A16 converter quality.........opinions?

[Purusha]

Astroman, can you point out the link?

[kylie]

hi purusha,

I don't have an a16u, but since I considered buying one I already thought about several combinations myself...
if you're not that keen on bundled software like M&M or S&S packs, you could go with the scope home (the recent 4.5 version ships with the adat expansion board already). it provides 16 channels of z-link AND 16 adat channels. I never found out whether the recent scope home boards support s/mux (the olders don't), I still have an unanswered question out at both cw and planetz . if you need just more I/O, then you might be satisfied with that combination.

someone mentioned that adat and z-link cannot operate simultaneous, and I also never found out if that's true. but maybe this isn't so important unless you want to feed the signal to different (hardware) destinations. as far as I read the a16u does NOT do s/mux, so you will get 16 channels adat at 48khz and not 8 at 96khz (this is unconfirmed, so maybe a real owner of an a16u might be so kind to confirm this or not . there was even a rumour that the unpopulated expansion slot in the a16u might be once upgradeable with more lightpipes to support 96khz, but this is still a rumour).

in standalone operation (without a scope card) you can get 16 adat channels out of the a16u and feed them into any adat card.
using z-link with a scope card leaves you the option of additional adat I/O (you might want to connect an additional ada8000 ). as already mentioned, you can add 2 more scope cards, multiplying your dsp power AND I/O capacity. think of 3 scope project with the z-link option and 3 a16u connected to them. that makes 48 channels 24/96, and you still have 24 adat channels left (and the project and up can do s/mux )

-greetings, markus-

EDIT:
- I appreciate any feedback to my unanswered questions
- if you consider using OS X, then scope is not for you (at least at the moment). you can still use the a16u standalone.
- using 3 scope home with adat expansion (if someone recommends this) could even provide 48 z-link channels plus 48 adat channels (and yes, analogue I/O, too ). a mixer capable of this sheer I/O capacity would be optional, I think, and I don't know whether the dsp capacity will be able to handle full 96 channel I/O routing, but theoretically this could work.

EDIT 2:
- conventional pci slot capacity/availabilty is a limiting factor, too. being already equipped with powercore and uad, one might not be able to get the full scope I/O experience...

[Shroomz~>]

someone mentioned that adat and z-link cannot operate simultaneous, and I also never found out if that's true.

I'm sure we're using ADAT & Z-Link simultaneously on one of our Luna boards.

[kylie]

someone mentioned that adat and z-link cannot operate simultaneous, and I also never found out if that's true.

I'm sure we're using ADAT & Z-Link simultaneously on one of our Luna boards.

sorry, I did not think of the scope board itself, but the a16u. the cards can do that, sure .

[Shroomz~>]

Ah ok, so you're wondering if it's possible to run 8ch Z-link and 8ch Adat at the same time on the A16u. ... mmm I doubt it, but can't be certain. Anyone?

[kylie]

Ah ok, so you're wondering if it's possible to run 8ch Z-link and 8ch Adat at the same time on the A16u. ... mmm I doubt it, but can't be certain. Anyone?

not excactly .I wonder if it's possible to route 8 or 16 channel z-link to scope and 8 or 16 channels adat to anywhere else (maybe scope, but not necessarily). unless I'm not mistaken there is no a16u manual available at the cw site. the a16u is mentioned and somehow illustrated inside the scope manual, but not in full detail.

[Purusha]

Hi Kylie,

yeah, good points. I would also like to know if i can run all 16channels in 96KHz and in what configuration.

I don't own any ADA8000 and am selling my 1820M now...

16ch. IN/OUT is just enough for me but it would be nice to be able to record and mix in 88KHz at least with all 16.ch.

So far I focused on at least the project card along with A16 Ultra. The special combo deal http://www.promusicexchange.com/store/a ... ScopeCards
sounds very tempting also to go with Pro Scope card. Check it out!

[Shroomz~>]

not excactly :) .I wonder if it's possible to route 8 or 16 channel z-link to scope and 8 or 16 channels adat to anywhere else (maybe scope, but not necessarily).

I'm gonna take a calculated guess & say that I doubt very much if that is possible. If it is possible I'll be extremely surprised.

[astroman]

...16ch. IN/OUT is just enough for me but it would be nice to be able to record and mix in 88KHz at least with all 16.ch. ...

oh no, not me, not again...
(kidding)

I was wrong with the link, Braincell started it...
http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... orchestral
but there are more (using search...)

cheers, Tom

[kylie]

yeah, good points. I would also like to know if i can run all 16channels in 96KHz and in what configuration.

check

http://www.cwaudio.de/index.php?lang=en ... bmenu=home

for a short overview.

time to get rid of some rumours...

I was sure to have searched the cw site more than once for an a16u manual, and there is still none. but if you dig deeper in the scope manual itself (I also thought I did that more than once) there is a section within the chapter called installation that describes the a16u quite sufficiently.

1) the a16u CAN do s/mux. well, just with 8 channels (4 per group, since the a16u is splitted into 2 channel groups), but I remember now where I read about the optional adat-aux board. the four upper analogue channels (5-8 and 13-16) would be handled by this board, if present. I never found a place to buy it, so it maybe will be available on special request only.

2) the a16u is able to operate both z-link AND adat simultaneous. but not only that: you can choose whether you want the ad inputs being routed to zlink and adat at the same time (for taping the inputs to a real adat recorder for backup reasons) OR to set the adat mode, which confuses me a bit... they call it z-link to adat operation, which could mean that the adat ins are activated in favour of the adcs. you could then feed your earlier recorded backup from the real adat tape to z-link. let's think of it as an input selector. the output FROM z-link is routed to both, adat, and dacs; here seems at least to be clarity.
s/mux restrictions always apply, of course.

3) if using only one z-link port the other channel group is still working in adat mode. clock is nevertheless provided by z-link. if you operate z-link with sampling frequencies higher than 50khz, the adat ports are automatically switched to s/mux. you cannot clock them via wordclock or manually then.

4) the following sampling frequencies are supported:
32 - 44.1 - 48 - 88.2 and 96khz, selectable via button. this information is provided via wordclock out. adat operation is always set to s/mux when 88.2 or 96khz is chosen. well, this makes sense, huh?

conclusion: you can indeed get 16 channels I/O in 24/96, but only via z-link at this moment. if you can get hands on that adat aux board, even via adat.

-greetings, markus-

[Shroomz~>]

Ok, I guessed wrong... oops!!

The A16u seems a lot more versatile than what I thought. I wouldn't bet on getting a hold of that expansion option though.. Go on. Prove me wrong on that too ;¬'

[kylie]

Ok, I guessed wrong... oops!!

The A16u seems a lot more versatile than what I thought.

that's excatly what I thought while reading the manual...

I still plan to get myself one, but the budget is tight, and there's no need to bother cw for that expansion until I really got the enclosure. btw, they mention usb2 as a possible option in the future... not that I want that, but there is also 1394 a and b as a possible upgrade path... maybe they avoid confusion by offering different firewire lookalike interfaces which are incompatible to each other..

I keep you informed, should my hands ever touch one of the mysterious aux boards

-greetings, markus-