Carbon 1 week in use

[chrisdee]

Ok. Thanks.

Does it have an internal fan like Omni has?
Is it noisy/audible (as Omni`s fan is)?

[Mark Ziebarth]

Originally Posted by chrisdee

Ok. Thanks.

Does it have an internal fan like Omni has?
Is it noisy/audible (as Omni`s fan is)?

I tested Carbon the last weeks and like it very much. But I would wait to buy it until full EuCon control is established because the fan is too loud for me to have the interface near me. If I remember correctly my main problem with the Omni was the ever changing speed of the fan. That’s not true for Carbon.

Best

Mark

[Cowboy Bob]

Originally Posted by Mark Ziebarth

I tested Carbon the last weeks and like it very much. But I would wait to buy it until full EuCon control is established because the fan is too loud for me to have the interface near me. If I remember correctly my main problem with the Omni was the ever changing speed of the fan. That’s not true for Carbon.

Best

Mark

Perhaps I am not pushing mine hard enough, but I have never heard the fan, which made me wonder if it was even working. A quick test of holding some facial tissue right over the vent showed the fine was in fact running very slowly.

I get jumpy though with the mechanical sounds that it sometimes makes when switching sessions that were saved with a different audio engine. It's like it is resetting itself or something.

I have lost communication with it once, but I think that was operator error. Otherwise no issues.

Perhaps it is still buyer bias, but I still think this is one hell of a product. It sounds great, in my opinion. I like the micpres over my Focusrite pres, and it seems to take my external pres better. (That may be bias, I dunno).

The 4 discrete HP mixes is also a huge plus. Whomever stood fast on that idea, Cudos.

[K Roche]

I can just hear it, if I put my ear right down to the face of the unit. But I would say over all, not as loud as the Omni would get at times. Also I did cut down the height of the box it's mounted in (from previous pictures) , but still with pretty good air flow available .
I can hear the iMac much more than the Carbon especially when rendering in Final Cut Pro, but of course that's not really an audio issue.

There is about one inch of open air space above and below the Carbon itself in it's rack/box

[Carl Lie]

I read a review of Carbon where there is a delay on instruments at buffers above 32. Wondering if that's true. With HDX, since the mixer is using the card you can run soft synths run at higher buffers and still have low latency.

Has anyone seen this?

C

[Kyle Splittgerber]

Originally Posted by Mark Ziebarth

I tested Carbon the last weeks and like it very much. But I would wait to buy it until full EuCon control is established because the fan is too loud for me to have the interface near me. If I remember correctly my main problem with the Omni was the ever changing speed of the fan. That’s not true for Carbon.

Best

Mark

Hey Mark,

I'm very surprised that you're finding the fan too loud as that's not feedback I've heard yet. Generally, it's never noticed or only heard when putting your head very close to the unit (as mentioned in this thread). HD OMNI fan is much, much louder. This is going to sound like a ridiculous question, but are sure it was not Mac fan noise? On certain Macs, Turbo Boost will kick on when using AVB and cause the Mac fan to spin faster and thus be louder. What year and model of Mac do you have and was it positioned near the Carbon unit? Do you still have the Carbon unit?

Thanks,

Kyle

[Kyle Splittgerber]

Originally Posted by Cowboy Bob

Perhaps I am not pushing mine hard enough, but I have never heard the fan, which made me wonder if it was even working. A quick test of holding some facial tissue right over the vent showed the fine was in fact running very slowly.

I get jumpy though with the mechanical sounds that it sometimes makes when switching sessions that were saved with a different audio engine. It's like it is resetting itself or something.

I have lost communication with it once, but I think that was operator error. Otherwise no issues.

Perhaps it is still buyer bias, but I still think this is one hell of a product. It sounds great, in my opinion. I like the micpres over my Focusrite pres, and it seems to take my external pres better. (That may be bias, I dunno).

The 4 discrete HP mixes is also a huge plus. Whomever stood fast on that idea, Cudos.

Hey Bob,

The mechanical sounds are just the relays. That's totally normal and nothing to worry about. That happens when changing sample rates, changing AVB configurations, completing boot up, and some other setting changes.

[LukeHoward]

Originally Posted by Carl Lie

I read a review of Carbon where there is a delay on instruments at buffers above 32. Wondering if that's true. With HDX, since the mixer is using the card you can run soft synths run at higher buffers and still have low latency.

Soft synths in record mode have their latency constrained by the buffer size, even on HDX. I am what Carbon’s additional latency with AVB is (vs, say, HD Native), and whether the presentation time offset can be tuned down from the default of 2ms.

[Mark Ziebarth]

Originally Posted by Kyle Splittgerber

Hey Mark,

I'm very surprised that you're finding the fan too loud as that's not feedback I've heard yet. Generally, it's never noticed or only heard when putting your head very close to the unit (as mentioned in this thread). HD OMNI fan is much, much louder. This is going to sound like a ridiculous question, but are sure it was not Mac fan noise? On certain Macs, Turbo Boost will kick on when using AVB and cause the Mac fan to spin faster and thus be louder. What year and model of Mac do you have and was it positioned near the Carbon unit? Do you still have the Carbon unit?

Thanks,

Kyle

Hi Kyle,
I’m sure it was the fan noise of the carbon. I’ve tested it mainly with my Mac mini from 2019 which has a fan noise problem on its own if you push it harder.
The Carbon unit I have has a constant fan noise even though the unit doesn’t get really warm during a day. Maybe you can reduce the speed of the fan via software to reduce the noise?
I’m a little confused why Avid audio interfaces have fans while other manufacturers don’t use fans in their products, e. g. RME.
I can’t exclude a problem of my Carbon unit as I didn’t have the chance to compare it with a second unit but it sounded familiar to me compared with other Avid interfaces.
I don’t say it’s “loud loud” but too loud if I need to have it in arm reach because I need to control the preamps, headphone gain, the monitor control etc.

Best

Mark

[Carl Lie]

Originally Posted by LukeHoward

Soft synths in record mode have their latency constrained by the buffer size, even on HDX.

With HDX I can record MIDI drum parts at 1024 buffer. I could not do that when using vanilla. Using the DSP mixer helps.

Originally Posted by LukeHoward

I am what Carbon’s additional latency with AVB is (vs, say, HD Native), and whether the presentation time offset can be tuned down from the default of 2ms.

Don't understand what this means.

Thanks for entertaining my Q!

C