What interface are you going to move to for Pro Tools 9?

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Yes, it's how alphalink work in stand alone mod. But backside is you can't use analog and digital at the same time so goodbye 24 I/O

Really? Aaaagh. The plot thickens

 

[brianhood]

another ignorant question: What would you hook your monitors into for the alpha link? What would you use to control the monitor volume?

 

[Seth Munson]

Brian, I think you would have to get a monitoring system as well like this
http://www.presonus.com/products/detail.aspx?productid=1

I would look into a passive one (like the central station) for I have read that active ones (Mackie big knob) seem to color the sound a bit

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

another ignorant question: What would you hook your monitors into for the alpha link? What would you use to control the monitor volume?

Analog outputs via a monitor controller. AD/DA converters like this seldom have monitor controlling features, which makes a separate controller (Mackie Big Knob, Crane Song Avocet etc.) a must.

 

[amarshism]

Goddamn I would love an avocet

 

[DigitalMetal]

Ive got a TC Electronic BMC-2 as a DAC monitor controller, works well and sounds good,

http://www.tcelectronic.com/bmc-2.asp

 

[::XeS::]

Not good if you have 2 or 3 pairs of monitors

 

[DigitalMetal]

not ideal but its easy to make a passive switch box for as many pairs as you like if you are a bit handy with tools

 

[DigitalMetal]

This is a bit OT but might be useful,

The best possible and most transparent (to not change your sound in any way) thing for of volume control is a stepped switch with various resistor value on each switch to attenuate the signal and not a normal linear or log potentiomer

Heres some resources of good quality stepped attenuators and slector switches so you could easily make you own multi monitor switch/volume controller

http://www.goldpt.com/

http://www.goldpt.com/compare.html - Good explanation on why use a stepped resistor attenuators rather than a stereo Pot at the bottom of the page.

http://www.goldpt.com/selector.html

 

[Ermz]

Just FYI, for those of you looking for an affordable and transparent monitor controller, I've finally settled on a good model after years of looking.

SPL 2Control. Has 2 headphone amps built in, along with the standard set of routing controls. None of the drawbacks of passive designs, and otherwise very neutral sonic footprint.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Just FYI, for those of you looking for an affordable and transparent monitor controller, I've finally settled on a good model after years of looking.

SPL 2Control. Has 2 headphone amps built in, along with the standard set of routing controls. None of the drawbacks of passive designs, and otherwise very neutral sonic footprint.

Really? I've used an SPL SMC in two different studios, and they both had a very unbalanced stereo level at lower volumes. If the 2Control doesn't suffer from this, it might very well be a good investment for me in the future!

 

[Mikaël-ange]

Really? Aaaagh. The plot thickens

Alphalink was primary designed to work with madixtrem card or deltalink (PTHD user). So if you want both (analog and digital) you need to go with previously named solution.

Btw, it's the same for every AD/DA converter so...
Btw2, alphalink + madixtrem64 are listed at 1999euros at Thomann.

And if money is tigh, madixtrem card are pretty cheap on used market (between 350 and 450 euros in France for exemple).

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Alphalink was primary designed to work with madixtrem card or deltalink (PTHD user). So if you want both (analog and digital) you need to go with previously named solution.

Btw, it's the same for every AD/DA converter so...

Wait, I don't think we're quite on the same page here. Take a Lynx Aurora 16 with the ADAT card, for example. You can use it for a total of 16 channels of input and 16 channels of output by connecting the Aurora to your interface via the ADAT lightpipes and use the analog inputs and outputs for connecting to the "outside world" (preamps, outboard processors etc.), right? Or am I missing something really horribly here?

 

[AdamWathan]

Nice, thanks for the answer!
Oh and I just realized bringing the fader to zero wouldn't actually help, i meant -inf or just -A LOT, of course. Sorry.
The disadvantage is you won't immediately notice glitches or pops created by the DAW. But I guess one could live with that.


Yeah, it's an unconventional workaround, but then again it's just until I scratch together the $2000 to get an on/off switch for software monitoring

Eh actually there's a big flaw with this method...

You have to unarm the track to get the "playback" fader level. So if you are recording with the fader at -inf and want to play back, you'd have to unarm the track if you wanted to hear it or adjust the fader, sort of annoying :/

 

[Mikaël-ange]

Wait, I don't think we're quite on the same page here. Take a Lynx Aurora 16 with the ADAT card, for example. You can use it for a total of 16 channels of input and 16 channels of output by connecting the Aurora to your interface via the ADAT lightpipes and use the analog inputs and outputs for connecting to the "outside world" (preamps, outboard processors etc.), right? Or am I missing something really horribly here?

You are right... English isn't my native language so I often miswriting thing. So let me clarifying:

Alphalink have 24 analog I/O and 24 adat I/O=48 I/O
If you use it on standalone mod (analog>digital via adat), say goodbye to 24I/O

Only madixtrem, deltalink and RME madi card can provide 48I/O total (analog and digital at same time). Much clear I hope?

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

You are right... English isn't my native language so I often miswriting thing. So let me clarifying:

Alphalink have 24 analog I/O and 24 adat I/O=48 I/O
If you use it on standalone mod (analog>digital via adat), say goodbye to 24I/O

Only madixtrem, deltalink and RME madi card can provide 48I/O total (analog and digital at same time). Much clear I hope?

Sorry dude, but I'm still a bit lost here. Bear with me one more second, please?

You're saying "say goodbye to 24 I/O" and that you can't get 48 I/O without MADI. Which is it?

The Alphalink AX has six ADAT lightpipe connections, three ins, three outs, each capable of transferring eight channels. That's 24 in ADAT, 24 out ADAT. It has also got 24 in analog and 24 out analog. Also, in this post it is said that it works the way I described.

 

[GeertSamuel]

Posted in the PT9 thread allready my opinion on PT9. But I allready was thinking of getting MH 2882 or SSL Alphalink. Currently leaning more towards the SSL Alphalink due to the fact of more IO.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Actually, I looked into it some more, and it seems a lot of people are actually using the very same Raydat-Alphalink -combination for 24 I/O and reporting it works just fine.

 

[::XeS::]

Anyone of you know if the native HD supports only Avid's interfaces? Or can we connect other interfaces to it without problems? Because if it works also with 3rd part interfaces (like apogee, etc...) we can get the best of both world...zero latency and a very good interface, without spending 15k for an HD system.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Anyone of you know if the native HD supports only Avid's interfaces? Or can we connect other interfaces to it without problems? Because if it works also with 3rd part interfaces (like apogee, etc...) we can get the best of both world...zero latency and a very good interface, without spending 15k for an HD system.

Native HD requires the HD Native card. Pro Tools 9 with the CPTK2 is essentially the same thing, and it doesn't require Avid hardware. This question, amongst many others, has been answered several times already. Please check the Pro Tools 9 thread, Avid Website and this feature chart for the basics: http://www.avid.com/US/products/family/Pro-Tools/compare