Silly question HD I/O 16x16 digital

[Nightworker]

From the material those interfaces have no mic preamps. If someone wanted to use mic preamps they would connect it through the adat.. which is logical right, but what if you're using liquid saffires 56 for instance on a pc. From a Focusright sales rep I learned that you can connect your second unit into the first liquid saffire 56 adat and then the first unit through fire wire without having to do an aggregate device since this would be on PC. You'd then get access to all preamps, but you wouldn't be able to use the liquid preamps of the second unit. So why would someone need those HD interfaces?

I guess you could connect each liquid saffire into each adat port?

I'm just trying to figure out if you need any preamps with those interfaces and if so, how to best utilize them.

[ejwells]

Originally Posted by Nightworker

From the material those interfaces have no mic preamps. If someone wanted to use mic preamps they would connect it through the adat.. which is logical right, but what if you're using liquid saffires 56 for instance on a pc. From a Focusright sales rep I learned that you can connect your second unit into the first liquid saffire 56 adat and then the first unit through fire wire without having to do an aggregate device since this would be on PC. You'd then get access to all preamps, but you wouldn't be able to use the liquid preamps of the second unit. So why would someone need those HD interfaces?

I guess you could connect each liquid saffire into each adat port?

I'm just trying to figure out if you need any preamps with those interfaces and if so, how to best utilize them.

They'd need the HD interfaces to run PT HD.
You wouldn't need/couldn't use one, as you're not running HD.
Also, I don't think any serious HD user would want built in preamps, but the Omni has two for those who do.

[Nightworker]

Originally Posted by ejwells

They'd need the HD interfaces to run PT HD.
You wouldn't need/couldn't use one, as you're not running HD.
Also, I don't think any serious HD user would want built in preamps, but the Omni has two for those who do.

"They'd need the HD interfaces to run PT HD."
I thought that you could use HD tdm cards without the interface (I/O box)

"You wouldn't need/couldn't use one, as you're not running HD."
D'uh I am moving to HD so I am preparing myself with all the info I need.

"Also, I don't think any serious HD user would want built in preamps, but the Omni has two for those who do"
That could be true unless they were truly spectacular preamps, but since there is none, then it's a mute point.

I'm still wondering what would be the best way to connect preamps to it. Through adat, or use the preamps connection to the pc? If you still can use the tdm cards without any of the HD I/O boxes.

Thanks for chiming in.

[ejwells]

Originally Posted by Nightworker

"They'd need the HD interfaces to run PT HD."
I thought that you could use HD tdm cards without the interface (I/O box)

"You wouldn't need/couldn't use one, as you're not running HD."
D'uh I am moving to HD so I am preparing myself with all the info I need.

"Also, I don't think any serious HD user would want built in preamps, but the Omni has two for those who do"
That could be true unless they were truly spectacular preamps, but since there is none, then it's a mute point.

I'm still wondering what would be the best way to connect preamps to it. Through adat, or use the preamps connection to the pc? If you still can use the tdm cards without any of the HD I/O boxes.

Thanks for chiming in.

You can use the HD iLok asset without the I/O box using core audio, or a USB or Firewire interface, but the HD card (Native, TDM, or HDX) needs to be connected to an HD interface to work, be it an Avid, a Lynx, or an Apogee.
The 16 x 16 digital can connect up to 16 digital preamps/converters via ADAT or DB25.
Each ADAT or DB25 connection will accept an up to 8 channel digital pre, or something like an ISA428 or 4-710d...each of those have 4 additional inputs that will accept 4 additional analog pres. 16 total in, 16 total out
Or...you can hook up 8 channel A/D converter boxes to each digital input card, and use all analog pres.
But, if you were going to do that, the 16 x 16 analog would make more sense.
I chose the 8 x 8 x 8 because it gives me the best of both worlds.

[Nightworker]

I know it's been a while but as I'm still looking into things (yeah I'm a slow mover) I got to wonder. Since you would connect using the adat out of the liquid saffire 56 and saffire pro 40 (no db25 connectors on the saffire's) in the HD I/O box, would the box do an other conversion of the signal that has already been converted by the saffire interfaces? If it does, is there a loss in this double conversion?

[albee1952]

Are you talking 16x16 ANALOG or DIGITAL? Big difference there. The analog version has 16 analog inputs and outputs on DB25 connectors(not sure if the analog even HAS the adat ports). Then there is the 8x8x8, which has a mix of 8 analog IO and 8 digital IO

[Nightworker]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Are you talking 16x16 ANALOG or DIGITAL? Big difference there. The analog version has 16 analog inputs and outputs on DB25 connectors(not sure if the analog even HAS the adat ports). Then there is the 8x8x8, which has a mix of 8 analog IO and 8 digital IO

I'm talking about the Digital 16x16 although from what I've seen the analogue do have adats too. But my question is about the digital I/O

[Darryl Ramm]

What exactly is the question again? Just can you connect preamps via ADAT to these? Sure you can. That is why the ADAT/SMUX port is there.

There are lots of cheaper ADAT preamps I'd hope not to see front-ending a pretty HD interface.

More people are likely to have a 8x8x8 than a 16x16 digital -- either way you don't need two digital cards to do this as you can use the built-in ADAT/SMUX port plus the one on one digital IO card.

Remember the interface is limited to 16 inputs in total no matter where they come from.

The HD IO Guide from Avid is the document you need to be reading.

Darryl

[albee1952]

Darryl hits the point I was not getting to quite right. I too would opt for the 8x8x8 so that I could get 8 analog inputs for some "character" preamps(Neve, Vintech, API, etc) and then use an 8 channel lightpipe preamp for general stuff(like the Focusrite OctoPre Mk II Dynamic, or Presonus DigiMax). Maybe some more details about your needs would get better advice?

[Nightworker]

My question is, if you pass through the adat of the digital box.. or even the analogue one.



Is there a double conversion going on? If it is, how much loss do you get?

The preamps already do a conversion to pass the signal through the adat (or firewire but let's not get picky here). And that signal is going through the Avid HD box is it reconverted?