Mackie Designs, Inc. 
MackieOS v2.03 release notes for the D8B operating system, 23Feb00

Items listed below are descriptions of what has been addressed and updated with
version 2.03, build 132.

2.03 Build 132 (incorporates all updates from 2.01 through 2.02)

1) Recognizes the presence of either the newer version of the MIDI card or the
 older version MIDI card.

2) Recognizes the presence of the OPT*8 I/O card.

3) UltraDMA compatible for newer UltraDMA-only hard drives. Some users were not
 able to use Build 100 with newer drives, hence this has been corrected.

4) Known bug and/or workaround - users have reported faders going into write
 mode while in Autotouch mode. As well there is a bug when the D8B is in
 Autotouch mode and the Fader filter button is engaged, fader moves are
 overwritten when other parameters (e.g. EQ gain) are write engaged, for the
 duration of the pass. This does not occur on the Mute or Pan filters - i.e.
 their moves are not overwritten by parameters which fall under the All filter
 category.

The best way to avoid any unintentional fader writing is to turn off the
 automation Fader filter (disengage the Fader switch in the Automation section),
 whenever you don't plan on writing fader moves. This issue is being addressed 
for the upcoming version 3.0 software.

2.02RC3 Build 100 (never released to production)

1) The status bit settings for the PDI8 card were incorrect for even channels. 
 This is no longer the case.

_2.02RC2 Build 99

1) Mute on/off duration was incorrect...it has been fixed.
   
2) Additional FX patches have been added to the FX library, they will not 
overwrite current patches in the Mackie FX folder.

_2.02RC1 Build 97

1) VPot velocity: the VPot tracking has been enhanced, so it is easier to sweep 
from one extreme to the other with a quick twist of the knob. 

Slower movements will produce finer resolution. As in previous OS2.0 versions, 
pressing the Shift button while twisting a VPot produces single increment 
parameter modification.

2) The IVL Vocal Studio pitch correction algorithm has been resurrected in OS 
v2.02. 

Currently, moves on the pitch correction parameters, Pitch Bender and Pitch 
Controller, are not recorded into the D8B automation system, i.e. they are only 
manually controllable. As a workaround, the D8B will accept MIDI pitch bend and 
note data from external sources to remotely control the Bender and Controller 
and enable you to automate these parameters with an external sequencing device, 
when locked to studio time code concurrently with the D8B. 

Please note that all MIDI input to the Vocal Studio algorithms has been re-
verified.

3) The system date and time offset when saving sessions or other file types, has 
been corrected. 

A remaining problem is that subsequent Saves or Save As with the same filename 
are not updating the timestamp. A suggested workaround to make sure a file 
timestamp update occurs, would be to use a Save As to a new filename, or by 
using the AutoSave feature, with the 'Create New Files' preference disabled, or 
with the 'Create New Files' checkbox enabled, if disk space isn't a worry.

4) Insert Global Time and Delete Global Time have been limited to only allow the 
SMPTE view. Tempo and time signature change combinations display has been 
corrected.

The BBT (bars:beats:ticks) view feature is a mode that displays tempo and time 
signature changes as mapped by an imported SMF file. In actuality, the D8B 
automation simply follows incoming MIDI timecode (MTC) which doesn't change with 
tempo and time signatures (in the same manner that SMPTE is a steady time code 
feed that is totally independent of music content). Since the D8B automation 
data is stamped to MTC and not the tempo map, for simplicity we have restricted 
the insert and global modifications to automation events to be only viewed 
relative to the MTC - for this version.

Automation usually occurs at a much later date than the point of incorporating 
compositional MIDI tempo/time signature changes to the original sequencer file. 
But if changes to the originating sequence file occur, subsequent changes to the 
automation need to be made. We first suggest noting the SMPTE time values in the 
sequencer's tempo map where modifications have occurred, then follow up with 
insertions and deletions in the automation tracks using the same edit point time 
boundaries. Then the SMF must be re-imported after making any changes to the 
original sequencer tempo map, so that the D8B display aligns with the sequencer 
BBT view.

Also, MIDI tempo and time signature BBT display have been updated to display 
combinations of such. This update was tested using crazy combinations such as 
57bpm in 3/8, changing to 248bpm in 17/32, changing to 160 shuffle in 12/8, etc. 
etc. and the timecode readout seemed to chase the sequencer and subsequent 
changes very well, amazingly enough.

5) EQ bug fixed: re-loading identical sessions to the current session was 
disabling EQ settings in channels. 

6) Mix Editor; enable Mute drawing bug corrected: 

If a selected Mute track region was incremented (a Mute On event created), using 
the cursor tool and the incrementing arrow of the 4-way data modifier arrows, 
the audio was not immediately muting until the session was saved or re-loaded. 

7) Solo Isolate: Solo isolating a channel using the VFD, on a solo'd channel was 
locking the console into solo mode. Also, solo isolating a channel and then by 
either toggling the L/R main and/or saving a file with solo isolated tracks, 
solo bus signals were feeding Digital 1 and Digital 2 inputs in the console 
monitor section. These items have been corrected.

8) Group master channel faders going to maximum fader level upon recalling a 
v1.03 session into the OS v2.0. 

This is a remnant of the original OS release's session design, where unity gain 
for the Group masters (alone) in v1.03 files was at the +10 dB fader position. 
The v2.0 architecture was updated to allow the masters to add +10 dB of gain to 
the daughter channels. This has been corrected for v1.03 sessions imported into 
the v2.0 OS. Note that this offset was not apparent to users working with v2.0, 
exclusively.

9) The D8B metering has been modified to match dBFS more accurately. The meter 
bars are toggled at the marked values, with one exception to this case being 
that for a digital input, the -OL- LED bar toggles on at -1 dBFS, whereas actual 
clipping occurs at 0dBFS.

To calibrate an analog trim pot on the D8B, place the signal input channel fader 
at unity, pan hard left, place the master fader at unity. Feed a 0 dBu balanced 
signal into the channel's line (TRS) input, adjust the channel's analog trim 
until the -20 dBFS LED just comes on. If you measure the Main 1/4" TRS output 
you will see a 0 dBu signal. On the analog input channels, the -OL- LED toggles 
on at 21 dBu, whereas maximum signal before clipping is 22dBu.

All analog measurements are accurate to +/- 1 dB due to component tolerances, 
whereas digital measurements are much 'tighter'.

10) Status bits in the AES-EBU and S/PDIF outputs are back to being Professional 
and Consumer. As a reminder, the serial protection copy scheme is yet another 
bit, and should be addressed as such. The D8B does not address copy protection.

11) It is now possible to paste channels between sessions using either the 
screen, keyboard and mouse actions, or via the panel clipboard buttons.

12) Two keyboard shortcuts have been re-enabled: Ctrl-[ (selected faders to off) 
and the Escape key (closes the frontmost window).

13) The fader calibration was working incorrectly when the 'autotouch' and 
'faders' buttons were enabled for automation. In v2.02, when starting the fader 
calibration, the OS will place the console into automation bypass mode.

14) The following items have been re-labeled to more properly match the 
operation: The file menu 'Quit' has been changed to 'Restart', which can be used 
to re-boot the console, without powering down. The Network Setup section for 
parameter linking options, has been re-titled 'Receive', because the choice is 
whether to toggle the incoming action on or off, not whether to send it to the 
other console.

15) The console was crashing when attempting to delete files from a protected 
floppy diskette. This has been corrected and the screen will flash a warning 
that the floppy is write protected.

16) The 2.01 service patch has been absorbed into the v2.02 release.



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