Converting a D8B to a full fledged DAW Controller (w/o MIDI)

[High C Double G]

The price just doubled... Has anyone ever wired a USB male end? I am now curious how that all works.

[Petersueco]

Peter - the d8b uses two serial ports to talk to its computer. Thus, you will need to use two of those USB to RS232 cables and then a third, custom-wired cable that has two DB9 plugs on one end and a single DB25 plug on the other that connects to the mixer.

OK, I get it. Thanks for the explanation.

Oh, and welcome to the forum.

Peter Holmquist.

[MOSHWITZ]

Sup?
Cool beans
Thanks for all the hard work Marc. this gets better and better,,,,brother your awesome.


MOSHON
DAVE

[Marc Girard]

Hey guys,

Yeah, as siraltus pointed out. You need a serial port in your computer first! That's why I bought that USB to Serial cable, as most recent laptops don't have any serial ports. Let me point out that we only need one of those lovely cables! Yes, the d8b uses two serials port for the "Console Data" port, but fortunately, we only use one of the two. One's for controlling the surface and the other one is for programming the DSPs (which we don't need really for now).

Once you have that USB to Serial installed on your computer, we have to craft a custom serial cable that connects in between our USB/Serial and the "Console Data" port. Since that port is a custom pinout (two serial merged into one) I had to reverse engineer the pinout from the CPU's motherboard. Had to do it three times and now it works.

Working on it tonight, take care all,

MG

[siraltus]

Marc - any chance we can retain the control room functionality? In other words, being able to use 2-Track inputs A/B/C, the monitor speaker outputs (and be able to switch between them) and the monitor volume control? Is that tied to the DSP section (and thus not doable)? What about the headphone outputs? Great work, I'm super stoked!

[bbb]

Keep up the great work Marc

Bruce

[Petersueco]

Yes, the d8b uses two serials port for the "Console Data" port, but fortunately, we only use one of the two. One's for controlling the surface and the other one is for programming the DSPs (which we don't need really for now).

Hey Marc, that sentence is lovely. It looks like we were going to have DSP functionally in the future...

Peter Holmquist.

[farmac]

Whoa !!!! Nice work Marc. I haven't been this excited since I misread the numbers on my lottery ticket !
Keep up the good work.

[bitSync]

So relieved to find that this thread lives on in the comfort of Peter's groovy d8b board! (I'm ToneJunkie on Mackie boards - don't post very much) I checked Mackie's site a little while back and nearly hyperventilated when I saw the date on the last post. Seeing this thread here I'm now getting some blood flow back. This the coolest project I've seen in a while, Marc, and I can't tell you how exited I am about it.

I'm still caught between d8b/HDR audio mixing and making the total jump to DAW in-the-box work. The things that keep me on the fence is I love my d8b, and if I'm going to work in the box, I want a control surface that's going to make it feel natural to work like I would with the traditional mixing desk paradigm. So, I'm really pulling for you, Marc.

I'm at the point where I can't decide whether to use the d8b HUI mode and a software translator (like bome MIDI Translator) to translate bewteen HUI and MCU (Sonar 8.5.3 and X1 don't speak HUI), get a dedicated DAW control surface like Eucon (expensive and space-eating), or wait for a miracle like this. Still wondering if there's some hybrid methodology where I can switch between the OEM layers of the d8b and e.g, flip a MIDI switch (JL Cooper MSB+ Rev2) and concurrently a 9-pin switch (to interrupt d8b CPU comms) to flip to Marc's emulated-MIDI-over-Ethernet protocol; there's still so much I'm trying to figure out about what you're doing and how you're doing it. Please keep posting Marc and muchos kudos to you!

[Marc Girard]

Hello all,

I think my d8b is starting to have the famous "stuck fader" problem. It's only on the very first fader. I'll crack it open and do some "ribbon cable" cleaning. I know that Peter's site have tons of good info on that subject. I'll have another look.

I also wanted to say that I've got an SSL Nucleus controller these days at the studio. I'm testing it out with a friend, I have to say, nice board! But a bit expensive for what it offers, but I have to say: the USB sound card and the master section sounds awesome. I'll saying this to you guys because SSL went down the ipMIDI way... They did almost the same as my own d8b protocol, piping everything through the virtual MIDI ports. I have to say: it feels sluggish and a bit slow. It is sexy in terms of operation and connectivity but it is very jerky when used with the DAW.

That's why I've decided to go with the direct RS-232 hookup via a custom wire. Not as sexy but way more efficient. We bypass the "network" layer.

Now, I'm thinking about hiring a programmer to do it all in C/C++ for Windows platforms at least. I'd like to know, how much you guys would be willing to pay for such a hack? I'm thinking about bundling a custom wire with each sale because I'll have to pay my guy in the end for the software. I'm still investigating that route.

Cheers all,

Marc