Xone: DB4- the official unofficial thread

[DarioJ]

Sup guys?

Anyone else feeling a little abandoned?

[djproben]

Anyone else feeling a little abandoned?

In what way? A firmware update would be welcome but I'm not having any pressing issues. I do hope they haven't forgotten about us, but I'm not having the "driver issues" that some are complaining about.

[MrPopinjay]

So what are these driver issues? Is it a problem with the drivers, or the hardware itself? Does the problem persist with unofficial drivers?

This sort of thing is precisely why open source software is important. If everyone was using OSS we wouldn't be here twiddling our thumbs, hoping A&H fixes it, we'd just do it ourselves. Or some bright spark would have done it already for us.

Speaking of which, has anyone tried the DB range of mixers with ALSA? I'd love to know if it works or not, and to what degree.

Sup guys?

Anyone else feeling a little abandoned?

You should try being an Ecler user

[DJ Bob]

Sup guys?

Anyone else feeling a little abandoned?

Not at all, best mixer I ever owned.

[DarioJ]

In what way? A firmware update would be welcome but I'm not having any pressing issues. I do hope they haven't forgotten about us, but I'm not having the "driver issues" that some are complaining about.

I was just thinking that there would be a little bit more information or interaction with their customers. The only updates I ever see through their media outlets are, at least to me, marketing driven pictures and media.

So what are these driver issues? Is it a problem with the drivers, or the hardware itself? Does the problem persist with unofficial drivers?

You should try being an Ecler user

Elcer does make some nice gear! They're are some things that A&H have said they are working on. I've seen some sound quality issues for the DB2 and the DB4 (maybe the DB2) have a problem w/ Mavericks. I understand that maybe users shouldn't of upgraded, but when ML came out, there was a good amount of communication w/ a resolve in a week or so. This is not the case this time around

Not at all, best mixer I ever owned.

Oh, I agree. The mixer is top notch. LOVE IT! I just thought we'd have a bit more interaction w/ A&H around this time of year, and on some of the outstanding issues.

[jdownesbaird]

Those who have had driver problems for MONTHS and MONTHS after buying an expensive mixer that promised to include an audio interface know what real frustration is.

I love this mixer. Best ever. BUT, I had to buy an Audio 10 finally to make it work the way it was supposed to work out of the box. The communication with A&H was absolutely awful. Support was nice as hell, but nobody was really helpful or offered any valid options or plans. Beta drivers were eventually released and announced on their blog, but the drivers didn't work and had to be removed. However, they kept the announcement up with the links on the blog for about a week (took that long for someone to finally get around to taking it down and explain what was going on). "Real" beta drivers were eventually released, but many users are still experiencing the same deal-breaking audio drops. You would think that the company would go out of its way to make it up to customers who spent up to $1500 (I got mine on sale) for a mixer that DOESN'T WORK as advertised, but they are staying silent. A little communication goes a long way. The forum over there is a ghost town.

That said, I will take my Xone to my grave. It's just unfortunate that I had to spend an additional $400 (and complicate my setup with more routing/wiring) because a key feature wouldn't work. It was too late for me to return the mixer anyway, and I couldn't wait any longer for drivers. This badass mixer deserves better.

[cheef]

At BPM this year I attended one of the Allen & Heath seminars and got to have a 5 minute chat with Andy Rigby-Jones. I asked him directly what the future was for the DB series (and more specifically, the DB4 as I own one too), whether they had any new mixers up their development sleeve or if the DB4 would continue to be worked on.

He said that the shelf life of the DB's has many years ahead, specifically due to upgradable firmware, so it's not as though they've 'given up' on them at all. He just mentioned to me that A&H's primary business is not DJ, irrespective of the impressive quality of their mixers. They are a small boutique firm and unfortunately simply cannot afford to place what resource they have on their secondary business.

That's not to say they do not work on DJ, because they do, but there are only a small handful of people that are active - this is why updates may seem slow, but they ARE working on it.

I use my DB4 with an audio 10 anyway, so I (thankfully) haven't noticed any trouble since upgrading to Mavericks. But, and I'll say the boring, annoying phrase seen over many forum topics of this nature that "if a company says they are not currently supporting a fresh operating system just yet, then you simply shouldn't upgrade", especially if that hardware means that much to you or you need it to maintain your household income.

I am sure that A&H are working on this stuff, but they do not have the man power that other companies do - that is the reality. It is not ideal, and I am in complete agreement with the masses and yes, seeing more updates would be nice but I did know this about A&H before I bought my DB4 so had kind of already bought into it.

It's a chicken and egg situation. Pioneer have the mixer strangle-hold on the industry meaning others rarely get a proper look-in. If the sales figures and production of the DB's increased rapidly, you can bet A&H have more room to grow that business - whether that happens in the future, who knows, but for now we are where we are.

Recently I had a flirt with a DJM900 nexus at home and after brief use of it for a week it went straight back to the store. Putting my beloved DB4 back in its rightful place and kicking off a mix was like silk in comparison to Pioneers sandpaper - if A&H never updated the firmware for this mixer again I wouldn't be upset at all based on this. It's a beautiful thing and this far outweighs anything else for me.

[jdownesbaird]

Thanks for the info, and I agree with your statement about a new OS. However, the DB2 audio interface never worked right on USB 3 and Mac (audio dropouts, latency) with ANY version of OS X, even though it was sold with this supposed functionality. With many Macs, the audio interface in the DB2 remains completely unusable. No recourse was provided by A&H except to wait. Perhaps they are doing the best they can, but I specifically chose this mixer because of the included interface. I don't regret having this mixer now, since it's awesome, but not having functionality that I paid for was frustrating.

[cheef]

Allen & Heath forum update today:

"We are now moving ahead with testing Xone drivers with the 10.9.1 update to OS X Mavericks (issued by Apple on December 17th).

We are hoping to be in a position to release updated drivers early in the new year."

[jdownesbaird]

Awesome. Thanks for the update.

EDIT:

Somewhat related question. I bought an A10 after months of waiting for DB2 driver updates. I moved to a Traktor Scratch setup, anyway, so I would have needed the A10 since the DB2 isn't a Traktor Scratch certified mixer.

Here's what I'm wondering: can I use the DB2 as the primary audio interface with Scratch Pro (assuming the drivers get worked out) as long as the A10 is plugged in? I know it's a little ridiculous, but there is much more routing of cables involved with using the A10, and all I need is a USB connection for the same routing using the DB2. I'm hoping I can simply plug in the A10 to "activate" scratch functionality in Traktor, but then ignore it. It would basically be a big dongle.