Can you use two interfaces?

[mkearns3]

Can you use a firepod along with another firewire interface to make use of all the pres on both?

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Can you use a firepod along with another firewire interface to make use of all the pres on both?

Not unless there's some way (word clock) to sync them up. The audio from the two will tend to drift.

 

[mkearns3]

ok

By drift do you mean they will each have thier own latency rates which wont match each other?

 

[bouldersoundguy]

By drift do you mean they will each have thier own latency rates which wont match each other?

Not exactly. They each have their own clocks to tell the converter when to sample the analog audio. If one clock is slightly faster it will have more samples per second, but it will be played back at exactly the same sample rate as the other track and so will consistently fall behind over time.

The effect may be small. You might be okay over the length of a song. One way to find out is to split a signal to both devices and record five or ten minutes of it. Then play the tracks together with the polarity flipped on one and both panned center. If the phase is perfect there should be silence to the end of the track. If the clocking is a little off you'll start to hear a phase effect toward the end. If it sounds like an echo they are way off.

 

[TimOBrien]

ASIO (the low-latency drivers you WANT to use) only allows 1 device at one time.

Some companies allow you to gang their interfaces together when they run under 1 driver.
For example, I have a Motu828mkII and I can gang 3 together for over 60 simultaneous ins/out because they will run under the control of ONE asio driver. This will also sync up the clocks in each one as boulder pointed out.

You have to plan ahead if you want to do this and you should not count on throwing multiple boxes together.

 

[mkearns3]

Thanks

Ok, thanks a bunch.

 

[suprstar]

At least for ASIO devices, I thought if you had multiple devices that was no prob. I know a few ppl who have 2 firestudios in their rack, and I thought they were both plugged right into the firewire (not connected to each other via lightpipe or whatever). When you go into the ASIO control panel, you have a 'device list' so there presumably has to be more than one device allowed. Doesn't ASIO combine all the available inputs and outputs and do the routing itself?

 

[Bristol Posse]

At least for ASIO devices, I thought if you had multiple devices that was no prob. I know a few ppl who have 2 firestudios in their rack, and I thought they were both plugged right into the firewire (not connected to each other via lightpipe or whatever). When you go into the ASIO control panel, you have a 'device list' so there presumably has to be more than one device allowed. Doesn't ASIO combine all the available inputs and outputs and do the routing itself?

Devices that use the same driver may be able to be used at the same time as they are effectively 1 big deviice as far as the system is concerned, even if they are plugged in to separate FW ports however if there is no master Clock there could still be clocking issues. I was able to do this with an M-Audio 410 and FW solo because they use exactly the same driver and I only needed a few seconds with three inputs so I don't know if clocking was a problem, it didn't present itself within those few seconds. Presumabley using 2 firestudios is a similar situation. When you need more than one driver then it becomes an issue since ASIO will only allow 1 driver at a time. If you want to mix and match brands or models that need different drivers then it is a problem. I suppose you might be able to band aid/work around with an ASIO For All Driver which could possibly allow you to see all your devices as one big device controlled by the ASIO For All driver, but performance would be less than ideal and clocking could be a serious issue

 

[clothdeejay]

I would be very interested to know if this works. I have a Tascam 1641 which I love and also have an m audio fast track. If I can run both I can use pro tools and have my 16 inputs from the Tascam. Both of these are usb so not sure if that makes a difference.

 

[Seidy]

I would be very interested to know if this works. I have a Tascam 1641 which I love and also have an m audio fast track. If I can run both I can use pro tools and have my 16 inputs from the Tascam. Both of these are usb so not sure if that makes a difference.

as far as i konw pro tools don't support tascam.

if you are trying to figure out if you can use multiple instances at once then contact the manufacturer.

 

[clothdeejay]

If you can run 2 interfaces won't the fast track run pro tools m powered and allow me to use the inputs from my tascam. A friend of mine has pro tools m powered 7.4 so we're going to try it.......I'll let you know if it works.

 

[mixsit]

Pretty sure in any case everything would have to use the same clock (one master, all others slave) or you would get clicks and pops.

 

[miroslav]

I use three seperate 8-channel interfaces...however, all three are the same brand and use the same drivers...and...they are linked via their Word Clock connections.
Basically...one is the master, and the other two are Word Clock-fed and act as slaves.

I CAN use them without the Word Clock and just tell them each to follow the computer's internal clock...but the first way is more recommended for better sync lock.

 

[clothdeejay]

I would only use the m audio to get pro tools to boot up and use ONLY the Tascam for recording?