Beyond 16 channels

[Musicmaker]

Planning to extending my setup based on the Focusrite 18i20 Gen 1 to 16 channels with a Octo-pre, Running Ubuntu 15.10 out of the box.
But I do see that some day 16 won't be enough... Anyone experience with latest kernels with these hardware:

[1] EXBUS.UMA
http://www.directout.eu/en/products/exbox.uma.html
http://www.thomann.de/de/directout_exbo ... X_310713_0
This would be ideal to re-use the 18i20 and Octopre ADAT I/O.
Interesting is it that it is configurable via MIDI, though it's not documented so no avail on Linux (but maybe able to figure the use of the commands)
[2] Presonus Studio 192 ?
[3] RME HDSPe RayDAT
[4] Other options ?

[sadko4u]

Focusrite Liquid Saffire PRO 56 (8x preamps) + your Focusrite 18i20 (8x preamps) + OctoPre MK II (8 preamps).
I think 24 channels is enough for many setups.

[dnb]

if you dont mind TRS jacks, then a combo of RME Digiface with 3 * RME ADI 8DS or better. triple that and you have 72 channels. both can be found cheap on ebay. best regs

[Musicmaker]

Thanks for the replies. Firewire is getting phased out and Thunderbolt isn't available on Linux. AVB/DANTE isn't there as well.

Then there is the RMA MADI option , but expensive. Does anyone have a USB/MADI setup using for example te MADIFACE PRO USB or MADIFACE XT and then a MADI to ADAT convertor ? (though that would increase cost significantly to keep to current ADAT interfaces)

Just saw another product, the RME DIGIFACE USB with 4 ADAT's (not available yet), it appears to be best solution under Linux if it works under Linux., then can still can access the 18i20 via USB to route things. Hope with the DIGIFACE can set the sample rate to 96Khz of the ADAT. I also have a OctoPre MkII with compression. It would then get a pretty large setup with 4 boxes for just 24 channel @ 48KHz.

Unfortunately, options with Linux are so very limited beyond 16 channels (Basically RME only) because of the lack of Thunderbolt (TB3) support on Linux. There are so many new TB/AVB/DANTE devices now for Mac and Windows (MOTU/Focusrite), also then there lack of USB hardware from Focusrite that supports more than 16 channels through USB. Then there is the problem on Linux for Focusrite USB products to set the sample rate anything different than the default.

After waiting for many (> 5) years the failed hope Linux to support TB or for more USB hardware becoming available supporting more than 16 channels getting a new motherboard with TB3 and using Windows (now that it's support TB3 and drivers becoming available) is becoming a more future proof viable option, but I still hope to find a solution that can be used under both OSes (refuse to spend $ on Mac).

[folderol]

What's the position with AVB these days? I've not been following it, but I understand that all professional studios are moving to audio over ethernet, which just totally wipes out everything else!

[Musicmaker]

Just posted today on Sweetwater ..NAMM 2017 news !
RME DIGIFACE USB , 4 x ADAT, USB 2.0 - price not announced yet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh7pxcwHDQM @ 4.00
https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/rme-digiface-usb/
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DigifaceUSB
32-in/32-out, 24-bit/192kHz USB Digital Audio Interface with 4 Optical Inputs/Outputs and Bus Power - Mac/PC

Also a new UFX II
RME FIREFACE UFX II - FW400 + USB 2.0 , 12 channels + 2 x ADAT = 22 I/O @ 96KHz or 30 I/O @ 48 KHZ , $2499
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh7pxcwHDQM @ 0.00
http://www.rme-audio.de/en/products/fir ... fx_2.php#4

It would be interesting to see if anyone get their hands on these and if they work on Linux.

[muzzol]

I'm currently recording 16 channels with my setup.

I strongly recommend saffire pro 40 + any adat interface:





the only problem I had was finding a reliable fw400 card, just search on ffado docs about that.

so I assume that extending one saffire 56 would be the way to go if you wanna break the 16 barrier.

[Musicmaker]

Thanks ! It's just that Firewire is being phased out. How long more for Windows/Mac to support it as well.... Just got an OctoPre MKII dynamic and just 2 months later it was phased out of production by the lower spec'ed (audio wise) Scarlett but with 96Khz support. Though it's ADAT so still (re) use-able. Now looking at the MOTU LP32 first. if that does not work a SF56 2nd hand would be an option indeed for the time being until there is Linux support for TB3 (i.e FR Clarett) or AVB.

uh oh...

My suspicion at present is that there is something wrong in the kernel's ALSA firewire audio driver which is preventing it from working with the liquid-56. It is important to note that the ALSA driver is quite new and to my knowledge has never been tried with a liquid-56, so bugs of this nature would not be overly surprising. Another option is that a newer version of ALSA/kernel may already contain a fix for whatever the problem is. In any case, getting the liquid-56 to work with the ALSA firewire audio driver will require some debugging effort. If you wish to pursue this, the best place to go at this point would be the alsa-devel mailing list as the firewire audio ALSA drivers are developed under the ALSA umbrella. Takashi Sakamoto is the person responsible for the ALSA driver used by the Saffire family.

http://ffado.org/?q=node/2062