Firewire Audio Interfaces - or getting a Saffire Pro 24 DSP

[Gravity Jim]

Addendum -

The DM3200 is the slightly smaller version of the DM4800 Waterstrum mentioned above.

Also, while not yet officially released, Tascam has written Lion-compatible versions of the driver for the IFFW-DMmkII FireWire card and the TMCompanion software that allows you to back up DM-mixer data to your Mac (among other functions). I am running the beta of both of them and they work perfectly under 10.7.2.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

So all this has me wondering one important question: why do I need a clock in the FW device?\All I want to do is send essentially an analog signal to my Mac via Firewire. There are no external devices to sync and it seems that the internal Mac clock that DP uses is fine. Can anyone 'splain to me what I am missing by not having a clock in a FW interface?

Sorry to be so ingnorant about that.

[kgdrum]

Any I/O has it's own clock & is part of what separates the great interfaces and the mediocre I/O's
The kind of setup you decribe will probably not need an external clock if your Interface has a good clock
In my rig I designate the clock in my FF as the master clock,not the Mac.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Just to get snarky with myself: do the research, dude!

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun10/a ... clocks.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Gravity Jim]

That Sound On Sound article was a huge help when I was redoing my studio last fall. George Massenburg says that if you're not clocking an bunch of interconnected devices (for example, with my new gear, there's really only one digital device that converts my meagre outboard digital inputs on the fly) you can actually do more harm than good by clocking it externally, even with the best clocks. It's seems it's actually better practice to just let your interface clock itself.

[kinnylandrum]

I have a new (less than 6 months old) Yamaha n8 and I like it a lot, also replacing an old Tascam analog mixer and an old 2408 mark 1. Works great as both mixer and an interface. Plus I like the onboard compressor, which I use permanently set to a light (3:1 or so) compression ratio on every vocal I record. The onboard reverb is also fine for monitoring reverb on vocals etc. These days I've finally gotten use to mixing In The Box, so I don' t really mix on it per se. But I like it fine as a front end. The main reason I got it over a Yamaha Onyx was its ability to do 8 in and 8 out, but if you need 16 there's the n16.

[Klaus]

Thanks Klaus & you other guys.

I could stay with my mixer for sure. I need the interface for studio recordings (mostly me and maybe a few players at most). I was thinking I could get something I could take to live gigs as well to send to the house and my recorder but that dream is fading fast.

So I'm down to something with good clocking, converters, and plays well with DP and my Mac. The software should allow attenuating the Mac audio as channel in the overall mix.

Focusrite is looking like it might be the way to go.

Thanks again. If I have observations after tests and research I'll post them here for future reference. Oh yeah, waiting for NAMM is a great idea. Beats waiting for Guffman!

I *am* using this live :



24 tr recording
iTunes playback
FOH mix via DP ( Behringer BCF2000 )
6 Monitormixes via Cuemix FX ( Touchscreen )

( Analog gates on ADAT interface )
Mac Mini based...

2 identical rigs...

Best

Klaus

[James Steele]

That Sound On Sound article was a huge help when I was redoing my studio last fall. George Massenburg says that if you're not clocking an bunch of interconnected devices (for example, with my new gear, there's really only one digital device that converts my meagre outboard digital inputs on the fly) you can actually do more harm than good by clocking it externally, even with the best clocks. It's seems it's actually better practice to just let your interface clock itself.

I remember sharing that article and getting jumped by people who had paid big bucks for external wordclock devices.

[Gravity Jim]

I remember sharing that article and getting jumped by people who had paid big bucks for external wordclock devices.

"Dude, how dare you contradict a decision I've already committed a zillion dollars to!"

I used to use a Lucid clock when I had a bunch of separate devices... so when I was shopping for new gear last fall, I was amazed to find what the real experts (and not just the guys who had already spent a pile on atomic-quality clocks) thought was best practice. I gotta say, the new rig sounds crazy good.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

You guys are really great. Thanks. The Yamaha is looking gooder and gooder. I'll be hitting a few shops this weekend for sure.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I have a new (less than 6 months old) Yamaha n8 and I like it a lot, also replacing an old Tascam analog mixer and an old 2408 mark 1. Works great as both mixer and an interface. Plus I like the onboard compressor, which I use permanently set to a light (3:1 or so) compression ratio on every vocal I record. The onboard reverb is also fine for monitoring reverb on vocals etc. These days I've finally gotten use to mixing In The Box, so I don' t really mix on it per se. But I like it fine as a front end. The main reason I got it over a Yamaha Onyx was its ability to do 8 in and 8 out, but if you need 16 there's the n16.

May I ask what software you are using to monitor the device? Does Yamaha provide a good app or is Cuemix what you use? Or something else?

[marquito]

Have you considered Allen & Heath ZED R-16?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I have, thanks. I have a 16 ch. mixer which I'm not looking to replace per se unless I pair it down. The lower channel count A&H mixers are not FW or that would certainly be an option.

The MOTU AudioExpress would be ideal if MOTU would allow attenuating the internal Mac signal.

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... 16#p386316" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks for the suggestion.

[Gravity Jim]

The Yamaha n12 does look like a nice unit. I needed more inputs and more channels in the FW interface.

Have you looked at the Presonus StudioLive... either the 16 or the 24 would be schweet. (I looked hard at the 24 before buying the Tascam, which just fit my room better, being almost the same footprint as an 02R, and my workflow, with more tracks and deeper routing capability.)

[MIDI Life Crisis]

Yeah, after much searching I am leaning heavily towards the Prosonus 16 or one of their other units and use it in conjunction with the O1V. Depending on pricing, I might have one in time for MLK Day. My 'dream' unit.