I work for a television broadcaster, and this past week, we retired an aging, and unsupported Mackie D8B with a new Tascam DM3200 mixer. Anyway, I might be able to get this D8B mixer for $1 USD.
My questions are, how much control of this board would I have with Ardour? How much of Ardour can I control with this mixer? Can Ardour control the flying faders in automation?
I have not done any serious recording in a few years, but if Ardour and the D8B can play nicely together, this would be plenty of motivation to get back into it.
Dunno for sure, and cannot find it in the manual yet. I did find this:
The D8B requires MTC (MIDI Timecode) to operate its on-board mix automation. Be sure the device receiving MMC is also generating MTC (or SMPTE - that would then need to be converted to MTC). If you are sending MMC to multiple devices, only one of those devices should send MTC to the D8B. These additional devices should also receive MTC and (depending on the device) also be locked to the master word clock, usually the D8B - if you have the Apogee Clock card installed.
However, the more I look at the manual, the less I think this board is controllable via MIDI/DAW.
Well that part you posted is if you want recorded automation in the D8B to play along with MTC is my guess, where you seemed to want something a bit different, to use the D8B to control Ardour.
the more I read, the smarter I’m becoming. The d8b in question has v3.1 of the Mackie OS installed. Apparently, 3.1 does not support any HUI devices, but the newer v5.1 does. That is a $300 software upgrade, and may well be worth every penny.
So now I guess the question is, does Ardour support HUI interfaces?
Ardour supports the Logic Protocol. While in actuality this is I believe descendant from the HUI protocol, in the same way the Mackie protocol is descendant from the Logic Protocol, there are likely some differences that would make it not work quite right.
the d8b was the original digital mixer used to “design” ardour to work in conjunction with, so to speak. that said, i haven’t tried it in a long time.
there is a “fader page” mode which leads to the faders sending MIDI CC’s rather than controlling gain. i don’t recall if any of the buttons or v-pots send MIDI CC info too, but i have a hunch that they might. i never tested ardour/MIDI CC control of the d8b motorized faders. my rough guess is that they might respond to incoming MIDI CC if you are on that “fader page”
Very interesting bit of information there Paul. It will be later this week whether I find out if I get her or not. Presently the d8b’s components are stacked up in an unfinished bathroom in our new unfinished facility (no pun intended).
I will most certainly try your suggestions when and if I get it. Thank you very much!
After almost 7 months, I finally had the Mackie D8B given to me last week. Hurray!! It took much longer than originally expected to get my hands on it.
After sitting in a storage area for 6 months, it was quite dirty. I have it in pieces right now, cleaning it and replacing some faulty and sticking Alps faders, and some mute buttons that are shot. Overall, the board is in very good condition…always used in a smoke free environment. The MIDI cable is missing, but I should be able to build one easily. I hope to get her back together this weekend and try connecting it with Ardour.
I see the latest v5.1 software for d8b supports the Pro Tools protocols. Is this the same as the Logic protocols? Does Ardour support ProTools?
Well that settles it then. No need to spend the $300 on the v5.1 software upgrade. I will post once again when I get the board back together and hooked up. I’m sure I will have many more questions.
The d8b in question has v3.1 of the Mackie OS installed. Apparently, 3.1 does not support any HUI devices, but the newer v5.1 does. That is a $300 software upgrade, and may well be worth every penny.