V2.0

[HazzardParticipant]

The new card does not use a card slot, it’s installed internally.

[LishinskyParticipant]

Where would the card be installed? It can be a problem if it takes a I/O port.

[HazzardParticipant]

It’s installed inside the mixrack, a free pci-e slot there.

[JKParticipant]

it’s in the mixrack, there was always an empty slot there, you will have to unscrew and disassemble the mixrack

[SteveParticipant]

Yeah. Less than impressed with this update. Like so many people, we had been hearing all sorts of rumors about the items that might be included in v2.0, only to be underwhelmed.

As someone who doesn’t use scenes at all, nor has much use for live auto-tuning, this feels like I got a lump of coal for the holidays. 🙂

Would have much rather had 2.0 include:

– Group to Group mixing (please? maybe some day?)
– Fine adjustment on things like EQ points, DYN8 settings, HPF/LPF points, etc (try to dial-in a 1/9 EQ at 75.5Hz or some other precise number)
– Modules like an API2500 or Distressor (how long have we been thinking that was coming?)
– Adjustable Q settings for the gate key filter
– Ability to solo/listen to EQ and/or DYN8 in the PA (think Waves F6 right-click)
– An improved PSE (Waves is still better, and the real deal is even moreso… the A&H PSE is ok, but not really magical)
– USB recording that actually works and doesn’t suffer from jitter/lag

Gangable DYN8 is nice because now we don’t have to copy/paste DYN8 for channels that are ganged… but aside from that… meh. Insert sad trombone sound effect here. I’ll go back to yelling at clouds as well. 🙂

Edit to add: what happens when someone’s MixRack with the additional card fails and the rental house/rescue MixRack doesn’t have the card? What if their show relies on the card?

[ChrisNorthenParticipant]

As others have said, and I’m seeing this more than any other comment on multiple platforms; this is just underwhelming.

For context, we love Allen and Heath and own 5 complete dLive systems (engine and surface,) and multiple SQs along with moving to AHM for our facility. But I’ve gotta get on a soapbox for a minute. This forum is for feedback so I’ll share.

Yes it’s the next number, but as evidenced by numbering like 1.99a, A&H knows that the naming of 2.0 indicates something new and bigger than normal releases. This is not that. At least not enough to make it that for existing users.
It matters for new system purchases for sure, and once you have the new hardware, it’s good stuff to have.
Buying new hardware is tough, on top of install downtime and costs, but outside the FX and additional routing, there are very few features to this “big” update.
So many big feature requests missing.
Most agree the UI is a bit dated. Relatively easy fix there, but no.
Group to group? Gotta figure this out. It’s vital to advanced workflows that make up a ton of customers in this price point and those who use this level of I/O.
Pickoff points. Global choices isn’t enough. Channel by channel pickoff points for busses and direct outs. Get it done.
How are inserts still not included in the Channel Library when saving? Ganging Dyn8s is cool and saving mixes is a huge deal, but insert content, especially internal processing like the Dyn8, should be recallable with the rest of the channel strip. Shouldn’t require two saves and two recalls.
Release an iPhone app already. Every console has this for mixing monitors. Other A&H consoles have this. You know how to write the code and have to know this desired by your users. This should have come with a 2.0 release.
EQ modeling. More dynamics modeling. Improvements to existing modeling.

A big marketing point that many have heard is that the FPGA was capable of much more and there was room to grow. Your sister company has utilized this room for growth. It’s very hard to hear that the processor just couldn’t do more and therefor requires an additional purchase to add some things that really should be included (mostly improved reverbs, which were lackluster from the beginning.)

Please help your customers out by delivering 2.1 with much more and very quickly. And give information on what an upgrade for UltraFX looks like, aside from contact your dealer, many of whom don’t seem to have answers on release day.

[TJCornishParticipant]

Wow – it must be hard to be a product manager. Nothing is ever good enough; it’s too slow, too late, too expensive, too dumb, etc.

The DLive is a console that checks a lot of boxes for a lot of organizations – especially churches. This update – assuming the new effects are comparable – will sell a lot of units to people who need a little more polish (ahem, autotune), but don’t want the nightmare of Waves. I’m sorry some pet feature requests didn’t make the cut, but maybe give the guys at least a week before cranking the waaambulance up again.

[AlexParticipant]

Art this an internal chip not a card slot

[LishinskyParticipant]

Anybody knows the price and the availability of the new chip?

[BrianParticipant]

I’ve seen $2750 and “around 2k” being thrown around on Facebook, but I have no idea if this is accurate. They also say that it will be available right away. Of course I haven’t seen it listed in any stores yet, so again, I have no idea if this is accurate.

[LishinskyParticipant]

Thanks Brian

[RuneSParticipant]

I think people have forgotten how much has actually been added to dLive over time. That new release notes document goes all the way back. Try looking at ‘new features’ for every release. Dyn-8 wasn’t released until 1.40 for crying out loud. So much have been added, and more to come.

What I find lackluster about the update is that workflow improvements. You still can’t write protect a show file, you still can’t opt-out of muted DCAs, you still can’t copy a channel with all settings including preamp and name/color. (but you can now save and recall it) Guess I’m making a preset called 000Copy and using that.

[BrianParticipant]

I know group to group routing has been requested for years now and I completely agree needs to be an option on a console competing in this market segment. Obviously allowing this routing choice would allow a person to “break” the latency compensation that is built into the console. Because of this fact, I’ve always considered this feature request to require more of a “foundational” change in the way A&H thinks about the DLive system vs the request simply being a technical problem to solve. If there was ever a “good time” to implement a “foundational change”, it would have been during the 2.0 update. Given the fact that they decided not to implement group to group routing, I have assume they are never going to include it. Of course this is all personal speculation and I have been woefully wrong about lots of things in the past. Still, I feel that A&H missed out on a perfect opportunity to make this change and I have to assume it was a conscious decision to do so.

[RuneSParticipant]

90% of people who ask for group to group fall into 1 of 2 catagories.

1. They want a seperate band and vocal group. This can be accomplished by using the master bus as a band bus and sending that + the vocal group etc. to a matrix. (I then use that matrix as master and send it to external in on other matrices I use for outputs…but you don’t need to)

2. Kick group into drum group. You can do that with external in on the drum group.

Then there is the last 10%. Those cases require extra routing, but less than many indicate. Instead of sending each bus to seperate input channels, use matrices to combine several busses and instead send the matrix to an input. I think this feature is less important to the general community than many on this forum think.

[PerttuParticipant]

To me it feels like people haven’t really read the release notes, installed the new V2.0 firmware or haven’t downloaded the Director V2.0.

There’s so much new cool stuff, but also very much needed tools make big shows happen.

The V2.0 firmware update for dLive is truly groundbreaking, not only because of the RackUltra FX Suite.
You all know about the 8 new RackUltra FX slots, but did you realise you can now do the Vocal Reverb Sidechain Trick with Post dynamics processing?

With Actions I feel like the new feature is there, but we now need to throw more ideas towards A&H of what we actually want/need in the Action/Functions! How about Virtual Soundcheck ON/OFF with similar safe-time as SIP? And maybe a Mix-Sends-onFader with Talkback only going to the person who’s mix you are fine tuning?

Cue List System Update is great. I love the cue numbering, recall IDs and Indents. It’s so much easier to break your set-list now to Intro, Verse, Chorus, C, Solo-parts etc.

DYN8 Ganging is great for you Drum and Drum Parallel Groups, but also very much needed if you are doing any PA system MAtrixing in your console.

Moreover the PFL can now be labeled as well! Or maybe I just haven’t spotted it before? 🙂

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