RME.. i am confused

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right now i have a soundcraft m12 and i have been looking for a soundcard for a few months now.. while i save up some cash..

right now i have about $1200 to spend on a soundcard.. ive been looking at RME everyone seems to love.. but i am not quite sure if i really need it.. ill be recording on a pc i built a year ago (2100+ oced to 2700/512mb corsair 3200) i will probably get to the point where i will record at least 8 tracks at a time shortly.

i am just confused on what RME products i need.. do i have to get the RME mulitface (digiface is for ADATs right?) as well the the PCI card to go along with it? do they sell them together for a cheaper price? and the hd9652.. that is just for hooking up other ADATs straight to the soundcard? i wont need that will i? man.. i am a n00b..
 
I have the RME Digi9652 card with 3xADAT-i/o and two Behringer ADA8000 8 channel mic pre amps. For my live recording purposes the ADA8000s are more than good enough in sound quality at a fraction of the price of a similar system built with Swissonics.
 
back to my question.. all i need to record on my pc with an RME device is the RME multiface and the PCI card.. am i correct? i could upgrade to other things later..
 
I've also been interested in the RME product line.

From what I can figure, the Multiface and PCI should allow you to record 8 inputs, and monitor 8 outputs.

So yes, that should be all you need hardware wise.

Just to be clear, I don't own these things, so I'm just guessing. But I have done a bunch of research. If you do get it, post a review, I'd love to know how it all sounds.
 
I have the RME multiface...

Ther unit comes with the Hammefall card which has a firewire connection to the self powered breakout box.. 8 in 8 out... Comes with Total mix software...
 
I get the multiface stuff, just the digiface confuses me. Would a 4 channel AD converter be able to go into a single channel digital port, and retain the 4 channels? Thats what confuses me
 
RME makes several types of cards:

Hammerfall series: these have a number of ADAT interfaces and spdif. These include the HDSP9652, HDSP9636 and DIGI96 range. (and the MADI card, but that is not for home use I would say)
-The DIGI range has analog IO, is discontinued but can still be found. Only a single ADAT.
-The Hammerfall range now has the HDSP9652 (a digital IO only card) and the HDSP9632 (digital + stereo analog IO). These cards have an onboard digital mixer.
-EXB these are analog expansion boards for the above cards that use one of the available ADAT IO's with an internal connection.

Then they have a system that is made of a pc card (pci or pcmcia) and an external box (multiface or digiface). The pc card you buy according to what you can use on your pc. For a desktop->pci, for a laptop->pcmcia. The box is according to the sources you want to use: multiface for 8xanalog and digital (adat+spdif) and the digiface is digital only (adat+spdif).

An ADAT interface uses a single optical fiber to transport 8 channels at maximum 24bit 48kHz. If you go to 24bit 96KHz, then you can transport only 4 channels over the same interface (this is done by combining 2 channels of 48kHz into a single 96kHz channel). You are not liomited to conncting Alesis ADAT's to this, any gear using the ADAT lightpipe interface can be used. The spdif is always 2 channel whatever sample rate.

Hopes this clears the confusion a bit. I have 2 cards of them and an AD/DA and love all three of them. Excellent for the price, works as stated without hassle.
 
Havoc said:
Hopes this clears the confusion a bit.
Click to expand...

Duuuuhhhhh. Not for me. :(
Where does the Digi96/8 PAD fit into this scheme? It looks like it has analog, SPDIF and AES/EBU I/O capability, with optional, fairly reasonably priced 4 or 8 input or output analog and clock expansion boards.
http://www.rme-audio.com/english/digi96/digi96pa.htm

How does the converter quality of the RME cards compare with the Lynx converters?
 
Crazy, you are correct about the digi96/pad. It has a stereo analog IO, 1 ADAT IO and spdif. You can use the expansion boards for internal analog IO. These expansion boards do not support 96kHz.

As for the converter compared to the Lynx, don't know as I don't have a lynx. Only have an ADI-8 AE. Very nice for the price. Just metering is a bit simple.
 
Thanks Havoc
If anyone has experience, even second hand, comparing the Lynx and RME converters I'd appreciate hearing about it. Or a link.
 
I have the DIGI9636.

Just so you know, the 9636 advertises the capability of 16 analog I/O, but is not very clear in stating that in order to utilize the I/O, you need to buy those expansion boards mentioned above. In fact two separate 8 I/O expansion cards for 16 total. These cards are sold separately at $250 a piece. So, if what you are looking at mentions expansion boards, know that you will be forking out some more cash for that option.

Considering the value of RME though, you are getting decent bang for your buck, as there are no other cards with options of ADAT, S/PDIF, the ability to have multiple analog I/O, fully support AMD and Intel Chipsets, 24 bit processing at the front, AND have very decent customer service at that price.

I was kinda pissed off that I have to pay extra for my ultimate setup, but in the long run it's definately worth it.

Cy
 
You do not need to use the expansion boards to get 16 analog IO's. Unless you want them in the pc of course. Otherwise, you could also buy external AD/DA convertors that use ADAT lightpipe as their digital interface.
 
That's true. You can use two adat lightpipes for 16 out.

Is there any decent 8-channel AD/DA lightpipe converter that is less than the $250 for an expansion board?

If so I would be most interested.

Cy
 
The only cheaper I know is the Fostex VC-8. It is however limited to 20bit and unbalanced IO. And you need to replace the external wall-wart, as the included one gives quite a bit of 50Hz and assorted in the audio :(

Maybe the Behringer....
 
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