Mackie Digital X Bus questions

[Renaissance Man]

There doesn••™t seem to be a proliferation of available information about how Motu••™s Digital Performer and Mackie••™s Digital X-Bus interact. I••™m hoping some of our fellow Unicornation / X-Bus users can shed some light on the subject.
-I get the fact that the DXB can act as a control surface, but in that mode isn••™t the mixing still taking place within DP? Why not just set up three Mackie Control Universals?
-Can mixing and processing with plug-ins take place in DP and on the X-Bus simultaneously?
-I like the fact that the newer versions of DP have addressed automatic plug-in latency compensation. Has Mackie tackled the plug in latency compensation challenge yet or does delay compensation have to be manually calculated and added on the X-Bus?
-I can••™t get my brain around using Ethernet as I/O with a Mac running DP. Can I/O still be handled in DP via existing Motu hardware? How does DP handle the input from the X-Bus?
-The idea of having the ability to patch in outboard gear when using the X-Bus is appealing. How does it work in real life? Is latency compensation required when a hardware outboard effect is patched across the send/return busses of the X=Bus?
-Ultimately I••™d like to use my Waves Diamond Bundle, Autotune and Voaclign (in DP),
a UAD card (in the X-Bus) and outboard gear (patched through the X-bus) all at once. Is this possible? If so, do you have to be a theoretical mathematician to pull it off or can dummies like me do it?
Well, that••™s a few of my questions••¦

[Frodo]

RM-- all great questions. I would imagine that what was possible with the d8B is also possible with the DXB (and possibly more).

Because mixer shelf life is longer than software (ie: DP), many users of digital mixers now are probably still intrenched in their d8B's, Yamaha, Tascam, or analog mixers. The DXB is so new, that I've not read much of anything about how this mixer is being used with DP or any other DAW for that matter.

But here is a blurb on the DXB from a reviews:

The motherboard has a standard Ethernet RJ-45 connector but, at this time, no network or Internet connectivity implementation. Mackie plans to develop a secure procedure that will enable both automatic factory updates and future online session collaboration between consoles.

Problem is, the review is dated Feb, 2005. Other reviews I've found are dated earlier.

I checked release notes for the DXB and did a search for the word "ethernet" on the update white papers-- in all cases the search found no instances of the word. It's hard to tell what the ethernet functioinality is at this time. But would imagine that OSX's audio-MIDI window would need to be set up by using the Network icon on the MIDI side.

However, I would think that at this point MIDI would handled via USB-- or via MDI cables directly between your MIDI interface and the DXB itself, and that the audio would be routed directly from the DXB's card (ADAT? TDIF?) into your audio interface.

I've not read the DXB manual, but I have perused various DP manuals which have dedicated sections on using the earlier d8B in HUI mode. The question remains as to whether Mackie and MOTU have collaborated in creating a proper HUI driver, which would contain all the answers you seek regarding seemless integration between the DXB and DP itself.

You may have seen these, but here goes nonetheless:

DXB Hookups
http://www.mackieanalog.com/products/di ... ookups.pdf

DXB Connections
http://www.mackie.com/products/digitalx ... ctions.pdf

DXB: Connecting and Controlling a DAW (DP, included)
http://www.mackie.com/products/digitalx ... g_DAWs.pdf

[Note: if viewing these PDFs in your browser is a problem, try Control-clicking the links and choose "Save linked file to desktop" to view it in Acrobat or Preview-- where you can zoom in and do text searches.]

Cheers,
Frodo

[Renaissance Man]

I'm pretty sure I had seen the "DXB: Connecting and Controlling a DAW (DP, included)
http://www.mackie.com/products/digitalx ... g_DAWs.pdf"
However, I hadn't really studied it. Now at least I know that another MIDI hub is required at the X-Bus (talk about taking the scenic route to Dubuque...)
I used the wrong term and wrote Ethernet instead of firewire-my bad. The I/O that I intended to refer to is firewire, as in: (from Mackie's site).

"STREAMING FIREWIRE I/O
It••™s the 21st Century, so we felt it was time for a console that could work seamlessly with FireWire-equipped Macs and PCs. When equipped with the optional FireWire Card, the Digital X Bus can stream digital audio between any OS X Core Audio (Mac) or ASIO/WDM (Windows XP) compatible DAW software. FireWire has the bandwidth to support multiple channels of audio streams going back and forth between the console and your computer through a single cable for recording, playback, punch in/out, effect send/returns, and even using a laptop as a real-time sequencer. You can have multiple FireWire Cards installed in your Digital X Bus connected to different computers for complete versatility, as well as taking advantage of extended processing resources for any number of applications and projects. The FireWire Card eliminates the need to buy computer audio interfaces, and makes using the Digital X Bus with your computer painless, simple, and efficient."

I guess ••œpainless, simple, and efficient." is a matter of perspective, Mackie••™s perspective. Since "It••™s the 21st Century so we (Mackie) felt it was time for a console that could work seamlessly with••¦" it's too bad that Mackie couldn't set down their stone age MIDI clubs and allow the control surface implementation via USB (bypassing MIDI altogether like Tascam and some of the other "controller" manufacturers.
The more I investigate the X-Bus the more of a ••œlog jam••Â

[Frodo]

I get the impression that the DXB is set up to be more of a Grand Central Station with capabilities of communicating with DAWs rather than a truly tightly integrated hub as an extension of DAWs. The whole MIDI is a little odd and rather self-contained. Why would they do this at this late date when any serious user in the market for a five-figure mixer would likely have standard interfaces in place already?

Curious...