1 Topic by starlet.glued (edited by starlet.glued 2022-05-30 08:37:38)

  • Registered: 2022-01-02
  • Posts: 20

Topic: HDSPe RayDAT/HDSPe AIO Pro/Babyface V1 connectivity question

Hi all, back again…

I have a question about expanding my setup in lieu of creating a new garage studio when I move house.

I purchased a new PC and have a RayDAT PCI card already installed.

I’m running at 96khz an have 2 no. Focusrite OctoPre Dynamic ADAT Preamps.

I’d like to further expand my in/outs and am looking at getting the HDSPe AIO Pro which I will sync internally with the x400 port of the RayDAT (with the AIO being the master).

In this way I can get another 2 audio ins and 2 audio outs and another set of MIDI ports, I understand that I will need to run 2 instances of TotalMix.

I assume I have this right and that the HDSPe cards will coexist happily?

My question relates to further expanding ADAT from the HDSPe AIO Pro, you see I have a V1 Babyface and given that I’m at 96khz I would stand to get 4 extra channels by using it slaved to the AIO.

Is it possible to use the Babyface purely via ADAT as a slave purely to give 2 extra audio ins and outs simultaneously?

If so are there any potential drawbacks?

My Babyface is currently a paperweight and I don’t want to buy another 8 channel ADAT Preamp only to use 4 of the channels at 96khz.

Any assistance welcomed and if I’m overlooking anything please let me know!

2 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2022-05-30 07:19:37)

  • ramses
  • DAW Mastermind
  • Offline
  • From: UTC+1
  • Registered: 2012-10-14
  • Posts: 13,386

Re: HDSPe RayDAT/HDSPe AIO Pro/Babyface V1 connectivity question

Are you sure that you need to record at 192 kHz? I am still using single speed and regard this as fully sufficient.
If you really want to record something special, then double speed is already nice enough, more is not required.
This would also be beneficial in terms of load on your PC and gives more headroom/reliability.

Disadvantage of such a setup with two cards: you can't route audio across TM FX instances. By this you loose a lot of flexibility in TM FX.

If you work with such high sample rates (double, quad speed) I would have chosen a MADI based setup.
MADI gives you 64ch at single speed, 32ch at double speed, still 16ch at quad speed.

Either based on an UFX+ (USB3/2, TB, 1x MADI) or HDSPe MADI FX card (PCIe, 3x MADI).

A nice setup could be e.g. UFX+ and 12Mic through MADI. This gives you 4+12=16 Mic inputs and also analog I/O.
Additionally nice features like Autoset and DURec (Direct USB recording, either for stand-alone or as backup recording).
This would be a really powerful setup. All channels and the complete routing can be controlled in one TM FX instance for optimum flexibility.

I wrote these blog articles about  UFX+, 12Mic, HDSPe MADI FX that could be of interest for you:
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/Entry/68-RME-UFX/
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/Ent … XTC-DE-EN/
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/Ent … Pro-FS-BE/

I would consider adding an ARC USB.

At any time later you can get an ADI-2 Pro FS R BE on top for your monitoring, to benefit from it's special features, see also these two blog articles:
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/Ent … our-Setup/
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/Ent … ses-EN-DE/

My setup and some of my use cases here:
https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/Ent … -DURec-DE/

Recording corner: combination of UFX+, 12Mic, XTC (ADI-2 Pro FS R BE for monitoring / headphone amp) for home use and also as mobile recording rack. With connection to HiFI corner with 15m TOSLINK cable.
HiFi corner: ADI-2 Pro FS R BE with TOSLINK switcher in front of it to connect three devices (PC/UFX+/MusicBee as audio player, TV, BluRay). ADI-2 Pro performs D/A conversion for all digital sources towards high-endish HiFi.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14
  • Registered: 2022-01-02
  • Posts: 20

Re: HDSPe RayDAT/HDSPe AIO Pro/Babyface V1 connectivity question

Hi Ramses,

I have made a bit of an error in my original post.

I actually have everything set to 96khz.

My computer is in storage whilst I prepare to move home, my mistake.

I appreciate what you’re saying by the way but won’t be in any position to purchase that much new kit.

I’ve recently purchased a £3.5k i9 12900k computer, RayDAT and two preamps. There’s no lack of computing power.

I’m willing to accept that I’ll need to use two instances of TM and am happy with that.

All I really need to know is can the V1 Babyface provide me with 2 additional analog ins and outs vis the HDSPe AIO Pro’s ADAT in/out at 96khz?

4 Reply by vinark (edited by vinark 2022-05-30 11:34:01)

  • vinark
  • DAW Mastermind
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2009-06-05
  • Posts: 2,857

Re: HDSPe RayDAT/HDSPe AIO Pro/Babyface V1 connectivity question

All I really need to know is can the V1 Babyface provide me with 2 additional analog ins and outs vis the HDSPe AIO Pro’s ADAT in/out at 96khz?
Yes even 4 outs (Headphones has a separate DAC).
This will of course also work with your raydat.

Vincent, Amsterdam
https://soundcloud.com/thesecretworld
BFpro fs, 2X HDSP9652 ADI-8AE, 2X HDSP9632

5 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2022-05-30 11:53:23)

  • ramses
  • DAW Mastermind
  • Offline
  • From: UTC+1
  • Registered: 2012-10-14
  • Posts: 13,386

Re: HDSPe RayDAT/HDSPe AIO Pro/Babyface V1 connectivity question

starlet.glued wrote:

Hi Ramses,

I have made a bit of an error in my original post.

I actually have everything set to 96khz.

My computer is in storage whilst I prepare to move home, my mistake.

I appreciate what you’re saying by the way but won’t be in any position to purchase that much new kit.

I’ve recently purchased a £3.5k i9 12900k computer, RayDAT and two preamps. There’s no lack of computing power.

I’m willing to accept that I’ll need to use two instances of TM and am happy with that.

All I really need to know is can the V1 Babyface provide me with 2 additional analog ins and outs vis the HDSPe AIO Pro’s ADAT in/out at 96khz?

Was just meant as a proposal based on your information to work with 192 kHz
and related to working with two TM FX instances.

In particular:

> There’s no lack of computing power.
Sorry, but the most powerful computers can have issues with the "near-realtime" demands of audio processing (-> DPC latencies). The higher the bandwidth (by quad speed) is, the more DPC latencies can cause issues depending also on surrounting conditions like ASIO buffersize, number of channels / VST / VSTi, how good single thread performance of your CPU is, how well the DAW is able to distribute the workload across many cores, etc...

> I’m willing to accept that I’ll need to use two instances of TM and am happy with that.
No problem, then this is ok.

> All I really need to know is can the V1 Babyface provide me with 2 additional analog ins and outs
> vis the HDSPe AIO Pro’s ADAT in/out at 96khz?

Looks as if this is only about routing channels over the ADAT cross connection between the two recording interfaces.
With double speed you have 4ch over ADAT.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14
  • Registered: 2022-01-02
  • Posts: 20

Re: HDSPe RayDAT/HDSPe AIO Pro/Babyface V1 connectivity question

ramses wrote:
starlet.glued wrote:

Hi Ramses,

I have made a bit of an error in my original post.

I actually have everything set to 96khz.

My computer is in storage whilst I prepare to move home, my mistake.

I appreciate what you’re saying by the way but won’t be in any position to purchase that much new kit.

I’ve recently purchased a £3.5k i9 12900k computer, RayDAT and two preamps. There’s no lack of computing power.

I’m willing to accept that I’ll need to use two instances of TM and am happy with that.

All I really need to know is can the V1 Babyface provide me with 2 additional analog ins and outs vis the HDSPe AIO Pro’s ADAT in/out at 96khz?

Was just meant as a proposal based on your information to work with 192 kHz
and related to working with two TM FX instances.

In particular:

> There’s no lack of computing power.
Sorry, but the most powerful computers can have issues with the "near-realtime" demands of audio processing (-> DPC latencies). The higher the bandwidth (by quad speed) is, the more DPC latencies can cause issues depending also on surrounting conditions like ASIO buffersize, number of channels / VST / VSTi, how good single thread performance of your CPU is, how well the DAW is able to distribute the workload across many cores, etc...

> I’m willing to accept that I’ll need to use two instances of TM and am happy with that.
No problem, then this is ok.

> All I really need to know is can the V1 Babyface provide me with 2 additional analog ins and outs
> vis the HDSPe AIO Pro’s ADAT in/out at 96khz?

Looks as if this is only about routing channels over the ADAT cross connection between the two recording interfaces.
With double speed you have 4ch over ADAT.

The PC is up running and thoroughly tested, it’s just in storage at present (custom audio build from 3XS).

It’s had no problem with 16 channels of 96khz, doesn’t even flinch.

I’m just reluctant to buy another 8 channel ADAT expander only to use half of the available channels due to the AIO Pro only having 1 ADAT in and ADAT 1 out (4 channels at 96khz).

Babyface is currently redundant so figured I’d use it for the extra 4 channels I’ll gain, 2 in and 2 out.

  • vinark
  • DAW Mastermind
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2009-06-05
  • Posts: 2,857

Re: HDSPe RayDAT/HDSPe AIO Pro/Babyface V1 connectivity question

4 outs. Headphones is a separate dac and full quality when used at line level output.

Vincent, Amsterdam
https://soundcloud.com/thesecretworld
BFpro fs, 2X HDSP9652 ADI-8AE, 2X HDSP9632
  • Registered: 2022-01-02
  • Posts: 20

Re: HDSPe RayDAT/HDSPe AIO Pro/Babyface V1 connectivity question

vinark wrote:

4 outs. Headphones is a separate dac and full quality when used at line level output.

The headphones are not an independent 2 outputs (L&R) in addition to the main XLR outs are they?

Assume they are reproducing the same channels but handy none the less.

  • ramses
  • DAW Mastermind
  • Offline
  • From: UTC+1
  • Registered: 2012-10-14
  • Posts: 13,386

Re: HDSPe RayDAT/HDSPe AIO Pro/Babyface V1 connectivity question

No not independend channels.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14

10 Reply by vinark (edited by vinark 2022-05-30 15:42:34)

  • vinark
  • DAW Mastermind
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2009-06-05
  • Posts: 2,857

Re: HDSPe RayDAT/HDSPe AIO Pro/Babyface V1 connectivity question

No independent, at least according to the specs and my recollection of a friends one, also a MK1.
https://archiv.rme-audio.de/en/products/babyface.php
I now have a PRo fs. Also 4 outs (and 4 ins, which the original did not have)

Vincent, Amsterdam
https://soundcloud.com/thesecretworld
BFpro fs, 2X HDSP9652 ADI-8AE, 2X HDSP9632