for those of you who are using the Appgee box, what's the best interface to the PC? Hammerfall lightpipe is the direction I'm thinking. if you have other sugggestions, pros, cons, etc. I'd appreciate it.
TIA
for those of you who are using the Appgee box, what's the best interface to the PC? Hammerfall lightpipe is the direction I'm thinking. if you have other sugggestions, pros, cons, etc. I'd appreciate it.
TIA
I have a Rosetta 800, and use it with an RME Digiface through a Z-Sys Digital Detangler---but I have a complex, multi-platform room and need all that junk. Any RME interface will work well.
Thanks Sean. What do you hear about the X Firewire Card sold by Apogee?
I found that apogee couldn't work at low latency with Saw....
I've never looked into it because I don't do location work and I don't think it would offer any advantages in my system. And given the much greater frequency of bus and other problems I hear about with FireWire audio interfaces in general, I'd always feel more comfortable with a PCI or Cardbus setup.
Bill, not for the Apogee in particular but for interfacing to any good quality converters that don't include their own interface (like a TDM bus or proprietary cable of some sort) I'd suggest going for AES/EBU. This allows you to get the card of your choice (RME or Lynx), have the option of using D-sub to D-sub cables for clean interfacing and/or using XLR breakout cables and having loads of routing flexibility. I've found myself handcuffed in the past with TDIF cables (all ins/outs on one cable) and ADAT (separate ins/outs but 8 channels per cable).
AES keeps things simple, handles high sampling rates without MUX formats and is probably here for the long-term.
Dave,
Could you just explain the way AES works for those of us used to ADAT? I know that ADAT is limited to 8 channels at 48KHz or alternatively 4 at 96KHz using S/Mux (although this is not officially part of the ADAT spec). ADAT is cheap and lots of stuff supports it, a standalone converter from ADAT to AES is expensive, what does it give us? Am I at the amateur end (which is probably where I should stay!) Can you just give us a run down please?
Dominic
Just another point of view...
I've got both, and I don't see a clear advantage to anyone with a small/simple/permanent rig using AES over lightpipe. There is a larger expense, and you do loose certain small conveniences (like DAT markers) when you switch to AES.
But you are basically looking at 2 channels on XLR (crummy connector for digital) down digital spec cable (110 ohm). The voltage is hotter than SP/DIF. There are some very minor differences in the format of the digital signal, but really not much to worry about.
So you raise your cabling costs by quite a bit, to gain the capability of being able to repatch audio (though not through a patch bay) 2 channels at a time.
Meanwhile, in the RME TotalMix app I have been able to do most all the patching and routing that I have needed in my former studio, and currently in my 24x8 writing/mixing room. And thre key here is -routing-, meaning that a signal can have multiple destinations at varying levels per destination.
As I said, just my personal point of view... nothing wrong with AES or MADI or any other pro format.
Bill
The two advantages I see to AES over ADAT are balanced cables for longer runs and the fact that you can make physical routing decisions based on two channels rather than banks of eight. There have been a few occasions where having to move eight at a time has been slightly inconvenient for me, but certainly not enough to warrant having to completely revamp my system. In my setup I have LightPipe cables running as long as 10 meters and have zero clock problems.
(Just to be fair, using a Z-Sys router, it is possible to use a patchbay to re-route AES digital.)
But it needs to be specifically a digital patch bay, not an analog TRS bay. Price one and get back to me. Just doesn't seem practical for (as I said before) most small, home, permanent systems. If you are constantly moving, using different digital gear, and repatching, then I can see it. Using Totalmix as the router has worked just fine for me, I can send any inputs to any number of outputs. I have the ADAT cards installed in the Myteks, they come native with AES/EBU. I've only used AES/EBU once in recent memory, to plug into a Masterlink... which I hated, and will never ever use again if given a choice.
Bill
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