Best to stay digital?

J

jonrusso99

New member
I currently have to use the analog outs of my liquid channel preamp (using an XLR-TRS cable) into the analog ins on my digi002. This means the signal goes A/d D/A A/D into my computer (not to mention D/A again when the music is taken out).
The alesis AI-4 ($400) has AES ins and optical outs which would allow me to keep the signal digital and eliminate 2 conversions. In addition it would free up anolog inputs on the digi002.

Will the AI-4 alter the signal at all negatively? Will it improve the quality over having to do multiple conversions?

On a seperate note, would a cheaper 8-channel A/D converter such as the alesis AI-3 $400 or Frontier design Tango $700 be any better than the converters on the Digi 002? My sources say probably not, but I don't completely trust my other sources.

What do you think?
 
The short answer is "yes", it would be best to stay digital.

Why do you have to use the analog outs of your liquid channel? If it has an AES out, why can't you just get an inline AES to SPDIF converter and go into the SPDIF input on the 002?

Regarding your other question, I doubt the Alesis would be any better and quite possibly not as good. And the Frontier might be better but marginally, so therefore not worth doing. If you want to upgrade you should go with an Apogee Rosetta 800 or something at that level.
 
SonicAlbert said:
Why do you have to use the analog outs of your liquid channel? If it has an AES out, why can't you just get an inline AES to SPDIF converter and go into the SPDIF input on the 002?
Click to expand...

Well I actually have 2 liquids (as of now, Im thinking about sending them back and going with something less expensive). But I have always been confused, im not too experienced with SPIDF. There are two channels of SPDIF on the 002 but only one input (So im guessing SPIDF delivers 2 channels at once). Is there any way of merging to 2 AES outs into one SPIDF so that I could use both channels at once?

Any general info on SPIDF would also be greatly appreciated.
 
SonicAlbert said:
Why do you have to use the analog outs of your liquid channel? If it has an AES out, why can't you just get an inline AES to SPDIF converter and go into the SPDIF input on the 002?
Click to expand...

Well I actually have 2 liquids (as of now, Im thinking about sending them back and going with something less expensive). But I have always been confused, im not too experienced with SPIDF. There are two channels of SPDIF on the 002 but only one input (So im guessing SPIDF delivers 2 channels at once). Is there any way of merging to 2 AES outs into one SPIDF so that I could use both channels at once?

Any general info on SPIDF would also be greatly appreciated.
 
S/PDIF is a 2-channel digital protocol - considered a "consumer" digital format. AES/EBU is a 2-channel digital protocol - considered a "professional" digital format. The 2 formats are not interchangeable as they have different specifications.

You cannot merge the 2 formats without some form of digital converter/mixer - which is not a cheap solution.
 
Another thing to consider is whether the AD converter in the preamp is better than the one in the Digidesign. The sound has to be converted SOMEWHERE to digital. So you might want to try both ways and see which sounds better.
 
There are AES to SPDIF converters that are relatively cheap though. So you could get one of the Liquid Channels into the 002 SPDIF input that way. I believe there are also boxes that will take four AES or SPDIF inputs and convert them to one 8 channel ADAT stream. With something like that you could have both your Liquid Channels connected to the ADAT input on the 002.

SPDIF is a two channel format, as is AES.

I would *assume* the Liquid Channel conversion is better, but you should test that for yourself. Focusrite and Digi are owned by the same company though, so they may in fact use the same conversion. I don't that though, you'll have to do some research.
 
Ive found a couple of converters.
One is an AES-SPDIF cable (I was surprised by it) its at www.cablefactory.com or M-audio Co3 converts all three digital formats.
Any ideas?

P.S. The only reason im so confused by all this, is that the guy at sweetwater who sold me this stuff had no clue what he was talking about.
 
If you want to use both Liquids with the 002 digitally you'll need an 4x AES to ADAT converter. Something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=41784&item=7306519848&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Of course, with this box you need to convert the TDIF to ADAT. But there are boxes that do that too. It gets little crazy. Something like this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3278&item=7306650439&rd=1

There is a company called Z-Systems that makes boxes that do this kind of thing. I'm pretty sure they make an AES to ADAT model.

If you can just get away with using one Liquid digitally and the other analog, then that M-Audio thingy would probably work fine.
 
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