I just bought me a MOTU 896 and I'm intrigued by this Lightpipe business...

[Steve Henningsgard]

If my understanding is correct, I could theoretically purchase an 8-channel ADAT, plug it's lightpipe output into my 896's lightpipe input, and I'd have 8 more channels of audio? I know it's limited to 24/48 but that's all I'd want to use anyway.

Let me know if I'm missing something!

 

[TimOBrien]

You are absolutely right.

I have an 828mkII and plan to purchase an 8Pre to add 8channels via the ADAT.

You can also get other pre's like the Focusrite OctoPre, the M-Audio Octane or even the lowly Behringer ADA8000 and the other channels will just appear in CueMix.

That's the beauty of it.

 

[Herm]

But When you use the Adat for its converters dont you still get that harsh
digital 16bit sound that Adat is known for?

 

[TimOBrien]

You're going to get the quality of whatever you hook up to it.

Hook up something cheap and you'll get cheap quality;
hook up something decent and it'll sound great.

The ADAT connector is just a digital pipe coming into your interface.

 

[cusebassman]

I've always heard this complaint about the 16-bit ADAT machines, but I use two DA-38s (Tascam's answer to the ADAT, I know they differ slightly), but I've never noticed a sub-standard sound from them, and they are decidedly 16-bit machines... I don't know, I guess whatever sounds good

 

[dgatwood]

With MOTU gear (and most other gear these days), it isn't entirely limited to 44.1/48kHz. There are two modes---S/MUX and ADAT x2 that bond pairs of channels together into a single channel at double the sampling rate, assuming that both devices support it.

Most audio interfaces devices these days support S/MUX, since it's basically just a software change. Certainly all of the current MOTU gear does. AFAIK, the ADAT x2 is a MOTU-proprietary protocol. I'm not sure whether there's any useful difference between the two as far as choosing one or the other, but since most devices only support S/MUX, it's probably moot.

Because it bonds two channels together, you end up with half as many channels, though. To get around that, some interfaces provide multiple ADAT inputs and outputs so that you can bond them together and do 8 channels at once. The MOTU 8Pre and the 2408MK3 can do this, for example.

 

[dgatwood]

You're going to get the quality of whatever you hook up to it.

Hook up something cheap and you'll get cheap quality;
hook up something decent and it'll sound great.

The ADAT connector is just a digital pipe coming into your interface.

Yeah. The ADAT connection can carry 24-bit audio. ADAT recorders (which I assume the previous post meant by "ADAT") probably don't have 24-bit converters, though. At least I don't think any tape-based ADAT gear does.

 

[ez_willis]

But When you use the Adat for its converters dont you still get that harsh
digital 16bit sound that Adat is known for?

If I remember correctly, even the Blackface's lightpipe outputs at 24 bit.

 

[ez_willis]

I've always heard this complaint about the 16-bit ADAT machines, but I use two DA-38s (Tascam's answer to the ADAT, I know they differ slightly), but I've never noticed a sub-standard sound from them,

It's a rumour that people pass along all day long here. Total BS.

I can assure you I could A/B a commercial release recorded on the first ADAT's against something recorded with the newest/best gear today and 99% of the people talking shit wouldn't be able to tell the difference if they weren't familiar with the artist, and couldn't place when each were recorded.