d8b Forum

I'm new here. Lurked for a long time on the Mackie board. This place is beautiful in comparison. Real homey. Congrats Peter and thanks for doing this.

My d8B is having a bunch of issues. Wild faders, losing clock with the DAW resulting in pops and clicks until I reboot everything, yadda yadda. I have the chance to buy another one with NO problems apparently. I keep on putting it off though. ITB has been calling me, but this is a super budget operation. Friends, friends of friends, and my own projects get recorded here and I also get mix jobs that I really dig. I made a decent extra income back in the day, but I got tired of the band recording drama and other things I liked to do better called me and so I shut the studio down as a business a few years ago. So now it's just take a job I fancy. I have NO external pres. So to do ITB with a control surface (gotta have controls to grab and tweak, just too old school) it's WAY more than another d8B. I'd have to scrape to get that much less buy 12 pres or interfaces that have that many pres.

So, I should just get another d8B right? I can't think of another way to do it in the same price range. Prosonus StudioLive, or Mackie Onyx, etc.? No moving faders and they're teeny consoles and no plugins. A&H ZedR16 looks cool but no automation or plugins. These are all more expensive as well. Anything else I'm missing? I know I'm asking the choir to sing the d8B chorus back to me, but maybe there's some insight I haven't considered. I like the workflow I have with the d8B and the DAW (I've got some decent plugins on it as well). It's just 10 year old technology that I'd be sinking money into (again) and that makes me kinda sad.

Thanks for any input.

Hi tuelle:

From an investment standpoint... there is none. From a practical standpoint the d8b makes sense. Honestly I would try and take care of the d8b that is in your possession. There are many ways to "fix" these units. I really doubt your d8b is messed up beyond repair, but it very well could be... I don't know. What I do know is it can be an odd little beast.

It might be that you get your “new” d8b and you have the same issues.

If you are familiar with the d8b, as I am, it really is a great way to mix. But there are really great controllers if your pockets are deep. Many of us have had to have deep pockets to be able to afford the d8b, but that is another story. If you wanted appreciation and investment, you shoulda bought a Fender (YMMV). The fact is, I might never re-coup my money spent on my d8b, I say might, because you never know this could be the hottest thing in 12+ years!

Don’t forget also, you would have to convince Mackie that your old board is toast for them to authorize to you the same plugs (authorization codes) on your “new” board… all the plug-in information resides in the brain board in the mixer itself. So your “new” board would only have what is authorized on it not what you have authorized on your old board; the one that is giving you trouble.

I think the pres on the d8b are decent, but I have always used (since the beginning of time) outboard pre-amps – this is why my verbs suck so bad… I have some pretty nice pre-amps for the most part… compressors too. Sorry I am getting off track. What I mean to say is that I put my money in pre-amps and great compressor, not verbs – now I am hurtin brother!

Honestly, it is hard for me to imagine working without a control surface, whatever it may be. I have mouse’d in my POS computer based DAW and I have a super lousy time of it… maybe I have not given it enough time.
I like channel strips, it is what makes sense to me.

The question you pose is an interesting one though, and only you can answer it.

Just as a matter of fact, to anyone who has heard anything out of my little set-up here, which almost all (mostly anyway) is over ten-years old, everyone says it sounds really great. Not good, or okay, but really great is what I hear.

I would go with what you know, what the budget will allow, and your board just might be suffering from a ribbon cable being loose. This I don’t know of course.

Finally, I have an extra CPU for my board… it has never been used (well it has, but just to check that the upgrades on it worked and it could replace my other one in a pinch). Once I straightened out my sync and other issues with the d8b life is good with this mixer… the computer… not so much. FYI, a buddy who obtained a PT HD system from a famous guy, came over to my studio (he knows the d8b – had one for years) basically said “Wow this is really great, I forgot how cool this thing is”.

So… the proof is in the pudding, not the packaging. Unfortunately, just like monster cable and Pro-tools, people love the buzz words. There is something to be said about great marketing. Of course I am bagging on Digidesign, but they really do make a great product that is intuitive to the audio engineer, so for their product I think they deserve what they get, but the “holier than thou" attitude the company and people in general hold about it, they should jump in a lake on a cold day IMO.

My .02 and hope this helps,

Michael

PS: sorry for the rant.

Thanks Michael. I just got this now. I'm either getting mine fixed or getting the other one. You're right, there's no other option I can afford and I know how to make music with it. I have a mix job waiting. Time to get back to work...

Tuelle/Larry

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Ignoring the idiot's post directly above mine, why don't you articulate your problems tuelle, there are many solutions.

Peter