8-Channel Digital to Analog

[Mark Staples]

How many of you are doing 8-channel Digital-to-Analog out through an 8-Channel preamp or D2B and then back into PT as a stereo track?

Some of the threads I've read on the two-buss summing issue makes me curious about this. From what I can tell, people are outputing from PT into something like the D2B and then back into PT (or possibly to tape). This, however, poses an interesting problem (from my perspective) - digital to analog back to digital - multiple conversions.

I was looking at Lucid's 8824 or Apogee's DA-16 (using only 1-8) where it can receive light pipe in (out from the Digi) and then analog out. You can then run this into a D2B, sum it back through a two channel converter into PT for bouncing down?

I know that the topic of the buss summing has been covered on the DUC and other conferences. But those are usually referring to the TDM environment. I'm looking at it from a host based (digi 001/002) perspective.

The cost to do this would be about $2-$3K for the converter and about $3K for the D2B for a total of $5-$6K (not counting the 2-Channel A/D converter).

Is it worth it? Or is there any benefit?

[J. FO]

would your money be better spent on something like a Masterlink? seems like a lot of money and routing to go through for probably not a huge improvement in sound.

[Mark Staples]

That's a good question. But the debate on the whole 2-buss summing prevails. The notion is that if you can sum through analog channels, you get a smoother, warmer sound compared to a standard "in the box" BTD.

But, if there is a conversion from analog to digital when tracking, then another conversion from digital to analog to sum the mix and then another conversion back to digital after to the summing, wouldn't that degrade the signal? Or is the benefit of the analog summing enough that it doesn't matter?

There are plenty of high-end people doing this. For example, most of the PT users in the high-end studios send out the tracks to an SSL/Studer/or some other analog board and then to 2" tape. In THIS case, there is no additional conversion back into PT because it stayed analog when it hit tape. However, there are many that actually DO come back into PT or go directly to a Masterlink - which is another digital conversion from analog.

[gerax]

Hi

my case is quite similar:

I was wondering about this subject recently and I was considering the idea of getting an 8 channel D/A like the RME ADI 8 pro, feed it lightpipe out from PTLE (submixing tracks to 8 ADAT outs) and go analog to something like a TL Audio Tube Tracker valve mixer, used as an 8 bus, then sum to 2 track with it and go back to PT using a pair of the A/D (RME) channels, I wonder if the sonic benefits of the tube mixing stage and the good A/D conversion would make for a better final result then the "stock" 2 track buss of PT.

Cheers

L.G.

[Mark Staples]

bump

[rnt_u_listnng]

Mark,

It looks like you are focused on getting that analog sound in your mixes. A primary (although not the sole) purpose of the D2B is to solve some of the mix summing problems in TDM. Instead of going this way, you may want to see if you can get your hands on a Crane Song HEDD 192 for a demo and use the tape emulation of that unit.

I use one and find it to be fantastic for adding harmonics into the mix and for emulating the compression effect of analog tape. Further, it works very well as both an a/d and d/a converter. I use it to drive my monitors while mixing.

It works for me and lets me avoid the a/d/a problems that I would go through with a D2B. Good luck.

John