Quote:
Originally Posted by octatonic
Three things to know about the Red line of interfaces.
1. Only the Red 16 Line has matched input/output alignment.
If you buy a Red 8 or Red 4 and use a lot of hardware inserts you will have to compensate for 9db loss with a trim plugin. I upgraded from the Red 8PRE to Red 16 Line because of this.
2. The Red series is not sample accurate with HDX.
That may or may not be an issue for you.
It isn't for me- I track with HDX and mix natively- the Red 16 Line is great for that, switching between Pro Tools and Thunderbolt mode keeps all my routing.
3. The Red 16 Line only had 32 channels of Dante so it is a maximum of 48 channels of IO unless you want to use the optical ports, then it is a maximum of 64 channels. I'm right on the limit of this device- I would appreciate Focusrite releasing an updated Red 16 Line that had 64 or 128 channels of Dante and I would add a couple more A16R's.
I know I could use the Rednet PCIe card but that would see me lose hardware monitoring, which I use all the time.
Finally, one HDX card is often insufficient- most people I know have 2 or 3.
Depends on how much processing you use and your workflow.
I have considered moving to the MTRX but just the base chassis is £5k here.
For me to get 48 channels of IO it would be something like £30k so that isn't going to happen.
I had considered getting an MTRX with 8 channels of DA and Dante and keeping my A16R's but it is still £9kish and I would lose the convenience of Thunderbolt.
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Octatonic, thank you for the relevant details. I just went and counted and have 30 analog channels coming in between Rednet2 and SQ-5. Additionally, I currently have 8 ch of digital I/O to and from an Eventide H9K over Dante. That could swell to as much as 32ch depending on what I chose to use. My studio is higher on the input than output side since I don't do analog mix or summing here - all ITB. So, its 38ch in - which I don't know that I was fully aware of. The Dante PCIe card makes it so I just don't have to care - there's always plenty of room to add things, and it "just works". I have been quite happy with the move to Dante.
Adding a Red 16 + HDX card would accommodate all my inputs at a substantially lower price point than MTRX. But part of the appeal is being able to simplify down to a single I/O box. Today I have two Focusrite boxes, a digital mixer, 3 preamp boxes and a 500 rack full of pres - all that would disappear into a single MTRX.
I was thinking that if I kept the Rednet PCIe card, that would allow non-PT software to access the I/O and speakers that are connected to the MTRX.
This thread and the posts from people using other Focusrite and Genelec digital products has been very helpful to me as I work out what direction will work best.