HDX with Dante Via

[freakhouse]

I've got a HD I/O and HDX card on Mac Pro. I've also got a Presonus Mixer RM16AI with a Dante card in it in a room about 50 feet away. Ethernet cable is running from Dante to the Mac. My goal is to use the Presonus to mic drums and bring up those inputs in Pro Tools. I want to monitor in the control room and have the drummer be able to monitor from the Presonus outputs. So far, I've been able to get the inputs to come up in Pro Tools and get audio but despite many experiments have yet to be able to get my main stereo bus to come up on the HD I/O. Seemingly I've connected the right elements to each other in Via, but obviously there is some piece of the puzzle I'm missing.

[BScout]

Can't use Dante Via and HDX/HD i/o at the same time. Two different audio engines. If you want to use HDX with Dante (and the HD i/o) you need a Dante audio interface hooked up to the HDX card. Focusrite Rednet 5 or the Avid MTRX are two such interfaces.

Your other option is a standalone Dante to analogue/AES/ADAT converter that converts the Dante signal to either AES, ADAT, or Analogue that feeds into the HD i/o.

Whatever you choose, Pro Tools can only use one audio engine and it's either via CoreAudio access (which means Dante Via) or HDX. Not both.

[Eric Seaberg]

We purchased three of the Focusrite Red 4Pre which has built-in Dante and Avid DigiLink. Works GREAT in combination with our Avid HD IO and is seen as another 32 channels on the HD card. The Focusrite Red 8Pre does give you the full 64-channels on Dante. The units also have Thunderbolt and we will, eventually, lose our HD Native cards and go totally Thunderbolt with these and build out a larger Dante network within the facility.

BTW, the Red 4Pre is currently on sale at $700 off!!

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...srite-red-4pre

[Artysan]

Originally Posted by Eric Seaberg

The Focusrite Red 8Pre does give you the full 64-channels on Dante.

Not according to the Focusrite manuals and site. 32ch Dante per unit for the entire 4/8/16 line, which is turning out to be a dealbreaker.

[JCBigler]

Originally Posted by Artysan

Not according to the Focusrite manuals and site. 32ch Dante per unit for the entire 4/8/16 line, which is turning out to be a dealbreaker.

The Focusrite Red interfaces include 32x32 channels of Dante networked audio, in addition to their onboard analog and digital i/o.

For the Red 8 Pre, which I own and use, it has 8 mic preamps/line inputs, plus 8 more line level inputs, as well as two ADAT ports which can be used in SMUX mode for 8 channels at 96kHz or 16 at 48kHz, plus two more S/PDIF ports; for a total of 64x64 channels.

The 16Line include the same i/o, except that that they only have 2 mic preamps.

The Red 4Pre includes 4 mic preamps, but will only do a maximum of 58 channels, for whatever reason, as does the Red 8 Line which also only has 2 mic preamps.

It's true though, if you want to get 64 channels of Dante into your Protools HDX/HD Native system, you will need a Red Net 5 (which are fairly cheap, but becoming very hard to find these days) or an HD32R or two, or one and a Red interface.

[Artysan]

Originally Posted by JCBigler

It's true though, if you want to get 64 channels of Dante into your Protools HDX/HD Native system, you will need a Red Net 5 (which are fairly cheap, but becoming very hard to find these days) or an HD32R or two, or one and a Red interface.

Those are NOT computer interfaces, but rather Pro Tools interfaces. Big difference. Focusrite simply doesn’t make the multipurpose product I am looking for. And that’s a shame.

[Artysan]

Originally Posted by JCBigler

The Focusrite Red interfaces include 32x32 channels of Dante networked audio, in addition to their onboard analog and digital i/o.

For the Red 8 Pre, which I own and use, it has 8 mic preamps/line inputs, plus 8 more line level inputs, as well as two ADAT ports which can be used in SMUX mode for 8 channels at 96kHz or 16 at 48kHz, plus two more S/PDIF ports; for a total of 64x64 channels.

The 16Line include the same i/o, except that that they only have 2 mic preamps.

The Red 4Pre includes 4 mic preamps, but will only do a maximum of 58 channels, for whatever reason, as does the Red 8 Line which also only has 2 mic preamps.

It's true though, if you want to get 64 channels of Dante into your Protools HDX/HD Native system, you will need a Red Net 5 (which are fairly cheap, but becoming very hard to find these days) or an HD32R or two, or one and a Red interface.

RedNet 5 isn’t going to solve my needs. Where are the MADI and analog? The RedNet 5 hogs all 64 HDX IO to itself, requiring a second HDX card and more interfaces to be able to route my IO needs to ProTools. I hope I am being clear enough here. No solution exists with Focusrite.

[Eric Seaberg]

Originally Posted by Artysan

Not according to the Focusrite manuals and site. 32ch Dante per unit for the entire 4/8/16 line, which is turning out to be a dealbreaker.

You are right, however, the main reason the line only has 32 channels of Dante is, in my opinion, because of Avid. You only get 32-channels of IO per DigiLink cable, so why have a device with 64-Dante when you can't get it into your HD/HDX card? Two devices with 32 each, two DigiLink cables into HDX, and you've got 64-channels.

We're using the Focusrite D64R with our SSL console, converting 64-Dante to MADI into an SSL MADI router and converted to Digilink to HDX, but it does take two DigiLink cables to get 64x64 Dante.

[Artysan]

Originally Posted by Eric Seaberg

You are right, however, the main reason the line only has 32 channels of Dante is, in my opinion, because of Avid. You only get 32-channels of IO per DigiLink cable, so why have a device with 64-Dante when you can't get it into your HD/HDX card? Two devices with 32 each, two DigiLink cables into HDX, and you've got 64-channels.

We're using the Focusrite D64R with our SSL console, converting 64-Dante to MADI into an SSL MADI router and converted to Digilink to HDX, but it does take two DigiLink cables to get 64x64 Dante.

[its2loud]

Originally Posted by Eric Seaberg

You are right, however, the main reason the line only has 32 channels of Dante is, in my opinion, because of Avid. You only get 32-channels of IO per DigiLink cable, so why have a device with 64-Dante when you can't get it into your HD/HDX card? Two devices with 32 each, two DigiLink cables into HDX, and you've got 64-channels.

We're using the Focusrite D64R with our SSL console, converting 64-Dante to MADI into an SSL MADI router and converted to Digilink to HDX, but it does take two DigiLink cables to get 64x64 Dante.

Not anymore. Pro Tools now supports 64 channels of I/O natively. Anyone using a Red 16 Line should email Focusrite immediately and pressure them into updating the firmware to support 64 ch of Dante, if the hardware will support it.