Ability to program MIDI soft keys would be very helpful.
Is that what you mean, i’m busy with it…
Sorry, this will work
I think you wanted to link this video:
https://www.facebook.com/nico.devroe/videos/869266726574496/
But this isn’t what I meant.
Currently we have a limited number of Soft Keys available on the surface.
My suggestion is the ability to expand the MIDI protocol, so external MIDI controllers with buttons/pads could be used as Soft Keys. It is currently partially possible, because MIDI allows to recall scenes, mute channels, etc. - but it’s not possible, for example, to assign MIX function (DCA spill, AUX send on faders) to a MIDI command.
So again:
MIDI Soft Keys allowing external MIDI controllers to be used as additional Soft Keys would be a great addition.
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This, and select MIX through Midi (as in the iLive) It is fundamental, basic, very important. Please do it now.
I’ve asked them to update the MIDI protocol so every function is available, or, if that’s too hard, at least release the communication protocol that’s used for Director/MixPad/CustomControl so we can implement our own external controls.
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My truncated list of improvements includes these:
Midi Sel
Midi Mix
Midi softkey
The problem is…which UI (director, surface, etc) do I send the command to?
[Don’t want random midi softkey presses affecting all surface/UI/Director instances on the network… (needs to be specific)]
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Or is there something new yet?
Some of the MIDI restrictions are possibly driven by business rather than technical concerns.
Chamsys give their software away for free and unlock most features if you attach a piece of their hardware but one feature that remains locked is MIDI control inputs. This is specifically done to protect their hardware business. If you want to use MIDI you have to buy a dongle to unlock it at a price which makes using MIDI hardware as a cheap control surface unatractive compared to just buying some Chamsys hardware.
I would expect the same thinking around fully implemented MIDI for dLive (or any other console).
A fully implemented MIDI specification would allow use of cheap commodity MIDI hardware to be used as a surface which would potentially eat into A&H surface sales.
You might sell more mixracks going this route but maybe if you run the numbers it still doesn’t make business sense.
Remember in the grand scheme of things pro audio is still almost a cottage industry. Economies of scale just don’t exist like they do in the consumer world.
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@MJCElectronics
With all due respect for your opinion. I will try to be as explicit as possible. Their reasons given are still relative. I want to remember that dLive is in market competition with other well-known brands which have an absolutely complete Midi implementation, or what is the same, total Midi implementation of ALL the parameters of the mixer.
It is not my intention to enter into comparisons, but to cite an example, Yamaha LS9 (in terms of this business it is currently an old table, it was launched in 2006, it has been 14 years!) Has full control of each of its parameters via Midi!
I am a huge fan of dLive, I love its sound and ergonomics, but I must say that I feel a tremendous frustration that I do not have full access through Midi to all the parameters of the console.
In these times where the industry has firmly bet on MIDI 2.0 I think that is the direction in which we must look. The day Allen & Heath implements full access to all parameters via Midi in dLive, it will undoubtedly change the game completely. It will have no competition of any kind.
Note that I said possibly, I have no evidence to back that possibility up it’s just something to consider.
Sometimes decisions not to implement something that is technically straightforward are driven by many other business factors.
The LS9 comparison is not exactly apples to apples as once you’ve bought the LS9 you have a contol surface already and there are no options otherwise, MIDI is just remote control.
DLive is an unusual beast in this respect with the console in reality being the mixrack rather than the surface and that makes a full MIDI implementation different to most consoles.
A&H has the business need to drive sales of DLive surfaces, if you can build a surface equivalent with cheap commodity MIDI controllers then there will be some loss of surface sales.
Yamaha is also a much bigger company that A&H (and its parent) so business decisions may be different.
The news of some well known names at A&H being made redundant this week makes me think their priorities right now will be generating revenue and anything which might be counter productive to that won’t happen.
Again I have no evidence that this is the reason we don’t see all of the feature requests granted, I’m just saying we need to consider that some decisions will be based on a whole bunch of factors that we as the consumer will never see directly.
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MIDI mix would be so good.