Dual Mixrack and Expander MMIO outputs

[dreichmccullochParticipant]

Hi,

We have an xDR with an MMIO card at FOH that feeds ADAT to an HD recorder.
I’ve just added an iDR32 to our iDR64 in dual mixrack mode, principally to use as a large stage drop.
All connections are ACE.

T112 -> iDR64 (port B ACE 2)-> xDr -> MMO -> HDR24
(port B ACE 1)-> iDR32

Everything seems to be working well except I can’t figure out if or how I can route a Channel Direct Out from the iDR32 (slave) to the ADAT outs on the xDR.

In the most useful scenario I would have a mixture of Channel Direct Outs from both mixracks available at the MMO.

Any pointers greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[Leon BigEars A&HModerator]

Make sure that Port B ‘Redundant mode’ is set to ‘OFF’ in ‘Mixer Preferences’, ‘Port A/B’.
the master port-B channels feed the xDR so choose ACE ch 1-24 as the patch for the xDR port-B [MMO] ADAT outs.
then select the source for the Master port-B ACE channels as needed [e.g. MixRack inputs / channel direct outs etc]. The Slave iDR32 channels begin at #65. Remember to look at your global direct option settings as they affect what you’ll get over ADAT (pre /post processing / mute / fader etc).

[dreichmccullochParticipant]

Thanks! Will try that out tonight.

[dreichmccullochParticipant]

Didn’t work – did think I’d tried that before, but always worth trying again.
The Master mixrack to xDR output patching doesn’t allow me to choose channels above 64.
Redundancy Mode is set to off: 1-32 port 1, 33-64 port 2; so that would make sense, I think.
I change this to off: 1-64 port 1, but lost all the xDR signals; which also makes sense (I think – I’m still making second guesses as to ACE even after reading the docs).

I did make the Slave send a Channel Direct Out on ACE 33 and patched the xDR MMIO channel 1 (ADAT 1) to ACE 33 but still no signal at the ADAT output. Again because of the redundancy mode. Damn shame, I though that with my understanding that would work – again, my ACE understanding is lacking.

Confused over the difference between ‘ACE’ and ‘ACE LINK’ in the Slave output patching selection, but tried both.

In some ways it would be a lot easier if I could get the Slave to behave as an xDR: I doubt I will never need 124 channels but two remotes would be so useful for festival type stages (expander FOH, 64 master up stage, 32 slave down stage) – no more long heavy sub-snake runs.

Thanks again though Leon!

[Leon BigEars A&HModerator]

nearly there! set the Slave MixRack port-A outputs starting at ch #33 to be MixRack inputs or Channel direct outs as you want.
on the Master port-B patch [which will include the MMO] select range of 1-24 [for the ADAT outs], then for the source, select ACE LINK from the dropdown [i.e. the returns from the Slave rack via port-A] and dial up ch #33-56 as the range.
hopefully you now have whatever is in your slave mixrack inputs / channels #65-88 etc heading towards your recorder.

NOTE: you have to use ‘Redundancy Off: In1-64 from Link1’ option for Master ACE port-B. this does mean you will not be able to receive inputs from the xDR-16. hope this is OK?
I wonder whether you would be more suited to a 2nd xDR16 instead of running DualRack? maybe 16 XLR inputs [plus its port-B i/o] isn’t enough which is why you went for an iDR32?

[dreichmccullochParticipant]

Hi Leon,

Unfortunately I use the inputs from the xDR (as analogue insert points and walk music feeds). I know I could do this from the surface but the xDR is my preferred solution.

I know now the setup I’ve been trying won’t work – and now understand why, it’s been a great exercise in becoming familiar with how things work underneath. Although I’m still not sure the actual networking differences between ACE and ACE LINK in the drop down…

For what I had in mind two xDRs would be the perfect solution, however, because of a disastrous issue with a mixrack which took months to sort out, and my geographical isolation, my lovely distributors in NZ supplied a second mixrack to use as a hot spare.

I was just trying to see if there was anyway I could utilise this on the larger stage festival work I have coming up in the next couple of months…. and apart from recording it looks like I can.

Now:
If I could just persuade A&H to put a huge amount of resources into rewriting the firmware to allow a mixrack to boot in an xDR mode just to solve one esoteric issue faced by one small customer that’d be lovely! 😉

Thanks again Leon, appreciate your time.

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