A-16 Question

AEP · Post by **AEP** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 8:53 am

i recently came across an A-16 for next to nothing, so i bought it.

my original intention was to interface my pulsar 2 with analog gear...

the fact is, i am so satisfied with the sound of the pulsar synths in the sfp environment and their versatility that i don't think i want to use the outboard gear.

but i still have this unit.

i have heard that i can use the A-16 to convert the digital signal from my computer to an analog one before it goes to my outboard mixer, which will improve the overall sound quality. is this true? i guess i just don't see how this could be.

if it is true, what would be the proper configuration for this purpose? i went ahead and hooked the A-16 up via the optical cables and plugged it in. the ADAT light is illuminated in green, which i believe tells me that it is operating as a slave to the pulsar card.

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 12:34 pm

Yeah, that's just it...

Put an adat dest in your sfp project, patch anything you want to send to your outboard mixer into it, then connect the A16 output to your mixer...

The thing is, the A16 converter are better and more silent than those directly on the card for obvious reason. The inside of the PC is totaly full of electromagnetic fields in interferences... And also because there are of better quality.

AEP · Post by **AEP** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 1:28 pm

Put an adat dest in your sfp project, patch anything you want to send to your outboard mixer into it, then connect the A16 output to your mixer...

so i could come out of the dynamic mixer (the main outs) and into the adat dest, and then into the pulsar analog dest?

[ This Message was edited by: AEP on 2003-03-31 13:30 ]

AEP · Post by **AEP** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 1:41 pm

i guess where i am confused is, although i am at work and cannot see the A-16, i don't seem to remember seeing any specific "outs" that i could use to physically connect to the outboard mixer.

so will using the adat dest effectively replace the pulsar 2 analog dest, or will it be a stopping point along the way to the pulsar 2 analog dest?

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 4:07 pm

any output line of a device in SFP is sent to your mixer if:
that line is connected to a segment of an Adat Out
who's corresponding optical out is connected to the A16
and the corresponding analog out of the A16 is connected to your mixer's input

the routing is independend from the functionality of a device, any audio out will do, not restricted to mixers.
The analog outs of the Pulsar are independent from this.

The sound will only improve if you have a very, very high quality analog mixer, mostly due to analog eqs and compressors.
If all your sounds are generated from Pulsar synths, you will decrease quality severely if you route them through a middle class mixer.
In that case you better mix on Pulsar and use the A16 for analog fx units, some have a special sound character to complement the high quality, clean Pulsar nicely.

cheers, Tom

[ This Message was edited by: astroman on 2003-03-31 16:11 ]

AEP · Post by **AEP** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 4:49 pm

thanks for the info- i love this forum!

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 4:54 pm

why not do a clicky thing on this link http://www.creamware.de/en/products/con ... atures.asp and read all there is to know about the A16

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 4:55 pm

i don't seem to remember seeing any specific "outs" that i could use to physically connect to the outboard mixer.

That's because they're at the back of the unit maybe...

So it basically takes you digital signal from ADAT or Z-Link and convert is to analog, with 16 analog I/O to connect your gear. And then it also takes all you analog signals and converts them to digital so you can mix it all up inside your computer. run your outboard gear trough pulsar mixers and plugins and back again!
_________________

[ This Message was edited by: King of Snake on 2003-03-31 16:58 ]

AEP · Post by **AEP** » Mon Mar 31, 2003 8:05 pm

king of snake, i love you man.

yeah, it helps to turn the thing around and look at the back!

seriously, when i first looked at the thing for some reason i expected to see a mixL and mixR out in rca or something.

duh...

anyway, got it hooked up and all, but the sound coming through sounds SHAT.

so you say i just do a little clicky thing on that underlined text? would that be left click or right click?

King of Snake · Post by **King of Snake** » Tue Apr 01, 2003 7:01 am

um...yeah, it's a link to the A16 info page on the Creamware site so I'd say a left click will do the trick

If it sounds shit, there something wrong somewhere...so how is it connected now?
I think the easiest way to set it up is use the Z-link (firewire) connection to your Pulsar 2. Now you can load the Z-link modules in SFP from the "hardware I/O's".
The Z-link source will be where all the signals from the outbaord gear plugged into the A16 will enter your SFP environment, and the Z-link destination is where you route your signals from SFP to the analog outputs of the A16 (so you can, for instance, route a Pulsar synth trough external effects or mixer)

_________________

[ This Message was edited by: King of Snake on 2003-04-01 07:06 ]

AEP · Post by **AEP** » Tue Apr 01, 2003 8:25 am

a link you say... to the creamware site? amazing this computer technology...

i've got it hooked up via the optical cables.

i think i figured out why it sounds so bad. all of my audio files are recorded as 32 bit float broadcast waves. the a16 is a 24 bit converter. i opened a new project and simply played a synth, and the sound was not fucked at all, although the balance was a bit off.

by following this road, it seems that i will need to record all my audio in 24 bit. but won't this kind of negate the purpose of using the a16 for improved sound quality, since i am reducing the number of bits for my files? i'm saying, would it be better to use the pulsar analog outs with 32 bit files or the a16 with 24 bit files?

perhaps i am confused...

Herr Voigt · Post by **Herr Voigt** » Tue Apr 01, 2003 6:18 pm

When will the day appear that we can use 16bit and 24bit and 32bit in ONE project???