User manual RME FIREFACE 800

[. . . ] User's Guide Fireface 800 The most powerful FireWire® audio interface ever! TotalMix 24 Bit / 192 kHz SyncAlign ® TM ZLM ® SyncCheck TM ® SteadyClock FireWire 800 / 400 Digital I/O System 10 + 16 + 2 Channels Analog / ADAT / SPDIF Interface 24 Bit / 192 kHz Digital Audio 56 x 28 Matrix Router MIDI I/O Stand-Alone Operation MIDI Remote Control Stand-Alone MIDI Controlled Operation General Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Package Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Brief Description and Characteristics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 First Usage - Quick Start 5. 1 Connectors and Front Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 5. 2 Quick Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 6 Accessories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 7 Warranty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 8 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1 2 3 4 5 Installation and Operation - Windows Hardware Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Driver and Firmware 10. 1 Driver Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 10. 2 Driver Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 10. 3 Deinstalling the Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 10. 4 Firmware Update. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 11 Configuring the Fireface 11. 1 Settings dialog ­ General. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 11. 2 Settings dialog ­ DDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 11. 3 Clock Modes - Synchronization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 11. 4 Limit Bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 12 Operation and Usage 12. 1 Playback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 12. 2 DVD Playback (AC-3 / DTS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 12. 3 Low Latency under MME. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 12. 4 Notes on WDM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 12. 5 Multi-client Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 12. 6 Digital Recording . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 12. 7 Analog Recording. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 13 Operation under ASIO 2. 0 13. 1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 13. 2 Known Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 14 Operation under GSIF. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 15 Using more than one Fireface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 16 DIGICheck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 17 Hotline ­ Troubleshooting 17. 1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 17. 2 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 18 Diagrams 18. 1 Channel Routing ASIO 96 kHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 18. 2 Channel Routing MME 96 kHz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 9 10 Installation and Operation - Mac OS X Hardware Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Driver 20. 1 Driver Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 20. 2 Driver Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 21 Firmware Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 19 20 2 User's Guide Fireface 800 © RME Configuring the Fireface 22. 1 Settings Dialog ­ General. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 22. 2 Settings Dialog ­ DDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 22. 4 Limit Bandwidth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 23 Mac OS X FAQ 23. 1 Round about Driver Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [. . . ] The soft switching, hi-current Phantom power (48 Volt) provides a professional handling of condensor mics. The mic preamp's discreet Class-A front end guarantess a superior sound quality. With the balanced Line input, which can be used alternatively or at the same time as the microphone, the Fireface 800 becomes even more flexible. 10 kOhm input impedance, stereo TRS jack and adjustable input sensitivity in a range of 50 dB ­ this all guarantees that the front-side Line inputs can be used perfectly with keyboards, sampler, active guitars and much more. Two LEDs display a present signal (from ­45 dBFS on) and warn against overload (-2 dBFS). Channels 7/8 can be switched between Line rear, microphone, and Line/microphone simultaneously in the Settings dialog. The front Line input can be used simultaneously with the microphone input. This way, up to three different sound sources (Line rear, Line front, microphone) may be recorded at the same time on one channel. User's Guide Fireface 800 © RME 51 27. 3 Instrument The instrument input of the Fireface 800 has been optimized especially for guitar and bass. A soft clipping function limits the level from ­10 dBFS on, and offers tube-like distortion at full overload. The extra Drive stage adds even more distortion and also increased sustain. The Speaker Emulator gently shapes the sound for an optimal recording experience. LIM The distortion caused by the clipping function of the instrument input is audible. Depending on use and application the new harmonics can be nice or disturbing: · · · · · The guitar's volume pot can blend from clean up to full distortion A rhythm guitar's sound is enhanced by a popular tube-like sound All dynamic peaks of a slapped bass guitar are removed without audible artifacts An accurately played clean acoustic guitar will sound crunchy Steady tones sound distorted (guitar / keyboards / bass) Therefore the Limiter can be switched off in the Settings dialog (Instrument Options Lim. ). Technically this is done by applying a digital gain of 12 dB to the input signal. This way, the analog limiter does no longer reach its threshold of ­10 dBFS. But as this also changes the reference level of the rear input, the Limiter can only be disabled with input channel Front selected. The digital gain for the instrument input may sound unusual at first. But the AD-converters of the Fireface 800 are much better than the dynamic ratio of any instrument recording, so when intentionally not recording at fullest level, nothing is lost. At higher gain (=distortion) of the input using a guitar, switching off the Limiter causes digital distortion, which adds nicely to the analog distortion of the input. The Line inputs of the microphone channels can also be used as instrument inputs. Active instruments can be connected directly and be level-adjusted perfectly with the Gain pots. Modern floor effects devices are active even in bypass mode, and then operate as impedance buffer. Drive Drive is an additional clipper, for 25 dB more gain (=sustain) plus substantially higher distortion. [. . . ] In most cases, it will switch off when being fed Professional-coded data. The table shows that a Professional-coded signal would lead to malfunctions for copy prohibition and emphasis, if being read as Consumer-coded data. Nowadays many devices with SPDIF input can handle Professional subcode. Devices with AES3 input almost always accept Consumer SPDIF (passive cable adapter necessary). 94 User's Guide Fireface 800 © RME 37. 8 Noise level in DS / QS Mode The outstanding signal to noise ratio of the Fireface's AD-converters can be verified even without expensive test equipment, by using record level meters of various software. [. . . ]