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Hi. I currently work with an M-audio 1010LT. Not high-endI know. I would definitely like to have at least 16 channels of I/O into my DAW and have looked at many ways to achieve this. MOTU seems to be the first thing that comes to mind in the PCI arena. There are also a lot of firewire interfaces with up to 8 channels like the PreSonus stuff and Alesis. What I'm wanting to know is; If I buy an 8 channel firewire interface, can I increase my inputs by just daisy-chaining in another firwire interface? Such as two firpods or two Alesis multimixes or two Mackie onyx interfaces? THis is something I need to find out so I dont start down a road that ends up as a dead end. I can even see eventually wanting to have up to 24 or 32 channels available. Anyone have any ideas on this? Thanks in advance.

Edit: I should have mentioned that I use Cool Edit Pro, haha just kidding. Seriously though, I use Cubase SX3 for recording. I dont know really, how it handles this situation. I guess that, if I did daisy chain interfaces, they would have to be the exact same ones since you have to choose which audio drivers Cubase is using. I dont think you can choose two different ones.

Eric

Comments

blaumph2cool Sun, 08/12/2007 - 13:25

Yes, the interfaces would have to be the same and the interfaces would have to support "daisy-chaining".

I know the firepod supports up to two firepods being daisy-chained together and the newer fire studio does not. not really sure about the other manufactures...a rule of thumb is "if they don't list is as one of the clearly marked features, it probably doesn't support it." as this would be a good selling point for any manufacturer and if they support it and don't list it, it must be crappy and full of bugs.

-Chris

zemlin Mon, 08/13/2007 - 04:22

Jeremy wrote: or you could just buy my mackie onyx 1640 with firewire installed, and be done with things. :D

until you want to upgrade preamps ...

I use an Echo Audiofire12 - 12 channels in and 12 out - no preamps. They support daisy-chaining for several units. I'll be getting a second soon to replace my old 24 channel MOTU w/ PCI card.

EricWatkins Fri, 08/17/2007 - 13:55

Thanks guys. You know Jeremy, the more I look at the mackie, the more I think it sounds like a great deal. I've already heard from many people here that the pres sound good and the literature says you can daisy chain two of them for a total of 32 channels into your daw. That sounds pretty cool. THe only thing that seems limiting is that it only has stereo outputs. Nothing for future surround support or anything. Still, it is the most promising thing I've seen so far. Thanks again.

Eric