Photo Courtesy of Music Tribe IP Ltd
***Firmware 1.08.1 has been released. Read about it here: https://survivethegig.com/wing-firmware-version-1-08-1-summer-update-current-version/ ***
WING Firmware Version 1.07 has feature improvements that will be welcome in a studio environment, DAW control through Mackie/HUI as well as MIDI support. Other features and improvements will be useful for sound reinforcement as well as studio use. These include increased DCAs from 8 to 16, increased functions in the setup window with five tabs for different setup categories: General, Audio, Surface, Remote, DAW. There are also more options for the user assignable custom controls now allowing for control over recording and playback from the USB and SD recorders, something that was really missing in previous firmware versions. Also, now the channel LCD will display when an ALT source is being used.
This is the first firmware that can be updated from a USB stick in addition to the OS access mode. If you are on a firmware version lower than 1.06 you will need to use the OS access mode which I have covered in an article and a video that can be found here: https://survivethegig.com/wing-how-to-update-firmware-using-wing-os-access-mode/
DCAs increased from 8 to 16
See the article on assigning DCA 9-16 s well as how to customize all of the fader layers on the mixer, not just the USER Layers: https://survivethegig.com/wing-fader-bank-assignments-and-dca-9-16/
Setup Screen Overhaul:
General Settings Tab:
Audio Settings
Surface Settings
A new feature in 1.07 is “Show Source on Scribble.” This will display the source on the scribble strip and is helpful since the routing on the WING is so flexible you could get lost with more involved routing setups or custom layers. The scribble strip will also now display if an ALT source is active.
Also, Autoselect channel by fader move was added. I don’t use this feature because when I am mixing live if I am adjusting something on the screen for one channel and need to make a fader move on another, I don’t necessarily want to change what I am focusing on on the screen. I like keeping these separate for the way I think, but I can imagine some preferring to autoselect a channel when making fader moves. The nice thing is the WING gives the option to set this behavior by fader sections, not globally. So if you want only your input channels to autoselect you can do that. Alternatively, you may want whatever you have in the center section or right section to auto select but not your left channel banks. I could see a possible scenario where you keep a lead vocalist on the right bank and have to make frequent adjustments to their channel or maybe an effect that you have on the bank next to their channel and it would be helpful to autoselect those few channels and keep the feature turned off for the left and center banks.
Remote Control Settings
DAW Control Settings
Mute Group Menu
Firmware 1.07 doesn’t have any shinny new plugins, but is a good update with features that are useful and hopefully make mixing easier and quicker while also (in the case of the scribble strip display) helping you keep track of more advance setups.
Since my use is for live sound reinforcement and not studio use I don’t have use for the DAW control and don’t imagine using MIDI for the work I do, but the custom controls update is helpful outside of a studio environment because now the USB or SD recorder controls can be mapped to the custom controls.
For those of us that record shows or want to do virtual soundcheck it took a few steps to get to those controls and being able to do all of that with custom buttons will make those tasks easier and quicker. I would like to see the custom controls further developed in future firmware versions. The more options you have on custom controls the more “personal” your mixer setup can be. It is great that there are so many pages of custom controls/user assignable controls. I use them often on the X32 and have different setups depending on the use of the mixer so it was great to see the WING with so many pages of controls- then I was disappointed to find out how many options were available for the controls. Recorder control was a great step in the evolution of the custom/user controls and hopefully this development continues.