Re: [linux-audio-user] 8-channel system

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Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] 8-channel system
From: Matt Barber (brbrofsvl_AT_aol.com)
Date: Mon Sep 06 2004 - 06:25:32 EEST


->M-Audio Delta 1010. Great Linux support. 24/96KHz, 8 balanced
analog I/Os, 2 digital (S/PDIF), hardware monitoring. $600US from most
dealers - Musician's Friend, American Musical Supply, Sweetwater, etc.
I use an ST Audio DSP2000 C-Port which uses the same chipset, has the
same I/O capabilities but uses unbalanced lines. It works great (it was
also about $150US cheaper). The Hammerfall stuff is probably better but
by the time you get all the outboard gear you'll need to record with
them you'll probably have spent more than your budget.<-

This came up a couple of months ago, and I'll repeat what I said then.
RME hdsp/multiface is a great bet, but you will lose half of your
channels if you are using 96k/24bit - not in your budget (might be
later?), but you could configure two multiface cards connected by
wordclock to get the 8 channels of 96k/24. Multiface has really good
support in linux (thanks to Thomas Charbonnel), but does not have
alsamixer elements, so (in my experience) some apps which require those
elements (xine, etc) won't see the card... there's probably an .asoundrc
way to handle this that I don't know about... Also, another annoyance
is that under linux, it won't auto-detect an application wanting to use
96k - you have to set the sampling rate yourself, at least to something
nearby. I suspect this has to do with totalmix (see below) and the
whole single-speed/double-speed thing (the thing which makes you lose
half of your channels to do higher sampling rates). The hdsp 9652 is
the same in this regard, but you do have more channels available, and so
could potentially set it up to do 8 channels of 96k/24 - on the downside
here, you are going to have to rely on the DACs of some other device, as
this one is totally digital (you could get one of the RME 8-channel
expansion boards, but I'm not sure this would be the best setup for you
- read about it on their website:
http://www.rme-audio.com/english/aeb/aeb48o.htm ). A plus of the
multiface is that you can use the box with both a cardbus on a laptop
and a pci on a workstation/desktop, so that if you needed to record
something on the laptop you could just swap the outboard box... no
dongles, nothing unnecessary. Another plus of the multiface (and the
9652) is its software mixer, totalmix, which allows you to literally
send any signal anywhere (which can be done in jack as well now, so it's
not quite as important as it once was, unless you're using lots of
non-jack apps).

You should also look at what other people have been talking about - the
M-Audio Delta 1010 is a very good card, but you only have 2 channels of
digital out, and it's spdif (the multiface has 8 channels in/out of
digital adat AND analog, plus 2 channels of spdif, at 44.1k/48k... 4
ins/outs at 96k). The DACs on the 1010 are quite good (very good for
the price); the linux support is good (there's a nice gui mixer that
isn't quite as sophisticated as the hdsp totalmix)... it has alsamixer
elements as well, and will auto-detect a change in sampling rate
(without losing channels, I think). One MAJOR caveat about this card -
it tends to overheat and fry some of its capacitors, and you will be
left high and dry with an intolerable humming. It happened to two of
ours last year (it's happened to a lot of people - do a google search
for "delta 1010 capacitors"), and the service was very poor - they sent
us one back after "repairing" it with the same hum. If you do get a
1010, make sure you give it LOTS of ventilation - this means probably
not putting it in a rack. We keep ours sitting out on top of a rack
that also has a preamp, a dat deck, etc.

No mic inputs on any of the cards I mentioned, but you can use a preamp
with no problem. Stay away from firewire (note that the multiface uses
its own firewire that's connected to the pci/cardbus with absolutely no
problems under linux... when I bought mine, I was thinking "oh crap, is
what I just bought gonna work here?" - but it's fine).

Can't help you on the speakers - everyone has different preferences. In
our studio we run a bunch of Genelec studio monitors, which seem
decent... but apparently they quit making the ones we have and started
making some sub-par monitors. I don't know much about it. Some people
have reported good results with Mackie monitors, which are apparently
good for the price - again, this isn't my realm of expertise. Your best
bet is to probably go somewhere and listen to a bunch with some
recording you know really well (and which would test what you need from
speakers - preferably something with a wide dynamic range in all
registers).

Hope this helps -

Matt


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