AMP update news for 2015...?

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AMP update news for 2015...?

Postby Jeffsco » Sun Jan 11, 2015 2:04 pm

Hey folks...those in the know...those developing...and those Beta testing....How about an update on the AMP release date progress?

We've heard about the developers desire to not release the AMP platform until it's ready to roll. How is that coming? where is it at? What is the status of VST compatibility?

Love to hear from you all! :?:

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Re: AMP update news for 2015...?

Postby jlepore » Sun Jan 11, 2015 5:15 pm

I can not give you an update on a release date, cause frankly, I have not thought to ask about it.

What I CAN say is development is still moving at a VERY rapid pace (still new releases with fixes and feature changes/updates) - at least several releases a WEEK at times.

This IS actually very good news. All reported issues are taken care of immediately, and all requested features are taken seriously, and most have already been added to the product. The product is at a point where it is stable enough that I have been using it for monitor duties to the exclusion of SAC (on the same machine that used run SAC). I have now used it with 5 national acts (something that always got me queezy with SAC). It has performed flawlessly. The sound is amazine, and the reduction in latency is significant, even to the way I mix with it.

The VST support is not there, but there are things being in worked on that may minimize some of that need, but which I will not discuss here without permission.

All in all, it is going to be a good and revolutionary year in mixing....
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Re: AMP update news for 2015...?

Postby digitaloutput » Mon Feb 16, 2015 7:56 am

Any news????
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Re: AMP update news for 2015...?

Postby shmick » Mon Feb 16, 2015 11:11 pm

I tried to get into the beta. Received 1 email reply and nothing after that.

On the plus side, I think we're going to keep seeing smaller. more powerful and more affordable offerings from other companies, basically putting an end to the PC-as-a-mixer days.

I've become used to not having an physical control surface. What I really want is a system than can do 48-72 in/out with remote controlled preamps than can be placed where needed, iPhone/iPad support to allow everyone to adjust their own mix and a way to easily save/recall channel and mix data.
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Re: AMP update news for 2015...?

Postby BrettBrandon » Tue Feb 17, 2015 2:34 am

I can't give you news of when the release will happen but things are still flowing along fairly fast.
I think it's getting close to release but I don't know exactly what the developer wants finished before a release.
One of the latest additions in progress is multitrack recording.
I am still working on various mixers, channel windows ect...
I also just started messing around with using an iPad as a controller. The controller section is almost too much. You can have up to eight controllers hooked up with as many channels assigned to each as needed. They can also be locked to specific channels.
My latest is working on a channel view for touch tablets. I'll post some screenshots.

I wish I could tell you more about when it will be released, but I can tell you that when it is, some folks are going to be elated to have what has been left out of what is currently available....
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Re: AMP update news for 2015...?

Postby RBIngraham » Tue Feb 17, 2015 10:39 am

shmick wrote:I tried to get into the beta. Received 1 email reply and nothing after that.

On the plus side, I think we're going to keep seeing smaller. more powerful and more affordable offerings from other companies, basically putting an end to the PC-as-a-mixer days.

I've become used to not having an physical control surface. What I really want is a system than can do 48-72 in/out with remote controlled preamps than can be placed where needed, iPhone/iPad support to allow everyone to adjust their own mix and a way to easily save/recall channel and mix data.


I think there is a still a market for the mixing on a PC. It's just that is has shrunk since one of the few advantages of it being cheap has been replaced by hardware that is even cheaper, at least once you add up the cost of all the parts a PC based mixer costs.

But I still think it will hold the advantage in bang for the buck. AMP and even SAC has far greater routing flexibility than any of the cheap hardware desks do. I thought about slowly putting together a Behringer based system a while back, since one other sound designer in town has gone that route. But if you look closely it required at least 2 and more like 3 of the X units (whether that be a full X32 or a Core or some other X device with stage boxes) to get all the inputs I would need for the larger shows. And I would still have a console with less routing flexibility and only 8 DCA groups and limits with scene recalls and just the general distaste I have for B in general. So for my kind of work the software mixing console still can make sense as it's hardware replacement with the same feature set would cost well of $30K or it would require going back to previous methods where I had a menagerie of products that would make up a mixing system, which is what going the X32 route would really be, it's just that they could not pass some audio signals digitally or with digital formats that are easy to deal with. (I've done the digital thing for many years now just with ADAT Optical and extenders, and using multiple small Yamaha digital consoles linked together with software and a "box" of some sort to handle system routing and EQ, Delay, etc..)

The other market I can see something like AMP being good for is the shove the mixer in a rack someplace and it gets turned on and off as needed with little to no human interaction or interaction via a control system. (think Crestron Touch panels here or similar) I'm talking about things like museums, installed sound pieces, perhaps churches that work in more traditional ways where the audio mixing is just a few vocal mics and such. This is a market that I tried to pitch to Bob L and he didn't really listen. (and when I mentioned it on the forum I was chastised for telling Bob how to run his business... sigh...) It is actually far more lucrative than selling to the live sound folks. (sorry guys... no offense...) But you have to put things into the software that would allow it to work in that environment. Mainly things like not having to click on a Live button to turn the engine one, would have been a good start. But you also have to allow for dealer networks, give them the ability to mark up and make some money on the software sale, get someone involved talking with consultants, blah, blah, blah.... none of that is something that Bob seemed to have an interest in or take seriously. I suspect AMP could change that.

None of this is really all that different than some of the popular units in that market segment already. They just use an off the shelf PC rather than a dedicated hardware box that might have Windows Embedded or Linux running on it anyway.

We'll see....
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Re: AMP update news for 2015...?

Postby Frank DeWitt » Fri Feb 20, 2015 12:40 pm

In my thinking about SAC or AMP mixers and in my writing to forums I have refereed to them as Component mixers. This makes the advantages a bit more obvious.

In a component sound system, if you need more speakers you can add them, if they need more power, you can add another amp. If you decide you need a speaker in the church nursery you can add a small amp and speaker for that job.

The AMP / PC based component mixer has the same benefits. If you need a feature it didn't come with you just add it. I am a typical church user. Since we bought SAC about 5 years ago our needs have changed.

We added 8 inputs.
We added 10 IEM personal mixers.
We added a mixer for recording.
We changed the software from SAC to AMP BIG improvement by changing one component. It is like a new mixer but with the old hardware.
We added 8 more real faders. Total 24
We added a output with a time delay for the TV in the nursery.
Next week I am going to adjust the setup for the personal mixers so the users have solo capability in there IEM.

I am on a church sound forum and people are constantly saying our church wants to add XYZ but our mixer is out of auxes or doesn't have that function or .... How can I do it.

For them the answer is often, You Can't but for me it is either turn it on, or buy a inexpensive component and add it.

This year I plan to add a 16:9 large screen control to my existing mixer. How do you do that to any of those mixers in a box?

A mixer control surface with XLR connectors on the same box is so 90S
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Re: AMP update news for 2015...?

Postby RBIngraham » Fri Feb 20, 2015 3:43 pm

Frank,

I agree, that is one advantage a computerized system has. Of course eventually you'll top out the I/O count that system could handle as well and then you'll need to add a lot of components to get bigger from there.

I will say that with an appropriately designed system you can expand them with other systems as well, it's just that your average church either doesn't hire the consultant or doesn't hire the right one to show them how they could build a more installed system that could grow as their needs grow. It means putting in stuff like DSP boxes so adding that TV in the Nursery would be easy and doing splits to a recording console wouldn't be an issue if the I/O was all network based and you could even do IEM mixes with the right package. You just have to approach it from the standpoint that every output doesn't have to have an "outlet" on the mixing console somewhere. Some of those updates would have cost more that way certainly but others would have been about the same cost as the computer system.

I also think we perhaps forgot just how long this technology has been around. A mixer with connectors on the back is not only 1990s, but it's also through most of the 2000s as well. It's really only been in the last 10 years from the middle of the first decade of this century that we've really started to see the I/O points in and out of the mixer become more of a distributed network. And it's only started to get affordable in perhaps the last 5 years or so. SAC came out when? Perhaps 2008? So that's maybe 7 years and even then there is really not all that much difference between having a big rack of ADA units and a computer and all the extra crap that goes along with an AMP system vs having one box with connectors on the back that can do most of the same things. It's only very recently we've seen the push towards the outlets themselves sitting on the a network (whether IP based or proprietary) and hence the unit actually doing the mixing is getting smaller and smaller.

There are also a lot of advantages to having that one box. For one you open the box, plug it in and turn it on and you're ready to work. When something is wrong you have one point of contact to solve the issue... AMP or SAC you have the computer, the software, all the extra computer hardware, the audio I/O, etc.... and often each one is from a separate company. There is no pointing the finger at Microsoft if a Yamaha mixer crashes. :-)

Not saying you don't have great points. Just saying that if you're going to point out all the pros.... it's only fair to point out the cons or at least the pros for the other options as well.

Again they are all just tools and you have to pick the one that best fits the task. It sounds like you picked out a good tool for your church. I certainly have done very well by my theatre clients with AMP and SAC for the money they had to spend. But it's not for everyone.
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