhof]

Get a M/X32.

[Jonathan Hole]

Jumping off from this discussion...
Not really interested in discussing the pros and cons of mixing wirelessly, but am very interested in interesting solutions people have come up with for situations where you are mixing (or just controlling sound) wirelessly.


My solution currently is a dLive CDM32 which I control via a Microsoft Surface and/or iPad. Works great, gives me the mobility I want and it's a compact but powerful platform.
One issue I had run into though, is how to playback recorded music. Since the CDM sits on stage, I'd have to leave my phone on stage, plugged into the CDM. While I can obviously fade and mute the music, I didn't have a way to control it and I also didn't want to have my phone away from me, for obvious reasons.
So, I built a RPI box and installed MoOde player, and it's absolutely amazing. I can play music off it's micro-SD card, or USB flash drive, control it wirelessly, I can airplay and bluetooth to it, even play internet radio stations and Spotify from it. Can leave it on stage and control it from the iPad or tablet. Someone brings some music to play? No problem - airplay to it, or if you have USB stick. plug that into it and play it. Pretty cool.


One thing I'm missing though, is remote PFL.


I was looking at this, but it requires a computer on stage. If it could run from an RPI, then we might have something! I guess a wireless IEM would be one way, but wouldn't it be slick to have the audio show up on your iPad or tablet?
A while ago, I bought an audio streaming box, but the quality and latency were just terrible. Unusable over WiFi.


Oh, to get good solid WiFi is always important, so I have a couple of Ubiquiti AP's - the Nano and Nano-Loco. Flashed them with DD-WRT since the factory OS is a major PITA and they've been awesome. Would like to learn more about meshing and working with multiple APs, but not there yet...


Anyone have some cool "wireless mixing" ideas/solutions?

Have been working with wireless since it first came out on the M7.  Fast forward many years and I leverage wireless heavily in a band I mix, often mixing full wireless on iPad from M32C + DL32 when we don't have time, space to setup a FOH position. We often are fully self contained when not providing our own PA.  When I have a longer show I do like to use our M32R for bigger shows but often not setup at all, especially in a festival situation.  Here are my notes on lessons learned to date:

PFL - Latency is too great for anything but using our spare IEM channel/receiver.  Don't often need but when I do I grab that pack, always wired in our rack to the headphone out of the M32C and good to go.

2.4G and 5G available - I use TpLink's long range AP's on stands up high in the backline so I can "see them" where I'm mixing.  There are times both are fine and other venues where one or the other is almost unusable, great to have both options.  Plus the band uses the router permanently in our rack and/or the AP's to mix their ears.

Tap Delay - Virtually impossible due to wireless latency.  I keep a thickening delay setup and can mute it in/out but for delay fx, it's just too frustrating.  One of the reasons I like breaking out the M32R when I can.

Backup - I take two iPads, both charged and setup FOH area with chargers and long power cables when I can.  Also have backup router, and AP's already redundant.  If M32C goes out I can grab a X32 Rack quickly to replace either DL32 or M32C in a pinch, albeit fewer channels.  If M32R is in the pack then I don't take the X32 Rack, but if traveling light for a self contained show I can just bring an old X32 Rack as backup.

Lighting - When we provide our own lighting for smaller shows, I have a ethernet to DMX box permanently in our rack and and use Luminar on the spare iPad to control lighting from "FOH".  Works great and I have scenes prebuilt for our song list and can move around as our set list changes.  In a pinch I can run it on my iPhone if needed, and keep shows sync'ed on all. 

Playback from FOH - I've used several methods.  1) I have a spare instrument pack, and in rare situations such as a wedding, I've run tracks from FOH via the wireless pack into a spare receiver channel.  2) I have an old iPod Touch that I often plug into the rack and just leave playing our break playlist and I can mute/adjust from wireless FOH, great use for older gear. Also good use of older iPhone as the Touch is not Apple Music friendly. 3) have used the USB port on M32C as well but I prefer #2.

Hope that helps...look forward to other tweaks and hacks from others....

[Andrew Broughton]

Good stuff! Thanks Jonathan.

[ProSoundWeb Community]