Anybody here have any opinions on the (formerly Hoontech) http://www.staudio… ST Audio "DSP2000 C-Port" audio/midi interface system? I was looking at the Aardvark Q10 until I read all the flame-wars against it in other forums --apparently Aardvark's reputation ain't so swift, so it's pretty much been disqualified from my consideration. I'd really like a combined audio/midi interface with at least 4 analog inputs and four analog outputs and this DSP2000 unit surpasses that for around $400 ! I've read that the unit isn't exactly built like an army tank, but it'll only be used in my home studio, and not get carried around and beat up so if it's a bit physically fragile, that's not a big issue with me.
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The Hoontech is a cracking box and cant be beat for the price, 8
The Hoontech is a cracking box and cant be beat for the price, 8in 8out analog (unbalanced unfortunately), spdif, optical and aes/ebu digital, 2 mic preamps, multiclient drivers, gsif too, and a headphone out with its own volumn knob
Its got more than every other box of that price!
Whats possibly weak about that!
The build quality is excellent, youd literally have to take a 3lbs hammer to it to harm it and it sounds great. Theres lots of reviews for it about and i havent read a bad one yet.
Furthermore the user forum is frequented by the makers who answer your questions if your having problems.
I've been using one of these since November and like it alot, wi
I've been using one of these since November and like it alot, with some qualifiers. First off, it sounds great (as in, the sound quality). While using just one box (10 in/10 out) I had no problems at all with any of the driver incarnations out there. All of the features worked as advertised for me, no problems. I added a second card/box just last month and some troubles began. I'm using a recommended mobo, good RAM, none of the problem devices listed in their knowledge base (a very well set up place for info), yet I can't get the latest drivers to work with two cards (18 in/18 out) and Cubase 5.1r1. Others have no problems with the latest drivers and multiple cards, it seems to be something specific to my system/configuration. I've found a satisfactory workaround by using the drivers that shipped with the card (works great, no problems at all), so it isn't a big problem for me.
The card/box system is very versatile, offering many routing options with extra/different boxes available. The sound quality is great, and when you factor in 'bang for your buck', this card really shines. Make sure you browse through the knowledge base on the STAudio site to ensure you won't have any hardware problems and you should do well with it.
Krom
Thanks Krom, that's the kind of report I was hoping to hear. For
Thanks Krom, that's the kind of report I was hoping to hear. For $399 from tracertek.com, I think I'm going to have to order myself one of these systems. I will only be running a single unit in my machine (mostly home studio use only) and won't have the problem you have with multiple units.
The ~$290 DS2000 add on interface box to link the DSP card to an ADAT or TDIF looks pretty interesting too, since my friend's "real" studio has both an ADAT and a DA-78 and this would be neat for mass xfer of tracks back & forth between his tape machines and my DAW. I'm presuming that both the DS2000 and the ADC DAC 2000 audio/midi breakout box can both be connected to one DSP 24 card concurrently thru daisy-chaining the digital bus (44pin) cables.
Speaking of the problems you're having.... you're not possibly experiencing some manifestation of that 10-device limit under Windows 2000 are you?
Speaking of the problems you're having.... you're not possibly e
Speaking of the problems you're having.... you're not possibly experiencing some manifestation of that 10-device limit under Windows 2000 are you?
No, I'm running Win98SE. I'm pretty sure it's a driver issue, but I don't understand why only myself and two others are having this problem. In Win98SE, using the same hardware config, I go from being fully functional (old driver) to half working (newest driver) to not working (beta WDM driver). The only thing that changes is the driver used, I clean up all the driver files prior to installing another for testing, but still no go. It seems to only cause problems with my exact setup under Win98 when using Cubase to access multiple ins across several cards (one card for 10 in/10 out works just fine with any driver, no problems, everything is peachy). Wavelab using any two ins works ok, Windows sound is ok. Win2k isn't an option for me right now since I can't use the WDM drivers (I've tried it, same probs with the WDM drivers in Win2k as in Win98). I don't know beyond what I've written what could be the problem. I do know that a very few others are experiencing similar problems (I've found 2) but that the vast majority are not. I think it must be an odd driver/app/other hardware combination that is doing something really funky. All that said, I still like the C-Port, I like the sound I get from it, but I am working at trying to try to get this one annoying issue (for me) cleared up.
Krom
Do you have both PCI cards plugged into "unshared" slots and ded
Do you have both PCI cards plugged into "unshared" slots and dedicated IRQs assigned to each one?
Yup. Really basic configuration, no NIC, no serial ports, no USB, just a video card, the parallel port (for dongle), and the two DSP24 cards. I have lots of free IRQs with this config, still no luck. I've tried everything suggested in their knowledge base, every idea suggested to me on their discussion board, all to no avail. It must be something conflicting between my software (Win98SE, Cubase5.1r1), their drivers, and my hardware (listed above). I base that on the fact that the older driver works just great (in fact I used this system to record a band at a club this Friday just past) and functions fully, but the newer drivers don't; they must have changed something in the driver since one works perfectly and the newer one doesn't.
Krom
My 2 cents on the C-port Greetings, I've had good luck with thi
My 2 cents on the C-port
Greetings,
I've had good luck with this unit for the past year. I bought an extra rack unit last fall to daisychain, but the H-Bus cables run $40 + shipping and I never got around to ordering it so off to Ebay the extra rack unit went. I run at 24/96 with less than 5ms latency in Cubase SX2 on a P4 2.6B w/ 512MB ram. I usually only use 6 inputs at most simultaneously and no problems so far. I used to get some wierd clicking noises when running WinXP sounds through it but mostly just when playing Call of Duty and that's probably the culprit rather than the C-port. (I know, I know, I should be running a dedicated DAW, but I'm poor... 'nuff said?) Speaking of being "poor" for $400 w/ free shipping from Musician's Friend this box is a winner. The sweet part is that St Audio is still cranking out new drivers for it. New WDM drivers came out last month for Win2K/WinXP. They rock! No more clicking in games. Even other audio software like Sonar runs well now. Oh, and the Mic preamps are pretty decent, but not stellar. Nothing beats a good tube pre...
I recommend it I've had one since they came out, no problems an
I recommend it
I've had one since they came out, no problems and excellent sound quality (I don't use the pres though). 1 GHz Pentium III system, Kurzweil connected with S/PDIF, Reason synths via MIDI, 4 line ins, all into Sonar. The software mixer makes it really flexible - use midi-ox for MIDI.
Cheers,
Looks nice...but whats the THD? Unbalanced 1/4" input and output
Looks nice...but whats the THD? Unbalanced 1/4" input and outputs only? 22kHz~99kHz frequency rates supported? Huh? Is that supposed to be sampling rates? If so cool...
You can only use the two XLR's as long as their isnt something plugged into the first two 1/4" jacks...
Only 10 in and out at the same time yet the box has, input for at least 16 or more!!(8 1'4", 2 XLR, 2 SPDIF and an optical..ok, so possibly more if the optical input is either Adat or Tos Link)
I'm downloading the manual to get a better gander at this box..so far I hate to say it but it looks weak..how it sounds may be different..they dont give any technical specs really...are they hiding something? Hmmm?! If a company dont give you the total specs you have to wonder about it...
Opus