Sample accurate digilink interfaces in 2019?

[Bob Olhsson]

Originally Posted by JCBigler

What does sample accurate mean?

It means that the frame roll-overs line up exactly on the correct samples with no slop.

[D'Animation]

Originally Posted by LDS

Hey everyone,

What current digilink interfaces are sample accurate to 192s or HD I/O?

Obviously Avid stuff. I assume the Symphony and new Aurora N continue Apogee and Lynx's trend of being sample accurate? Mytek? What about Burl, the Focusrite Red stuff and Antelope Audio HD interfaces?

In the same boat - Apogee Symphony and Lynx Aurora (n or the older 8/16 models) are sample accurate. The Antelope Orion/Goliath appears to be too (though I haven't read any user accounts to confirm that). The focusrite Red (4pre/8pre/16L) is NOT sample accurate - damn shame as its the perfect amount of connectivity for me. And the compensation window is in msec, not samples so you'll never manage to accurately compensate it the way things currently are

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by D'Animation

In the same boat - Apogee Symphony and Lynx Aurora (n or the older 8/16 models) are sample accurate. The Antelope Orion/Goliath appears to be too (though I haven't read any user accounts to confirm that). The focusrite Red (4pre/8pre/16L) is NOT sample accurate - damn shame as its the perfect amount of connectivity for me. And the compensation window is in msec, not samples so you'll never manage to accurately compensate it the way things currently are

It is not likely to matter unless you are mixing IO hardware

[BScout]

Originally Posted by albee1952

It is not likely to matter unless you are mixing IO hardware

It would matter with parallel compression using a hardware compressor, for instance

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by BScout

It would matter with parallel compression using a hardware compressor, for instance

Yes, but only when you're using two different brand interfaces there (only use one interface and stay in sync)

[BScout]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Yes, but only when you're using two different brand interfaces there (only use one interface and stay in sync)

Try this again:
Focsurite red presents itself to the HDX card as a HD I/O with a 17 sample RTL.
It actually has a RTL of 14 samples

ProTools will compensate a hardware compressor for 17 samples attached to the Focsurite red.

Parallel compressing, the direct signal will be 3 samples behind the compressed. Mixed interfaces aren’t the issue.

[JCBigler]

I mean, this is only relevant if you are sending a signal outside the box, from one interface to another, right? If everything stays inside the Protools mix engine, it doesn't really apply, right?

[JFreak]

Sure it is a mixed interface issue if one is Focusrite and another is Avid -- however in this care the solution is easy, just ask Focusrite to add 3 samples of delay to their guess of HD interface latency

[D'Animation]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Sure it is a mixed interface issue if one is Focusrite and another is Avid -- however in this care the solution is easy, just ask Focusrite to add 3 samples of delay to their guess of HD interface latency

If I remember correctly from Focusrite support & other user reports their converter delay is longer than the Avid i/o

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by D'Animation

If I remember correctly from Focusrite support & other user reports their converter delay is longer than the Avid i/o

Makes sense. Then there is nothing that can be done, right? If a 3rd party interface would be faster than Avid's they could match the RTL by slowing it down