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RME User Forum → AVB/Dante - Network based devices → Digiface AVB an Macs
Feel like a total idiot here, but I don't understand what this product does.
Let's say I have a recording workspace (mac/fireface 800) and I want to send the audio from there to another mac in the house.
If I plug the digiface avb into the main mac with the fireface, I can then send the networked audio to another computer on the network using the mac built in avb stuff?
I really don't understand this stuff at all, and am finding zero information on it. Thanks
This video explains something :
https://youtu.be/v-Rkl7Th_1g
Open the AVB Controller directly from Terminal with this command :
avbutil --controller
Modern Macs with a Gigabit ethernet connection can connect each other over network and exchange audio via AVB.
This thread is also interesting for this topic :
https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 72#p172472
I've watched that video 3 times at least and I still don't get it. I get how you can have a hardware device like that Presonus and it works to send audio in and out of computer, but shouldn't you be able to do that with just 2 Macs anyway? Like there needs to be some audio device in audio midi setup for starters, but I can't figure that part out. Then there is the question of how the digiface would tie into that and the current fireface total mix setup, but it seems like it wouldn't, so I just don't get it. And maybe more odd, the digiface doesn't have an audio input so what the heck can it can consume to send anything anywhere. I really just don't get it.
I'll read over the other link and see if I can make heads or tails of that. Thanks
Yes it should be possible to use Macs with ethernet to build a audio network without any other audio interfaces.
The video shows how to setup the Mac into an AVB endpoint then use the avbutil --controller software.
The Digiface USB is a digital interface for connecting AVB compatible devices or connecting into an existing AVB network.
Analog inputs can come from other devices like the AVB-tool or 12-Mic or digital mixing consoles.
For the Fireface Totalmix you have to build an Aggregat device in the Mac Audio-Midi settings.
Or you use the Digiface AVB on the Mac instead of the Fireface then you have full Totalmix of the Digiface AVB.
Having Totalmix in the AVB environment is probably the point why to use it ( on Macs ).
Yes it should be possible to use Macs with ethernet to build a audio network without any other audio interfaces..
I would think too, but there isn't 1 document or video on the internet showing that.
The video shows how to setup the Mac into an AVB endpoint then use the avbutil --controller software.
The Digiface USB is a digital interface for connecting AVB compatible devices or connecting into an existing AVB network.
Analog inputs can come from other devices like the AVB-tool or 12-Mic or digital mixing consoles.
For the Fireface Totalmix you have to build an Aggregat device in the Mac Audio-Midi settings.
Or you use the Digiface AVB on the Mac instead of the Fireface then you have full Totalmix of the Digiface AVB.
Having Totalmix in the AVB environment is probably the point why to use it ( on Macs ).
This part:
Or you use the Digiface AVB on the Mac instead of the Fireface then you have full Totalmix of the Digiface AVB.
So the digiface goes on the the remote computer, but then how does the original fireface computer send audio to that? I just don't get it. Or the part about Aviutl -- controller, nobody mentioned anywhere about aviutl --enable enh0 (or whatever interface).
I get the part about the 12 mic being on the network and being able to be consumed by the digiface avb, but that's about all I get. And then the digiface avb doesn't even have any outputs except the headphones, so that's another head scratcher. Like how would you even hear what's going on. Thanks though.
The computer with the Fireface needs to have a ethernet port to connect to a network switch.
All AVB devices connected to this network can see each other and exchange (stream) audio.
The avbutil --controller let you select channels for send and receive.
For playing the music another analog unit is needed.
Same as for the analog input a digital mixing console or a AVB-Tool can do this.
I think I figured out the Mac to Mac part in that it can't be done. It at least needs some real avb device on the system. At least that's as far as I can make of it right now.
Thanks for all your help.
It would help a lot if you explained a specific problem at hand. Do you want to connect two Macs with AVB and without a Digiface AVB? What is the use case? It's certainly possible and I hope someone in the macOS forums would let you know how to do it (create a virtual audio entity on both macs with same amount of channels, stream formats and sampling rate, then make one the clock master by choosing Mac system clock and stream one stream to the other mac to synchronize to (clock source: stream from other mac)). And yes, one of the Macs can use a Digiface AVB instead, which makes changing sampling rates a bit easier, gives you the hardware mixer and feels in general more resilient (it is a dedicated USB audio interface with an RME driver).
I think your real problem is that you don't understand how to get the audio in and out of the AVB realm other than using external devices. That's a bit more complex, technically you have to with aggregate devices in the Mac, joining the AVB (virtual or not) interface with a FireFace800 or internal speakers/headphones and then routing audio through CoreAudio (ie. the DAW). Good luck with that - on Apple Silicon with current macOS it might be worth a try. To me this solution is not very appealing because a sampling rate change in the DAW would probably lead to the virtual audio interface getting disabled, which in turn would lead to the aggregate device become somewhat split or unsynchronized and I would anticipate all kinds of stalls and hick-ups. So your setup should be very static, without changes in sampling rate.
Use case... really just for fun, but my basement studio is all in one right now, meaning control room and live room. If I could send networked audio from the basement to my garage mac, I could use totalmix remote in the garage to live mix in the garage, like basically the garage becomes the control room. That's one idea anyway. The other part is just experimenting with this stuff to try and figure out how it works.
I'm going to try it with the Dante software stuff to see if that works. If it does, I could get one of the $200 dante connectors connected via AES to the ADI pro, and send that to the remote computer, or even get another Dante connector for that computer.
RME User Forum → AVB/Dante - Network based devices → Digiface AVB an Macs
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