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

[Zorba the Geek]

Hi again Marc,

Thanks for taking the time to respond; you are the bomb!
Oh and yes, you are right, simple zooming is also the bomb!

I'll stop pestering you with annoying questions and let you fill some more orders and get some cables made. Thanks for the detailed info and for being so accommodating with feature requests and explanations. Looking forward to getting my cable and firing up this re-born beast. Once again, congrats on the amazing work!

Kind regards,
George

[mackdaddie]

A job well done guyss.!

[proteusmedia]

Marc you all have Done a Hell of a Job. I will do my purchase on next week after i get the kids Christmas Shopping out of the way. I do want to confirm on the the Connection set up. D8b is a the MCU. I will be running this on Nuendo running a MOTU 2408 MKll w/ PCI-424 on a win 7 i6. Would i need to use an ext mixer due to currently running 3 digital i/o' cards (24 in's and outs) from the the D8B to the 2408 MKll. Also we are still required to utilize the D8B power supply to power the board or does the connector that u have designed provide ample power to the board via USB.

[neto117]

Marc Girard and François Vézina
Here is my way of saying thanks...Just placed my order, for me the count down really starts now.

[Marc Girard]

mackdaddie: Thanks!

proteusmedia: Thanks to you too! Take care of the kids first! You need to keep your Power Supply because the Console Data cable does not provide electricity to the mixer. With D8Bridge, you can mix inside your computer and not worry about having 24 outs. That's the beauty of it!

neto117: THANK YOU! Will send your cable and software monday first thing! I'm happy to have a customer that runs Sonar. I can't wait to see how D8Bridge is working with it! Thanks again!

Marc

[fiverec]

Hi all
I'll have to wait out the version for Mac Osx
with the desire he had of me this gift and I can not as I use Mac
I hope you take it out soon Marc
A greeting!

[Greg Genlot]

And one more order ! Can't wait to tease my d8b/Cubase 6 with this new stuff.
Thanks again Marc for your incredible work and thanks also to Peter and to all the d8b freaks around here for this almighty thread.

Cheers from France!

[Prophet Of Noise]

I'll be one the the many that will order the d8bridge the minute the OSX version comes out... Please do so quickly!

[bobtudor]

Hey guys - pretty interesting stuff. The protocol in the D8B was clear text ASCII because I always hoped someone would do this someday If you need any help let me know but it should be pretty obvious. Just remember you can drop leading zeros.
A-F is reserved with 0-9 for hex prefixes to addresses, and lower case keys for commands. Piece of cake.

I would suggest not using HUI protocol though, and consider custom DLL's for Steinberg, a MIDI map for StudioOne, and middleware uCON for ProTools. HUI is something that should die at this point. And it will not support full length channel labels, VFD screens, etc..

Get the Steinberg SDK and write a D8B custom DLL that talks over the serial port and ports the commands.
Consider writing the middleware with JUCE, so you can support Mac users.

Another food for thought: Consider replacing the convertor boards and the PC.
It's not that tough. I2S lines. I bet you could tack an iPAD on the meter bridge to run the whole UI without the boat anchor PC from p90 days. The mic pre's are on ribbons too so the whole console as it was originally intended can be upgraded.
You can wrap the software in Windows Embedded with an abstraction layer and run the actual D8B code if you fix the linker errors. It's just x86 code in an RTOS.

And this is all public knowledge you just need a screwdriver and hyperterminal.
If you're wondering where all those people who worked on the D8B mixer are today (well most of them) take a look at Presonus StudioLive mixers. That's US former Mackie kids. Joe Erno (ID guy), Kevin Howard (mixer hardware), me (software), James and Dwayne (software), Ron K. (the ad guy), - we all are making mixers down South @ Presonus. Please buy one so my XMAS bonus rocks next year <chuckle> . Good work

All the best,
Bob Tudor
CTO
Presonus

[chucklesmcfarland]

Well that's a pretty sweet endorsement