Akai DL1500

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frederic

frederic

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The E-Bay gods were kind today.

Received an Akai DL1500, for those who aren't familiar with the unit its the fancy remote normally used with DD1000, DD1500 digital dubbers (post production stuff).

Anyway, some web links have indicated that this remote will work with the Akai DR-16/DR8 recorders, in fact quite a few web links advertise that it does.

Akai Professional said "No, no way, we never implemented it, DD series only".

Well, hot darn, suprisingly enough I connect my most updated DR16 via "akainet" to the remote, the remote display changed from "no machines connnected" to "Found Akai DR-16 V2.32"

Neat. Arm/disarm all 16 channels worked, the remote send wordclock down the pipe, and I can even format the DR16's hard disks remotely!

So, while I'm up in this attic, I decided to be even more daring. I installed another akainet board into another DR16, attached that, and viola, the remote found that recorder as well. Formatted the hard drive, and I'm sitting up here in a 100 degree attic formatting recorder drivers with a remote.

The third DR16 wasn't recognized, but the software is 2.00, so in a few I'm going to pop out the eproms out of one of the later versions, make an image, then burn it and shove them into the older version DR16. Done this before so its not a big deal at all.

Fun day in the attic.
 
"Now Frederic, playing with the toys will not get that studio done any quicker."

"Yes, Mother."

(sounds like more fun on a hot day than breaking boards, I will admit).....

Darryl.....
 
"Now Frederic, playing with the toys will not get that studio done any quicker."
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Funny, thats what my wife said. lol

(sounds like more fun on a hot day than breaking boards, I will admit).....
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I just finished copying DR16 eproms to plop in the other machines so everything has the same version.

Here is something really cool -

Akai DR8's are ... 8 track recorders.
Akai DR16's are ... 16 track recorders.

Analog, they are very different (different analog daughter boards, different converters, etc)

Digitally, they are identical. There is some minor faceplate stenciling differences, but all 16 VU meters are there on the DR8, they just don't do anything and aren't labeled.

So, copy the two proms in the DR16, slap them in the DR8, shove in a 16-ch adat card, and power it up!

And the DL1500 remote reports it as a DR16, and it syncs perfectly with the other DR16's.

So, now I have 3 DR16's and 2 wannabe DR16's.

And here Akai thought they were being clever :) Charge twice the price for twice the channels.

Bwah-ha-ha-ha. Sorry, I'm just pleased with myself.
 
So that'll give you like 80 tracks total in the end? Sounds pretty good. I'm not that familiar with the Akai recorders. I assume they are hard disk? Are there limitations on the size/type of disks used?

Anyway, some fun.

Darryl.....
 
So that'll give you like 80 tracks total in the end?
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Yep. Don't have enough mixer channels for it :)

I'm not that familiar with the Akai recorders. I assume they are hard disk? Are there limitations on the size/type of disks used?
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A while back I was trying to see what the limit was, so I plugged in a 50gig seagate, and it booted fine. Not sure what the limit is, but its at least 50 gig :)

I usually use much smaller hard drives simply because I store only a few songs on each set of drives, so having 9 gig drives 5% full sitting in the media safe is a waste.

I use 7200 rpm drives or faster, and they work fine, mostly server drives such as Seagate, IBM, DEC, etc. They all fit nice on those kensington mobile racks :)
 
Saga continues...

I was having a problem syncronizing multiple machines together with the new controller.

Normally, like ADATs, akai DR-series recorders have an in-out, in-out, in-out remote sync cable setup so everything locks together. This of course worked :)

Once I installed all the akainet boards (fancy ethernet), the sync cables go away, and all the recorders sync to the ethernet data coming from the controller.

Of course, things always have to have problems, and I've spent a good hour on the phone with Akai, and they've been very helpful actually.

Turned out, the manual I got with the remote is for 2.0 version of the code, and the unit has 3.30 version of the code, which is why have the stuff the manual says "push this, do that" doesn't work right.

Duh!

Time to get this gear back into the attic. The bug guy will be here at noon and after a few hours of settling time, I can go back into the loft and stick in more insulation. I found a few secondary carpenter ant nests, and decided a can of raid was not the right solution for something this large. I'll let the pros do it, and he'll get the entire attic, crawl space, and the ceiling joists. Something I couldn't do with a can of raid.
 
yeah, I own an Akai DPS16. fucking awesome machine!!!!!!!!
 
Suggestion- sell everything you just did and get the Akai dps24. Get two of them if you must. There is nothing better, nothing.
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I've heard stuff done on those units before (the DPS16), and you're right, its a very sweet unit.

My reason(s) for sticking with the DR series is they are fairly inexpensive, easily modifyable, and key for me - rackmount.

Suggestion much appreciated :) Seriously :)
 
Shockwave said:
Cool. As long as it's an Akai, you can't go wrong!

Dan
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I've always liked akai.

never liked their tech support, but I do like their product lines.

I got started with an Akai 612S sampler and quickdisk drive, if you remember those. Then branched into an XE8 drum unit, and from there, well, I got infected with akai recorders :D

Infected, like so:
 

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Frustration!

Not that y'all are interested in my problems...

But it seems I can sync the recorders using the official akai remote cables, thus perfectly locking the units together as one big-ass recorder, and the remote can only see the first machine.

Or, the remote can see all the machines, and God forbid the machines display the same time, ever. They zero fine, but push play, and they wander off randomly. How nice.

So, being a persistant guy with a large ego and pissed when large black boxes get the best of me, I say to myself, "Hey, what can I use to sync all the machines together from a time perspective?"

SMPTE.

So, I pull out of the boxes, three SMPTE boards I have for sale on e-bay, plop one in each machine, then pick one to be the master, and two to be slaves, and wire out --> in using a TRS "Y" cord.

Good idea, huh?

Turns out, now they display times that are close, but they are always off by at a minimum of several frames. However, if they are consistant as far as how much they wander, I can deal with that.

So, I push play, setting the master to run from 00:00:00:00.0 to 01:00:00:00.0. Gotta love "in out" functionality.

Push play. wait an hour. The master stops, the slaves stop, and I write down the three times. Push rewind, everything is now zeroed, push play again. Wait an hour. The master displayed 1 hour perfectly. The other two machines had random (but close) times.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

@#(*$ing piece of #(*$@ God @#(*$ Mother #@*$er.

*sigh*

Yanno, when I had a rack of black-face adats, they were always synced perfectly. Always. No matter what. They didn't eject tapes on occasion, but they were synced.

Thank you for listening, I figured this crew would appreciate the pain. My wife's eyes just glazed over then asked "You getting that crap off the dining room table anytime soon?"

"No dear". :D
 
After reading that last post, I'm back to suggesting you sell and get a dps 24 ;) BTW- Akai support is excellent now. Really the dps24 will knock your socks off. A larger dps16 it is not. It's way more than that. You'll be back to music instead of struggling to get limited track recorders to play nice together, which at best will be inconsistant. Visit our board and join in if you want.

http://pub52.ezboard.com/fdpsworldfrm3

Good luck however you go. And get some mini traps....I figured since this is studio building forum I should throw that in. Hehe Here's how my studio is shaping up by the way-

http://www.songramp.com/photos/ArtistArticle812.jpg

Dan
 
"Toy's in the Attic"
Hmmm.... Sounds like a good name for an album... or something.
;)
 
After reading that last post, I'm back to suggesting you sell and get a dps 24 ;)
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Its not rack mount! :D

BTW- Akai support is excellent now. Really the dps24 will knock your socks off. A larger dps16 it is not. It's way more than that. You'll be back to music instead of struggling to get limited track recorders to play nice together, which at best will be inconsistant.
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Where are you getting this fine Akai support? Your forum below? Is it only DPS related?

http://pub52.ezboard.com/fdpsworldfrm3
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Good luck however you go.
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Thanks! Being stubborn, and add I have all the stuff already, I'll give it a little more time. At some point if unsuccessful, I'll toss it all on e-bay and start over with something more cooperative.

http://www.songramp.com/photos/ArtistArticle812.jpg
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Looking good Dan, looking real good :) But I noticed your DPS isn't rack mounted :D heh-heh
 
Michael Jones said:
"Toy's in the Attic"
Hmmm.... Sounds like a good name for an album... or something.
;)
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Or something....

In the attic
Lights
Voices scream
Nothing seen
Real's a dream

Leaving the things that are real behind
Leaving the things that you love from mind
All of the things that you learned from fears
Nothing is left for the years

Voices scream
Nothing seen
Real's a dream

Toys toys toys
In the attic

Toys toys toys
In the attic

Toys toys toys
In the attic

Toys toys toys
In the attic

Lights
Voices scream
Nothing seen
Real's a dream

Leaving the things that are real behind
Leaving the things that you love from mind
All of the things that you learned from fears
Nothing is left for the years

Voices scream
Nothing seen
Real's a dream

Toys toys toys
In the attic

Toys toys toys
In the attic

Toys toys toys
In the attic

Toys toys toys
In the attic

Toys toys toys
In the attic

Toys toys toys
In the attic

Toys toys toys
In the attic
 
Yeah, if rack mount is what you need without exception, than the dps 24 obviously doesn't fit the bill. Again, I wish you success.
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I'm stuck with rackmounts. The reason is because I not only have rack mount recorders, I have a slew of tascam mixers as a console table, which I also leech midi control surface data from as well (and this actually works - go figure!). So to go with two high quality DAW units like the DPS, I'd have to unload pretty much everything :) I will, if I have to, but it sounds very painful. My worse case scenario is to find new rackmount recorders, say, MX2424 or the Mackie equiv. Two units gives 48 tracks, which is what I have with these akai units.

If you can ever go to a console type unit, you know where to find us. BTW- Sean at Akai pro is tops for support. You can email him at Sean@akaipro.com, or see support info here- http://www.akaipro.com/us/support.html
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Sean *is* awesome, I started dialog with him yesterday and he's most helpful. He gave me a lot of ideas last night that I tried this morning, so time will tell. Thanks for the lead!
 
They do make rack mount shelves - perhaps the dps24 has some places on it's underside, maybe where the feet attach ? which could be modified slightly in order to secure it to the shelf ? I haven't seen the dps24, it's just a thought. Even a very light guage metal U shaped clip could be made to fit over the top of the unit and secured to each side of the shelf ? Of course, I hope you get the existing stuff working, but just in case...
 
Got them to sync on play, reverse play, and record. They also stop together (and stop recording), the 2nd and 3rd machines often roll a little past the stopping point, but they've already stopped recording.

Seems they don't transmit, or share, smpte going backwards or in jog mode.

Hmmmmm.

Progress made though, at least they are deadlocked during recording.
 
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