Setup DX168's in Director

[RussParticipant]

Hi, trying to setup 3x DX168 in Director but not succeeding (works perfectly IRL though), here’s the setup:

S5000
DM64
1xDX168 in redundant (DX1/2)
2xDX168 in cascade (DX3/4)

It all works fine in real life, but configuring in Director is a mystery, I’ve tried every different permutation in the SYSTEM page in the dx32 section to no avail.

here’s what’s been happening in Director:

I choose Analogue in for DX 32 cards 1+2 this brings up 16 inputs right where I want them on 1-16 of DX1/2, cool.
I then choose Analogue out for DX32 cards 3+4 this brings my outputs on DX1/2 in software onto 17-32…….. I get why it does that, as it seems like each card is either 8 inputs or 8 outputs, but is there no way of having inputs start on 1 and you r outputs start on 1?

And getting it to ‘cascade’ in director is a complete mystery, can only have a total of 32 signals on the DX in Director it seems (please correct me if I’m wrong), and given this, it looks like you can’t configure cascading, as that’s 32 in, 16 out.

Has anyone figured this out? as being able to successfully configure I/O before a show is a massive timesaver, or rather, NOT being able to configure I/O beforehand is a massive time waste, and the loss of time pre show is significant, what with i’o change causing preamp safes to be dropped etc…..

Any help much appreciated.

[RussParticipant]

I’ve sorted it, if anybody is wondering you only configure your inputs in director.
Don’t bother configuring outputs, you can still patch the outputs on dx1/2 and dx3/4 they’ll just be greyed out, but that doesn’t matter as the outputs don’t contain information that can change like headamp values, phantom and pad, the output is merely on or off so when the mixrack ‘sees’ the dx168 in real life it will just honour your output patch……….hopefully.
The input patch is the one you need to concentrate on as that contains head amp info etc.. and could muck you up if not pre-configured.
ALSO, VERY IMPORTANT: Whenever changing stage boxes, or Digital sat boxes to something different, i.e. DM64 changed to CDM32 it WILL DROP YOUR PREAMP SAFES IN SCENES, so make sure you reenable them or have the most wonderful 20mins at a soundcheck wondering why all your preamp values change to your last saved stage box values when you made the scenes. FUN.
so:
Cards 1&2 set to analogue in (obviously) if setup as ‘redundant’ DX168.
Cards 1-4 setup as analogue in if setup as ‘cascade with 2x DX168

DX32 1 = port 1+2 on your mix rack and DX1/2 in your console/Director
and
DX32 2 = Port 3+4 on your mix rack and DX3/4 in your console/Director, obviously.

Hope that helps someone, not instantly intuitive.

Russ

[Author]

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