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RME User Forum → FireWire & USB series → Using Both USB and ADAT On RME Fireface UC
I understand that this is a strange question and surely unconventional.
I would like to know if I could hook the USB on the Fireface UC to one computer and use the ADAT digital ports on the back to hook up a second PC via ADAT out on an HDSPe and play audio at the same time from both PCs. Furthermore I would like to route two mics, one to each computer.
It seems like this would be possible but I'm unsure, sorry if it's a bit confusing.
It is a bit confusing, yes. 
In principle, if I read you right, this should work. I've had my FF400 connected to a digital mixer for output. The mixer connects via Adat to an 8-channel digital eq and that eq connects via ADAT back to the FF400 and to the computer.
Gives me an 8-channel bus out of the computer and back into the DAW.
Be aware that the first sending ADAT in the chain will be clock master. If that's not what you want, you'll need extra wordclock sync cables (75 Ohm coaxial) between both computers and you need to set one to master and one to slave.
I'm very new to RME products and have very little understanding of Word Clock. Even looking it up and reading into it confuses me a bit, but let me better explain what I'm trying to do here.
I have two PC's in my current setup, a desktop PC and a Surface Book (laptop).
I use my desktop for music production and other media production. I currently have it rigged with an HDSPe, which I run to an ADI-2, which runs to a Mackie ProFX12v2 mixer, and then to my studio monitors.
HDSPe>ADI-2>Mackie ProFX12v2>Studio Monitors
I use my Surface Book for Discord (voice chat). I currently have that hooked up to a Scarlett 2i2 (gen 1) interface which I run to the Mackie ProFX12v2, and then to the studio monitors.
Scarlett 2i2>Mackie ProFX12v2>Studio Monitors
Basically I've been on a long journey trying to build the perfect setup for both multimedia production (mainly music and video), and entertainment. When I'm not producing music I like to play games and ingest media. While I play the games on my desktop I use my Surface Book for voice chat. This allows me to individually control the volume of the game, the people I'm chatting with, and my own mic. I also directly monitor my own mic so I'm not yelling over the volume of my headphones. With all of this I don't have to constantly minimize games to adjust windows built in mixer and get a lot of other little benefits to running voice chat on a separate PC.
The setup I currently have works well enough but the Scarlett is really just a poor interface, I've had it for about 5 years so I can at least give it longevity but it has terribly low gain and ground noise I can't seem to get rid of. It doesn't even come close to the quality of my HDSPe / ADI-2, which makes sense considering it was 1/8 the price. I really didn't want to buy another RME card just for voice chat but I started to look around nonetheless. That's when I noticed the FFUC has USB and ADAT ports on the back of it and got thinking, could this replace both? I also use a DBX 286s as the ADI-2 doesn't have pre-amps, so could a FFUC replace all three of my external cards?
Basically in the end I'm looking to do this:
Desktop PC>HDSPe>
FFUC>Mackie ProFX12v2>Studio Monitors
Surface Book USB>
And then load the two MIC inputs, one input with a compression mic routed back to my desktop PC, and the other input with a dynamic mic routed to my Surface Book.
Will this mess with the master clock causing pops and jitters? Will I need to buy the Word Clock expansion board for the HDSPe and hook that up to the FFUC, or does there need to be another device in-between those? I mean will any of this work at all after getting a better understanding of it?
Sorry for the long post and thanks for the help.
It will work, but control of the RME will reside with the computer that is USB connected. In this case, the Surface Book.
ADAT gives you 8 channels in or out, but no control.
But AFAICT, this should work flawlessly for 8 channels.
This will work and once you understand totalmix will be very easy too. If you use 2 adat cables (both in and out) you can choose which one is clock master, the other one should be set to clock to adat (obviously). Wordclock will not be needed and is even slightly less advisable. Each input or software source (mics or playback from computer) can be easily send to any output. You do need a basic understanding of the totalmix subgroup outputs.
I do have at least a decent understanding of Totalmix which is what led me to believe it was possible, been messing with it extensively for the last few weeks.
Only thing that gives me pause is "It will work, but control of the RME will reside with the computer that is USB connected.", I had assumed that something like this would be the case but wasn't sure how it would work. So I absolutely need the Surface Book hooked up to get any audio from my desktop PC?
Right now if I want to run ASIO in Ableton I turn up both hardware ADAT 1/2 and Software Analog 1/2 on my desktop. If I wanted to run ASIO with the new setup would I turn up hardware ADAT 1/2 and Software Analog 1/2 on the desktop and hardware ADAT on the Surface Book? Or are you saying that complete control would be on the Surface Book? Somehow controlling the HDSPe in my desktop with no need to control Totalmix on the desktop itself?
Only one ASIO driver can be selected in a DAW.
I have connected to my machine: 2 UFX+, ADI-2 Pro, RayDAT
In my case the RME MADIface ASIO driver supports the 2 UFX+ and ADI-2 Pro.
If I select this one then I can directly record from these 3 devices, but not directly from the RayDAT.
But in terms of TotalMix FX I can open one TotalMix FX windows (aka "instance") per recording device.
No matter whether its active in an audio program or not. Its simply to control the routing, faders etc.
In my case I have 3 instances of TM open: 2 for each of the UFX+ and 1 for the RayDAT.
ADI-2 Pro has not TM FX control.
To make this work I need to be the primary UFX+ to be clock master.
ADI-2 Pro gets the clock from it via AES.
2nd UFX+ gets the clock via ADAT1 from primary UFX+.
The RayDAT I do not require to clock synchronize at the moment, as I use currently soleyly the UFX+/ADI-2 Pros with the MADIface driver. Otherwise I could syncrhonize it i.e. with either via ADAT2 of primary UFX+ which is the clock master or by the secondary UFX+ which is clocked by the primary UFX+. Or I could implement WC between the primary UFX+ which is the clock master by setting clock to "internal" in the driver settings dialog.
You get the point ?
Your setup sounds even more confusing than what I'm trying to do!
I think I follow to an extent but I definitely don't fully understand. Seeing as there aren't a lot of video tutorials on this stuff I believe the only way for me to understand will be doing it myself and learning through trial and error.
I more or less needed to know if it was possible, my FFUC is now on the way.
It is possible and easy, even without a PC connected to the UC. It is called stand alone mode. On the PC you then control how you route the adats into the hdsp.
I used for about 2 years an UFX as Preamp in front of the RayDAT card which is fully digital.
http://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/inde … ME-RayDAT/
I stored the usual routing that I had into the devices and then simply opened 1 TM FX window
for the UFX, because changes I did only there, the rest was a static mapping of channels
via ADAT from/to the RayDAT.
Then I could even decide whether I wanted to work over RayDAT by using RayDAT ASIO driver or whether I wanted to use the UFX directly. Most of the time the RayDAT because I wanted to optimize CPU usage. Later I found out that USB doesnt use significantly more CPU time for my projects. Then I didnt use the RayDAT anymore but still have it in my system for special cases...
Maybe this example is also interesting for you to read how to use RME 2 devices inside of your PC.
Article is only available in german, sorry. Maybe you can use google translation for most parts.
So I got my card and I've got just about everything working as I thought it would. However I am confused about one thing.
My system volume doesn't change the volume of any program, almost as if I'm using ASIO for everything. I have "Speakers RME Fireface UC" as my default device in windows mixer but I can only adjust volume using Totalmix. On my other PC (the one with the HDSPe) I can control the volume by just turning up the system volume (out of a DAW). Any ideas?
On more question, with my Scarlett 2i2 both inputs came through the same "recording device" in windows. I had a mic and a sound board plugged into it and they'd both run through my voice chat software.
With the UC however everything is separated into their own channels, of course this is generally desirable but for this specific case it would be nice if I could somehow "combine" inputs, specifically "AN 3" & "Mic 2". I've been messing around with the software and don't really see a way of doing this.
I could still get it to work by running two instances of Discord (voice chat), one on each PC and routing the sound back to the HDSPe but that would be less desirable as it would include more steps and creation of multiple accounts. Any way to combine inputs more or less?
Thanks again for all the help.
System volume is intentionally not supported in our drivers. I know it might look like you would clutter your desktop again with another device, but please consider to add the ARC USB. It will not only solve that problem but many more, and enables comfortable working and operation, even when using a 'simple' Fireface UC:
http://www.rme-audio.de/en/products/arc_usb.php
Combining inputs can be done by clever mixing/routing and then activating Loopback in the hardware output. See manual for details, chapter 28.6.
Thank you for the reply, this gives me physical control of TotalMix?
So system audio is bypassed on just USB cards? Because as I had mentioned adjusting system volume worked fine with my HDSPe ADI-2 combo, and adjusting system volume still works with my HDSPe FFUC combo. It just doesn't work on the system running through the USB connection.
I'm not sure loop back is exactly what I'm looking for, I need to combine two input channels to one input channel not two input channels to 1 output channel.
Unless there is a way to route an output channel, even then now I'm adjusting two separate to separate outputs that are hard to monitor.
Sorry if I sound incompetent as I am new and have a hard time understanding but is there anyway to combine 2 inputs two 1 input via software?
I could just physically connect outputs 3/4 to inputs 5/6 and route the mic and soundboard to outputs 3/4 but I was hoping for a more delicate solution.
Please read the chapter about Loopback. It allows for exactly what you want.
I have now read through the chapter 3 times, and I now see that I can route all input channels to one input channel.
The problem now is my second computer (running from the HDSPe plugged into in/out ADAT on FFUC) is technically an input, I use both PC's at the same time so now the audio from my second PC including both my mics and a soundboard are running through the same input. Can I "disable" individual inputs within totalmix from looping back? Or do I now need to take advantage of another set of hardware outputs so it's on it's entirely own output channel and run a second set of cables to my mixing board?
I searched the manual for Loop back and read every instance of it, this is the last piece to the puzzle and I greatly appreciate all the help, I understand this must be frustrating I am sorry to be such a bother.
Nicely explained in one of the RME Video tutorials, see my blog:
http://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/inde … al-Videos/
Eventually this could also be of interest for you:
http://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/inde … rnal-equi/
Okay I believe I fully understand, I do think my best option would be route my second PC to it's own output and use loopback to combine the other channels.
Thank you everyone 
RME User Forum → FireWire & USB series → Using Both USB and ADAT On RME Fireface UC
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