Delta 44 or 66?

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normington

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Right, I need a new interface, and i want a minimum 4 analog ins, not so fussed how many outs, and digital isn't an issue for me right now. Seems the perfect thing for that is the Delta 44. But then, on Dolphin, the 66 is only £10 more, so I guess that's probably worth it?

Can you guys spell out to me exactly what the added digital I/O on the 66 rather than 44 is worth? I've never used digital inputs when recording before, but am I likely to come across something before long where I do? How does the digital bit work - because it seems to me like you're getting 2 channels from each socket?

Thanks,
 
You can use the digital I/O to get a stereo in or out if you have the proper devices to connect, but in my opinion the real value of the digital out on this card for most people lies in the expandability. I used a Delta 66 for a long time, and for about half of that time I had it synced to a Delta 1010lt to get 8 more analog ins and outs. To do this, you need to connect the digital output of one card to the digital in of the other and sync them to the same clock (doesn't matter which). If you get the Delta 44 and later decide you want more channels, you will have to get another interface and ditch the Delta. If you have the Delta 66, you can simply add another one and double your channels.
 
Well I use a Delta 44 and a Delta 1010LT and they work perfectly together and don"t need to be connected together to Sync up....

You can probably find a Delta 1010lt used for the Price of a New Delta 66, I got mine used on ebay for about $150 Canadian which is $50 cheaper than I paid for my new Delta 44.....


:D
 
Whoopysnorp said:
You can use the digital I/O to get a stereo in or out if you have the proper devices to connect, but in my opinion the real value of the digital out on this card for most people lies in the expandability. I used a Delta 66 for a long time, and for about half of that time I had it synced to a Delta 1010lt to get 8 more analog ins and outs. To do this, you need to connect the digital output of one card to the digital in of the other and sync them to the same clock (doesn't matter which). If you get the Delta 44 and later decide you want more channels, you will have to get another interface and ditch the Delta. If you have the Delta 66, you can simply add another one and double your channels.
Click to expand...

But both the 66 and 1010 (lt or rack) are PCI based, so surely you don't need to connect them together because they've both got to be connected directly to the computer anyway? Or am I mistaken?
 
normington said:
But both the 66 and 1010 (lt or rack) are PCI based, so surely you don't need to connect them together because they've both got to be connected directly to the computer anyway? Or am I mistaken?
Click to expand...

Hi, as described by Minion, above, the PCI Delta's do work very well together, regardless of their particular platform/model, without any need for 'external-syncing'.......
I am running 3 Delta 44's/66's and an Echo Gina 24, playing 20 tracks down back into 2 channels, with no timing/loading issues....ever.

If you're using the extra 2 leads of the 66, and using a few of them together, then you'll be probably wanting to sync them up to a master clock, or make one of the cards a master clock.

Hopefully you'll have good luck, just so many variable with this stuff.
 
Done deal

Just managed to bag a Delta 66 and Omni I/O for the fine price of £100 of my British pounds. Beautiful...
 
normington said:
Just managed to bag a Delta 66 and Omni I/O for the fine price of £100 of my British pounds. Beautiful...
Click to expand...

That's my rig for my desktop Mac. It's a pretty good deal, given the low price. It's handy for me to have the digital output on the Delta 66 card. I often use it to 2-mix to my MicroTrack and then port the file back in via USB. My Mac is old and slow and so any work I can farm out to other devices helps out. Plus it's just kinda fun to regard the MicroTrack as a 2-track mix deck.

Cheers,

Otto
 
Sweet! I've had one for years, and while it's been relegated along with a Delta 44 to the B DAW for a while, it sounds fine compared with the much more pricy Lynx converters in the A DAW.
BTW, I've used S/PDIF quite a bit, for everything from Preamps with S/PDIF outputs to monitors with S/PDIF inputs to DATs and digital mixers with both. The only thing I don't like about it is that, as you asked about, both channels share the same connector, and cannot be split since they share the same conductor in that connector. Last I looked, there was no low cost splitter/merger like you can use with midi. So using both the 5th and 6th input channels (S/PDIF L&R) from two different preamps is only possible if the preamps have a S/PDIF cascade function. Any preamp with a S/PDIF out will give you a 5th channel though, and a dual preamp or mixer with S/PDIF out will get you 5&6.

Enjoy!
 
normington said:
Does anyone know why they discontinued the Omni?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if this was a factor, but in conversation with M-Audio tech staff, they mentioned that while the Delta cards were designed in-house, the Omni was designed by an outside engineer. It may not have worked out to continue to support it.

Of course, it also may have just been too good and too cheap to be allowed to continue on the market. :) Either that or it didn't sell well or they just decided PCI is a dead end and killed that item first.

Cheers,

Otto
 
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