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How To

Connecting Hauptwerk to MIDI organs, sequencers, ...
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Doug S.

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How To

PostThu Sep 21, 2017 10:45 pm

I'm going to upgrade my Focusrite Saffire to a unit with at least 15 channels out, yet there are usually far less 1/4 phone analog outpits than claimed on most of the units I've found so far. Some mention SPDIF as the source of the additional outputs. I'm confused as to how one uses these digital outputs from either a single optical output or a single RCA plug. Does one have to add additional hardware to use these channels individually?
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dhm

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Re: How To

PostFri Sep 22, 2017 1:00 am

Have you considered the Cymatic LP 16? It has 16 x 1/4 inch jack outputs, and no inputs.
Douglas Henn-Macrae
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IainStinson

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Re: How To

PostFri Sep 22, 2017 3:35 am

With some of the Focusrite Saffire products you can add a second unit and they will appear as one double sized unit to Windows through the ASIO driver (for MACs I think you can just add another unit). This is called Dual Mode. Details of setting it up may be found at https://d2zjg0qo565n2.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/focusrite/downloads/20956/saffire-dual-unit-en.pdf

I've used this for a number of years with my Windows (7, 10 and 10 Creator) setup.

It is quite a cost effective way to go if you like the Focusrite Saffire units.

Iain
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mdyde

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Re: How To

PostFri Sep 22, 2017 3:40 am

Hello Doug,

Other options might be:

- MOTU 16A ( http://motu.com/products/avb/16a ), which has 16x 1/4-inch analogue audio outputs, and a second 16A can be chained (via a standard Cat6/5e Ethernet cable) to make a total of 32 analogue audio output jacks. It works via USB 2.0 or Thunderbolt (or AVB Ethernet). I have two of them and they work very well for me, on both Macs and Windows. I find their audio quality and performance (latency, etc.) to be very good.

- MOTU 24Ao ( http://motu.com/products/avb/24ai-24ao ), which has 24x analogue outputs (but you need a separate break-out cable, or to wire them yourself), which can work via USB 2.0 (or AVB Ethernet).

Doug S. wrote:Some mention SPDIF as the source of the additional outputs. I'm confused as to how one uses these digital outputs from either a single optical output or a single RCA plug. Does one have to add additional hardware to use these channels individually?


Yes -- digital outputs (S/PDIF or ADAT) require additional digital-to-analogue converter hardware in order to use them to driver amplifiers/speakers.
Best regards, Martin.
Hauptwerk software designer/developer, Milan Digital Audio.
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dhm

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Re: How To

PostFri Sep 22, 2017 4:01 am

The MOTU 16A doesn't appear to have any MIDI In/Out sockets.
Am I missing something?
Douglas Henn-Macrae
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mdyde

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Re: How To

PostFri Sep 22, 2017 5:07 am

Hello Douglas,

That's correct. You would need to use an additional interface for MIDI, e.g. a MOTU Microlite ( http://motu.com/products/midi/lite ) or MOTU MIDI Express 128 ( http://motu.com/products/midi/128 ), or an additional multi-purpose AVB interface that included MIDI amongst its other functions, such as a MOTU Ultralite AVB ( http://motu.com/products/avb/ultralite-avb ) or MOTU 1248 ( http://motu.com/products/avb/1248 ). Any two AVB devices can be connected together directly using just an Ethernet cable, but you can connect up to five AVB devices together via a MOTU AVB Switch ( http://motu.com/products/avb/avb-switch ).

(I use some MOTU MIDI Express 128 units, which work very well for me. They have plenty of MIDI ports and can be rack-mounted, as with the MOTU 16As.)
Best regards, Martin.
Hauptwerk software designer/developer, Milan Digital Audio.
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Doug S.

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Re: How To

PostFri Sep 22, 2017 12:17 pm

Thanks All,
Iain, I tried two Focusrite Pro 40's and was never able to get them to work together. I followed the instructions meticulously and exhausted other support resources without success.

I am considering the Cymatic unit and the MOTU.

My midi I/O is handled independently.

In my pipe/HW hybrid, minimal latency is of prime importance.

Thanks,
Doug
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dhm

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Re: How To

PostFri Sep 22, 2017 12:32 pm

FYI: The Cymatic unit also has MIDI In/Out.
Douglas Henn-Macrae
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magnaton

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Re: How To

PostFri Sep 22, 2017 2:41 pm

Doug S. wrote: I'm confused as to how one uses these digital outputs from either a single optical output or a single RCA plug. Does one have to add additional hardware to use these channels individually?


Many of the of the audio interfaces have this port which can provide an additional 2 channels (L&R) which gets added in their total number of outputs for specification review and comparison. My audio interface has one and I route the Reflection or Surround Sound ranks to it for my multi-channel sample sets. I run a coax (RCA) cable to an older stereo receiver like this one which powers my surround speakers:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Denon-AVR-1610-5-1-Ch-Home-Theater-Receiver-HDMI-/172876103291?epid=131578101&hash=item284037fe7b:g:p~AAAOSwwVpZwvjy
Works great for I when I was setting it up I could easily adjust the volume and EQ as needed.

If you need a straight digital to analog conversion then a unit similar to this would work:
https://www.parts-express.com/parts-express-dac-digital-to-analog-converter-(51-compatible)--180-999

Finally when choosing your next interface, be sure to review the specifications and owner's manual carefully. They will list x number of outputs available but 2 or even 4 of them are hardwired to other ports like the headphone jack or outputs marked as Mains or Monitor. A few PreSounus models are guilty of this. So its the number of independent channels that are of interest to us for Hauptwerk.

Danny B.
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Doug S.

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Re: How To

PostFri Sep 22, 2017 4:02 pm

Another question....Discounting CPU, is USB 2 the next bottleneck affecting latency?
Doug
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sjkartchner

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Re: How To

PostFri Sep 22, 2017 4:48 pm

You can also connect the digital outputs directly to powered speakers that accept digital inputs such as these: https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-MS40-BEHRINGER/dp/B000IKSIOM
Stan Kartchner, Tucson, AZ USA
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mdyde

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Re: How To

PostSat Sep 23, 2017 3:40 am

Doug S. wrote:Another question....Discounting CPU, is USB 2 the next bottleneck affecting latency?


Hello Doug,

Not per-se. For example, each of my MOTU and RME audio interfaces comfortably manage 64 and 30 simultaneous channels of audio respectively over USB 2.0 with buffer sizes of 256 and only about 2ms of extra latency on top of the buffer size. Your audio interface, the quality of its driver, and the driver buffer size that you have selected, primarily determine latency. The USB controller chipset in your motherboard also needs perform reliably for glitch-free low-latency over USB (as does the rest of your computer).
Best regards, Martin.
Hauptwerk software designer/developer, Milan Digital Audio.
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Doug S.

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Re: How To

PostSun Oct 01, 2017 6:27 pm

Thanks All,
Is a computer upgrade or add on card needed to utilize AVB ethernet?
Thanks,
Doug
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mdyde

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Re: How To

PostMon Oct 02, 2017 3:17 am

Hello Doug,

I would recommend connecting the (first) AVB audio interface to the computer using Thunderbolt (if your computer supports it), otherwise USB. Either should be ample for performance. You can then use AVB to connect the first AVB audio interface to any other AVB interfaces that you may wish to add.

Here are some relevant topics:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16127
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16279
Best regards, Martin.
Hauptwerk software designer/developer, Milan Digital Audio.
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Doug S.

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Re: How To

PostMon Oct 02, 2017 12:24 pm

Thanks Martin.
Doug
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