Am I crazy for not liking the sound of the dlive.

[AluParticipant]

I’ve had the dlive for 2 years and love it’s functionality but I still
am not sure I like the sound of inputs into the mixrack. It seems like everything that goes in comes out softer dynamically. Like it’s missing presence. This console is kind of dark sounding to me.
Am I alone in this or is there anyone else that thinks the sound quality of this console is kind of hyped.
Thinking of going a different route like a Yamaha CL3.

[ShowtimeParticipant]

That’s the thing with modern console’s, people love or hate them.

I know a band who had cl3 and now own a dlive.

It is a personal taste issue in my opinion.

Richard

[RSParticipant]

@Alu maybe try to get a testing system with premium input cards. That way you could test, if it is the MixRack inputs, you don’t like.

For me, it might be a matter of gain structure. The summing in that console is absolutely excellent, that I tend to compare it in that respect to analog consoles I loved and worked on for many, many years (Midas XL200, XL3).
And driving the busses hard on dLive gives you nice overtones und subtle compression, that is absolutely musical and far away from sounding dull or with soft dynamics. At least this is what I love about dLive sonically, compared to other digital consoles like Yamaha.

But it might be only me and my old ears…

[volounteerParticipant]

@Alu

its you. its subjective and it is somewhat psychological as to what you naturally think is ‘good’ but cant measure.

dlive may be different, but it is not better nor worse sounding than many other top quality audio devices.

[AluParticipant]

Problem is the premium input cards are way too pricey, and you have buy a separate box too.
I had one musician tell me his beta 58 was muddy in his ears. His channel was high passed to 250! And had some high end boost too.

I’ve never had take so much low end out and add high end to beta 58s in my life than with this board. On one female vocalists, I have to high pass to 300 on some songs.
Never had to do that with avid, Midas or Yamaha. It is so full sounding but not in a good way. And I’m using Nice PA’s
D&B and Martin.

[volounteerParticipant]

@Alu

I debated this a couple decades ago.

The truth is that once you get past the middle level all stuff is so good that nothing is better but merely different
And what you prefer dominates over any measurable difference.

Now for about usd1000 it is possible to buy a studio full of gear that sounds as good as any record label studio in the 60s
that they paid 30,000,000usd (in todays usd value) to set up.

Can you do a little better?
Sure, but is it really worth the extra money?? Not to me. Not to most people in the audience either.
Maybe so to a few golden eared types who have big Egos and think they are the expert who gets to decide what is good or not.

[AluParticipant]

I am by no means a gear snob.
Just wanted to see if anyone else had similar thoughts on the dlive. It’s still a great console, I just struggle every week to get clarity out of it. Never used to be a problem with Midas, avid and Yamaha I’ve used before.

For $1000 today you can get an audio interface a mic and some soft synths.
That’s how people are making music today,
And are successful at it.

But is it really sonically better than Nat King Cole recordings from the 60’s. Not even Close. On Apple earbuds and most consumer audio, you can’t hear much difference.
On excellent systems there is a realism to those old recording that can’t be matched.
That being said, I still love modern music and the way it is recorded now.
But would I want to hear a Nick Jonas song
Recorded like they did in the sixties with tube gear and tape and no auto tune, probably not.

[volounteerParticipant]

@Alu

Your answer suggests yes.
If your gear sounds like the 60s then it has a problem.
See your dealer.

I find softsynths quite good, if they are high end.
I find the home studio gear excellent and equal to record companies studios quality when I started out in the 60s.

The only realism I see missing is the noise and scratches on the records.
The problem is that digital is TOO good and some people dont like it that way.
The rest of us declare success as hifi was our goal from the beginning and now we are there.

[AluParticipant]

I’m not debating playback. Like vinyl vs digital.
what I’m saying is that home studio gear does not touch the big boy stuff period. U47, Neve, studer, pultec, la2a etc…

I tested my Neve style transformer pre with Dlive mixrack. Mixrack was muddy in comparison(as expected)with less clarity, like an interface preamp.

[volounteerParticipant]

@Alu

There may be some minor improvement between current home studio and the ‘big boy stuff’.
But the home studio now is equal to the major record labels 30MUSD studios in the 60s.
And the stuff that is not quite big boy is just different not worse sound wise.
What the extra cost gets is features and reliability not better sound just different sound that is subjective and not measurably better.

[SteffenRParticipant]

I tested my Neve style transformer pre with Dlive mixrack. Mixrack was muddy in comparison(as expected)with less clarity, like an interface preamp.

which one? Where is the transformer located? Does it have two? Can you bypass the output transformer?
What is your signal source?

[SteffenRParticipant]

I had one musician tell me his beta 58 was muddy in his ears. His channel was high passed to 250! And had some high end boost too.

try a real microphone 😉

the Beta58 is not a good microphone at all
we did a comparison years ago and the most nasty sounding mic was the Beta58
even the SM58 sounded much better

[ScottParticipant]

@ralf you are 100% correct! dLive’s busses can be driven much like an analog console, and it sounds fantastic. It is a much warmer sounding digital console than many others which sound sterile by comparison. I can really notice this when running good mics and speaker systems, when no or very minimal channel EQ is even needed.

Also regarding vocal mics, if you want more high-end detail try something like the Beta 87s or look at some of the Sennheiser e900 series mics.

[Mike CParticipant]

Also regarding vocal mics, if you want more high-end detail try something like the Beta 87s or look at some of the Sennheiser e900 series mics.

If your looking at condenser vocal mics I think the Shure SM86 sounds better than the Beta 87, either version.
For dynamic vocal mics my go to choices are Senn E935, E945, Audio Techncia AE6100, Audix OM6.

[AluParticipant]

No way! It is not a bad mic at all. Beta 58, bono on Joshua tree and all his live shows. The list is long. Many people love them. It’s dynamics works for some. I work with a female singer that sounds best on it. Some singers need the high end bump. I also have ksm9, Neumann kms105,
Beta 87, seV7, Sennheiser e965.

[Author]

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