The Logic Off Topic list

one other question OT...

so i'm at the stage where i'm going through the apple certified  
books, teaching myself logic (and audio engineering in general), with  
an mbox, powerbook, and a small midi keyboard.

it's a happy little home i have so far.

at work (mac IT) in our storage room is a mackie d8b that hasn't been  
touched or used in well over a year.

a) what exactly is that beast?
b) is it of any use? what does it do?
c) can it be hooked in with logic somehow?
d) might it cost money to get it up to date and running? (e.g.  
software updates, etc.)

any thoughts would be appreciated. i don't think my boss exactly  
knows what it is or what its value might be.

-n.

Message posted by Sean McCoy <osr@...>
______________________________________________________________________

It's a powerful, full-featured, automated digital mixing console. I've been using it as the center of my studio for about five years, and though I do have a few issues, overall it's a killer board. If you're currently using an M-Box and one keyboard, setting up and making use of the D8B might be overkill, as it's designed to handled up to 56 inputs (analog and digital), has eight busses, twelve aux sends, two monitor sends and more. It would only really be useful to you if you needed lots of inputs for keyboards or external outboard effects, or are doing live multi-channel recording, taking advantage of its twelve mic preamps and flexible headphone mix capabilities.

The board does have possibilities as a Logic controller, but its size makes it a little impractical for that use in most setups. I do my audio work on a PC, using Logic only for composing, so I've never explored this option. I believe D8B software version 5 turned it into a virtual HUI, but I'm not positive about that. 

You might want to plug it in and see what software version it shows when it boots, and check out the back panel to see what kind of interface cards it might have. Then you'd have a better idea of whether or not it might be worth trying to integrate into your studio. It does require a large, external, rackmounted CPU/power supply unit, so look for that. And, to work with it easily, it really needs a keyboard, mouse, and VGA monitor.

Sean McCoy
Oregon Sound Recording