Emu 1212m vs RME£ HDSP 9652 with my Focusrite Octopre/ADAT

[ivansc]

I already own the 1212m and have the chance of the rme card for a good price.
I am currently using the Octopre as 8 analog I/O via the lightpipe ADAT connection on the 1212m, but have been wondering about sorting out more analog I/O.
I understand the quality of signal and stability of the clock may well be better on the RME, so that and the 3 ADAT connectors are tempting me!

So I guess the question is: do I spend the money and relegate the 1212m to either m spare machine or ebay?  Or do I wait until I really need BETER QUALITY AND MORE ANALOG i/o?

OOps sorry arthritis and no touch typing skills!

[RawDepth]

I have had my RME HDSP9652 for about 5 years and I absolutely love it.

- You can indeed hook up three different 8-channel preamps using the ADAT's giving you 24 channels. They can even be mixed brands, as long as they use standard ADAT.

- You also get 24 outputs which all work simultaneously as described with zero latency.

- It comes with mixer software which allows you to create up to 24 unique headphone mixes, (as long as you have D/A converters available. I use a Behringer ADA8000 which currently gives me 8 outs to send to my 8-channel headphone amp. That is all I have ever needed so far.)

- For studio playback I use the stereo S/PDIF out. That feeds my Presonus Central Station which provides volume control and switches between 3 sets of studio monitors.

- There are also expansion cards available to add analog in's and out's if you want to bypass the ADAT's.

What more could you ask for?


Off Topic...
BTW, I am considering buying the new Focusrite OctoPre MkII Dynamic. Do you like your Focusrite?

[ivansc]

Yeah I got a great deal on the original Octopre LE but WITH the digital card thrown in.

Works great with the Emu but I am more and more coming around to the idea of the rme.

I also have a monitor controller already so I gues I have the studio monitoring sourted out as well.

Thanks for the input!

[ivansc]

well i went\ahead and bought a used hdsp9652 pci and i cant get a dern thing in or out of it via the focusrite. no activity at all in digitest or tracvkmix OR sonar, my daw of choice

[RawDepth]

You do need to set a few things to get it to work. Did you get the driver/software disc with it? Is the driver loaded? It should also install some software called Total Mix and a routing tool.

I will assume you have a Windows machine(?)

1. From within your recording software, you need to go to the Audio Hardware Setup page and tell the software to use the Hammerfall device for input and output.

2. Next you should start up the Hammerfall mixer software called "Total Mix". (This can be found as an icon on your Windows Task Bar.) When viewing the mixer, press the X key to bring up the Hammerfall Routing Matrix. (This connects inputs to outputs, software to outputs, etc.) You must enable at least one output jack that feeds your speakers before signal from your software will go out to that jack.

In the Matrix, the top row represents your recording software channels. The left hand column (upper half) represents the hardware input jacks. The left hand column (lower half) represents the hardware output jacks. Click any box to connect where these items intersect.

[ivansc]

I didn't actually get a CD with the card, which is where my problems started!  I downloaded all the stuff from the rme site but the explanations of how the flashrom patcher is supposed to work are a little obtuse.

Last night I figured out getting a signal from my octopre into digicheck and into the mixer, all I need to do now is get that signal into Sonar and back out again!

And I am still not getting sync to the focusrite octopr by any other method that basic ADAT sync - I was assuming that the rme would sync according to bitrate, apparently not. I hardly dare put my wordclock lead in....

Suspect this is going to be down to learning by doing but thanks a lot for the tip on the matrix view! I had not sussed that one out.
 

[RawDepth]

Flashrom update? I didn't know they had one. Is yours an older card? Mine has always worked fine so I don't see the need to update the chip firmware. I do, however, update the software drivers for Windows on occasion.

[ivansc]

I`ll let you into a little secret - when you update your drivfers, you are also flashing the rom with the latest version, too.
Check your card out and I am willing to bet it is version 1.8 as well, if you have been keeping up to date. At least I got to learn that from one of the RME guys I emailed!  Hopefully I will eventually be able to ecord without needing a phd in IT to do it.