Multiple audio interfaces with DP

philbrown · Post by **philbrown** » Wed Jun 01, 2016 6:06 am

I've asked about this before, but I'd like to get current info. I'm on DP8, OSX 10.9.5.

Recently I bought a Midas M32R to replace my 8 channel Apollo. Now I'm considering adding the Apollo back in for certain features. Is anyone here using different brand interfaces simultaneously? The last time I did that (around 2005 to be honest) using an Aggregate Device it hosed the whole computer to where I had to reformat from the ground up. I'm still gun-shy even after all this time to try it again, so I guess I'm asking for a little hand-holding from anyone doing this successfully and any other advice or gotchas I should be aware of. The Midas is USB 2.0 and needed no driver and the Apollo is FW800 and has it's own software console, so I'm assuming throughput won't be an issue.

TIA,
Phil

bayswater · Post by **bayswater** » Wed Jun 01, 2016 9:05 am

I've used Focusrite, Lexicon and MOTU interfaces together in DP 8, along with Soundflower. All I did was shift click to select more than one interface in the setup panel. You then have to select one of them as master, presumably for timing purposes. You don't have to use Aggregate devices with DP. There is a host buffer multiplier setting that is supposedly to be used when you have more than one interface, but I don't recall it actually making any difference. It's is described in "getting started".

philbrown · Post by **philbrown** » Wed Jun 01, 2016 9:54 am

bayswater wrote:I've used Focusrite, Lexicon and MOTU interfaces together in DP 8, along with Soundflower. All I did was shift click to select more than one interface in the setup panel. You then have to select one of them as master, presumably for timing purposes. You don't have to use Aggregate devices with DP. There is a host buffer multiplier setting that is supposedly to be used when you have more than one interface, but I don't recall it actually making any difference. It's is described in "getting started".

That is encouraging- thanks for the info.

Basstrup · Post by **Basstrup** » Thu Jun 02, 2016 1:23 pm

Works fine- also set your host multiplier to the number of interfaces you're selecting

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YouTube · Post by **James Steele** » Thu Jun 02, 2016 1:48 pm

Basstrup wrote:Works fine- also set your host multiplier to the number of interfaces you're selecting

Sort of. I think the way it works is you set it to the number of *drivers* DP is addressing? For example you can have multiple MOTU interfaces but I you set the host multiplier to 1 because they're all MOTU interfaces. That said, it might be that you would use 2 if you were using a PCI MOTU interface in combination with USB or Firewire.

Sorry to muddy the waters. My only point is that in some cases it's not the same as the number of your interfaces.

bayswater · Post by **bayswater** » Thu Jun 02, 2016 3:44 pm

James Steele wrote:
Basstrup wrote:Works fine- also set your host multiplier to the number of interfaces you're selecting
Sort of. I think the way it works is you set it to the number of *drivers* DP is addressing? For example you can have multiple MOTU interfaces but I you set the host multiplier to 1 because they're all MOTU interfaces. That said, it might be that you would use 2 if you were using a PCI MOTU interface in combination with USB or Firewire.

Sorry to muddy the waters. My only point is that in some cases it's not the same as the number of your interfaces.

Correct, but I think the wording on this changed some time after V7. It now says:

"If you are using two or more audio drivers (two or more are selected in the driver list shown in Figure 4-1 on page 25), choose a setting of 2. If you experience problems with your audio (clicks, pops, distortion, gaps, etc.), try a setting of 3 or 4."

philbrown · Post by **philbrown** » Sat Jun 04, 2016 6:08 am

Thanks for the input everyone.

plum · Post by **plum** » Thu Jul 02, 2020 6:03 am

As I am getting ready to upgrade my computer after years, and currently use a Audio Express as my interface. Does anyone think maybe the addition of an M4 would be a nice less expensive way to upgrade, and add a few channels of input. Then, they could run side by side. Which honestly until now I didn't even realize was possible!

bayswater · Post by **bayswater** » Thu Jul 02, 2020 7:37 am

plum wrote:As I am getting ready to upgrade my computer after years, and currently use a Audio Express as my interface. Does anyone think maybe the addition of an M4 would be a nice less expensive way to upgrade, and add a few channels of input. Then, they could run side by side. Which honestly until now I didn't even realize was possible!

There is a long thread on the M4. Later posts in that thread talk about some experiences with the M4. You might want to scan that first. It looks like 2 of the 4 inputs are not that useful. The M2 looks OK, but not if you're looking for more channels.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=66889

rp88.2 · Post by **rp88.2** » Thu Jul 02, 2020 8:44 am

@Plum (sorry for for the partial hijack)

If you are looking in that price range, I would also consider the NI Komplete Audio 6 (2nd edition).

It has 4 analog, SPDIF input/outpus and two [hi-power] headphone outputs. Class compliant - no driver on macOS; ASIO on Win.

I am not sure if they changed the 'monitoring' on it, but on the first version (which I have), you could only direct monitor channels 1 & 2; but you could route the monitor output to either analog output sets.

Currently using a first edition of it on a DP 10.1 (macOS 10.14.6) setup and it works great. I swap back and forth between it and an AVB Ultralite. No issues.

MOTUnation.com

Multiple audio interfaces with DP

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