DSP Fac/AX16XT/Frontier Dakota combo

[Laurence]

In trying to put together a good workable digital audio / Gigasampler workstation, I\'m thinking about using the following soundcard combination:

2 Yamaha DSP Factories
1 Yamaha AX16AT ADAT interface card
1 Frontier Dakota ADAT interface card

The idea will be to run Cakewalk Audio 9 audio tracks through the first DSP Factory. Gigasampler audio will be mapped through the Frontier Dakota and from there sent into the second DSP Factory through the AX16AT. Both DSP Factory cards will then be controlled By C-Mexx\'s C-Console (which I like a whole lot better than the new Cakewalk 9 DSP Factory interface). If it works like it should, it will be quite a wonderful system. Has anyone else tried this combination? Does anyone have a better idea.

I\'ve also considered using a DSP Factory for Cakewalk audio tracks and a Mixtreme for Gigasampler parts, but so far that would be a second choice. I really like the DSP Factory / C-Console mixing combo. It\'s just like sitting at a standard recording console. The limiters on each channel, the four band parametrics, the four Rev 500\'s and the amazing bussing and bouncing options that C-Console would give me with this setup look irresistable. Do you guys think it will work?

Laurence Kingston

[KIA]

Loz

your a very lucky (wealthy)man. I would love to be able to have the cash for such a venture.

If there is one suggestion/option that I would mention..

Take a look at Minnetonka\'s MX TRAX for the Yamaha DSP factory.. I have used both MX Trax & C Console and for me MX TRAX just blows CC away.
CC to me looks moe like a toy graphic desk.With MX TRAX it really does look like a proper mixing console.. MX TRAX also taps into the DSP Factories volume,metering and faders and the latency is 1.5ms..

My dream set-up would be a SW1000,DSP factory,O1V desk & MX TRAX and an understanding wife.

I cant see any issues with your set-up but an O1V desk would be a thought.. I am a tactile sort of person who prefers to physically control a mix rather than push one fader up or down because of the limitations of Mice on PC\'s.

MX TRAX has a control surface interface via MIDI with an O1v so if you move a fader on the desk... MX TRAX\'s fader move in response.
Another advantage with MXTRAX is that unlike CConsole where you have the whole desk in front of you all the time. MXTRAX allows you to \"build\" a desk with as little or as many channel strips as you want so for example your working on a 8 track project you just build your desk with 10 faders (8 for audio,2 for Master) MX Trax also supports 2DSP factories...
Take a look on www.minnetonkaaudio.com (\"http://www.minnetonkaaudio.com\")

Good Luck

KIA

[This message has been edited by KIA (edited 10-28-1999).]

[Laurence]

Wealthy? I\'d like to think so, but I it probably would better be described as a skewed sense of priorities. I drive an old car with a slipping clutch and 160,000 plus miles on it. With the money I\'ve spent on music gear, I could be driving a Mercedes. Anyway, back to the audio stuff:

I like C-Console. The latest version actually looks quite professional. I also have a Roland VS-1680, and the faders interface quite nicely with C-Console (Though I\'m sure they would with Minnitonka as well). When I\'m actually recording I always use the 1680: no fan noise, rock solid performance, lots of hardware (mic pre-amps, limiters, etc.). Then I transfer the best audio takes to Cakewalk and mix using C-Console with the VS-1680 as a controller. That part of it works great.

Now what I want is to be able to do the same mixing magic on my Gigasampler parts and have them properly integrated into my final mixes. With the two DSP Factories and the Dakota / AX16 combination I would be in great shape. Eventually Yamaha will probably release GSIF drivers for the DSP Factory, but that may be a year or two off and I need to work in the mean time.

[Laurence]

Wealthy? I\'d like to think so, but I it probably would better be described as a skewed sense of priorities. I drive an old car with a slipping clutch and 160,000 plus miles on it. With the money I\'ve spent on music gear, I could be driving a Mercedes. Anyway, back to the audio stuff:

I like C-Console. The latest version actually looks quite professional. I also have a Roland VS-1680, and the faders interface quite nicely with C-Console (Though I\'m sure they would with Minnitonka as well). When I\'m actually recording I always use the 1680: no fan noise, rock solid performance, lots of hardware (mic pre-amps, limiters, etc.). Then I transfer the best audio takes to Cakewalk and mix using C-Console with the VS-1680 as a controller. That part of it works great.

Now what I want is to be able to do the same mixing magic on my Gigasampler parts and have them properly integrated into my final mixes. With the two DSP Factories and the Dakota / AX16 combination I would be in great shape. Eventually Yamaha will probably release GSIF drivers for the DSP Factory, but that may be a year or two off and I need to work in the mean time. The AX16 would work in one of my otherwise wasted ISA slots and use no added system resources. Has anyone tried this combination? It seems like the way to go.

[Laurence]

Well I finally bought the Dakota and it works great with the DSP Factory. I\'d still rather just have Yamaha put together a DSP Factory GSIF driver, but this works great for now. I now have my Gigasampler voices and audio tracks showing up on the same mixer with total control on everything. I can\'t imagine any better way to do it.

By the way, the Dakota patching ability was an unexpected pleasant surprise.

[Fritz]

I also have 2 dsp factories and a dakota/montana, how do you find the Yamaha Asio drivers ? I,ve had LOTs of trouble running 2 dsp factories using their drivers and I\'d love to know how your set-up works. Here\'s my email so we don\'t have to waste space on this forum:
harris@uniserve.com

[Dale]

Lawrence, I\'m a DSPF user also and I\'ve pretty much decided to bite the bullet and go with Dakota. I haven\'t read 1 bad thing about that Dakota card. Are you running a single system or is GS/ Dakota on a separate machine? How\'s the latency on the DSPF, DAkota, GS system if it is one machine? Whats your basic hardware setup and any problems with running Directx Plugins with audio and GS all running together? I suspect a dedicated machine is in my future with GS/Dakota on one machine and the DSPF on the other.

[Laurence]

I\'m just using one machine and it seems to be able to keep up fine. I am having a bunch of little problems, but I\'m not sure which link in my system is at fault. Cakewalk at times doesn\'t want to switch between programs and Cubase VST 24 clicks and pops a little and locks up when I exit the program. None of these seem to be related to the computer being taxed to hard though. The clicks and pops in Cubase for instance are just as bad when the system is idling.

[Eroica]

I\'m using the dakota with DSP Factory. I have a dedicated machine for Gigasampler using the Dakota and 2 DSP Factory cards and AX16T on another. I use Cakewalk and have had no problems with this set up.

I also use CConsole (1.3) which has great support for 2 DSP cards.

I think the Dakota is an outstanding device and thoroughly recommend it!

Mike Gill

[Laurence]

I used C-Console until I got the Dakota. Now unfortunately C-Console no longer functions. Actually that\'s not entirely correct. With a fresh install C-Console works...but as soon as you quit C-Console it won\'t work again until you reinstal it again! I know, I know, I should just get a second computer, but none of my problems have to do with the computer not being able to keep up. They are all just related to having 5 soundcards in one computer.

[Laurence]

I\'ve got Cakewalk working quite well now with the Dakota / DSP Factory / Emu APS combo. I was doing a couple of things wrong:

First of all, the Cakewalk Audiox DSP panel needed to be set up for two DSP Factories, with the clock of the second DSP factory set up as a slave to the first.

Second, the clocks of the DSP Factory, the Dakota and Cakewalks audio clock all needed to be set to 48k to match the Emu APS, and the Dakota needed to be \"locked\" at 48k so that it wouldn\'t revert to 44.1k at bootup.

With everything finally configured right, it is finally the really cool system that I hoped it would be. I still can\'t configure Cubase VST 24 or Emagic Logic Platinum however. Cubase only supports the DSP Factory at 44k, and Logic doesn\'t support two DSP Factories yet. Also, my single PIII 500 works fine running Cakewalk 9 and Gigasampler, but when I run Cubase and Gigasampler, it seems to be a lot less stable. Maybe I\'m not doing something right, but so far the Cakewalk seems to have a lot more overhead left over to run Gigasampler than Cubase. So far, I haven\'t been able to get Logic Audio to even run with Gigasampler, so I can\'t comment on it.
Anyway, at least I\'m up and running with Cakewalk.