1 Topic by nelson (edited by nelson 2022-09-27 01:16:18)

  • Registered: 2022-09-27
  • Posts: 2

Topic: HDSPe AES with HDSpe MADI or MADI Fx in same Windows computer?

Can I do this?  I send data via AES EBU into the computer under ASIO, which does something with the data, and output them to MADI?  Based on my reading of the manual, I can have 3 cards maximum in a computer and cards must use the same driver software.  These are all pci-e cards, but I am not sure if they use different drivers.  I imagine that I can use TotalMix and route channels between cards.  Furthermore, one card will be the master clock, and the other will be slave clock.  Do I send world clock output from one card into the world clock input of the other card, via a cable with BNC connectors on both end?

Thank.

2 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2022-09-27 06:34:29)

  • ramses
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  • Registered: 2012-10-14
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Re: HDSPe AES with HDSpe MADI or MADI Fx in same Windows computer?

It's only possibly with HDSPe AES and HDSPe MADI, the HDSPe MADI FX has a driver of its own.
Then you will have a TotalMix FX instance/window per card.
Routing of audio between the two cards needs to be performed by the application.
Clock synchronization can be performed by using
— WC (Word Clock) or
— internal X401 Sync Out, X400 Sync In connectors, see manuals ch 6.2

When using multiple cards, then you need to check manually in the driver settings, that all cards use the same ASIO buffer size.

How many AES stereo ports do you need?

If you require only 1x AES I/O and MADI, then you have these options
a) get HDSPe MADI FX card (PCIe), then you have the advantage to get a card with
— resource optimizing driver
— full implementation of FX chip
b) get UFX+ (USB3/TB) which also has 1x AES and MADI I/O and besides that many useful features
and then you can route audio in one TM FX instance between all inputs / outputs.
c) get MADIface XT (USB3/ePCIe) which has 1x AES and 3x MADI I/O

Alternatively, you can select any RME recording interface with MADI (e.g., UFX+, MADIface XT, HDSPe MADI, HDSPe MADI FX) and connect
— ADI-642 with 4x AES I/O or
— Octamic XTC which is a preamp but also has 4x AES I/O on board
to get AES ports into your setup and to have full flexibility of routing on one card.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub13
  • Registered: 2022-09-27
  • Posts: 2

Re: HDSPe AES with HDSpe MADI or MADI Fx in same Windows computer?

Thanks for your detailed reply.  I lot to think about.  Answering your question, I need 8 AES stereo ports ( 16 channels input).