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Author Topic: Dolby Lake Processor w/tablet  (Read 58444 times)

Josh Evans

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Re: Dolby Lake Processor w/tablet
« Reply #20 on: May 25, 2007, 11:37:37 AM »

Wonderful I see it now.  In that case a couple of suggestions from using spectrographs while mixing.  What we/I/others would like to see is two lines representing the min/max threshold and the ability to adjust them via the GUI instead of the time consuming numbers.

Also I have made suggestions to others that these not be labeled min/max but rather dynamic range and min threshold such as what is commonly found on a dynamic processor.

The cats meow would be a dynamically changing threshold keeping the same dynamic range on say the largest peaking frequency.  This way your not always sorting out the colors and just look for say the color red.

I havn't touch one of these guys in a long time but remember doing measurements on them and just from looking at the IR I don't remember seeing the same results from a typical DSP.  Maybe some one can re create this.

Regarding control of SMAART thru a DSP.  IMHO for my needs at least this is surely the route to go when doing even small or medium gigs.  It just makes things easier.  While typically for the large gigs I prefer to use two computers, and even the largest of gigs require two operators one driving SMAART and one driving the DSP.  Just like the lighting guys do in some cases where one programs and one directs.

Another thing I just notice is the lack of displaying frequency in wavelength.  While this is something that most of the other DSP lack as well im not sure if (at minimum) if the phase of say a LW12/18/24/48 filter can be shown at the same time.  This is something that is nice to have that is on the hiQ net work.  Then with out even using measurement we can see the phase lag between   say an 18 dB and a 24 dB x-over in the electrical domain which would help others get in the ball park.

peace-

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Bennett Prescott

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The Benefits of Being a Road Tester
« Reply #21 on: June 07, 2007, 07:32:27 PM »

As anyone who's done it can attest, being a "good" road tester is a lot of work... often, however, it's well worth it when a company whose products you like a lot also likes you and you have the opportunity to do something like this:

http://www.campuspa.com/images/dlp3/index-Thumbnails/1.jpg

That's right, Ervin pulled out the stops for me and sent me another DLP so I can use them for mains and monitors at this weekend's gigs. I can't wait! So far, so good. I linked them together and played around, controlling two processors is just as easy as controlling one, and I can link groups between them and everything, so if I want to have a group that EQs ALL my monitors AND my front fills, even though the latter are processed by the top DLP, no problem!

My only complaint so far running two is that there's no way to change the IP address from the front panel. The new one arrived with the same IP as the first, so I had to keep them un-linked while I made the adjustment from the tablet PC's software, and then link them up and let everything talk.

The linking, at least, couldn't be easier. there's 4 (!) ethernet ports on the DLP, one on the front, one on the back (a Neutrik Ethercon connector) and then another two on the back that are obviously intended to plug a bunch of units together, so that's what I'm using them for. Indicator lights all over to let you know your connection is good, hooray. Since every processor, and every module within that processor, can be named within the software figuring out where you are both in the software and in the real world is easy as pie.

Here's a photo of the back so you can see all those ports:
http://www.campuspa.com/images/dlp3/index-Thumbnails/5.jpg

So, I'll do my shows this weekend and get back to you, but every time I use these things I couldn't be more pleased. This is how DSP should be!

Anyway, some other detail shots of the DLP you may find interesting are here:
http://www.campuspa.com/images/dlp3/
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Too Tall (Curtis H. List)

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Re: Dolby Lake Processor w/tablet
« Reply #22 on: June 08, 2007, 11:34:27 AM »

Bennett Prescott wrote on Thu, 24 May 2007 11:36

Josh Evans wrote on Thu, 24 May 2007 06:42

I don't remember if you can adjust the spectrograph thresholds. So can you adjust them via Lake? It would also be beneficial to show the min and max thresholds  on top of the RTA as well.  And while your at that the ability to change the thresholds by means of the bars displayed by the min and max threshold.

Josh,

If you look carefully at the top of this photo: (click to see bigger)

http://campuspa.com/images/dlp2/index-Thumbnails/26.jpg

You'll see that moderately in depth spectrograph control is provided, including displaying and adjusting thresholds.


Ok, I'll bite.
Typical spectrogram has x axis as time, y axis as frequency and color as SPL level.
So in this picture we ignore the background and you have to guess on time (does not matter that much in some cases). And you have to guess on frequency which is more problematic?
OTOH if you go back one screen the RTA plainly shows the same hot-spot right at the xover freq (1.6kHz).
In any case nice of them to include it.
BTW I went back through all the screen shots. There must be 30 or more. It is doubtful I will ever get to use one of these so all those screen captures is a welcome tour of the device. It didn't answer every question I might have, but it sure covered a lot of ground.
Thanks.

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Bennett Prescott

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Re: The Benefits of Being a Road Tester
« Reply #23 on: June 16, 2007, 03:58:17 PM »

I finished up my DLP road test with a marathon weekend of shows, the most interesting being a charity dinner at Chelsea Piers in New York City. The World Health Year Chapin Awards Dinner is $10,000 a table and this year included performances by Jackson Browne, Tom Chapin, and Bruce Springsteen. Very high class corporate gig, thanks to Jason Dermer for bringing me in on it.

I had two DLP processors, one configured 4x12 for mains and fill processing, and the other configured 8x8 for monitors. I inserted the 8x8 into the first 8 aux buses of my Spectra T at monitor world, and ran the 4x12 from Jason's Spectra T at FOH out to two hangs of line array, 2 subwoofers stacked stage right, and four fill/delay speakers to cover the L shaped room and patio. As I said in my last post in this thread, the two DLP integrated seamlessly, and getting them up and running with my access point and the tablet PC provided was easy, although I know more about networking than most.

To get the system making acceptable noise I put together some quick routing and level adjustments as a rough guesstimate, fed some playback into the DLP, and used the tablet to turn down the inputs all the way. I set up a few basic groups, the line arrays, the delays, all mains, and all monitors. This let me walk around the room and patio and adjust the level of my playback up and down while listening to set delays, levels, and EQ for all the speakers in the system. Once I was satisfied with the results (and had been told how cool my little toy was by the entire tech staff, one at a time) I walked on stage, routed some playback to my wedges, checked all those lines, and then inserted a few small cuts on those mixes based on prior experience with SM87s. The final result was nearly seamless coverage between the various sections of mains coverage and extremely clean monitor mixes, all put together in two shakes of a rat's tail. The DLPs let me get better results, faster, with less fooling around with patching and routing than if I hadn't had so many inputs and outputs on one device, or some tiny little screen instead of the great tablet interface.

Some photos of my setup:
http://www.campuspa.com/images/june07/index-Thumbnails/226.jpghttp://www.campuspa.com/images/june07/index-Thumbnails/218.jpg

My FOH EQ rack with the welcome additions from Dolby:
http://www.campuspa.com/images/june07/index-Thumbnails/216.jpg

And a few shots of the room and delays:
http://www.campuspa.com/images/june07/index-Thumbnails/235.jpghttp://www.campuspa.com/images/june07/index-Thumbnails/209.jpg
http://www.campuspa.com/images/june07/index-Thumbnails/246.jpghttp://www.campuspa.com/images/june07/index-Thumbnails/206.jpg

Long story short, the Dolby Lake Processor has changed the way I tune systems. Like many, prior to using it, I believed the tablet interface was overrated, and the units themselves probably not worth the expense over a decent "moderate budget" DSP. Now I don't believe I can afford not to own one, at least for mains. The ability to listen to a system while I put it together is a real killer app, the flexibility and power of the tablet interface and the freedom to walk around to each of my coverage zones and check for any hidden nasties in real time is invaluable. I am very sorry to have to send these two units back, and will miss them at every show until I can afford to get back into this kind of performance.

For users who demand the utmost in quality for making the most of their sound systems, this is the best option I have ever seen. From the front panel to the tablet, everything is right at your fingertips, from comprehensive metering and limiting, to EQ, polarity, and level control. Heck, you can even lift input and output grounds remotely to help fix hum and buzz problems!

Do yourself a favor, forget the expense, and take a very long look at the Dolby Lake Processor. For me, it was like stepping up from groups to VCAs in terms of control and flexibility. They'll be at InfoCOMM next week.
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-- Bennett Prescott
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John Roberts {JR}

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Re: The Benefits of Being a Road Tester
« Reply #24 on: June 16, 2007, 05:26:53 PM »

At the risk of stating the obvious, thank you for a job well done..

JR
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Chris McDonald

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Re: Dolby Lake Processor w/tablet
« Reply #25 on: June 26, 2007, 09:02:17 PM »

I really don't like the UI, first off I don't have a tablet PC. There should be a non tablet PC mode.

We got the lake processor in last week from SF Marketing. We bought it to replace the dated Omni Drive we were using on our KF730 rig. One of the techs at SFM set the processor up with the settings for our rig. The first thing I wanted to do was to confim the settings and have a look around inside the processor. I installed the software plugged in a network cable and within a few min I was online with the unit.

The first thing I don't like is that it goes full screen and takes over my input devices, I can't even do anything while it loads. My second fustration is that the standard keys I use to naviate around a UI don't work, <TAB>, arrow keys, etc... I screw around with it for a few min, found the IO routing page but couldn't find the crossover settings. I had to pull the manual out of the shrink rap. I think this is the first time in my 13 years of heavy computer use I've had to go to a manual right off the start. Usually there will be something I can't find and I'll have to turn to a manual, but there was nothing familour about this interface.

Even after skimming over the manual I still couldn't bring up the  crossover settings. The XOVER tab is missing... It turns out the last program loaded was for aux fed subs. Which the tech at SFM didn't make clear with his names. I only figured this out after we hooked the system up and didn't have any bottom end. This still dosn't explain why there was no xover tab.

The first thing you should see when you connect to processor is a block diagram. Like the IO screen, where you can select any stage and see the settings. Not some abstract circles without clear function. Please use standard widgets and have full keyboard support like most other windows applications.

I'm sure I'll have more to say on this when I get back in the shop later this week. Oh, yea and the KF730 rig did sound alittle better this weekend using this processor. It wasn't much of a test, it was only a small conference.

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Chris McDonald
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HM Audio
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Chris McDonald

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Re: Dolby Lake Processor w/tablet
« Reply #26 on: July 03, 2007, 04:14:51 PM »

One thing I would like add here is that SFM provides us with great tech support. Being a man, calling support is like asking for directions. You never want to do it, even when you should.

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Yngve Hoeyland

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Re: Dolby Lake Processor w/tablet
« Reply #27 on: August 14, 2007, 09:37:05 AM »

This sounds like a brilliant box, from what I've read here.

I would love to get my hands on one of these for testing, but unfortunately I'm in Norway and they (Dobly Laughing) for some reason do not have distributors here...

What is the retail price for the demo unit? I guess trying to get a demo shipped across the pond is a long shot...


- And thanks for another great review, Bennett. Smile
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Bennett Prescott

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Re: Dolby Lake Processor w/tablet
« Reply #28 on: August 14, 2007, 09:58:42 AM »

Yngve Hoeyland wrote on Tue, 14 August 2007 09:37

I would love to get my hands on one of these for testing, but unfortunately I'm in Norway and they (Dobly Laughing) for some reason do not have distributors here...

What is the retail price for the demo unit? I guess trying to get a demo shipped across the pond is a long shot...

Yngve,

I don't actually know what the price on that demo unit would be, I haven't even begun the process of purchasing one (as much as I'd like to, too many more important things need buying). I suggest calling Dolby/Lake in the US and talking to them about pricing and exporting/importing.
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Bennett Prescott

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Re: Dolby Lake Processor w/tablet
« Reply #29 on: August 12, 2010, 03:03:43 PM »

I can't believe I've been playing with these toys for almost 5 years now... still addicted to the Lake processor. If only I knew then what I know now, eh? I hope I'll feel the same way in 2015.

Anyway, now the the DLP has been discontinued (never should have let that second unit go!) there is finally a replacement from Lab.Gruppen in the LM26. I have a review up in the Product Reviews forum, here: http://srforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/t/59006/4221/
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-- Bennett Prescott
Director of North American Sales
ADRaudio d.o.o.
Cell: (518) 488-7190

"Give me 6dB and I shall move the world." -Archimedes
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