For RME Fireface 800 users - need clarification rather quickly!

  • Thread starter Thread starter vicenzajay
  • Start date Start date
vicenzajay

vicenzajay

Member
The manual is a bit confusing when trying to answer this question:

How many outboard analog pres can you actually input into the unit for multitracking at one time?

I count 8 line in jacks, 4 mic pres, 1 instrument in jack, and the possibility to separately use the 1/4 inch jacks on the mic pres separately.

Am I correct in this? That would indicate that I could use 12 external preamps (8 line-ins plus the 4 TRS jacks on the front), 4 included preamps, and plug an instrument into the box directly...all told 17 analog inputs at once.

Is this correct? If it is, I will need to change some buying decisions quickly.

Thanks in advance,
Jay
 
Last edited:
Hi Jay,

I am a RME 800 owner and the functionality is limited to 10 ad/da converts as I can use it.

If you have 6 pre-amps you can use the 4 pre-amps from the mixer + your 6 pre-amps to record 10 signals at one time.
So in channel one you can either use the instrument OR the line input OR both at one time BUT you will have a added signal that can never be split in 2 seperate signals. (I'm not sure about the added signal since I have never used it for that reason ;))

The big advantage of an RME is the internal mixer which can offer you 8 independant stereo out mixes and the 7ms latency which is really creapy.

It's one of the best purchases in this region.


My Short Review:
Internal Mixer is great
10 inputs is a good amount for starting
Pre-amps are good BUT slightly overrated if you have any decent pre-amps.


Hope this helps , I'm no expert :) The manual is veeryyy unclear
 
Thanks Blor

I'm going to go another route, then....I need 16-20 channels simultaneously, and my outboard preamps are just fine.

Audiofire seems to be the route for me.

Jay
 
We do 24 at once with ours, but the 16 of them are presonus digimax f/s's with the adat out, and then an quadmic to round out the first 4
 
Good info...

pipelineaudio said:
We do 24 at once with ours, but the 16 of them are presonus digimax f/s's with the adat out, and then an quadmic to round out the first 4
Click to expand...

But I have no ADAT gear at all - and about 24 very nice preamps. Thus my search for a decent conversion engine geared for outboard analog preamps - at least 16 at once.

The RME looks fantastic, but I don't have the money for two of them to satisfy what I'm trying to do.

I would consider Presonus' gear, but I was burned with the failure of two Firepods to play nicely together reliably. I know their new gear (Firestudio/Digimax's) is nicer and more reliable, but I'm taking my business elsewhere as Presonus really failed to support the FP-10/Firepod driver set to allow reliable synch as well as direct output capability for the preamps while recording to the DAW...in fact, their last "qualitative" driver update for the Firepod was late 2005...for Windows XP. The Vista driver set does me no good whatsoever.

In any case, I've sold one of the pods and I'll plan on selling the other after I get another interface. At this point the solution looks like an Audiofire 12 plus an Audiofire 8....20 channels sync'd by word clock with the modular ability to do 8 and or 12 on their own given the venue. Converters seem to get better reviews than the Presonus' ones on this board and Gearslutz as well.

In any case - thanks for the help guys!
Jay
 
vicenzajay said:
I would consider Presonus' gear, but I was burned with the failure of two Firepods to play nicely together reliably.
Click to expand...

The failure rate on these is scary, the Firestudio so far has been even worse in my experience. But the digimaxes have not failed us yet

The RME Fireface is so many miles above most other gear interms of having working, well written drivers its frightnening. The MOTU 8pre is another EXCELLENT deal

Im probably going to take a thwack in the head over this, but if you've already got good mic pres you might ant to try using behringer ada8k's as converters. As bad as the mic pre's are, the line ins are OK and there are mods to bypass even the line preamps...its worht the gamble for the price of these things
 
Pipeline...

Tell me more about the Behringer box...I'm really not setup to do mods here, so how hard would it be to have it modded for me.

The MOTU 8pre looks great - but then I'm back to having to sell existing preamps. I mean, I have 22 outboards to include DAV/SCA/Line Audio and the 8 Presonus preamps (which are, I'll get thwacked for it, very good actually). This doesn't even count the 16 very nice preamps in my Allen and Heatch Mix Wizard 3 small-format board.

The band projects I'm doing now need 16 inputs simultaneously - so my bottleneck is reliable, good sounding, firewire conversion for line inputs....whether live (using the A&H pres) or in the studio (using outboard preamps).

The MOTU would add yet another 8 preamps...tempting, but almost overkill for me at this point. The Onyx box seems to be another similar option...if you can find one used.

Jay
 
So, Pipeline...

Another idea - how about something like an Onyx 800R and the Fireface 800....then I would have ADAT for the Onyx pres to the Fireface, 13 analog inputs available on the Fireface (8 line ins, 4 TRS jacks for front panel, 1 instrument input). I would need to sell the Line Audio MP8 as those preamps would become completely OBE in this system.

So I would be trading Line Audio Preamps for Onyx preamps but adding a LOT of cross-functionality.

How does this sound?

Jay
 
Well youve got mic pre's, so what you are really missing is converters. There are tons and tons of firewire sound cards with adat ports on them, including the fireface, so lets look at some converters with adat outs

Apogee AD16 - $3150 list, hard to find used (yet). 16 channels of excellent quality AD

Apogee ADI -DS - $1700, but youll need 2 of them. AD and DA ADAT and TDIF

Lynx Aurora 16 - $3000 ad/da but AES only, an adat option may or may not be on its way ( LT-ADAT )

Presonus digimax FS - you'll need two at $600 each. AD/DA, bypass the mic pres and just use the line ins. A slight advantage on this unit is having the input trims, so if you are trying to crank a tube mic pre that doesnt have an attenuator, itll be easier with the digimax than the others

Behringer ADA8000 - $229 each, youll need two .AD/DA. bypass the mic pres, just go into the line ins.
 
The only issue then...

is that for financial reasons, I'll have to get rid of the Line Audio unit anyway - so I really could use a unit that has 8 decent pres to replace it (along with the ability to take those pres and input them ADAT-wise into the firewire sound card.

Thanks again,

Jay
 
True Systems precision 8 + ADAT port would kick ass then
 
Reading this thread once again I realize how much I like my ADA8000. Not that it's that great of a unit, but it does what I need it to and not much else even near it's price-range for what you get. I'd seriously consider trying one if I were you. Mine works great and the converters aren't all that much worse than my RME unit.
 
FIrewire 400

Would there be a problem if I only had firewire 400 ports on my computer? Would that limit anything that I would plan to do with the Fireface 800?

Also, If I plug an ADAT device into the Fireface 800 is it necessary to have them both word clocked together? I have no experience using word clocks or ADAT connections....

THanks,

Mike
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top