Flying faders .. 1.. 2 ??

[Clouds Hell]

Hey. Does anybody of you have any experiences with flying faders automation and which computer i can use for the automation. i read that i cannot use a too fast computer. is that true? what system requirements does the pc need?
i have a very old one (´91) made by HP. and it works bad. it often says "hard disc error" ..than i switch it off and on and off and then it works again.. bad situation.
what about flying faders2 ??
is there a new version out?
i have flying faders 3.1
hope anybody can help.
thanks.

[Musiclab]

did you try contacting Martinsound?

[Clouds Hell]

Originally Posted by Musiclab

did you try contacting Martinsound?

no, not yet. the homepage looks very strange to me. there is a (c) till 2003 and no words about the Flying Faders2. Everybody´s talking about FF and how great it is and the only thing they write about FF2 is a press release dated around 02/03 and some pics. i will try to cantact them later in the evening.. i am in germany and about 9 hours ahead CA time..

But does nobody of you guys have an old or new Neve Console with a good and shiny 2006 pc and FF2 running?

[Windtaken]

In regards to your hard disc error, change your hard drive before you lose all your data...or just be ready to accept it when it comes around. If your hard drive has made strange noises before, it's even closer to death.

[ronzie]

Clouds, the 88R runs on FF 2. I'm sure "someone" has installed a sucessfull retrofit, but it's extremely expensive (+$10k) and can be fraught with errors(mostly in recall). 286's & 386's are the norm for the mainframe in FF, and you can use an MFM drive (big footprint and very old school) or an IDE drive. Again, some crafty tech most likely has a 486 or Pentium in the system but I don't know of any. EIDE drives normally won't take with out jumping through hoops, but they're not necessary, being that the system tops out at a 40meg partition (20 for the faders, 20 for recall)

You should "backup" important stuff to the floppy, due a low level format and reinstall the software. I really recommend that you DON'T switch drives. When you reformat, the computer needs to know what type of drive is connected to the motherboard (there are about 60 or so choices in the format page) and the computer will not automatically
identify the new drive, you need "special" software for that function. It's not fun and very time consuming.

I hope you have ALL of the software, some dos chops and a calm demeanor. Grab some coffee, youll need it.

Feel free to call me at 212-714-9691. I'll be mixing at 11am but no clients attending (it can't get better than that).

Ron Allaire, Skyline

P.S. Doug Osbourne from Martinsound floats around these parts and I'm sure he'll chime in ( he's on of the "good" ones)

[Windtaken]

ahh, it's a good thing you corrected me. I forgot about the ATA types though I'm unaware if that would stop compatibility alltogether. Or are you referring to boot issues? Drives over 500 megs? If need be, you can still find old computers for sale. There's still a market for them for low level control applications.

[seriousfun]

Originally Posted by Clouds Hell

Hey. Does anybody of you have any experiences with flying faders automation and which computer i can use for the automation. i read that i cannot use a too fast computer. is that true? what system requirements does the pc need?
i have a very old one (´91) made by HP. and it works bad. it often says "hard disc error" ..than i switch it off and on and off and then it works again.. bad situation.
what about flying faders2 ??
is there a new version out?
i have flying faders 3.1
hope anybody can help.
thanks.

The current software version of Flying Faders is v3.1. We build new 486/33 PCs with 8 MB of RAM for new Flying Faders systems. Your HP computer is probably a Vectra - these were built surprisingly well, but they (and especially their hard drives) can't last forever.

If your hard drive works, I recommend that you reformat the hard drive and re-install the OS and Flying Faders from the floppy discs. If you can get a new hard drive, you may need to install an overlay program so the OS only sees a small part of the hard drive.

We are developing Flying Faders II. It is nearing BETA testing, so please keep an eye on our website for its official release. FFII will run under Vista, on any reasonable computer, and it uses a new USB Interface that replaces all of the proprietary ISA cards in the old computer - the HP Viper card, the Dual Port timecode interface, and the Neve Recall card. The rest of the console automation and servo-electronics system remains the same.

Neve 88Rs use Neve's Encore system, not FF.

Doug Osborne
Martinsound, Inc.
dosborne@martinsound.com
626 281 3555 x121

[punkrock]

I want to hear any comment about Neve 88rs console.
Is it better than SSL console? or not?

[Dan]

Will FF2 read PT automation? An ethernet hookup to the DAW would be trick!

[seriousfun]

Originally Posted by Dan

Will FF2 read PT automation? An ethernet hookup to the DAW would be trick!

Well, Digidesign won't talk to Neve, SSL, us, or anyone else about using their proprietary protocol. We all have to use the HUI protocol for our automation to work with Pro Tools. We intend to start development on that feature as soon as we officially release FFII.

Remember, the Digi connection is not ethernet, it just uses the same cable, and HUI uses a MIDI connection but does not use the MIDI protocol.

[CommunityMart]

Originally Posted by Clouds Hell

i read that i cannot use a too fast computer. is that true? what system requirements does the pc need?

Can anyone comment on this?

[vancalot]

Originally Posted by seriousfun

Well, Digidesign won't talk to Neve, SSL, us, or anyone else about using their proprietary protocol. We all have to use the HUI protocol for our automation to work with Pro Tools. We intend to start development on that feature as soon as we officially release FFII.

Remember, the Digi connection is not ethernet, it just uses the same cable, and HUI uses a MIDI connection but does not use the MIDI protocol.

Hey Doug!
Sorta...The Digi protocol is encapsulated inside a standard ethernet tcp/ip packet. The consoles (Procontrol, D-Command etc..) all use the tcp/ip stack to communicate to the Mac/PC. And they either use their own address in the absence of a DHCP Server or they take an address if offered from a DHCP Server.

Now the HUI I can't vouch for but I bet it is similar, just a different protocol over midi.

v

PS Sorry about the FF (computer) comments at AES, I was a bit insensitive to what you where trying to accomplish.... I am sorry, really.

[Dan]

I think I understand what Doug is saying about Digi not playing well with others. They do have automation over ethernet, but I don't know of any third parties that have been able to access that. It's too bad because there is so much more bandwidth over ethernet, and it could support a more comprehensive control solution. Admittedly, I know very little about it, but my C24 is plugged straight into my macs ethernet, and is recognized as a network object.

On one hand you have the box from Alan Smart

http://www.smartresearch.co.uk/2Tools/index2T.html

Which seems to be basic machine control (MMC), but not faders?

and then there's the Tonelux Shadow Mix, which is cool, but seems a bit pricey, and is faders, but not machine control. Why can't we all just get along? A console with great DAW control would make sense, even in todays market. Especially a modular, expandable one, but the total concept has to work for people to start down that road. Many people I know are tired of sitting sideways, because a console, and a DAW don't fit together neatly. And, the DAW isn't going anywhere, so guess what happens.

Martinsound is in a good position to do this from a technological standpoint. Great preamps, monitor controller, and faders. Put a better UI on there, hit a price point below the ICON, with flexibility, and we'd have ourselves a contender.