D8Bridge Version 2.0 is progressing - Good news!

[Axeman098]

Wow, I love when I go away for a bit, and come back and there's all this cool new stuff going on! YAY!

Marc, one question...the new "App" view looks amazing, so you're saying the board's audio Inputs WILL be functional? RIGHT ON!!! But how will the DAW see the board? As both a controller AND and audio I/O device? I'm asking specifically in reference to Sonar (X2/X3). Will the board's inputs be "seen" in Sonar as assignable inputs? That would be damn outstanding! What if I want to use the Board's inputs WITH my MOTU 896HD's? Will I still be able to set the Primary device? Or would the Mackie have to be primary and the MOTU's synced to it. I'm just trying to get an understanding of how the Audio input side of it would/could be configured to use the MAckie AND other interfaces in tandem.

PS REALLY Glad to see you back Marc

[Casey_Pittman]

I think what Marc means is that the inputs can be routed to the tape outs, aux & bus outs. I don't see a way that his "app" will be transferring any audio to and from the computer. And while thats very cool and useful the use of the control room section would be fantastic as well.

-Casey

[RustyNotes]

Is there any way for you to make the d8b to controll the EQ in Studio one, just as you can in cubase and nuendo?

Well, that all depends on how the manufacturer of your DAW implements the MCU / HUI protocol. I plan on making better documentation for D8Bridge 2.0 on how to install, configure and use the software vs the DAW.

Yeah that's what I figured. I just wondering if that was something you did, or cubase and nuendo now I know. No more questions really looking forward to this update. And a big thank you for coming back and posting. The $ I put into d8bridge is money well spent!

[ProgKeys]

Marc,

Sent you a PM. Got asked several challenge questions "How many faders" etc. so I hope you got it.

[NigelC]

I am hoping eventually this is what might be possible:

1. Existing Mic/Line Layer drawing from built-in Audio I/O including Opt8/TFIF cards
2. Existing Tape Return Layer drawing from built-in Audio I/O including Opt8/TFIF cards
3. DAW Layer using 24 Faders with banking

Basically offering the same functionality as if using the 5.1 OS with a HUI layer, only the HUI layers is now effectively a 3 x Mackie Control unit. So you can simply switch between, using the same button commands. So to switch to the DAW layer involves the same as if entering the HUI layer currently.

Even better a way to lock down the DAW layer to channel types eg Audio, MIDI, FX (like on a Mackie Control).

I think the DAW control aspect is great, but still being able to use the 24 I/O inputs is handy even though they are not as good as newer converters.

PS And hope the Mac version becomes reality!

[Marc Girard]

I am hoping eventually this is what might be possible:

1. Existing Mic/Line Layer drawing from built-in Audio I/O including Opt8/TFIF cards
2. Existing Tape Return Layer drawing from built-in Audio I/O including Opt8/TFIF cards
3. DAW Layer using 24 Faders with banking

Well, I could have not summed it up better! That is precisely that D8Bridge 2.0 will be. A replacement for Mackie OS... With full MCU/HUI/MIDI compatibility. I'm holding up stuff for v2.5 (EQs, Comps, plugins, etc) since I've got some more research to do.

Mac support is planned... The new code base for D8Bridge 2.0 (which is a complete rewrite/redesign) is already running on MacOS X. Some more development has to be done on the CoreAudio/CoreMIDI but it will be supported.

All of the HUI/MCU emulation is double/triple checked with a MIDI Monitor *And* the DAW. In the final steps, D8Bridge 2.0 will be compared to real hardware MCUs and HUIs to make sure the emulation is proper.

For those who want the D8Bridge 2.0 functions (DAW + Audio) but have a broken D8B computer, there will be two options:

- Run D8Bridge 2.0 in "compatibility" mode with the custom serial cable. No audio will be available.
- Replace motherboard of the D8B computer with anything really and run the D8Bridge 2.0 Disk on it

When all is done and running smoothly, I might do some research with a Raspberry Pi computer. That's a 35$ computer that runs Linux (on an ARM CPU). It is small enough to be built in the D8B mixer directly so we could ditch the "boat anchor PSU" as Bob Tudor calls it! It could be fun to have some sort of a "CPU/PSU/D8Bridge" combo/replacement for users...

That's the news for today folks, got some more coding to do!

[Petersueco]

Hi Marc.

I see that you mention Bob Tudor, the brain that designed the d8b. Is he collaborating with you in this version, or do you have contact with him in any way?

Just curious.

Peter Holmquist.

[NigelC]

I am hoping eventually this is what might be possible:

1. Existing Mic/Line Layer drawing from built-in Audio I/O including Opt8/TFIF cards
2. Existing Tape Return Layer drawing from built-in Audio I/O including Opt8/TFIF cards
3. DAW Layer using 24 Faders with banking

Well, I could have not summed it up better! That is precisely that D8Bridge 2.0 will be. A replacement for Mackie OS... With full MCU/HUI/MIDI compatibility. I'm holding up stuff for v2.5 (EQs, Comps, plugins, etc) since I've got some more research to do.

Mac support is planned... The new code base for D8Bridge 2.0 (which is a complete rewrite/redesign) is already running on MacOS X. Some more development has to be done on the CoreAudio/CoreMIDI but it will be supported.

All of the HUI/MCU emulation is double/triple checked with a MIDI Monitor *And* the DAW. In the final steps, D8Bridge 2.0 will be compared to real hardware MCUs and HUIs to make sure the emulation is proper.

For those who want the D8Bridge 2.0 functions (DAW + Audio) but have a broken D8B computer, there will be two options:

- Run D8Bridge 2.0 in "compatibility" mode with the custom serial cable. No audio will be available.
- Replace motherboard of the D8B computer with anything really and run the D8Bridge 2.0 Disk on it

When all is done and running smoothly, I might do some research with a Raspberry Pi computer. That's a 35$ computer that runs Linux (on an ARM CPU). It is small enough to be built in the D8B mixer directly so we could ditch the "boat anchor PSU" as Bob Tudor calls it! It could be fun to have some sort of a "CPU/PSU/D8Bridge" combo/replacement for users...

That's the news for today folks, got some more coding to do!

Hello Marc,

That sounds great! From a selfish perspective, I did not hold out and got some MCUs, but I still like the idea of having one set of controllers dedicated to audio channels and another to MIDI rather than banking, so I would still be very interested in this solution.

The only thing that is not well designed is that in Mackie's MCU Control protocol (at least in Logic) you cannot hide a channel type on an MCU, it will hide in Logic but not on the MCU channels in Arrange mode. If you switch to Track mode, then you can display certain track types.

Problem is in Track mode the order of tracks is different to your Arrange window as each track type is grouped together. So if you want to display all channels except Audio, the order will change from your Arrange window.

I have tried an experiment with the HUI in 5.1 locking it to the AUX channels however unless in Track view the MCUs still display the AUX channels! Its a pity Mackie have not done anything to further develop the protocol as not being able to hide channels in Arrange view is stupid.

Being able to hide just Audio but remain in Arrange view I would think is very useful for those still using analogue desks for their audio in combination with a DAW controller for their MIDI/FX.

But seems unless you are in Pro Tools land or have the budget for an Avid System 5 there is no large format controller that can do all this.

[Marc Girard]

Well, didn't say much in here for the last few days! I was looking for solutions to improve graphic performance of D8Bridge 2.0. You see, Windows/OSX GUIs are a bit slow for screen refresh and they grab a lot of precious CPU time to draw the screen graphics (really important for an application like mine, as I solely rely on graphics for the console...)

Another problem that I have, the cross platform coding sometimes brings unexpected challenges... Say, system calls! (Something as simple as how to check a mouse button state!) Works fine under Windows, and suddenly, the Mac version craps out... Ah, the joys of being a software developer!

None of the less, I successfully ported my graphics code to OpenGL and now, I'm happy to report that D8Bridge 2.0 works a bit like Waves Plugins: Fully hardware accelerated for GUI/Screen redraws. What does that means? Well, the application is lightning fast as your video card takes care of drawing the mixer on screen and the CPU is free to process your various audio tracks and plugins...

Peter and I improved the graphics a little more, now the mixer looks quite good! I'll post a new screenshot in the next few hours.

Spread the news, you might have an happy christmas this year! (OK OK, maybe an happy new year, I dunno yet!)

[djrezinfingerz]

Works fine under Windows, and suddenly, the Mac version craps out... Ah, the joys of being a software developer!

So Mac Support will still be available in the future, just not as soon as you would like?