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Mackie DL1608 in the house!

#304
Ha ha-I agree. But I bought the board for the shows where we (I do sound). We use 5 monitor mixes and everyone uses their (now locked-down) iPhone for their monitor. Of course, once I explained and figured out the cables issues it has been smooth. Unbalanced cables have done a few weird things...buzzes...electronic noises...even faders just not responding. So just a tip for those getting the board.
 
#305
I'm a Presonus guy. Early adopter of the 16.4.2 which is an incredibly capable board. It however is not small... I do sound gigs and then I gig a vocal pop band. It is sort of an MTV unplugged classic rock thing with some blues and country and reggae thrown in. Popular in the area, the band works a lot and a lot of low volume dates. Lots of nicely renumerative party and winery dinner gigs...

So Mackie DL-806 inbound from AMS. Tough to beat that form factor in a digital board. I'm hopeful that sound quality wise we won't be giving up much. Time will tell. We're driving QSC K series subs and tops, JBL PRx 612's as monitors...or mains depending on the room.

Now to download master fader and start learning. I may be back to the well here for advice!
 
#308
it's a pretty damn natural and easy interface.

if it's not too late, i'd think hard about trading back for the 1608; an 8 channel digital board is false economy IMO, all the features in the world become worthless when you run out of channels and monitor mixes.
 
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#309
walterw said:
it's a pretty damn natural and easy interface.

if it's not too late, i'd think hard about trading back for the 1608; an 8 channel digital board is false economy IMO, all the features in the world become worthless when you run out of channels and monitor mixes.
Click to expand...

If you're using the board with a band, you can run through 16 channels and 6 auxes quickly, especially because the main/monitor routing limitations of the board sometimes invite channel-burning work-arounds. (For example, mult the lead vox and grouped backing vocals, sending them via aux to two new channels. This lets you add FX and compression on the mult channels' vocals in the FOH mix while still keeping dry vocals—from the source channels—for the singers' stage wedges.)

And if you're using IEMS, the extra aux sends on the 1608 might be the difference b/w running stereo in-ear mixes or working in mono.
 
#310
walterw said:
it's a pretty damn natural and easy interface.

if it's not too late, i'd think hard about trading back for the 1608; an 8 channel digital board is false economy IMO, all the features in the world become worthless when you run out of channels and monitor mixes.
Click to expand...

No doubt that 8 channels isn't enough to do much with ...my sound company, Gorge Sound and Light has a pair of SL 16.4.2 boards. We can firewire tie for 32 channels , 5 monitor mixes, subgroups... It does cost us our iPad remote though...

The 806 is for the little stuff where the form factor and channel count make sense. My band does quite a few small semi- acoustic gigs. We're in wine country and the various wineries are a great market for us... I can also use it to sub mix in a pinch. To get a sense of scale, I'm going to use it in place of either a GigRac St-1000 or Mackie 406 both of which are now in my rental inventory, or will be when the 806 arrives...

I have the 806 pencilled for a multi system date 8/17. Solo acoustic chick with guitar inside a winery tasting room, acoustic bands outside after her opening set. I'll send her guitar and vox out to the main system outside on 2 auxes and I'll send the outside mix on a delay to the inside system for broadcast, MC and common background music. It's a fund raiser for a very cool charity. My wife is on the board so I am all in. Nice pay for my stage hand... I get to sweat for a good cause.

My next board will be a 32 or 40 ch. X32, 32AI or an SI expression 40. That Soundcraft SI board is a killer sounding board! Tough for me to want to move from Presonus as I get the workflow, so the AI is not out of the running. The X32 seems to be a price/ performance sweetspot. Hard for me to swallow giving Uli B. the time of day... I'll shake that all out next winter in the off season...

A deep gulp on the dollars but that is next season... This one is halfway through and we already did the largest event we'll do this year. The rest we can do with just 16 channels, 5 monitor mixes. I burn 1 of the 6 available on the SL for aux fed subs.
 
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#312
True dat. Looking forward to working with the little guy though and I expect to hear a big step up in sound quality. Tracking says next monday so no doubt I'll be back to the well here for advice in routing and which are the better verb and delays to start with etc... Should be fun!
 
#313
IME, the DL's reverb and delay options are just serviceable (and you'll want to roll your own reverb settings). Still, for the kind of small gigs you're talking about (wineries, wallpaper gigs, etc), workable built-in FX are nothing to sneeze at. Beats hauling a rack, and it's not like I would otherwise be bringing a $5K Eventide.
 
#314
Cool, I'll spend some headphone time with the verb and delay. I'm in the camp that says of you notice it, it's too much... Just a little sweetener - and hey, for the gigs the 806 will see, it is replacing either the 406 or gigrac lunch pail mixers so hopefully it's a step up from there. I'm not setting the bar too high...

This is guerrilla gigging. How fast can ya setup and tear down ? How small can ya go? and still deliver the wild rumpus at volumes you can talk next to... Seems like a perfect fit for the 806 and a couple of good powered speaks.
 
#315
Not sure if this fits here but I have had the 1608 for at least a year and a half with no issues. I do find you have to run the channel gains a bit hot so they almost red light. Just a tad. Twice I have had friends who do only sound and not play mix for me and each time they would come up and knock down the gain and I would lose all the volume. I had to tell them it is OK if you see the channel strip tip red. I actually have two sound gigs booked this summer where all I do is mix and use my QSC system. Such a treat as I usually have to play as well.

Also I really had issues with the effects meaning they were not really there. Well fooling around I discovered I had them set for post fader. I changed it to the next level back and wow what a difference.

So anyway still in love :)
 
#316
4Mal said:
No doubt that 8 channels isn't enough to do much with ...

The 806 is for the little stuff where the form factor and channel count make sense.
Click to expand...
probably a moot point by now but i would argue that the 806 is a "less good" investment (i won't say "bad"), because it's exactly the same "form factor", and not all that less expensive, just with way less capability.
 
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#317
At $475 with an extended warranty, the 806 was hard to pass up... AMS had it in their scratch 'n sniff (dent), non-factry sealed inventory. Less than half a 1608..... I already know our SL 16.4.2's are too small for us next year and there is a higher channel density board on the horizon. The 806 will be a specialy item for us. I'd really like to get some corporate speech / presentation work going. I could see the 806 there. Maybe movie nights in the park... I see some possibilities where the limited channel count won't be an issue.

I reserve the right to have missed the mark too :). Not a lot at stake given the investment level...

There is no way this would suffice as my only board. On larger dates, my band can suck down 16 channels and 2 aux ins, no problem... Had I had an inkling of how much I would like the 16.4.2, I'd have bought the 24.4.2...
 

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