Numark Dds80

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This is a question about the flexibility of the DDS80 system.

 

Currently I have 2 playout systems. 1 main, 1 back-up.

 

The main consists of a Numark D2 Director, Allen & Heath Xone S2 and a Citronic MPCD4 twin CD player.

 

The back-up consists of a Numark D2 Director, Numark PPD9000 and a single, slot loading lightweight DVD-ROM drive.

 

Although fairly heavy to lug around, the main system provides 4 decks any of which can be available at any time. The back-up, whilst having 3, does require switching between hard drive and DVD-ROM drive

 

To save weight on the main unit I had toyed with the idea of replacing the twin CD player with 2 DVD-ROM drives although that wouldn't be as flexible. Another possibility would be to replace the CD control unit with the second D2 and the CD drawers with a pair of DVD-ROM drives.

 

My question is how does the DDS80 work - is the DVD-ROM drawer available constantly (for example can you cue a CD whilst playing from the hard drive) or is it necessary to switch between it and the hard drive?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hi Steve,

I've had my DDS80 for a while.

 

You can play back Audio CD's and/or Data (MP3/WAV) CD's/DVD's whilst playing from the hard drive.

 

There are a row of 4 buttons under the display, these can be used to select playback source/library.

 

When there is a disc in the CD/DVD drive, you'll be able to select the disc drive, and can navigate using the normal controls, and then assign a track to deck a or deck b for playback.

 

You cannot mix tracks from the same Audio CD (so mixing track 1 with track 2 is not possible), but for background, you can add the tracks to the "crate" and it will iterate through them in turn (no mixing)

 

Mine is in a SwanFlight 352 flightcase, which is actually pretty bulky.

 

 

After using it for a while - my grumbles;

-Not always as responsive as it could be. I've recently purchased a SD Card Playback unit, and find that more responsive.

-Whilst the HardDrive can be partitioned, each partition has its own library - and you can only search/browse one library at a time (swapping between them is easy, but takes another few seconds)

-Librarian software can take a while to run

 

 

Good stuff;

-Easy to search, I sometimes get requests with 20seconds left, and decide its such a good choice I search, cue up and play as the next track.

-USB based, so you can use most USB storage devices (Mobile Phones!, USB memory sticks and some USB Hard Drives)

 

 

Jason

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Thanks for that.

 

Sounds like it's basically the same in operation as the D2 Director, which allows switching between USB inputs whether hard drive, USB stick or DVD-ROM drive.

 

A D2 plus a USB hard drive and a USB DVD-ROM drive gives almost the same facilities as a DDS80 although the DDS80, i believe, has a more powerful processor, uses more advanced software than the D2 (not sure in what way) and has a colour screen.

 

 

 

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I have a Citronic MPSD-1 as a back-up player, and have been missing the decent screen of the DDS - but they are different beasts.

 

I'm not sure about the processor, but it is running embedded linux - so could be ARM9 based (lower power, low cost and ok performance).

(Geek mode off.. I've a new 2-year project probably based on this stuff.. lol)

 

However, I've found it to be rock solid. I'm not as busy as some, but its been reliable.

 

 

I remember another grumble...

 

My gear is flight-cased, I needed a USB Extension that I could use to hook up to the drive bay (otherwise I'd have to fumble about the back of the DDS module.

Not a huge issue, but slightly annoying. It would have been great to have a connector on the front of the module to allow a PC to connect.