Anyone using the Apogee Rosetta 800??

Akai96 · Post by **Akai96** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 6:03 am

Does it work with DP?

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 8:34 am

with the firwire option it appears as a core audio device. so Yes and No. No firewire... No work....

Akai96 · Post by **Akai96** » Thu Nov 17, 2005 7:26 pm

giles117 wrote:with the firwire option it appears as a core audio device. so Yes and No. No firewire... No work....

So how does it sound??

muxlow · Post by **muxlow** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 10:38 am

how else would you get it into a machine if not by firewire? Just curious.

Also would love to heard first-hand owner accounts of performance with DP + G4...

thanks!

BradLyons · Post by **BradLyons** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 11:32 am

While the Rosetta800 does have a firewire option, personally you're better off running through ADAT optical via the 2408mk3. The latency is far less due to the DSP monitoring and you have plenty of room to expand. Unless you absolutely need to provide a format that is 24/96, there really is no benefit doing 96kHz with Apogee as compared to lower sample-rates. Their clocking and conversion is so good, it's handling the lower sampling rates the same as they are handling 96kHz. The reality is, 96khz is still CONSIDERABLY lower than the rates everything is being sampled internally at anyway (roughly 2.6Mhz).

XYZ · Post by **XYZ** » Fri Mar 03, 2006 5:56 pm

I've got the 800 and have it hooked to the 828mkII through the ADAT lightpipe.

It is a very good sounding A/D and also an outstanding D/A.

mhschmieder · Post by **mhschmieder** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 4:26 pm

I'm a little confused. Are you saying get the Rosetta for the best converters, but buy an otherwise-redundant audio i/o from MOTU or someone else, to get the audio into the computer via ADAT and the other unit's Firewire (e.g.)?

jason.hegener · Post by **jason.hegener** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 4:49 pm

mhschmieder wrote:I'm a little confused. Are you saying get the Rosetta for the best converters, but buy an otherwise-redundant audio i/o from MOTU or someone else, to get the audio into the computer via ADAT and the other unit's Firewire (e.g.)?

I don't own a Rosetta, but I can't imagine that it has a better real-time monitoring system than Cuemix DSP.

So, if you don't need flexible real-time monitoring just go for the Rosetta with firewire.

Mmmmm, Rosetta (insert Homer Simpson gargle sound).

So on another note, has anyone done a comparo on 828mk2 + Big Ben vs. Rosetta solo?

Jidis · Post by **Jidis** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 7:55 pm

mhschmieder wrote:Are you saying get the Rosetta for the best converters, but buy an otherwise-redundant audio i/o

I think the FW card that goes in it is supposed to be the host computer's interface to it.

It also has it's own TotalMix/CueMix type thing (FireMix?), which controls the box's signals from the DAW end, without taking them back to the machine. It looked sort of interesting. I think it had ways of streaming additional signals from the computer's DAW app into the i/o box as extra channels on the box's DSP mix. I've got a PDF here somewhere, but you should be able to find it on their site like I did. Check all that to be safe.

Take Care,

George

EBergsma · Post by **EBergsma** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 3:34 pm

Anybody any thoughts about the upcoming PCI-E card called Symphony?
It looks like a great solution voor Rosetta 800 ownwers.
Currently I'm using the 2408 MK3 mainly as a router to connect my Rosetta 800 via ADAT to my G5 (PCI-X). My new mac will be PCI-E
It seems this new PCI-E card of Apogee is an alternative to the 2408, which can be omitted unless you need the amount and versatility of connections.
The AD/DA of Apogee is clearly superior to the 2408.
See link: http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/symphony.php

Eric

XYZ · Post by **XYZ** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 6:22 am

If you have a MOTU interface, you can use the rosetta--it will show up as 8 additional ADAT input interfaces [you need 2 light pipe calbes and a clock cable], and 8 aditional ADAT output interfaces. Otherwise, they work just like any other MOTU input or output, and can be routed through cuemix.

However, if you want to run the Rosetta 800 @ 88 or 96, you will want to get one of the Rosetta interface cards. I've just ordered the firewire card, which, as someone has said, has a digital mixer built in and can do the same sorts of cue mixing. The guy I spoke to at apogee said you have to do the routing 2 channels at a time [minor limitation]. The reason for this is that the S/mux ADAT implementation from MOTU is not standard--so it won't support the higher bit rates [it will but it has a clock problem that will ruin your audio]; further, even if it did work, you can only get 4 in and 4 out.

Jidis · Post by **Jidis** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 12:04 pm

XYZ wrote:The guy I spoke to at apogee said you have to do the routing 2 channels at a time [minor limitation].

That is only if using it as a front end for someone else's interface though right?
(no relation to the FireMix stuff with the X-FW option?)
Thanks!

EBergsma · Post by **EBergsma** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 5:26 pm

Hee XYZ
Clocking is exactly the problem I encountered with te 2408M3 at 88.2/96 kHz. That's why I'm seriously interested in the Symphony alternative of Apogee. I'm also using a Yamaha DM1000v2 for routing and couldn't find out why the clocking was so inpredictable. Your remark of MOTU's 2408 using a 'non standard' s/mux implementation seems to make sense regarding my experiences. Got any explanation/solution or excuse from MOTU?

Eric

Jidis · Post by **Jidis** » Thu Mar 09, 2006 11:48 pm

Eric,
On a similar note, I had to stop using an Alesis AI-3 converter via lightpipe, because it disapproved of my 2408mk3's ADAT clock signal for some reason. It was putting a weird digital "fuzz" at the tail end of most signals (more audible on low frequency content, but could've been my imagination).

On it's own clock, it would pass nice clean signals back to the 2408, but it would auto-lock to external in a bi-directional setup like I had. Everything else I had here seemed OK with the 2408 ADAT wordclock, and the AI-3 ate whatever the other machines fed it, with no complaints. Sort of makes me wonder now if I should be trusting that as a clock output source for other gear, as my 2408 is usually the clock master.

Never did figure out what was going on there (only replaced my converter

).

Did the Apogee guy sound like it was an actual difference in the data format of the S/mux stream, or that it was a non-compliant optical signal or optical clock that may do funky things to the "muxed" ADAT signals?

Always have wondered.

George

XYZ · Post by **XYZ** » Fri Mar 10, 2006 7:03 am

It is not a clocking problem, using the Rosetta 800 as the clock just sounds amazing. It is an ADAT protocol problem. The problem you mention sounds a lot like what I had. I replicated the problem on 2 different 828s, and it sounds like it is a problem on the 2408. Only with ADAT S/MUX however. Apogee tested my ADAT at all samples with other ADAT light pipe equipment and found no problems. It appears that MOTU has not exactly conformed to the ADAT standard in S/Mux mode. I'm not sure this really matters because you can only get 4 channels in/out in S/Mux mode anyway. the PCIe or Firewire card is probably the way to go. Firewire is my choice because you just plug it in and it always works. No figuring out which slot is the "best" one, no PCI driver or chip incompatibilities. But when it works, it works great. And if you need a LOT of channels, it is THE way to go. 8 in and 8 out is plenty for me for now. And as far as sound goes, once you start using these A/Ds and D/As you will thing your old ones somehow became broken. They truly sound awesome. When I first fired it up, the imaginging and clarity was so good it almost sounded like I had headphones on.