Hello,

I am looking to upgrade my soundcard as I will be needing alot more inputs from now on. Currently I have an Edirol UA-101 which I like but I don't have any serious experience with anything else.

I have the option just now of the RME 9652 and of course it seems a bit bewildering to someone used to exterior soundcards. I plan to buy 2 Focusrite octapres (one with the compressors) and maybe a third a bit farther diown the road (the RME has 3 ADAT slots I believe). 

My question is really about how to monitor out of the RME- I have Roland ds8 monitors that play nice with both octacapture and ua-101 digi outs and I understand I could send audio from the RME to the ds8s, but how to get a headphone out? Is this what an ADDA converter is for?

If so I can get my hands on one of them very cheap too- A "Lucid 8824" but it's a bit of a different paradigm to what I am used to and am worried I am wasting money on gear that may already be obsolete or pretty close to it.

If any 9652 user could detail their modus operandi it would be very useful.

Other options I have are the saffire 56 with an octapre or two or else wait for the roland studio capture to drop.

I have one that I don't use since I built a new computer. Problem is, there are no drivers for 64 bit windows.

I used it with a digital console via adat. I'm pretty sure it is just 2 adats (16 tracks) not 3. I might be wrong though.

It's a Pretty good card. I sort of wished I stuck with it and a 32 bit environment.
as I now use the RME AIO which is only 8 channels (1 adat) and a lot of friggin money.

Anyway, the card is now legacy. 

As far as monitoring goes, It does have an attachment that gives you analog audio also. I never played with that though.

Tim,
I'm pretty sure you had the Hammerfall 9632.
The 9652 is 3 banks of ADAT (I don't know how they come up with 52 channels).
It does have 64 bit drivers, the Hammerfall 9632 does not.
The 9652 is a PCI, not PCI-e card; some of the new MB's have issues on the PCI buss.
Backwoods looks like you are buying used?
You should make sure your MB PCI buss is not "bridged"; I think that's right.
Dig around, there has been some discussion here and at the RME user forum.
And as Tim said, usually you are using a digital console for your analog in and out.
The 9652 has no analog in or out, maybe the "expansion board" has some, but that's an add on.
HTH
Tom

The ADAT connections are I/O... so for some set ups you would end up with lots of ADAT to analog audio outputs.

If you don't have a 24 track reel to reel or 3 adats then you can use any pair of the extra outputs to drive a headphone amp.

The SPDIF is an option too.


The octapre has lots of outputs... were you planning on using them all for layback to tape?

If not... your solution will be easy.

Get a cheap headphone amp and connect 2 outputs to it and route to them in SONAR.


best regards,
mike

Thanks timidi- you're a bloody legend!

Saved me some coin and incompatibility hassle. 

Might also have a look at the RME babyface and steinberg ur824 is supposed to be quite good too.

Thanks again.


Thanks for chiming in mike, we must have been typing simultaneously. Ok, I see the octapre dynamic is adda so presumably I could have plugged cans amplifier into an output on that. It's a moot point now as I am on a 64 bit system. What sound card are using for tracking bands mike?


Holy crap! Deering amps come to the party with a crucial insight. It's all on again! So I can go 9652 with a couple of octapres and an out from the r,e back to the octa dynamic from whom I steal an analog out! So crazy it just might work, might have a look at some spec sheets now...

I have a RME raydat (which is pretty much the new version and has full 64 support) runnign into two presonus digimax ad/da.
Very very low latency and the Mixconsole is very good.

DeeringAmps


Tim,
I'm pretty sure you had the Hammerfall 9632.
The 9652 is 3 banks of ADAT (I don't know how they come up with 52 channels).
It does have 64 bit drivers, the Hammerfall 9632 does not.
The 9652 is a PCI, not PCI-e card; some of the new MB's have issues on the PCI buss.
Backwoods looks like you are buying used?
You should make sure your MB PCI buss is not "bridged"; I think that's right.
Dig around, there has been some discussion here and at the RME user forum.
And as Tim said, usually you are using a digital console for your analog in and out.
The 9652 has no analog in or out, maybe the "expansion board" has some, but that's an add on.
HTH
Tom

Now I remember. Tom, I'm pretty sure the 9652 (what I have. I ran 16 channels into my mixer from Sonar) is 2 adats on the initial card. There is a sister card thingy that either comes with it or you add on to get the other 1 adat. so, there's 24. plus 2 spdif, 2 analog as far as I remember. Easily googable I guess. Anyway, yea the PCI buss thing was a concern for me also. The 9632 is just 1 adat. I do miss having those other 8 channels using the AIO though.

Freex


I have a RME raydat (which is pretty much the new version and has full 64 support) runnign into two presonus digimax ad/da.
Very very low latency and the Mixconsole is very good.

+1 here. The drivers have been totally stable, and the latency is minimal.

Backwoods. a "Legend"????? Ok.. LOL. Well, that was the name of like my first band (The Legends) I was in like in the 60s or so. So, I guess I am/was a Legend....:)

Anyway, yea incompats. The way RME just dropped support like that really pissed off a lot of folks including me.
(but yet I bought another RME)

Not sure about the octapres. Sweetwater shows them as NO digital inputs, which would be weird if true. 

Hi Backwoods.

I have 2 MOTU 896HDs. One on firewire and the other ADAT to the first.

I am still angry that MOTU ran the advertisements, for several years, that said it would daisy chain when it didn't... but that's water under the bridge.

I am not fond of ADAT connections as the 24 bit isn't... it's some sort of just less than 24 bit... I forget the details... but it drops all my ADAT inputs by 3dB which annoys me. It's really not a problem... except it is a constant reminder that the firewire daisy chain doesn't work well.
 

I think I may try to buy a pair of used MOTU HD192 and get 24i/o with a PCIe card for the next DAW.

I'd like a fancy converter... but in reality what we all need are ideal drivers for our setups so I'm sticking with bread and butter converters with practical drivers.


best regards,
mike