OMNI/HD i o - Anybody have link to routing block diagram

[crazyhorserocks]

Read the OMNI guide off the avid web site. Before jumping to native I really want to know exactly how their interfaces (eg. omni) route all analog and digital signals (ie. a detailed block diagram).

anybody have a link to this info? thanks.

[nst7]

They've never published it, as far as I know. But it would be nice if they did, similar to the "Mbox Technology Guide" they released.

[crazyhorserocks]

no problem. there are lots of third party interfaces/converters from other companies available with pt10, like rme which publishes detailed signal flow diagrams on their units like the micstasy which smokes anything from avid. i luv pt10, don't get me wrong, but have zero tolerance for poor documentation and lack of transparency.

[nst7]

I can tell you that the new Avid interfaces sound amazing.

Let me know if there's something you'd like to know about the operation of the Omni.

[crazyhorserocks]

If anybody can provide accurate info on these questions, that would be appreciated:

OMNI:

what is the signal flow for the mic input and analogue line inputs - ie. do they all go through ADC, can they (are they) split?

in terms of the stand alone function, does everything go through ADC before monitoring? Is there any ability to monitor analogue inputs without any ADA?

HD i/o

Are there any major differences in the signal flow on line inputs compared to the omni?

Cheers.

[Craig F]

I can not say for the OMNI.

The HD i/o is an updated 192:
AD card: ADC to computer
DA card: DAC from computer
DD card: digital to and from the computer
chassis: digital to from the computer

[nst7]

Crazyhorse, I'm not sure I totally understand your 1st question. Maybe you could elaborate.

I'm not totally clear on the second question either.

The Omni has a mixer mode that functions just like a regular mixer, but using the various inputs. You can configure which inputs are going through the mixer, and adjust levels. This has to be done while it's hooked up and Protools is open.

However, it will save those settings, even when the Omni is disconnected and all by itself. In this mode, the analog inputs go straight to your monitoring path, which also needs to be configured in Protools ahead of time. If the monitoring path is the analog outs, then no a/d or d/a conversion takes place. For example, you can plug in a guitar or bass or microphone to inputs 1 or 2, and hear it out of your monitors with no latency. If you've also added the digital spidf input to your mixer, you could hook up a cd player with digital outs to that and hear it the same way.

Configuring the mixer setup and the monitor path allows you to basically jerry rig the unit to function as a standalone converter. There's not really a special mode for it. However, I don't know of any way to have both a/d and d/a at the same time. I'm using mine right now with this method, and the way I do it, is that I have the main path going to analog outs 1 and 2, and then the ALT path (where I press the ALT button), I've set up the monitor path to be the digital out. This is hooked up to a cheap usb interface with a spidf in/out, which is hooked up to the Omni. It's not the ideal way to use it, but it works for now. I configured my Omni on an HD system, and now I'm using it this way, until I get a Mac Pro to hook up my HD Native card and use this setup properly.

I could go into more detail if needed.

If you could tell me exactly what you would want to do with your setup, I could hopefully tell you whether it could be done or not.

[BobbyDazzler]

Input Signal > Pad > Preamp > HPF > Insert >

Limiter > ADC > Phase Invert
From the manual (Mic Input)

[crazyhorserocks]

Originally Posted by nst7

Crazyhorse, I'm not sure I totally understand your 1st question. Maybe you could elaborate.

I'm not totally clear on the second question either.

The Omni has a mixer mode that functions just like a regular mixer, but using the various inputs. You can configure which inputs are going through the mixer, and adjust levels. This has to be done while it's hooked up and Protools is open.

However, it will save those settings, even when the Omni is disconnected and all by itself. In this mode, the analog inputs go straight to your monitoring path, which also needs to be configured in Protools ahead of time. If the monitoring path is the analog outs, then no a/d or d/a conversion takes place. For example, you can plug in a guitar or bass or microphone to inputs 1 or 2, and hear it out of your monitors with no latency. If you've also added the digital spidf input to your mixer, you could hook up a cd player with digital outs to that and hear it the same way.

Configuring the mixer setup and the monitor path allows you to basically jerry rig the unit to function as a standalone converter. There's not really a special mode for it. However, I don't know of any way to have both a/d and d/a at the same time. I'm using mine right now with this method, and the way I do it, is that I have the main path going to analog outs 1 and 2, and then the ALT path (where I press the ALT button), I've set up the monitor path to be the digital out. This is hooked up to a cheap usb interface with a spidf in/out, which is hooked up to the Omni. It's not the ideal way to use it, but it works for now. I configured my Omni on an HD system, and now I'm using it this way, until I get a Mac Pro to hook up my HD Native card and use this setup properly.

I could go into more detail if needed.

If you could tell me exactly what you would want to do with your setup, I could hopefully tell you whether it could be done or not.

Thanks. I would need to see documented proof from avid that the monitoring of an analog input (line, instrument, mic) does not involve any ADA. With the speed of today's converters, a lot of people assume that there is no ADA based on the very small latency. However, in most cases, there actually is ADA. Take the RME UFX for example. It has extremely fast converters with extremely low latency on ADA. I also know from its published block diagram, however, that all inputs, including instrument, mic, and analog line, go through the ADA (and thus are available for totalmix) for monitoring, even if used standalone. So you might assume (wrongly) that the effectively zero latency means no ada, which is not the case for that RME unit. I suspect that the avid HD i/o and omni have a similar routing (ie. everything goes through either ad, da, or ada in the case of monitoring an analog input. But without published details from avid, do you really know exactly how signals are routed?