So, we finally did our first full show last night with the new iDR32, MMO and D-OUT … and it all worked perfectly.

We did a fresh mix with all instruments, which went really well. We are using Aviom A16IIs from the MMO card, and have provisionally given the drummer a PL10 to control the drum mix being sent to the Avioms through a Stereo Aux. This works SOOO much better than the old Yamaha LS9 solution, where we pre-mixed the drum signals through a MOTU 896 and Logic, and back out into two channels. (No surprise there.)

Although not really important, things we noted:

1. The iDR pre-amps seems to be of a higher quality than the LS9. They sound brighter, and we got less distortion and more head-room when experimenting with high signal input levels.
2. The MMO seems to have less latency than the Mini-Y card in the LS9; we haven’t measured this, and I can’t be bothered to do so, but the feeling when playing piano was more immediate, and the voice also seemed ‘nearer’.
3. Having the sound engineer muting and un-muting the effects on the iPad / iPhone worked really well, as he wasn’t tied to an FoH station and could do the low-level operations whilst remaining mobile. We tried this with the LS9 and a laptop / tablet, but it wasn’t as good, although now the Yamaha iPad app is out, that should be possible.
4. We did notice a few ‘system busy’ incidents, as alluded to on other threads, but it didn’t interfere.

We are still waiting for the Dante card, like the rest of the A&H world!, as we are currently still running the MOTU896 as the soundcard for the piano, strings, EP and bass samples from the MacPro.

Overall: really, really happy!

http://www.pianojam.nl