Got the RME Fireface 800...

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:56 pm

and loving it so far!

In the process of trying to scale down, I'm moving to Firewire and a laptop instead of Lynx AES 16 cards and a desktop and monitor...

The conversion in the RME is surprisingly QUITE nice. I got it so that I could do the extra optical inputs from my other converters, but to be honest, unless I need more than 10 to 12 channels, I don't see the disadvantage in using the RME! It really does sound quite good!

And I LOVE the mixer software! It makes sense!!! (Lynx - I love you guys to death, but seriously, look at RME's mixer software and get yours working like this!!!) I can make just about any submix combination I want - this is perfect for in-studio recording!!! I can have 5 stereo submixes! 1 for me (digital out to my monitor controller), 1 for the vocalist ("MORE ME!"), 1 for the guitar ("WAY more me"), one for the bass ("DUH....I like me...") and 1 for the drums ("I hit things...YAY")

Or I can insert outboard processing for monitoring or recording or both!!

Oh...and it sounds really friggin nice too! Hey, even the preamps are usable! I've actually done a couple stereo tests using the Royer SF12 with the pres at max gain and I'm not hating the sound (and they're pretty quiet too!!!)

I think I may have to pick up a couple more of these! If you haven't tried one, you owe yourself the time to play with it!

Something else I find odd (and seriously - nothing against Lynx! I absolutely love Lynx!), but for 8 tracks of recording with my AES 16s, I'd need 1024 samples in my ASIO buffer. For the RME, I've needed to use at most 256 and I've even been without hiccups below that!

Just thought I'd pass on the thoughts.

J.

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 2:25 pm

hi cucco...nice to hear you're liking the ff800, too...

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:52 pm

Are you running a single 800?
If so keep it that way. I had two for a short amount of time. I had lot of trouble get both units converting in cooperation. But yes the ADC's are nice. I did a quick test before I got rid of them, so I could compare it too my new cranesong ADC. And the FF800 did pretty well. I have to say to my ear the Cranesong Hedd was a bit clearer and had slightly better low end response. But it was close.

Oh and the PCB layout on the FF800 is great!
have fun.

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 7:02 pm

I'm envious, Jeremy; I've had my eye on one of these for a while now, and am getting closer to making a decision for an important recording in December. Looks like a winner, indeed. Please keep us posted on how it's going with this. (Although it looks like you're head over hells in love with this already!) Thumbs Up

The Multiface II is also interesting, but it doesn't have the pre's and it needs a PCI card to hook it up to a computer. (I see that RME has come out with PC Express cards now, too, although that COULD be just vaporware at the moment....) The Fireface 800 still looks like the best deal overall.

Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 3:54 pm

I have had one since '06 (I think) and also have a FF400. Anyway, I have been very content with mine. The unit is quite good out of the box. As usual, mine is highly modified and now compares very well against much higher-end converters. I still haven't yet got the HP amp to be something special, but its still totally usable. There is another thread floating somewhere discussing this.

The driver/mixer software is mo' pro. I have found that other (not to be named) manufacturer's drivers to be poorly implemented. In fact, I have found level shifts through these drivers when their controls where supposedly set at unity.

Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 4:38 pm

Cucco wrote:

and loving it so far!

It sure looks that way.

I've always heard good things about the way RME integrate their hardware AND software to produce a complete solution.

Now that you've got that system up and running, your next purchase ought to be a new 'exclamation mark' key - I'm sure you've worn out your existing one. Wink

Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 8:53 am

Simmosonic wrote:

Now that you've got that system up and running, your next purchase ought to be a new 'exclamation mark' key - I'm sure you've worn out your existing one. Wink

Ha.....I think I've worn out my period key first..........
!

Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 1:13 pm

Quote:

your next purchase ought to be a new 'exclamation
mark' key

And the next post by Cucco, I bet, will be "got a laptop, it's freaky
light !!!!!" Right, Jeremy ?
Just kidding. Anyway, it seems that Onyx 800R could be a nice
extention for this RME 800, isn't it ? Or you are going for some
better pre's ? Cheers,

Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 9:03 pm

The 800R would be a great option for extra channels through lightpipe. They'll occassionally get some use. I'll likely use the Graces or the ones that Zilla's making for me right now though.

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:12 pm

I use the Fireface all the time, but not usually for recording with mics. I use it mostly with software to set midi orchestral music to indie films and to do audio editing. The drivers are good although there are some issues with the WDM drivers. In terms of recording with mics, the preamps have very low gain untill turned way up, then the gain increases very quickly at a very short ratio of turning the knob. No other complaints except that the phones jack broke inside but was fixable. I use it for recording multitracked recordings when tracks need to be layered one at a time, but prefer to use linked Sound Devices recorders for location or basic studio recording. I'm interested to hear about any mods for the Fireface. It's definately a good all around problem solving interface.

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:24 pm

As I mentioned in another thread, I picked up one and really like it so far. Got a great deal on it locally, from 8th Street music here in Phila.

I'm using Vista & Seq. V.8.3 on my laptop, so this should be interesting, once I have it up and running. So far, so good. The ASIO drivers come right up, with no problems. The WDM drivers need some re-naming, and RME doesn't recommend using them anyway....we'll see! Thumbs Up

Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:02 pm

I've only used ASIO thus far. I don't suppose I have a need for the WDM drivers, so I don't anticipate any issues with them. (The software that I use...Sequoia, Finale, Garritan, Reason 3.0, Fruity Loops, etc. all support ASIO.)

edit...

I definitely agree about the pres being strongest in the final throws. It makes it a pain for minor adjustments, but for a single spot mic, etc, I think it will do the trick just fine. We'll see tomorrow - I'm doing a recording of a large, collegiate marching band and will need to use the mic pres in addition to my existing ones. Should be interesting.

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:39 am

As a user of the FW800 for almost two years now, I can second most of whats been said above. But I have a question for those of you who use it with a PC laptop!

How do you connect?

The regular 4-pin outlet You find on 101% of laptops I find localy, seem to be a pityful excuse för a FW port.. I've been testing an "EXpressCard" with FW400 & 800 port on my latest laptop and while I'm not totaly satisfied, it works..

What sollutions are there?

/ptr

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 6:47 am

I too wonder about the FW issue, esp with Sony laptops, which have the 4 pin FW connector (which they call i-link) as standard issue, and usually nothing else, other than USB 2.0 connectors. This is a shame, since Sony was one of the first with this anyway. I've never been comfortable with it in general. At one point, on my previous laptop, the 4 pin connector just stopped working. (Probably stress & breakage on one of the tiny, unsupported pins inside the connector). For 3-4 years since then, I've been using a PCMCIA/FW card with dual connetions instead, with no problems at all.

I almost didn't buy my current laptop (PCG-5G3L)because of this very issue, until I made sure the new ExpressCard slot would support FW adapters. It does, so I did, and so far so good. HOWEVER, the springloaded mechanism seems to be VERY hair-trigger in that it could easily be bumped and pop right back out of the socket, plus it's up near the front of the machine now, instead of the middle of the unit. Pretty scary, and I might have to start gaff-taping things down again when I'm out on remotes.

Otherwise, I don't know how else to get FW into this thing, unless there's an ethernet to FW adapter option out there somewhere. I plan to stick with the 6pin to ExpressCard option for now, with a 6 to 4 pin FW cable ready as a back up, just in case....

Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:16 am

Another VERY sweet little extra with the Fireface 800 is the inclusion of Samplitude 8 SE. I didn't know this was included, and it solved a couple of silly/stupid problems with my laptop upgrade.

For years, I had simply been upgrading my legal copy of Samplitude, through V5, 6 and 7 on my laptop. (V7 being good enough to still use in the field for live tracks, on those rare occasions when I'd forget the dongle for my copy of Sequoia V8. Arrrrggg!)

With the new laptop, I was forced to go without my old copy of Samplitude (long story short - almost impossible to load it witithout an A floppy drive, which holds the now-outdated user validation keys, etc. etc.) so I just put my legit copy of Sequoia on there and pray I won't ever forget the dongle.

I opened the FW 800 box and - surprise! - a copy of Samplitude V8.3 SE was in there. Now of course it only allows up to 8 tracks of recording at a time, but I can work with that in most cases, or I can upgrade to the next level for more tracks. Very nice surprise, indeed.

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