Antelope Announces Orion32 HD with digiport & USB3

[Barry Johns]

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/wint...port-usb3.html

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Home The Forums Winter NAMM Show 2017, Jan 19-22, Anaheim, CA, USA Antelope Announces Orion32 HD with digiport & USB3
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Clybourne
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7 hours ago
My Studio
Antelope Announces Orion32 HD with digiport & USB3


The new Orion32 HD
Anaheim, Calif., January 9, 2017 —Antelope Audio [NAMM Hall A - Booth 6596], a leading interface company specializing in world class clocking, conversion and FPGA-based vintage FX modeling, has announced the latest addition to its acclaimed Orion series of audio interfaces: Orion32 HD. Delivering 64 channels of stunning audio quality via HDX or USB3, the Orion32 HD is compatible with any DAW on the market, making it an excellent choice for users of both Pro Tools and Native systems.

King of Connectivity
With HDX, USB3, MADI, and ADAT, and S/PDIF connectivity and 32-in/32-out analog input via DB25, the Orion32 HD has all the connectivity you need for a wide variety of configurations in studios of all sizes. The Orion32 HD’s versatile routing and mixing software console for Mac and Windows further increases the possibilities, now featuring both Antelope’s classic color-coded routing matrix and an alternate matrix-style view to make routing easy and intuitive. It also features movable and resizable panels to help make the best use of your desktop real estate in multiscreen setups or when working on scoring or other applications that require quickly jumping between applications and windows.

Galactic Sound
The Orion32 HD delivers incredibly clear, accurate conversion thanks to Antelope’s best-in-class 64-BIT Acoustically Focused Clocking (AFC) jitter management technology. A long time innovator in the field, the Orion32 HD, like the OCX HD and Trinity master clock before it, achieves depth and detail in stereo imaging and transient accuracy that ensures the most precise audio capture and playback. Two Word Clock or Loopsync Outs allow the Orion to serve as the centerpiece of your recording setup, or take your sound even further by using the Orion’s 10M/10MX Clock Inputs to connect Antelope Audio’s famous 10M or 10MX atomic clocks for unparalleled sonic perfection. The Orion32 HD also features mastering-grade monitor output borrowed from Antelope’s popular Pure2 Mastering Converter to ensure signal integrity in the analog domain.

Realtime Vintage FX
Antelope has been revolutionizing audio processing with its comprehensive suite of FPGA effects, providing hardware models of some of the most desirable vintage effects with near-zero latency. Antelope’s library of free FPGA effects is constantly growing and already includes a deep collection of equalizers, compressors, and guitar amplifier models based on analog gear used on countless hit records. Antelope’s fast FPGA processing, which measures only 2 samples of audio latency, helps these effects feel and behave just like the hardware they are based on, and also allows users to setup multiple near-zero latency monitor mixes right within the Orion32 HD’s mixer.

Silent Hero
Designed for efficiency, the Orion32 HD has no need for an internal fan, keeping your studio is free of noise pollution without requiring expensive isolation racks or a standalone machine room. The Orion32 HD also only requires a single rack space to deliver its dizzying 64 channels of I/O, making it perfect for space-conscious home and project studios as well as gear-saturated professional studios.

Price: $3495
Shipping: FEB 2017

[Fidelis]

Wow! It's getting cheaper to go HDX or HDN these days!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mixchump]

I predict that AVID is going to release a brand new DSP card that does away with DigiLink... They've dropped the price on HDX cards, and for many, that will do for a good while...

For me, I'm predicting that they're going to move to Dante connectivity going forward, and all of these interfaces that have jumped on DigiLink will be old news very soon.

If you take MTRX as any indication, that's a good bet...

[Barry Johns]

Originally Posted by Mixchump

I predict that AVID is going to release a brand new DSP card that does away with DigiLink... They've dropped the price on HDX cards, and for many, that will do for a good while...

For me, I'm predicting that they're going to move to Dante connectivity going forward, and all of these interfaces that have jumped on DigiLink will be old news very soon.

If you take MTRX as any indication, that's a good bet...

I don't see that happening, but what I do see happening, Avid is definitely getting out of the business of making I/O's.

[Mixchump]

Originally Posted by Barry Johns

I don't see that happening, but what I do see happening, Avid is definitely getting out of the business of making I/O's.

Well, definitely on the manufacturing end of it, but certainly the DAD partnership is proving to be a real step up in terms of quality. Definitely takes them out of the Pro-Sumer league, in my books.

They're definitely investing a significant amount of time and energy into Dante, and I think that's going to inevitably mean something on the DSP card side...

We'll see...

[LukeHoward]

Originally Posted by Mixchump

They're definitely investing a significant amount of time and energy into Dante, and I think that's going to inevitably mean something on the DSP card side...

Surely if this was the case the Dante card wouldn't be optional on the MTRX. And Avid is already heavily invested in AVB on the live side. Maybe AES67 someday... (although it presently has significant limitations with Dante interop in terms of latency etc)

[Mixchump]

Originally Posted by LukeHoward

Surely if this was the case the Dante card wouldn't be optional on the MTRX. And Avid is already heavily invested in AVB on the live side. Maybe AES67 someday... (although it presently has significant limitations with Dante interop in terms of latency etc)

Hmmm... My gut tells me that audio routing via Dante / Ravenna / AES67 is likely to be maybe a couple samples more than DigiLink. If a DSP card was able to talk directly to the interface via Dante, I bet it's very close.

If you were doing a round trip from HDX >> MTRX >> digital console (via Dante) >> MTRX >> HDX, I bet it's minimal travel time.

Yes, at present, using ProTools via a native Dante / Ravenna / AES67 driver is not usable for real-time tracking sessions because of OS-CPU-Driver. (which is why I'm running HORUS with PT64 card(s) for tracking). For anyone who has had the opportunity to open the exact same 192kHz session on HDX, and then open it with the same routing on a Ravenna/Dante/AES67 driver, I can assure you that the difference in depth and lack of DSP-chip-induced harshness is quite breathtaking.

I, for one, am keeping my eyes peeled...

[LukeHoward]

Originally Posted by Mixchump

Hmmm... My gut tells me that audio routing via Dante / Ravenna / AES67 is likely to be maybe a couple samples more than DigiLink. If a DSP card was able to talk directly to the interface via Dante, I bet it's very close.

Currently, Dante only interops with AES67 using multicast flows, which have minimum latency of 1ms. Hopefully this will change in a future release from Audinate.

Dante itself has a minimum latency of 150us (in one direction), although 250us is the lowest supported by the MTRX and AX32. I don't know what the latency of Digilink is but it's probably less.

If you were doing a round trip from HDX >> MTRX >> digital console (via Dante) >> MTRX >> HDX, I bet it's minimal travel time.

Well, it's going to be at least 0.5ms for Dante, plus (if I remember right) 0.23ms for the HDX mixer, plus whatever the digital console adds.

Yes, at present, using ProTools via a native Dante / Ravenna / AES67 driver is not usable for real-time tracking sessions because of OS-CPU-Driver. (which is why I'm running HORUS with PT64 card(s) for tracking). For anyone who has had the opportunity to open the exact same 192kHz session on HDX, and then open it with the same routing on a Ravenna/Dante/AES67 driver, I can assure you that the difference in depth and lack of DSP-chip-induced harshness is quite breathtaking.

Really? Are you saying that there's a difference at 192kHz between the native and HDX mixers? Aren't they essentially both the same (floating-point) code?

I, for one, am keeping my eyes peeled...

Likewise :)

[OliverH]

I currently have an HD Native Thunderbolt rig with an Avid HD i/o 16x16. I just moved studios and want to add some analog i/o for larger live tracking sessions and hosting more outboard gear into my sessions.

Adding only 8 i/o seems a bit low, another 16 i/o seems about right for now, and 32 i/o, i.e. via adding an Antelope Orion32HD, seems potentially overkill, but you know how it goes... you kind of can't have too much i/o, but do I really need 48 i/o for tracking drums, bass, guitar, keys, & vocals live? Probably not, but honestly, the Orion32HD seems like such a good value and is CHEAPER than adding another Avid HD i/o 16x16.

Have a couple questions about the "what if's" of adding an Orion32 HD to my existing system.

One of my questions is, with two DigiLink Mini ports on the back of the HD Native Thunderbolt box, I'm covered to add up to 64 i/o in total, right? So adding the Orion32HD box hosting 32 analog i/o would fit all on one DigiLink cable, correct? So I could run both the Avid 16x16 AND the Orion32HD side by side for 48 i/o, right?

Another question is, the Orion box touts "zero latency monitoring," but nowhere (that I can find yet) is a published spec on it's actual roundtrip latency for AD/DA at any given buffer size or sample rate like the Avid hardware has published. I have a feeling the latency spec is probably pretty dang good, but odd that there's not a hard figure posted anywhere. In any case, whether it's faster or slower than the Avid HD i/o, how would it work mixing the two boxes together such that PT HD sees them as an aggregate system of connected i/o? Would this affect hardware insert delay compensation on a per-box basis? And Pro Tools just knows how to compensate based on the input being used whether its on the Avid box or the Antelope box? What if I'm recording live inputs across both boxes, does the "faster" box (one with lower latency spec) dumb down to slow itself to the latency speed of the other box so that all inputs share the same roundtrip delay? (does that make sense?) Or is it a moot point because any latency differences between the two boxes (assuming no monitoring through any plugins) would be next to negligible?

Maybe I'm overcomplicating something that's been well thought out already, but just want to know what I might be getting myself into and if there are any caveats/limitations to having a 'mixed' system like this that I should consider by going out of the Avid ecosystem?

Kind of wish Antelope had an "Orion16HD" as that might suit my needs a little better without spending on more than I need, but if the 32 box is a good value, would definitely like to consider it.

Thanks for any insight!

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by OliverH

One of my questions is, with two DigiLink Mini ports on the back of the HD Native Thunderbolt box, I'm covered to add up to 64 i/o in total, right? So adding the Orion32HD box hosting 32 analog i/o would fit all on one DigiLink cable, correct? So I could run both the Avid 16x16 AND the Orion32HD side by side for 48 i/o, right?

Why Orion is awful at naming things I don't know. Why do they have to call Digilink ports "HDX" ports?

Each Digilink port/cable can carry up to 32x32 IO. So you connect the Orion32 HD to one Digilink port and your HD IO 16x16 to the other Digilink port on the Native card, you do not daisy chain the IO boxes on one cable.

Digilink inherently aggregates everything together, you see each box in IO setup but all IO will be available if you properly connect things.

Zero latency aka hardware monitoring, is totally separate from the signal flow though Pro Tools or anything to do with the computer or IO buffers etc. You can ask what the conversion latency of the hardware monitor path is but it's going to be low and uninteresting. But this only helps if you want to hardware monitor, if you want to monitor though plugins etc. then that does not apply to you.

All your other questions are better directed at Orion or a reseller like Sweetwater. There is no intelligence in any interface that matches conversion latencies on other interfaces. Whether this Orion interface has the same delays as a genuine Avid HD IO box and say insert delays are therefore transparency accommodated by Pro Tools is a great question for them.