Daisy chaining via fw vs adat

[Raindogred]

Hi guys, i have a couple of legacy bits of kit, a firewire 828mk2 and a fw8pre. They both still work fine after many years..maybe 14??? Anyways, i have always run these paired via adat. I now also have a behringer fca 1616 which has adat, usb and firewire.
Wondering how I could get all devices talking and running together. Wondering about daisy chaining via firewire, which was a thing motu devices could do, but which i had never attempted.
Would it be possible to plug one motu into the firewire card on my computer, have a second daisy-chained via a fw cable, and then also connect the behringer to the first device via adat..thus having 24 inputs. Am i delusional??

Also what were/are the benefits of daisy- chaining via firewire? What makes it different to connecting via adat. Sure this was all in the manuals i misplaced many years ago
Cheers
Steve

[mikehalloran]

Your primary OS says Windows — is that correct?

It should be possible, certainly is on a Mac but this is one area where Mac and Windows differ. I haven't used Windows Setup in years.

[Raindogred]

Hi Mike, thanks for your response. been doing a bit of reading, and it appears it can be done in windows, but it may not be feasible on windows due to latency. Aggregate devices on windows can only be done with asio4all driver. I will have a try configuring when I get hold of a fw 6pin - 6 pin cable, but not really hopefull of it being very stable from my research..but, you never know?. I read did read somewhere about using s/pdif cables as well as adat to get the device clocks in sync..or something??. Yes, this would be simple on a mac. Long time mac user here, but currently do not have an operational machine or the finances to replace/repair. I will report back my findings either way. Cheers

[Raindogred]

Heres an update. Today I plugged in my 828mkII firewire from early 2000s, into a cheap firewire card with TI chipset that I bought on Aliexpress for under $40. Just for the hell of it I plugged in my old 8pre via a 6pin to 6 pin firewire cable into the 8pre. Instantly i got the driver window up and saw both devices on seperate tabs. Did a basic setup in cuemix dsp. Decided to open Reaper and to my surprise, selected motu asio driver and saw all the I/O for both devices. To test for latency and stability, I did some basic testing by hooking my monitors to the 8 pre, head phones to 828, mic into 828, guitar into 8pre. Recordings were great, stable no noticeable latency. Everything works better today than it did years ago? I’m stumped as to why its working so well with no adat..just the firewire cable? No aggregate device setup in asio4all..nothing. Just works...Motu must be the best when it comes to futureproofing their devices. I am one happy camper. Will do some proper testing tomorrow recording a full drum kit with 12 mics split over both devices, see whether there is any drift. Will report back. Still got my my behringer fca 1616 running along side, and I can change the driver, and swap over the monitor leads. One thing I have noted is that the tracks recorded via motu gear sound great funning through the behringer, not better than the pres in the behringer..makes for a nice contrast in a mix..interesting, will test further. I was originally expecting to connect the 8pre to the 828 via adat, but don’t think I will bother at this stage. The original challenge was to get all 3 devices in an aggregate with asio4all. So i will try that and post back any findings..

[Raindogred]

*r e a p e r