Carbon pre-purchase questions

[Bennett Paster]

Friends- considering buying a Carbon to replace my Lynx Aurora TB system. Mac Pro 2013 6 core, OSX 10.14.6 (I know I'd have to update that), PT current subscription. A few questions that I can seem to find the answers to on the AUC or in Carbon Manual:

1) Does DSP Mode for Low Latency Monitoring work for the ADAT Optical input channels too? Or just for the 8 mic/line inputs on the Carbon hardware?

2) Can I assign a PT track output to any Carbon out (analog or ADAT) and still get the DSP low latency monitoring? ie- can I send tracks or groups of tracks to different outputs to feed a Aviom headphone mixer system and still get the DSP low latency? Or does DSP low latency only work with Main Outs and Carbon's 4 built in Headphone outputs?

3) The Tape Op review of Carbon mentioned that there are phase/sync problems when multi-mic'ing instruments (ie drums) if mixing Carbon's mic pres and ADAT inputs. Is that a problem for any of you? I'd use my Aurora to feed the ADAT ins.

4) Lastly- how's the VI latency feel? Seems like it might be similar to my Aurora 16 TB system which is workable at 32-128 buffers.

Thanks so much for your help! My dealer doesn't seem to know the answers...

[Kyle Splittgerber]

Originally Posted by Bennett Paster

Friends- considering buying a Carbon to replace my Lynx Aurora TB system. Mac Pro 2013 6 core, OSX 10.14.6 (I know I'd have to update that), PT current subscription. A few questions that I can seem to find the answers to on the AUC or in Carbon Manual:

1) Does DSP Mode for Low Latency Monitoring work for the ADAT Optical input channels too? Or just for the 8 mic/line inputs on the Carbon hardware?

2) Can I assign a PT track output to any Carbon out (analog or ADAT) and still get the DSP low latency monitoring? ie- can I send tracks or groups of tracks to different outputs to feed a Aviom headphone mixer system and still get the DSP low latency? Or does DSP low latency only work with Main Outs and Carbon's 4 built in Headphone outputs?

3) The Tape Op review of Carbon mentioned that there are phase/sync problems when multi-mic'ing instruments (ie drums) if mixing Carbon's mic pres and ADAT inputs. Is that a problem for any of you? I'd use my Aurora to feed the ADAT ins.

4) Lastly- how's the VI latency feel? Seems like it might be similar to my Aurora 16 TB system which is workable at 32-128 buffers.

Thanks so much for your help! My dealer doesn't seem to know the answers...

Hi Bennett,

1) Yes, for both analog and ADAT
2) Yes, to any output
3) Here's the relevant quote from that article, "Be aware that there are input latency differences between the analog and digital inputs on the Carbon, as on any interface with similar ports. If you split multiple mics on a single source between the analog and ADAT inputs, you will induce phase problems." This is accurate and results from the AD converter delays on the external ADAT converter device being different from the Carbon AD converter delays. And, as mentioned in the quote, this will happen with any audio interface with digital inputs. Just avoid connecting a stereo device like a keyboard, etc to both analog input and ADAT input and you'll be fine. Stereo sources like room mics and overhead mics are less of a concern for this routing scenario because you can simply move one mic closer to compensate for the converter delay differences. However, it's a good rule of thumb to just avoid splitting stereo sources between analog and ADAT inputs.
4) VI latency with buffer size of 128 or 256 seems to be fine for most users. But, I'll let other Carbon users chime in to report their experience.

Hope that helps!

[Bennett Paster]

Kyle- thanks for the complete, clear, knowledgable answers. Most appreciated.

Great news about 1 and 2. Understood about 3- that makes sense and is my methodology already. (Always good to check the sync/phase of any multi-mic'd instrument.)

I understand that the native latency of an AVB interface may not be quite as fast as TB. That's a concern, but I'll keep researching to see how folks are doing with VIs. I'm not a power VI user, but they are a part of my workflow and I'd need to be able to use them while live tracking along with live instruments and doing overdubs. I realize that most VIs are not DSP yet, so I'll have to use native ones. I wonder if using Vienna Ensemble would make things snappier?

If anyone else out there reading this is using VIs during live instrument tracking and doing overdubs and wants to chime in about Carbon's performance, I'd be most appreciative.

[LFO]

Originally Posted by Bennett Paster

Kyle- thanks for the complete, clear, knowledgable answers. Most appreciated.

I wonder if using Vienna Ensemble would make things snappier?

If anyone else out there reading this is using VIs during live instrument tracking and doing overdubs and wants to chime in about Carbon's performance, I'd be most appreciative.

I'm using Carbon with VEP since 6 months, running VIs in VEP on a separate computer and it works very good as long as you keep your Ptools buffer no more than 256, best at 128.It's not the best VI latency but really workable.

[Bennett Paster]

LFO- did you ever try running Vienna Ensemble on the same computer as PT/Carbon? How does that work?

[LFO]

Originally Posted by Bennett Paster

LFO- did you ever try running Vienna Ensemble on the same computer as PT/Carbon? How does that work?

No, didn't try that, I use a second computer cause I always found PTools run much better without VIs.

[tomhartman]

For the record, Carbon has been the best purchase I've made in too many years to count...

[Bennett Paster]

Thanks, Tom. It looks like in many ways it would be a perfect solution for me. But I’m really concerned about the latency when playing virtual instruments. Have you tried that? Do they feel responsive enough? How low can you get your buffer?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tomhartman]

Bennett...I use VIs daily ...all the usual suspect libraries in Kontakt...strings, keyboards, brass, etc, with zero problems. I have mine set at 128 buffer which is much higher than I see other people using, but I don't notice any lag.

I've also tested Carbon in REAPER and Cubase 11, no problems.

Good luck with the purchase if you get it, I think you'll love it.