• Registered: 2019-04-21
  • Posts: 154

Topic: architectural question

I'm planning on changing our converter setup in the studio. Right now I have two Prism Orpheus daisy chained via Firewire which is really handy but a little buggy and annoying...
One Prism is connected to the monitor system (surround sound + active crossover and some sources) , the other on is built into a rack connected with some nice analoge gear. This way we just have one Firewire cable between Computer, orpheus one and orpheus two (carrying word clock and 16 channels I/O), which is really nice comfortable because we can move the rack around. unfortunately the computer is pretty much on the other end of the room with a RME ADI 2 DAC fs connect to it for nearfield monitoring and headphone monitoring.

I would like to get rid of my orpheus (because so many times it happens that I have to restart my system because they got locked to a wrong sample frequency ... it's a real pain - especially when clients are there :-(

For life recordings we have a Digiface AVB and M32pro, which is a really nice combination :-) which brought me to the idea to switch to AVB in the studio as well. Just connecting a switch to the Digiface AVB and from there a networkable to a M1610 for the monitoring system and another networkcable to a high class ADA converter (something like ADI 2 Pro fs but this thing has no MADI or AVB - argh) and I have another Rack with the same issue :-/

However as mentioned before the ADI2 Pro fs has no MADI or AVB. Unfortunately the 160 has no Inputs at all (otherwise it would be possible to put 8 channels of an ADAT input into a AVB or MADI stream) and the Digiface AVB doesn't support any EQs in Totalmix for loudspeaker correction :-(

Do you have some other suggestions?

2 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2020-04-14 15:06:58)

  • ramses
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  • Registered: 2012-10-14
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Re: architectural question

What about a HDSPe MADI FX ?
Then you have
- 3 MADI busses
- FX chip
- AES out to connect ADI-2 Pro
- Driver which limits resource consumption if not all channels are being used
Then you can connect
- M32 Pro and 1610 via MADI

PCIe card though .. you didn't tell for which PC system and whats your preference ...
Otherwise get UFX+ instead .. has one MADI bus as well
And you get DURec, USB3, Thunderbolt.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13
  • Registered: 2019-04-21
  • Posts: 154

Re: architectural question

@Ramses: This sounds indeed great. However we have n the studio an Mac Pro (trashcan) which doesn't offer PCI :-(

4 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2020-04-14 17:08:54)

  • ramses
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Re: architectural question

As you said PCI ... the HDSPe MADI FX card is PCIe, not PCI ... if this makes a difference to you.

I am not so familiar with Macs and the "wording", dunno what trashcan is ..
Does it have Thunderbolt ? Then you could use a PCIe expansion chassis (i.e. from Sonnet) and put the PCIe card in there.

The other alternative is to use the UFX+ which supports Thunderbolt and USB3, its a great interface and one MADI bus should already be sufficient for your demand.

I would choose MADI for its strength
- to have a dedicated network infrastructure for connecting preamps and converters
- the possibility to add interfaces into the MADI bus to send or receive audio
- up to 2km long MAID cables (OM3 / OM4 multimode cable)
- possibility to order with single mode cable for even longer distances

A few use cases you find here:
https://archiv.rme-audio.de/products/madi-setups.php

Network Studio is an interesting picture:
https://archiv.rme-audio.de/products/ma … udio.php#2

BTW .. you talked about converter, not sure whether you also need preamps ...

Besides the new preamp Mic10 the Octamic XTC is also an "orb":
A very interesting flexible device giving you besides preamps also
- 4 AES I/O where you can i.e. also connect an ADI-2 Pro ...
- two phones outputs which could be very useful in the recording room where ppl record
or to further distribute two equal or different set of stereo signals (mixes, routings) which could be
distributed to a phones preamp where ppl could choose between A or B ...
- also useable directly on Windows or an iPAD as it supports Class Compliant mode ..

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13