• Registered: 2016-03-21
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Topic: UCX II - Owners, What Do You Think?

Hi All,

It appears that more and more of the new UCX ii units are available and several folks on this forum have bought one.  How are you finding them?  Any unexpected "quirks?"

Thinking of upgrading from Babyface Pro (not FS) for the additional features of DuRec, additional line outs (for multiple monitor setups and either a subwoofer or multi headphone amp). 

Wondering if I can connect the BF Pro to the UCXii via ADAT, and get two extra mic inputs (though I suppose I'd have to plug in the BF Pro to a wall outlet to do that).

UCX ii owners, let us know what you think of them.

Thanks,
Danny V.

2 Reply by Thermaltake (edited by Thermaltake 2021-11-28 07:28:39)

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Re: UCX II - Owners, What Do You Think?

Some answers you can find here

https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.php?id=34100

3 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2021-11-28 10:14:58)

  • ramses
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Re: UCX II - Owners, What Do You Think?

danevaz wrote:

Wondering if I can connect the BF Pro to the UCXii via ADAT, and get two extra mic inputs (though I suppose I'd have to plug in the BF Pro to a wall outlet to do that).

Option 1 - connect both devices through USB

BBF Pro and UCX II use the same RME ASIO driver.
So you can connect both to your PC through USB if your PC has no issues with more audio connections.
Assumed that your UCX II will be clock master as it has FS clock:
Provide 1 TOSLINK cable for clock synchronization purpose between UCX II ADAT OUT and BBF Pro ADAT IN.

Always ensure in the RME driver settings, that both devices are using the same ASIO buffersize!

Advantage of this setup:
- you can use all I/O ports of the BBF Pro as well
- the application has direct access to all I/O ports of both interfaces
- you can operate UCX II and BBF Pro through either one (and selecting between both) or by using two TM FX instances
- you can still operate the BBF Pro bus powered

Option 2 - BBF Pro in stand-alone mode

Another option would be to use the BBF Pro in stand-alone mode and to connect it with 2 TOSLINK cables
1 between BBF Pro and UCX II to transfer audio from the Mic inputs of BBF Pro through ADAT to UCX II
1 between UCX II and BBF Pro to transfer audio to the BBF Pro (e.g. to use it's phones outputs) and to provide the clock.
In this setup the BBF Pro needs an external power supply, as it is not connected anymore through USB bus power.
See also manual chapter 33.2 for standalone mode and routing capabilities.

I would recommend to use Option 1 because
- device can still work USB bus powered, use of a PSU is optional
- both devices can be managed by TM FX and the settings dialog
- applications can access all I/O ports
- you only need to plug 1 TOSLINK cable for clock synchronization purposes from UCX II with FS clock to BBF Pro

Again during operation you only should have a look at the settings dialog, that both interfaces use the same ASIO buffersize otherwise you will get an offset in audio from both devices.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13
  • Registered: 2016-03-21
  • Posts: 20

Re: UCX II - Owners, What Do You Think?

Thanks for the response Ramses.  Option 2 is exactly what I had in mind.

I'm not sure about option 1 as I am on WIN10 and as far as I know, in Windows, a DAW can only reference one ASIO interface at a time.

But I'll figure it out.

Danny

  • Registered: 2016-03-21
  • Posts: 20

Re: UCX II - Owners, What Do You Think?

...and while I have your attention:

The "Output level switchable +19 dBu, +13 dBu, +4 dBu" feature - how is this working out?

I currently use Adam A7xs with my BFP and I had to insert in-line attenuators at -20db so I can run the monitors at unity gain, and still keep the Total Mix Main output fader as close to 0db as possible (otherwise monitoring levels are too loud for me).

Is this new +19dBu option going to allow me to remove the attenuators from the line out signal path?

Thanks,
Danny

6 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2021-11-29 18:08:49)

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Re: UCX II - Owners, What Do You Think?

danevaz wrote:

Thanks for the response Ramses.  Option 2 is exactly what I had in mind.

I'm not sure about option 1 as I am on WIN10 and as far as I know, in Windows, a DAW can only reference one ASIO interface at a time.

But I'll figure it out.

Danny

No, it's like this: "an application/DAW can only load one audio / ASIO driver".

But the application can access all devices that are connected to the computer and are supported by the driver.

For exampe the following RME driver support the following devices:
- old usb driver: Fireface UFX, 802, UCX/UCX II, UC und Babyface/Pro/FS
- newer MADIface driver:  MADIface XT/USB/Pro, Fireface UFX+/UFX II, OctaMic XTC, ADI-2 Pro/AE/FS/DAC, Digiface USB

Thats theoretically a lot of device and also multiple of it, that an ASIO driver can support, IF the computer can handle that many audio channels as all channels are being transferred no matter if they are used (with one exception that I mentioned already, the HDSPe MADI FX with it's special resource optimizing driver).

You just have to make sure that the devices are synchronised via digital connections or word clock (or a mixture of both) and use the same sample rate and ASIO buffersize, the latter so that sample can be recorded accurately (see RME driver settings).

This works fine, I already had it running here with two UFX+ and one ADI-2 Pro.

Matthias Carstens once said here in the forum that RME tests its drivers up to a maximum of three devices, e.g. 3x RayDAT, but that no upper limit is coded in the driver. It is often the case that hardly any more ports are needed or that there are not enough free PCI/PCIe sockets or unshared USB ports or that the PC cannot support more ports or transfer them without interruption. For example, due to higher DPC latencies (depending on the drivers) and also depending on the sample rate and ASIO buffer size.

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

7 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2021-11-29 18:45:46)

  • ramses
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Re: UCX II - Owners, What Do You Think?

danevaz wrote:

...and while I have your attention:

The "Output level switchable +19 dBu, +13 dBu, +4 dBu" feature - how is this working out?

I currently use Adam A7xs with my BFP and I had to insert in-line attenuators at -20db so I can run the monitors at unity gain, and still keep the Total Mix Main output fader as close to 0db as possible (otherwise monitoring levels are too loud for me).

Is this new +19dBu option going to allow me to remove the attenuators from the line out signal path?

Thanks,
Danny

Higher reference levels on
- inputs make it more silence
- oputputs make it louder

You can choose between 19 dBu, +13 dBu, +4 dBu and all reference levels have the same good SNR.
You need to check which combination of reference level and attenuation gives you most flexibility to operate closest to 0dB.
There are good switchable attenuators, not too expensive, that allow switching between -10, -20 and -30 dB.
https://www.thomann.de/de/jts_ma_123.htm

At a later point you could even think about adding an ADI-2 Pro FS R BE to your setup which gives you additional advantages:

1. The device has four reference levels and with the feature auto reflevel it automatically picks the ideal reference level so that you get higher SNR/dynamics over a wider volume range. The device honors B/T, PEQ and even dynamic loudness settings in the automatic reflevel calculation.

2. Also nice the level of detail in the sound stage, see this posting from KaiS: https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 68#p177168. ADI-2 Pro/DAC is the only device which uses a "high end" converter which allows the switching between different AD- (ADI-2 Pro only) and DA filter.

3. The device acts also like a monitor controller. Accidental 0dB setting in totalmix can not hurt, because you use the volume settings of the ADI-2 Pro FS.

Should you be interested then you can have a look at two of my blog articles:
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … ses-EN-DE/
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … our-Setup/

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