any metric halo users seen this?

[kelldammit]

this looks pretty seriously cool, and it's supposed to work with dp!
http://www.mhlabs.com/metric_halo/

[ba_hill]

Hi,

It is cool and it works great with DP.

Brian

this looks pretty seriously cool, and it's supposed to work with dp!
http://www.mhlabs.com/metric_halo/

[gearboy]

Hmmm... Perhaps I should check this out as an upgrade to my stock 828mk2?

[kelldammit]

from what i understand, the 2 channel uln2 is supposed to be really really nice. from what i've read, the 2882 is not quite as stellar, insofar as mic pre's go, but probably still a step up from the motu stuff. that said, i love their channelstrip plug, and they seem to be a forward thinking company with great support. if the 2882 was on par with say...the ensemble for ad/da/pre's...i'd snag it in a heartbeat.

kell

[BobK]

I've been eyeing the MH stuff for a long while, and am eagerly awaiting their announcement at AES - I think they're upgrading their line.

As for the 2882 vs ULN-2, the latter's preamps have more gain, which is required for distant-miking (recording classical music, for example) and/or mics with low output. I once read an email on their mailing list where they claimed the ULN-2 to be Apogee or better quality. I didn't see them make that claim of the 2882, but from what I've heard from a friend who has two of them (and has made some high-end live jazz recordings with them), the 2882 pres are more than decent.

I don't know of anyone doing a serious A/B between, say, 2882 pres and MOTU pres, but I like that the 2882 has eight pres in a one rack space unit and that the MIO console software controls gain and phantom power, can save all the unit's settings, and has a very flexible routing matrix (including DAW streams).

[kelldammit]

yup. those boxes have had my eye for quite a while.
if you daisy chain more than one unit, each unit simply becomes a tab within a single software control window. nice touch. from what i've dealt with insofar as their support, it was very very good...probably worth half the cost alone, imo.
the +dsp boxes are pretty pricey...in the same range as the apogee stuff. though with the dsp boxes, you get their mio plugins, which are supposed to be even nicer than cs.
i'll have to check around to see what kind of latencies people are getting out of these boxes. i'd really go for the 2882, but there is one drawback...no physical volume control knob on the front panel! it is bus powered though, but i don't think the ensemble is...
aarrrrgggghhh...decisions, decisions!
i'll take a look around for a direct comparison betwixt the two...

[BobK]

The 2882 doesn't need to be bus powered - their web site says 'DC power system for wall, FireWire bus, and battery operation world-wide.'

I recall reading on the mailing list that some laptops had issues with bus powering. As for support: one of the owners/founders contributes to the mailing list, which is pretty cool.

Also, FYI, someone recently started an unofficial forum, separate from the list:

http://metricusers.com/vforum/

I think the MH units paired with DP would make a fantastic recording system. In fact, many of the Altiverb impulse responses were recorded with this combination on Powerbooks.

[kelldammit]

right, i know the mh can be bus powered...they were among the first firewire interfaces to be that way. i think the newer mbp's have issues where their firewire doesn't carry enough voltage or current. i've read that as regards a couple of other interfaces having problems with those machines. the ability to be bus powered is actually a major selling point for me. battery is nice, but not really necessary.
i think that's one of the drawbacks of the ensemble...no bus power option.

kell