RME Hammerfall?

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Nik D

Another brick in the wall
Just a few questions. I was looking at the RME Hammerfall, I've heard it's one of the best sound cards out there. It looks like just the card that they sell only has lightpipe ins. So I take it that I would need an AD/DA converter to make 1/4 ins into sendable lightpipe data for the actual hammerfall card, right? How good would you say this sound card is compared to other very high quality cards?
 
I am in a very similiar situation right now. the RME line just seems confusing, but I do believe they have some cards that does it all without needing external ADC such as this one:

http://www.rme-audio.com/english/hdsp/hdsp9632.htm

"How good would you say this sound card is compared to other very high quality cards?"

I believe the words online are, "RME can be compared to stuff as good as Apogee" but these sayings are awhile ago, Lynx cards are getting a lot of attention thesedays. Just what I've found from my research so far.

Al
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
Which Hammerfall are you talking about?

The 96xx series has no A/D onboard....
Click to expand...

like I said, RME line confuses me, so don't quote me on this, but here is what's said in the first paragraph on that link:

"the Hammerfall DSP 9632. This card makes the dream of an All-In-One solution for every possible application come true. As usual, RME has not made any compromises: Latest 192 kHz AD- and DA-converters with more than 110 dB signal to noise ratio..."

Are you using a RME card, bruce? How do you like it?

Al
 
ok, confirmed. Here it is on the bottom of the page:

"These are some of the features of the HDSP 9632:

Balanced* stereo analog in- and output, 192 kHz/24 bit, > 110 dB SNR
Optional analog expansion boards with 4 balanced in- or outputs
All analog I/Os capable of 192 kHz, constant number of available channels
1 ADAT digital I/O, supporting 96 kHz S/MUX operation
1 SPDIF digital I/O, 192 kHz-capable
1 Breakout cable for coaxial SPDIF*
Up to 16 I/Os can be used simultaneously!
1 Stereo headphone output, parallel to the analog out, additional level settings
1 MIDI I/O with 16 channels of hi-speed MIDI via breakout cable
TotalMix: 512-channel mixer with 40 bit internal resolution "

Al
 
Wow, thanks for that link! The Lynx sounds damn good, much better than the RME. Time to start saving my pennies....
After checking out Lynx's site I found this: http://www.lynxstudio.com/aes16.html 16 channels of I/O, which is what I'm looking for, but I'm not really sure how the card is supposed to be set up. Would I need an external converter? It has cables that come with it, but I definatly don't see 16 of them. Also it talks about single and dual wire modes. Do you know anything about that? I guess what it comes down to is what would I need to record 16 channels with the Lynx, and generally how much would such a setup cost?
 
I must say that after reading the Lynx info, that the rme info looks a good deal clearer to me!

The RME needs an external converter, but so does the Lynx aes16. Problem with the lynx is that is needs 16 aes conections. I don't know directly of multichannel converters that offer their outputs in aes. Most of them offer adat connections like the rme handles.

Whatever card you buy, the rme or the lynx, you will need external converters, and these will determine your sound quality.
 
i believe the only Lynx card that include AD/DA are

LynxOne (stereo in/out)
LynxL22 (stereo in/out)
LynxTwos (up to 6 ins/2outs)

the rest are just digital interfaces, I believe

Nik D,

do you really need 16ch Analog-to-digital converters? It's gonna cost you if you want quality stuff. You can also look into MOTU's interfaces. They are good but not as pricy. Just a thought

Al
 
I know it's expensive. I am willing to spend several thousand on an awesome sound card and converters. This is more than a hobby for me, I'd like to within the next couple of years have an amazing digital studio. Right now I'm upgrading everything and buying the best I can afford. I'll actually probably expand to 24 tracks eventually , since I'm about to order my new kit and that takes alot of tracks right there. I already have two layla 20s and eventually want to upgrade to the best out there. It's a long, slow and expensive route, but it'll pay off I think.
 
Nik D said:
I know it's expensive. I am willing to spend several thousand on an awesome sound card and converters. This is more than a hobby for me, I'd like to within the next couple of years have an amazing digital studio. Right now I'm upgrading everything and buying the best I can afford. I'll actually probably expand to 24 tracks eventually , since I'm about to order my new kit and that takes alot of tracks right there. I already have two layla 20s and eventually want to upgrade to the best out there. It's a long, slow and expensive route, but it'll pay off I think.
Click to expand...

Maybe you can start looking into the Benchmark and Apogee lines if you really wanna go high end. My goal (in the long long run) is to get a Lynx L22 or Lynx Two first, and later add Apogee Rostta, mini-me, dac or BenchMark's stereo AD/DAs. i am day-dreaming again:D But, for real, I think either RME or Lynx will get you real high quality (according to a lot of reviews I've read)

Al
 
If that is your path, I would definitely go for cards with digital interface only. It would let you start with a good external AD/DA, and later you can then add better one(s) for more critical tasks. The old one is not wasted, it can always be used for some ambient, or a kick input or so. It will be the ad/da that makes the quality, but you will need dependable cards to handle the datastream.

Do not forget that 1 adat lightpipe can carry 8 channels up to 24/48. But at 24/96 it will only carry 4 channels. So for 24 channels you would need a total of 6 adat connectors on your pc (6 for in, 6 for out).

As you will -without any doubt- use a main clock, the cards will play no role at all except stability of the drivers for the pc. Here rme is very good at. So you would need 2 pieces of rme hdsp9652 if you go rme.
 
if you want 16 channel of pro quality conversion i would go with 4 lynx cards in whatever configuration(2 6ins and 2outs and 2 2in and 6 outs, or 4 4in and 4 outs)

or get 2 Motu Hd192 the first will cost 1895 about and the expansion will cost like 1600...

its a lil cheaper then the lynx...the lynx will be above 4000 while the motu will probably be around 4000 with tax...and you can expand each of them with standalone converters...if you want to get that extra great conversion for the 2mix...think benchmark or lavry...all the discussion i've heard on apogee makes me believe that its equal to or probably worse then the lynx two and motu hd 192 respectively...
 
Well, without meaning to sound condescending, you don't really seem to be too sure on what the specs of the various cards mean. This suggests to me that you are not a pro user and frankly just don't need a card as good as the Lynx models.

I've just arranged to buy an RME Multiface with the Hammerfall HDSP PCMCIA card. That provides 8 analogue i/o, with 8 channels of ADAT optical i/o. That's good enough for my needs.

The RME PCI cards, such as the HDSP 9652, don't have built in analoge i/o so you'll need to buy converters. RME have some amazing stand alone converters, some of which are more expensive than a Lynx card! RME cards are popular with many producer because their large amount of ADAT makes them ideal to be hooked up to a digital mixer, such the ubiquitous Yamaha models.

As noted above, the MOTU HD192 would be ideal. Their proprietory PCI card interface is excellent allowing many HD192 (or other breakout boxes in the MOTU range) to be attached to the one card and locked together. One other thing... how much cooler do they look than those other cards!:D
 
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