Topic: HDSP and HDSPe compatibility

Hello,

I want to buy a HDSPe AES and HDSPe MADI FX
The problem is my computer has only one PCIe slot left. I have 2 PCI slots and 2 PCIex16 slots available.
My question is: Can I use both HDSP and HDSPe cards at the same time?

thanks
JC

Re: HDSP and HDSPe compatibility

Or Maybe there is a better solution than using two cards? what i Need is MADI and 2 AES/EBU in/outs

thank you very much for you help

Re: HDSP and HDSPe compatibility

jcpanizza wrote:

The problem is my computer has only one PCIe slot left. I have 2 PCI slots and 2 PCIex16 slots available.

Yes, but the MADI FX has a different ASIO driver. It would work with the non-FX HDSPe MADI.


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Re: HDSP and HDSPe compatibility

Thank you very much for your answer.
Could i use HDSP version of the madi together with HDSPe AES?

Re: HDSP and HDSPe compatibility

Yes, any combination of HDSP cards works in principle - only the MADI FX is the odd one out with a different driver.

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Re: HDSP and HDSPe compatibility

RME Support wrote:

Yes, any combination of HDSP cards works in principle - only the MADI FX is the odd one out with a different driver.

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

In regards to "the odd one" wink Its an extremely cool product with an intelligent and flexible driver:

1st of all this is the only PCIe card with a built-in FX chip.

Then in regards to the driver .. a RME masterpiece:

"The high-tech core will process three times as many channels as the channel count of the previous MADI flagship, while actually reducing the system load and enabling ultra-low latencies down to 32 samples on modern computers.

A sophisticated new efficiency technology will automatically deactivate currently unused channels, so that they require no processing power or bandwidth. A simple stereo playback will not require any more performance than from a standard stereo audio card - despite the use of a professional multi-channel system with almost 400 channels."

And a very unique redundancy feature:
"RME's unique Seamless Redundancy Operation uses the cards 3 MADI receivers to provide professional users with state-of-the-art fail safe operation. In SRO mode the card operates as single MADI input device, recording up to 64 channels. As soon as the current input fails the audio data received from one of the other two inputs is used. The audio data is not interrupted when switching to another input and the card can use not only one, but two more sources for redundancy. No relocking and synchronization to a different clock source is required, and the interruption caused by the external failure is minimized to a few samples."

By this the number of i/o channels also reduces to 64 I/O, which is quite nice in handling, if you do not need so many channels.

And you can also configure that MADI bus1 outputs will be mirrored to MADI bus 2+3.
This makes it i.e. possible to connect an UFX+ as DURec recorder or other nice applications.

This card is awesome.

If you need a few AES channels you could maybe also think about connecting the ADI-642 via MADI with 4x AES/EBU i/o.
Or up to an ADI-6432 with 32x AES/EBU. This device is also available as ADI-6432R with redundant power supplies.

I think it would be more efficient to use the MADI flagship card and do the rest with MADI ...

Then you also require only one PCIe slot .. and you can choose the one which has best PCIe Lanes directly to the CPU without eventually having to go via Chipset.

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

Re: HDSP and HDSPe compatibility

The term "odd one out" only referred to the driver, which is different from the other HDSP cards' driver....

If you only ever need one AES/EBU I/O, you will not need two cards, really, in that case the MADI FX card will suffice. If you end up needing more AES/EBU connections, you will need external format conversion, and then a two-card solution might end up cheaper.

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Re: HDSP and HDSPe compatibility

Sure, fully understood it. As I tested this card myself I simply wanted to use this occasion to motivate pcjanizza to take a closer look at this card and MADI components, when this solution could also fit budget-wise. Especially as the card offers some advanced features.

Was a little bit "playing with words", the card with the "odd one driver" has the "better" features wink

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

9 (edited by ramses 2018-11-18 10:36:04)

Re: HDSP and HDSPe compatibility

BTW, I wrote last recently a review of this card and an interesting basic setup including ADI-2 Pro FS integration
and a few maybe interesting screenshots of TM FX (my parallel effect loop routing for a Marshall amp) and my DIGICheck workspace with a collection of DIGIcheck tools enabled, which I personally regard as very useful for most situations.

Here the URL to the review (PDF, EN): https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/index.ph … l-v1-0-pdf

Here the entry point / blog article containing all screenshots / pictures of the review if you only want to scroll through the pictures: https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ind … ct-Review/

Enjoy wink

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

10 (edited by JRT 2018-11-19 04:22:33)

Re: HDSP and HDSPe compatibility

jcpanizza wrote:

I want to buy a HDSPe AES and HDSPe MADI FX.  The problem is my computer has only one PCIe slot left. I have 2 PCI slots and 2 PCIex16 slots available.

jcpanizza wrote:

Or Maybe there is a better solution than using two cards? what i Need is MADI and 2 AES/EBU in/outs

Since you have two PCI slots available, and since used PCI cards can be significantly less expensive than used PCIe cards which are less expensive than new PCIe cards, I would suggest buying two used PCI cards.

I currently see used RME PCI cards HDSP AES-32 and HDSP MADI cards selling for well under US$500 each. So you should be able to solve this for under US$1k. The same ASIO driver works with both, running two instances of TotalMix FX. 

That solves the near term problem while conserving capital.

Longer term you may have other needs, so I would not suggest spending a lot more on PCIe cards now with consideration of longer term use in your next computer unless you are also acquiring a new computer in the near future, one that lacks PCI slots.