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?

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

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.

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.