The new MOTU AVB Switch question

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Steve Steele
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The new MOTU AVB Switch question

Post by Steve Steele »

What are some of the main things this device does? The MOTU site is a little cryptic. Is this like a VEPro kinda thing, or is it a way to use multiple computers to send audio over Ethernet for any situation where multiple computers need to be hooked up to share information to run large events?

Is was the "audio over Ethernet" that got me.

Will this allow multiple computers running Dp to sync up while running one project between them, if not a lot more? I could see uses in large multimedia conferences. Like large recording studios sessions that span several locations, to concerts that require DP to control entire large productions. Am I leaving out a really obvious and big scenarios?

Any use for the pro home studio?

Thanks

Mac Studio M1 Ultra, 128GBs Unified memory, 4TB SSD.
Interfaces: MOTU M2 and 8A (2.1 and 5.1 setups).
DAWs: Digital Performer 11, Logic Pro, Cubase 12 Pro, Studio One Pro.
Sample Libraries: Primary - VSL (all), Spitfire, (mostly all), and many others.
External Controllers: Metagrid Pro and Studio Logic SL|MIXFACE
4stripes
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Re: The new MOTU AVB Switch question

Post by 4stripes »

The switch is just a dumb regular switch that also happens to support AVB standard. You could buy any AVB switch and it'd do the exact same thing. I recommend you Google audio over Ethernet. All it is really is exactly how it sounds. It doesn't sync your sessions over computers or anything, it just puts audio on a network, which means you can grab it from any other device, which is handy if you need to move dozens, hundreds of channels around. All of your examples are already in use, it is quite common in live sound, corporate, radio, etc. It's definitely the future. Probably not that compelling for a home studio right now.

https://www.audinate.com/solutions/dante-overview
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Re: The new MOTU AVB Switch question

Post by Steve Steele »

Very cool. Thanks.

I remember when studios used ISDN for long distance sessions. I know about audio moving over Ethernet but was a bit surprised when I saw MOTU making this type of device.

I'll take a look at the link.

I was also thinking about Logic's distributed CPU sharing feature.

The way of the future huh? I'll check it out.

Thanks for the info. Good to learn something new!

Mac Studio M1 Ultra, 128GBs Unified memory, 4TB SSD.
Interfaces: MOTU M2 and 8A (2.1 and 5.1 setups).
DAWs: Digital Performer 11, Logic Pro, Cubase 12 Pro, Studio One Pro.
Sample Libraries: Primary - VSL (all), Spitfire, (mostly all), and many others.
External Controllers: Metagrid Pro and Studio Logic SL|MIXFACE
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Re: The new MOTU AVB Switch question

Post by Steve Steele »

Read the website. Very cool. Audio moves over Ethernet eventually anyway, because it is digital (obviously), so I've always wondered why it wasn't being used years ago in the home. Especially if, like they say you can move many channels of audio over one cable without any signal loss or crosstalk (if I read that right).

I need to read again but I wonder if this will be adopted in larger home studios that use 10-15 computers for various musical task (slaves and other things). I've always dreamt of having an "audio farm" much like video rendering farms, but using Ethernet and a hub, and with Core Audio support. (Hope I'm not off base here!)

Thanks again.

Mac Studio M1 Ultra, 128GBs Unified memory, 4TB SSD.
Interfaces: MOTU M2 and 8A (2.1 and 5.1 setups).
DAWs: Digital Performer 11, Logic Pro, Cubase 12 Pro, Studio One Pro.
Sample Libraries: Primary - VSL (all), Spitfire, (mostly all), and many others.
External Controllers: Metagrid Pro and Studio Logic SL|MIXFACE
4stripes
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Re: The new MOTU AVB Switch question

Post by 4stripes »

nightwatch wrote:Audio moves over Ethernet eventually anyway, because it is digital (obviously), so I've always wondered why it wasn't being used years ago in the home.
The primary issue is that IP packetization was not designed for real time reliable transfer of data. That had to be overcome.
nightwatch wrote:I need to read again but I wonder if this will be adopted in larger home studios that use 10-15 computers for various musical task (slaves and other things). I've always dreamt of having an "audio farm" much like video rendering farms, but using Ethernet and a hub, and with Core Audio support. (Hope I'm not off base here!)
I think the market for home studios with a dozen or more computers can probably be counted on two hands. If you want an audio DSP farm, you can do that right now with Waves DiGiGrid system.
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Re: The new MOTU AVB Switch question

Post by Steve Steele »

Gotcha. Well (looking to the future), lets say it's not a home studio anymore, but a commercial studio. One that is busy and is involved with higher budget film productions.

When you see some of these hollywood composers, they often have 5-8 MacPros and PCs, for example. Is there any need for this technology at that level, and what would it's primary use be then?

Thanks for putting up with my novice questions. I'm very interested!

Mac Studio M1 Ultra, 128GBs Unified memory, 4TB SSD.
Interfaces: MOTU M2 and 8A (2.1 and 5.1 setups).
DAWs: Digital Performer 11, Logic Pro, Cubase 12 Pro, Studio One Pro.
Sample Libraries: Primary - VSL (all), Spitfire, (mostly all), and many others.
External Controllers: Metagrid Pro and Studio Logic SL|MIXFACE
4stripes
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Re: The new MOTU AVB Switch question

Post by 4stripes »

Anywhere one needs to move high channel counts to multiple places is an obvious application. Some applications were mentioned in a previous post. Go to DANTE or AVB website for application examples, I'm sure they will have case studies.
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Re: The new MOTU AVB Switch question

Post by Steve Steele »

Cool. Thanks for taking you time to inform.

Cheers!

Mac Studio M1 Ultra, 128GBs Unified memory, 4TB SSD.
Interfaces: MOTU M2 and 8A (2.1 and 5.1 setups).
DAWs: Digital Performer 11, Logic Pro, Cubase 12 Pro, Studio One Pro.
Sample Libraries: Primary - VSL (all), Spitfire, (mostly all), and many others.
External Controllers: Metagrid Pro and Studio Logic SL|MIXFACE
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