Is Anyone Using Any Solid State Logic Gear?

[mfowler1981]

I am fixing to start my first SAC Rig with some cheap MOTU Gear from eBay, but I am also in the planning stages of building a 1660 seat sanctuary. I have seen all of the RME stuff and know that it is ROCK SOLID, but the Solid State Logic gear catches my eye. Here is some of the gear i'm considering:

Solid State Logic MadiXtreme 128

Solid State Logic ALPHA-LINK-MADI-SX

Solid State Logic ALPHA-LINK-MADI-AX

Solid State Logic MIXPANDER

The reason I am looking at this gear is each Alpha Link can handle 24 I/O ADAT (or AES/EBU) plus 24 I/O Analog and is MADI (which is desirable for the install) on 1 PCIe Card. I figured that I run this by everyone here and get your thoughts.

[gdougherty]

RME makes some similar hardware.

You'd need an HDSPe MADI for the PC side and a single ADI-648 to get 64 channels on the MADI bus. Double or triple up on the interfaces and ADI-648's to get higher channel counts. RME claims up to 192 channels of i/o.

[mfowler1981]

I need I/O at FOH and at the stage which with the RME setup I'll need 2 ADI-648's and they aren't cheap. Solid State Logic is $1000+ dollars cheaper plus I am not limited to 64 channels(for the money). 2 Alpha Links give me 96 channels of I/O (I know SAC cannot handle more than 72 channels). I can have everything hooked up and simply softpatch what I need for a different setup. I'll have wireless mics with digital outs that I can take advantage of with the Alpha Link SX. I can get so much more with SSL if it'll work seamless with SAC & SAW.

[DominicPerry]

I know that a couple of people use the Sydec stuff (subsequently bought by SSL) with SAW, but I'm not sure if the renamed Sydec stuff is the units you identified. I think Perry and Dave Vanderploeg (Naturally Digital) were using them. If you do a search on 'Sydec' you'll turn them up in the SAW forum. Send them a PM and you'll get some help. IIRC, the drivers were very stable and regularly updated, but may not have achieved the low latencies which are vital with SAC.


Dominic

[Iain Westland]

use to use the sydec stuff, very powerful dsp mixer so latency is zilch, very solid and very nice. sounds nicer than some of the rme stuff, but you pay for the privilege.

if I get back into the game properly I would put them very high up the shopping list

iain

[Leadfoot]

I think Perry and Dave Vanderploeg (Naturally Digital) were using them.

Dominic

Speaking of.. where the heck is Perry lately?

[DominicPerry]

use to use the sydec stuff, very powerful dsp mixer so latency is zilch,

Not zero latency for SAC.

Dominic

[Iain Westland]

good point well made Jimbo (guess what I have just been watching) but it is comparable in its self to SAC from my remembrance

iain

[MMP]

I am using SSL stuff with Saw Studio. I haven't really got SAC up and running on that computer. Right now I have two Alphalink Madi AXs going into a Mixtreme 9. I think the converters sound very good and the drivers are solid but only 32 bit. I think I would run XP with the SSL for now with SAC.

Regards,

MM

[mfowler1981]

How many buffers and what is your buffer size in saw? What type of latency do you get out of that system? ...and if you had to do it again...would you change anything?
Thanks