Re: [LAU] RME Multiface and an extra 8 output channels

Thanks Brent and Ralf. I also wrote to the RME forum. Seems that even if
I do get a new MF/HDSP combo - one of the respondents thought the sync
wouldn't be sample-accurate if I were to combine an MFI with an MFII. He
thought it would though if I got hold of a second MFI - but wasn't sure.
I'm waiting to see if anyone from RME confirms. Does anyone here have an
opinion on that? I'd rather not buy a used MFI - as things often go
missing in the post in Brazil - and taxes on used imports are huge.

Does anyone on the list have a 16-out system running on linux - with
firewire, usb or otherwise?

Just came across some info on the Allen and Heath ICE-16. Looks great
but couldn't find anything about linux drivers... Also has unbalanced
outs - but I'll be using short cables to multichannel amps so that
should be Ok.

cheers,

Em Seg, 2013-05-13 às 17:11 -0500, Brent Busby escreveu:
> On Mon, 13 May 2013, Iain Mott wrote:
>
> > I have an RME Multiface I/HDSP PCI card. This gives 8 balanced audio
> > outputs. However I require an extra 8 outputs for a specific project.
>
> I've also looked at my options for expanding beyond 8 analog i/o's on my
> Multiface II....
>
> > One option is to sync two Multiface/HDSP PIC card together. Although
> > not exactly necessary, I understand the extra hdsp card is needed if i
> > wish to use sampling rates higher than 48k which i do. There are some
> > other set up benefits too I gather.
>
> Something to be aware of is that although you can have up to 3
> Hammerfall cards in a single computer, they cannot share any kind of bus
> for monitoring or headphones in TotalMix (or its Linux clone,
> hdspmixer). You will end up with separate headphone lines, which you
> may be able to merge with cabling yourself at the expense of a couple of
> inputs, but that's messy.
>
> Alternatives to getting a second Hammerfall card include:
>
> * Taking advantage of the digital i/o's that you already have... I've
> had some trouble finding the exact specs of the Multiface I, but on the
> II, there is an SPDIF digital i/o (2ch. in, 2ch. out), and an ADAT port
> (8ch. in, 8ch. out). The analogs, the SPDIF, and the ADAT can all be
> used at the same time, but the catch is that because ADAT itself has a
> 48kHz limit, there's no way to use the ADAT's at 96kHz unless you bind
> the 8 i/o's together as 4 virtual i/o's that each combine two channels
> to get double speed (called SMUX).
> Since I've seen that the Multiface's analog converters don't
> really sound right (probably due to filter design) unless you run it at
> 96kHz, and since it's not possible to run the analog i/o's at 96kHz
> while you run the digitals at another speed, the net effect of all this
> boils down to that you're going to want to run at 96kHz, and if you're
> using the ADAT ports at that speed, you will have to use SMUX even
> though that will cut you down to 4 ADAT i/o's instead of 8.
> And the net effect of all that totally is that you have the
> potential for up to 14 i/o's if you put all the analogs,
> SMUX'ed-together ADAT's, and the SPDIF l/r pair together and use them
> all, from one Hammerfall card. Not quite the 16 analog i/o's you'd get
> from having two Hammerfall's, but at least it all ends up in one unified
> TotalMix/hdspmixer session with one headphone monitor.
> There is one further complication: There aren't a lot of
> 8-channel standalone ADAT AD/DA's out there that I've seen that aren't
> either rediculous expensive or suspiciously cheap. It's amazing how
> much you might end up paying for those 4 SMUX'ed i/o's if you go this
> route. RME themselves make one, but it's one of the expensive ones, and
> oddly, it costs way more than getting a whole second
> Hammerfall/Multiface setup even though it does far less. (But again, if
> you get that second Hammerfall, it will have its own separate busses in
> TotalMix.)
>
> * You can go with RME MADI, which is MADIly expensive, but has an insane
> channel count. Sadly, as far as I know, there's no support in Linux for
> TotalMix or anything like it if you go this route, though it is driver
> compatible with Alsa and Jack. You just won't have any GUI mixer like
> hdspmixer, which would kind of stink, especially on such pro-grade
> hardware.
>
> * You could get someone else's audio hardware, perhaps taking adventage
> of FFADO to get it done by firewire...but then you'd lose the stability
> and it-just-works experience that you get from the RME Multiface on
> Linux. Or you could take a chance on USB, which is becoming more and
> more popular despite that it reminds me of trying to use a Volkswagon
> Bug for an Antarctic polar expedition.
>
> All of the above is why, for the moment, I'm just living with my 8
> analog i/o's and dealing with it. :-/ At least the analog i/o's the
> one Multiface comes with just work, and splendidly.
>

_______________________________________________
Linux-audio-user mailing list
Linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org
http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
Received on Tue May 14 04:15:02 2013