Dante Compatibility

[RBIngraham]

Yeah it might be interesting. But if the price is anything like Waves typically charges, I'd probably just get myself a Digico at that point.

[Larry Burger]

We have two Dante systems up and running with the same system load as an rme 9652. We have not dropped any buffers over 6 months.
There is one problem though when the live is set to off we have to go in and recheck asio to dante even though it is highlighted then it's up and running again.

[RBIngraham]

We have two Dante systems up and running with the same system load as an rme 9652. We have not dropped any buffers over 6 months.
There is one problem though when the live is set to off we have to go in and recheck asio to dante even though it is highlighted then it's up and running again.

Is this using the Dante Virtual Sound Card? If so...

System Load is one thing. I wouldn't expect that to be drastically different with the same buffer size and number. But that's not the same thing as overall system throughput latency. Have you measured your system latency from analog in to analog out? Or speaker out, if you're really being fancy and using an amp with digital inputs.

The Dante protocol itself has very low latency added when you hop on and off the network. But everything I've heard or seen has shown that the virtual sound card driver adds a significant amount of latency regardless of what application you're using.

But I would love to hear real world experience negating that.

[Larry Burger]

Richard,

You are correct the Virtual Sound Card adds latency and we are using to record to a second machine. But for the House and monitors we have the PCIE installed.
I will check latency when I have an opportunity.

[RBIngraham]

Richard,

You are correct the Virtual Sound Card adds latency and we are using to record to a second machine. But for the House and monitors we have the PCIE installed.
I will check latency when I have an opportunity.

Cool. So the PCIe card works well then?

Not that I could probably afford it myself, but some of the Yamaha RIO boxes with one of those cards would be pretty cool I think.

Audinate also just announced this at InofComm, which sounds pretty cool to me, again depending on the latency it has.

http://www.audinate.com/index.php?op...article&id=425

[kylesoundman]

Cool. So the PCIe card works well then?

Not that I could probably afford it myself, but some of the Yamaha RIO boxes with one of those cards would be pretty cool I think.

Audinate also just announced this at InofComm, which sounds pretty cool to me, again depending on the latency it has.

http://www.audinate.com/index.php?op...article&id=425

That is way cool!! The next 10 years are going to have some major digital audio advancements!

[operationwhat]

Richard,

You are correct the Virtual Sound Card adds latency and we are using to record to a second machine. But for the House and monitors we have the PCIE installed.
I will check latency when I have an opportunity.

Hi Larry, did you check the latency?

[Larry Burger]

Hello,

128 buffers 9.32ms
64 buffers 6.42ms
32 buffers 4.97 ms

And again in SAC 3 and 3.1 0 dropped buffers for 6 months what ever that tells.

[brent]

Way too much latency in any set up of the Dante VSC. It's fine for recording or playback, but not mixing. I don't think that was ever their intent to route through the VSC.

I suspect this is why Focusrite went out and made their own hardware card. That REDNet stuff has always been very appealing to me, but no one seems to have wanted to be the guinea pig and open their wallet. At least not with regards to SAC.

We have done a mega church and a studio with large scale RedNet/Dante systems. It works very well. Very little latency. Dante latency with RedNet, Symetrix SymNet, etc is less than a ms. It is when a switch is introduced to the network that slows it down. Still we are talking under a couple of ms. The hardware is only expensive to those who have no demonstrable need for it. For those who need and use it, it is a bargain and actually saves money.

Virtual Sound Card is not meant for live mixing. It is meant for tracking or transferring files. If you want to live sound with Dante, buy a mixer with dedicated DSP and I/O.

[RBIngraham]

We have done a mega church and a studio with large scale RedNet/Dante systems. It works very well. Very little latency. Dante latency with RedNet, Symetrix SymNet, etc is less than a ms. It is when a switch is introduced to the network that slows it down. Still we are talking under a couple of ms. The hardware is only expensive to those who have no demonstrable need for it. For those who need and use it, it is a bargain and actually saves money.

Virtual Sound Card is not meant for live mixing. It is meant for tracking or transferring files. If you want to live sound with Dante, buy a mixer with dedicated DSP and I/O.

Yeah, that is kind of what I suspected and what I have heard from other reports.

My comments about latency were all in reference to the Virtual Sound Card, particularly trying to use it to process live audio. As you noted, that was never it's intention.

As for being a bargain, of course it's a bargain if you're dealing with a Megachurch sized budget. Just because I am often at places where $10K is a huge investment doesn't mean I couldn't make good use or wish I had a Dante network.

Of course if you're talking about new construction or a complete rebuild of AV infrastructure it only makes sense to look at all the new networked audio technologies, as the installation costs will actually save you money. At the day gig they actually worked with a local contractor to estimate if doing networked audio would save money or not, since obviously the hardware involved will cost you more than a bunch of reels of copper cable. They found that (assuming you're doing a typical stage house set up with at least one or two mix positions) over all you save about 40% in installation labor after taking all the variables into account. And this is with using Aviom All Frames in surface mounted boxes in the typical production panel positions. If you're willing to just have some CAT line patch points and more portable rack for your I/O you can probably save even more because you're only paying for I/O boxes when you need them.

I just wish I had this stuff a few years sooner when I was redoing a couple of venues that could have really made use of it. Oh well....