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Alesis Hammerfall DSP System User's Manual

1. sse 38 22 2 MADI FO 38 22 3 MIDI 39 23 Word Clock 23 1 Word Clock Input and Output 39 23 2 Technical Description and Background 40 23 3 Cables and Termination 41 23 4 General Operation 42 24 TotalMix Routing and Monitoring 24 1 QVervIeW 5i ico eror nhe nee n a e bn v b 43 24 2 The User Interface 45 24 3 Elements of a Channel ee 46 24 4 Tour de TotalMix eeseessseeeeeeennnee 46 24 5 Submix View sseseseee nnns 48 24 6 Mute and Solo 48 24 7 Quick Access Panel 49 24 8 Pr6eSets i eso tede eed va ana 49 24 9 Monitor Panel 51 24 10 Preferences 51 24 11 Editing the Names 52 24 12 HOIKOyS arro deett aaa aaa 53 24 13 Menu Options 54 24 14 Level Meter i cccccccecseeceeececeesesseeaeseeeeseeeees 55 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 25 TotalMix The Matrix ONES 56 25 2 Elements of the Matrix View ssss 56 25 3 Usage eee e EP a eai 56 25 4 Advantages of the Matrix 57 26 TotalMix Super Features 26 1 ASIO Direct Monitoring Windows only 57 26 2 Selection and Group based Operation 58 26 3 Copy Routings to other Channels 58 26 4 Delete Routings 58 26 5 Recording a Subgroup Loopback 59 26 6 Using external Ef
2. Fine Di M2 ir M Active Active Fader for fine modification of the basic sample rate Click Active to activate it Minimum step size 1 Hz Abbrechen Notes on the faders A mouse click within the fader area above or below the fader know will move the fader with the smallest step size up or down Holding the Ctrl key while clicking will cause the fader to jump to its center 0 position 11 3 Clock Modes Synchronisation AutoSync The HDSP MADI has been equipped with AutoSync an automatic clock source selection which adopts the first available input with a valid digital signal as the clock reference input The input currently used as sync reference is shown in the AutoSync Ref status field together with its current sample frequency AutoSync guarantees that normal record and record while play will always work correctly In certain cases however AutoSync may cause feedback in the digital carrier so synchronization breaks down To remedy this switch the HDSP s clock mode over to Master Via Pref Sync Ref preferred synchronization reference a preferred input can be defined As long as the card sees a valid signal there this input will be designated as the sync source oth erwise the other inputs will be scanned in turn If none of the inputs are receiving a valid signal the card automatically switches clock mode to Master Thanks to its AutoSync technique and lightning fast PLLs the HDSP is not
3. User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 33 20 3 Supported Sample Rates RME s Mac OS X driver supports all sampling frequencies provided by the hardware Besides 96 kHz this also includes 32 kHz and 64 kHz But not every software will support all the hardware s sample rates For example Spark does not display 32 kHz and 64 kHz The hardware s capabilities can easily be verified in the Audio MIDI Setup Select Audio devices under Properties of and choose the Hammerfall DSP A click on Format will list the supported sample frequencies If the unit is in clock mode Master selecting a sample rate will immediately set the device to this frequency which can be verified in the HDSP s settings dialog System Clock Format thus allows you to activate any sampling frequency quickly and easily 20 4 Repairing Disk Permissions Repairing permission can solve problems with the installation process plus many others To do this launch Disk Utility located in Utilities Select your system drive in the drive volume list to the left The First Aid tab to the right now allows you to check and repair disk permissions 20 5 PCI card and PCI slot compatibility Unfortunately not every RME card will work in every PCI slot of an Apple computer To our knowledge the current Hammerfall DSP systems can be used in any PCI slot of all G4 and G5 models In case additional PCI cards of any manufacturer are used it might happen that the RME card is no longer found by the
4. fully independent stereo submixes On an analog mixing desk this would equal 64 Aux sends Unlimited routing of inputs and outputs free utilisation patchbay functionality Distributing signals to several outputs at a time TotalMix offers state of the art splitter and distributor functions Simultaneous playback of different programs using only one stereo output The ASIO multi client driver allows to use several programs at the same time but only on different playback channels TotalMix provides the means to mix and monitor these on a single stereo output Mixing of the input signal to the playback signal complete ASIO Direct Monitoring RME not only is the pioneer of ADM but also offers the most complete implementation of the ADM functions Integration of external devices Use TotalMix to insert external effects devices be it in the playback or in the record path Depending on the current application the functionality equals insert or effects send and effects return for example as used during real time monitoring when adding some reverb to the vocals Every single input channel playback channel and hardware output features a Peak and RMS level meter calculated in hardware hardware output is Peak only These level displays are very useful to determine the presence and routing destinations of the audio signals For a better understanding of the TotalMix mixer you should know the following As shown in the block diagr
5. 65 28 Tech Info Not all information to and around our products fit in a manual Therefore RME offers a lot more and detailed information in the Tech Infos The very latest Tech Infos can be found on our website section News amp Infos or the directory rmeaudio web techinfo on the RME Driver CD These are some of the currently available Tech Infos Synchronization Il DIGI96 series Digital audio synchronization technical background and pitfalls Installation problems Problem descriptions and solutions Driver updates Hammerfall DSP Lists all changes of the driver updates DIGICheck Analysis tests and measurements with RME audio hardware A description of DIGICheck including technical background information ADI 8 Inside Technical information about the RME ADI 8 24 bit AD DA converter Many background information on laptops and tests of notebooks HDSP System Notebook Basics Notebook Hardware HDSP System Notebook Basics The Audio Notebook in Practice HDSP System Notebook Basics Background Knowledge and Tuning HDSP System Notebook Tests Compatibility and Performance The digital mixer of the Hammerfall DSP in theory and practise HDSP System TotalMix Hardware and Technology HDSP System TotalMix Software features operation 66 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 29 Technical Specifications 29 1 Inputs MADI Coaxial via BNC 75 Ohm according to AES10 1991 High sensitivity input stage lt 0
6. RME 9 Appendix RME news driver updates and further product information are available on our website http www rme audio com If you prefer to read the information off line you can browse through a complete copy of the RME website found on the RME Driver CD in the rmeaudio web directory Manufacturer IMM Elektronik GmbH Leipziger Strasse 32 D 09648 Mittweida Trademarks All trademarks registered or otherwise are the property of their respective owners RME DIGI96 SyncAlign ZLM SyncCheck DIGICheck and Hammerfall are registered trademarks of RME Intelligent Audio Solutions HDSP MADI HDSP AES 32 TMS and TotalMix are trade marks of RME Intelligent Audio Solutions Alesis and ADAT are registered trademarks of Alesis Corp ADAT optical is a trademark of Alesis Corp Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP are registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp Steinberg Cubase and VST are registered trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH ASIO is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH Copyright Matthias Carstens 11 2005 Version 1 3a Current driver version W2k XP 2 5 Mac OS X 2 5 Although the contents of this User s Guide have been thoroughly checked for errors RME can not guarantee that it is correct throughout RME does not accept responsibility for any misleading or incorrect information within this guide Lending or copying any part of the guide or the RME Driver CD or any commercial expl
7. in order to be capable of using them independent of the software in use and to significantly reduce the CPU load Tip This feature the Hardware Level Meter is used by DIGICheck Windows only see chap ter 16 to display Peak RMS level meters of all channels nearly without any CPU load The level meters integrated in TotalMix considering their size cannot be compared with DIGICheck Nevertheless they already include many useful functions Peak and RMS is displayed for every channel Level Meter Setup menu Options or F2 and direct keyboard entry hotkeys make various options available Display range 40 or 60 dB hotkey 4 or 6 Release time of the Peak display Fast Medium Slow Numerical display selectable either Peak or RMS Hotkey E or H Number of consecutive samples for Overload display 1 to 15 RMS display absolute or relative to O dBFS Hotkey 3 or 0 The latter is a point often overlooked but nonetheless VT important A RMS measurement shows 3 dB less for 8I HDSP MADI Mixer 1 Pre sine signals While this is mathematically correct it is not very reasonable for a level meter Therefore the als mls IMi E RMS readout is usually corrected by 3 dB so that a full i scale sine signal shows 0 dBFS on both Peak and RMS meters This setting also yields directly readable signal to noise values Otherwise the value shown with noise is 3 dB better than it actually is because the reference is not 0 dB but 3 dB Fo
8. recording a software s output with another software will show the fol lowing problem The record software tries to open the same playback channel as the playback software already active or the playback one has already opened the input channel which should be used by the record software This problem can easily be solved First make sure that all rules for proper multi client operation are met not using the same record playback channels in both programs Then route the play back signal via TotalMix to a hardware output in the range of the record software and send it to the record software via the loopback cable Mixing several input signals into one record channel In some cases it is useful to record several sources in only one track For example when using two microphones when recording instruments and loudspeakers TotalMix loopback saves an external mixing desk Simply route mix the input signals all to the same output third row then send this output to a record channel via the loopback cable This way any number of input channels from different sources can be recorded into one single track Note The data recorded via loopback is delayed by about 3 samples when using an additional ADI 648 by about 6 samples This value is extremely low because the HDSP 9652 provides digital interfacing only And therefore the additional delay can simply be ignored User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 59 26 6 Using external Effects Devices With TotalMi
9. 2 Vpp Optical via FDDI duplex SC connector 62 5 125 and 50 125 compatible Accepts 56 channel and 64 channel mode plus 96k Frame Standard up to 64 channels 24 bit 48 kHz S MUX up to 32 channels 24 bit 96 kHz Lock range 25 kHz 54 kHz Jitter when synced to input signal 1 ns Word Clock BNC not terminated 10 kOhm Switch for internal termination 75 Ohm Automatic Double Quad Speed detection and conversion to Single Speed SteadyClock guarantees super low jitter synchronization even in varispeed operation Transformer coupled galvanically isolated input Not effected by DC offsets within the network Signal Adaptation Circuit signal refresh through auto center and hysteresis Overvoltage protection Level range 1 0 Vss 5 6 Vpp Lock range 28 kHz 105 kHz Jitter when synced to input signal 1 ns Jitter suppression 30 dB 2 4 kHz 29 2 Outputs MADI Coaxial via BNC 75 Ohm according to AES10 1991 Output voltage 600 mVpp Output voltage 1 2 Vpp optional via jumper Cable length up to 100 m Optical via FDDI duplex SC connector 62 5 125 and 50 125 compatible Cable length up to 2000 m Generates 56 channel and 64 channel mode plus 96k Frame Standard up to 64 channels 24 bit 48 kHz S MUX 96k Frame up to 32 channels 24 bit 96 kHz Word Clock 2 x BNC separated driver stage Max output voltage 5 Vpp Output voltage 75 Ohm termination 4 0 Vpp Output impedance 10 Ohm Frequency range
10. 28 kHz 105 kHz User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 67 Stereo Monitor Output Phones e Signal to Noise ratio SNR 110 dB RMS unweighted 112 dBA 44 1 kHz unmuted e THD 100 dB lt 0 001 e THD N lt 98 dB lt 0 0015 96 e Crosstalk gt 100 dB e Frequency response 44 1 kHz 0 5 dB 1 Hz 21 1 kHz e Frequency response 96 kHz 0 5 dB 1 Hz 43 5 kHz e Output 6 3 mm 1 4 TRS jack e Output impedance 50 Ohm e Output level 0 dBFS 13 dBu 29 3 Digital e Clocks Internal MADI In Word Clock In optional Video and LTC In e Low jitter design 1 ns in PLL mode all inputs e Internal clock 800 ps jitter random spread spectrum e Jitter suppression of external clocks about 30 dB 2 4 kHz e Effective clock jitter influence on DA conversion near zero e Provides nearly jitter free word clock directly from the MADI input signal e Input PLL ensures zero dropout even at more than 100 ns jitter e Supported sample rates 28 kHz up to 200 kHz 29 4 MIDI e 2xMIDI I O via breakout cable e 1xMIDI I O via MADI e PCI bus based hi speed operation e Seperate 128 byte FIFO for input and output e MIDI state machine in hardware for reduced interrupt request load e Invisible transmission via User bit of channel 56 up to 48 kHz e Invisible transmission via User bit of channel 28 up to 96 kHz 29 5 Transfer Modes Resolution Bits per Sample ASIO e 24 32 bit 4 bytes stereo 8 bytes This format is
11. 35 36 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME User s Guide INTELLIGENT AUDIO SOLUTIONS HDSP MADI t Connections and TotalMix User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 37 22 Connections 22 1 Headphones HDSP MADI offers a hi quality analog monitor output The short circuit protected stereo line output provides high output level low impedance and is available via a 6 3 mm 1 4 TRS jack Therefore it is also suitable for a direct use with headphones The analog output is directly driven from the channels 63 64 in Double Speed mode with chan nels 33 34 Its output volume is controlled by the hardware output faders of channel 63 64 in TotalMix Additionally the analog output can play back any input or playback signal submix for example factory preset 5 6 and 7 RME s unique Speaker Protection re duces noise when switching the com Left n Ap puter on and off so there is no problem even when using active monitors Right In case the output should operate as line RE out an adapter TRS plug to RCA phono Shield plugs or TRS plug to TS plugs is re quired The pin assignment follows international standards The left channel is connected to the tip the right channel to the ring of the TRS jack plug Shield 22 2 MADI I Os The BNC input s ground free design is built according to AES10 1991 The input impedance is 75 Ohm It will operate error free from about 180 mVpp on The optical input and output uses a FDDI ISO
12. Clock and MADI must display SYNC In practice SyncCheck allows for a quick overview of the correct configuration of all digital de vices So one of the most difficult and error prone topics of the digital studio world finally be comes easy to handle 7O User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 30 3 Latency and Monitoring The term Zero Latency Monitoring has been introduced by RME in 1998 for the DIGI96 series of audio cards It stands for the ability to pass through the computer s input signal at the inter face directly to the output Since then the idea behind has become one of the most important features of modern hard disk recording In the year 2000 RME published two ground breaking Tech Infos on the topics Low Latency Background which are still up to date Monitoring ZLM and ASIO and Buffer and Latency Jitter both found on the RME Driver CD and the RME web site How much Zero is Zero From a technical view there is no zero Even the analog pass through is subject to phase er rors equalling a delay between input and output However delays below certain values can subjectively be claimed to be a zero latency This applies to analog routing and mixing and in our opinion also to RME s Zero Latency Monitoring The term describes the digital path of the audio data from the input of the interface to its output The digital receiver of the HDSP MADI can t operate un buffered and together with TotalMix and the output via the transmitter it
13. Identical signals are avail able at both the optical and the coaxial output An Analog MADI I O m O OOo ue y Y Y ge Out Optical BNC LED Out In 1no IavW NI IQVIN 9071VNY obvious use for this would be to simply connect two devices i e using the HDSP MADI as a splitter distribution 1 to 2 The Expansion Board s bracket has the word clock input and output Next to the input BNC socket a green LED dis plays the word clock in puts LOCK state Be tween the BNC sockets 75 Ohm word clock termi nation can be activated and verified by a yellow LED vA Y Termination A l a Active Set Out In Out In The included breakout cable is connected to the 9 pin Mini DIN connector and provides two MIDI inputs and outputs via four 5 pin DIN connectors Note If neither word clock I O nor MIDI I O are required it is not necessary to install the Expan sion Board at all User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 7 6 2 Internal Connectors X6 15 pin connector for the included HDSP MADI Expansion Board X7 10 pin connector for a connection of the Time Code Option TCO Not functional X1 No function Used to program the card in the factory Blue Jumper The internal blue jumper X4 allows to change the voltage level at the coaxial MADI output In the lower position the card generates 600 mVpp according to the specification Changing the jumper to the upper position the output voltage is increased
14. causes a typical delay of 3 samples At 44 1 kHz this equals about 68 ps 0 000068 s In Dou ble Speed mode the delay doubles to 6 samples for both ADAT and SPDIF Oversampling While the delays of digital interfaces can be disregarded altogether the analog inputs and out puts do cause a significant delay Modern converter chips operate with 64 or 128 times over sampling plus digital filtering in order to move the error prone analog filters away from the au dible frequency range as far as possible This typically generates a delay of one millisecond A playback and re record of the same signal via DA and AD loopback then causes an offset of the newly recorded track of about 2 ms The following table lists the delays of the HDSP MADI s DA converter for the headphones output 2 Sample frequency kHz 1441 48 DA 43 4 x 1 fs ms 10 98 09 L 1999991 nee DA 87 5 x 1 fs ms ei DA 176 8 x 1 fs ms EET Buffer Size Latency Windows This option found in the Settings dialog defines the size of the buffers for the audio data used in ASIO and GSIF see chapter 13 and 14 Mac OS X The buffer size is defined within the application Only some do not offer any setting For example iTunes is fixed to 512 samples General A setting of 64 samples at 44 1 kHz causes a latency of 1 5 ms for record and play back each But when performing a digital loopback test no latency offset can be detected The reason is that the softwa
15. compatible with 16 bit and 20 bit Resolutions below 24 bit are handled by the audio application MME e 16 bit 2 bytes stereo 4 bytes e 20 bit 3 bytes MSB stereo 6 bytes e 20 bit 4 bytes MSB stereo 8 bytes e 24 bit 3 bytes stereo 6 bytes e 24bit 4 bytes MSB stereo 8 bytes e 32 bit 4 bytes stereo 8 bytes 8 channel interleaved e 16 bit 2 bytes stereo 4 bytes e 32 bit 4 bytes stereo 8 bytes 68 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 30 Technical Background 30 1 MADI Basics MADI the serial Multichannel Audio Digital Interface has been defined already in 1989 as an extension of the existing AES3 standard following several manufacturers wish The format also known as AES EBU a balanced bi phase signal is limited to two channels Simply put MADI contains 28 of those AES EBU signals in serial i e after one another and the sample rate can still even vary by 12 5 The limit which cannot be exceeded is a data rate of 100Mbit s Because an exact sampling frequency is used in most cases the 64 channel mode was intro duced officially in 2001 It allows for a maximum sample rate of 48 kHz ca 1 corresponding to 32 channels at 96 kHz without exceeding the maximum data rate of 100 Mbit s The effective data rate of the port is 125 Mbit s due to additional coding Older devices understand and generate only the 56 channel format Newer devices often work in the 64 channel format but offer still no more than 56 audi
16. ganging faders maintaining their relative position Building groups or ganging can be done in any row but is limited to operate horizontally within one row If you usually don t need this you can at least gang the analog outputs The advan tage over holding the Alt key is that Alt sets both channels to the same level can be handy too while grouping via selection will retain any offset if you need one channel to be louder all the time etc Note The relative positions are memorized until the faders are pulled down so that they reach upper or lower maximum position and the group is changed select another channel or deselect one of the group Tip Gang some submixes and watch all routing levels change in the Matrix view 26 3 Copy Routings to other Channels TotalMix allows to copy complete routing schemes of inputs and outputs Example 1 You have input 5 guitar routed within several submixes hardware outputs headphones Now you ll get another input with keyboards that should appear in the same way on all headphones Select input 5 open the menu Edit It shows Copy In 5 Now select the desired new input for example In 8 The menu now shows Paste In 5 to In 8 Click on it done If you are familiar with this functionality just use Ctrl C and Ctrl V Else the self updating menu will always let you know what actually will happen Tip Have the Matrix window open as second window when doing this It will show the new routings
17. immediately so copying is easier to understand and to follow Example 2 You have built a comprehensive submix on outputs 4 5 but now need the exact same signal also on the outputs 6 7 Click on Out 4 Ctrl C click on Out 6 Ctrl V same with 5 7 you re done The Matrix shows you the difference between both examples Example 1 means copying lines horizontally while example 2 means copying rows vertically Example 3 Let s say the guitarist finished his recording and you now need the same signal again on all headphones but this time it comes from the recording software playback row No problem you can even copy between rows 1 and 2 copying between row 3 and 1 2 isn t possi ble But how to select while a group is active De selecting the group first Not necessary TotalMix always updates the copy and paste process with the ast selection This way you don t have to de activate any group selections when desiring to perform a copy and paste action 26 4 Delete Routings The fastest way to delete complex routings select a channel in the mixer view click on the menu entry Edit and select Delete Or simply hit the Del key Attention there is no undo in To talMix so be careful with this function 58 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 26 5 Recording a Subgroup Loopback The HDSP series uses TotalMix also for a routings of the subgroup outputs hardware outputs bottom row to the recording software Unfortunately this feature
18. normal record and record while play will always work correctly In certain cases however AutoSync may cause feedback in the digital carrier so synchronization breaks down To remedy this switch the HDSP s clock mode over to Master Via Pref Sync Ref preferred synchronization reference a preferred input can be defined As long as the card sees a valid signal there this input will be designated as the sync source oth erwise the other inputs will be scanned in turn If none of the inputs are receiving a valid signal the card automatically switches clock mode to Master Thanks to its AutoSync technique and lightning fast PLLs the HDSP is not only capable of han dling standard frequencies but also any sample rate between 28 and 105 kHz Even the word clock input which most users will use in varispeed operation allows any frequency between 28 kHz and 105 kHz The HDSP MADI s outstanding clock control allows for a synchronization of the output signal to the word clock s input signal not only at identical sample rates but also at half quarter double and quad sample rates A playback of 96 kHz can easily be synchronized via a 48 kHz word clock signal SyncCheck If several digital devices are to be used simultaneously in a system they not only have to oper ate with the same sample frequency but also be synchronous with each other This is why digi tal systems always need a single device defined as master which sends the sa
19. possible on usual single PCl bus systems The limit is around 80 channels in each direction and varies depending on how many channels of inputs and outputs are active Here s an example of Intel s popular 875 chipset which uses the ICH5 as southbridge The crackle free maximum is e 128channels record with up to 96 channels playback e 64channels record with up to 128 channels playback If a PATA harddisk is used instead of SATA in this specific system all 128 channels can be used in both directions without clicks But neither type of disk will allow simultaneous recording and playback of so many tracks here With 80 channels transferring data each way and a seemingly low PCI load of about 30 7 MByte s every additional system activity will cause a short interruption of the PCI bus activity Be it disk or network access depending on chipset and board architecture this will cause a disturbance of the audio signal These disturbances begin to appear on channel 64 and the stronger they get the more lower channels will be affected also Therefore they may not be noticed immediately Although a single MADI card will usually work trouble free on modern computers some points should be noted e The PCI bus should be kept free of other devices This also applies to on board components such as modems USB devices or network adapters e f disturbances occur during hard drive activity Modern SATA hard drives often feature ex tremely high peak d
20. programs uses its own audio channels exclusively For example ASIO could use channels 1 2 and Gigastudio with GSIF channels 3 4 simultaneously and so on Simultaneous operation of GSIF and ASIO requires to use different channels For example if Cubase uses tracks 1 2 these tracks can not be used by Gigastudio Common Problems Please note that Gigastudio is running unexpectedly in the background thus blocking its as signed audio channels as soon as the Gigastudio MIDI ports are used even when Gigastu dio itself hasn t been started This causes a lot of confusion as the driver seems to behave completely buggy and the user does not recognize the simple reason for it for example simul taneous operation of ASIO and GSIF on the same channels If Gigastudio starts up properly loads gig files too but won t play at all even when using the virtual keyboard Go to Hardware Routing and select a valid MIDI input port Note that blank is not valid but none is The limitation of 32 channels is caused by Gigastudio 2 54 According to Tascam Gigastudio 3 will support 64 channels User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 23 15 Using multiple HDSP MADI AES 32 The current driver supports operation of up to three HDSP MADI Both HDSP MADI and HDSP AES 32 use the same driver therefore can be used at the same time Please note that only one TCO of one card can be used of course All units have to be in sync i e have to receive valid
21. rate for unknown reasons It also prevents a change from Dou ble Speed 96 kHz to Single Speed 48 kHz which would cause configuration and routing problems by the changed amount of MADI channels The DDS dialog requires the HDSP MADI to be in clock mode Master The frequency set ting will only be applied to this one specific card Changing the sample rate in bigger steps during record playback often results in a loss of di audio or brings up warning messages of the audio software Therefore the desired sample rate should be set at least coarsely before starting the software User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 15 DDS Activates all settings of this dialog HDSP MADI AES 32 Settings Value Shows the sample rate as adjusted in this dialog The sample rate is defined AES al MADI 2 DDS About DDS Value Coarse Fine by the basic setting frequency the F Active 44285H2 4 0 4 multiplier and the position of the acti vated fader Fremena Ri C 48 048 0 1 Frequency C 48 000 Sets a fixed basic sample rate which h can be modified by multiplier and fader s C 46 080 4 H Freq Multiplier C 45 937 4 CRU F Changes the basic sample rate into C 44144 801 2 Single Double oder Quad Speed mode 44100 Coarse C 44 056 0 1 2 Fader for coarse modification of the C 32000 basic sample rate Click Active to acti vate it Minimum step size 1 Hz Freq Multiplier as D4x
22. source AC as on Tr and sample rate is displayed in 9 48K Frame oe iem yis the AutoSync Ref display 96K Frame 48K Frame Frequency 44 1 kHz 44 1 kHz Safe Mode Optical The automatic clock selection zum ji checks and changes between the clock sources Word Clock and MADI Input Status Displays the state of the current input signal Channel format 64 or 56 channels Frame format 48K or 96K Sample rate measured Active input optical or coaxial System Clock Shows the current clock state of the HDSP system The system is either Master using its own clock or Slave see AutoSync Ref SyncCheck SyncCheck indicates whether there is a valid signal Lock for the inputs Word Clock and MADI or if there is a valid and synchronous signal Sync The AutoSync Reference display shows the input and frequency of the current sync source 30 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 19 2 Settings dialog DDS Usually soundcards and audio interfaces generate their internal clock master mode by a quartz Therefore the internal clock can be set to 44 1 kHz or 48 kHz but not to a value in be tween SteadyClock RME s sensational Low Jitter Clock System is based on a Direct Digital Synthesizer DDS This superior circuitry can generate nearly any frequency with highest pre cision DDS has been implemented into the HDSP MADI with regard to the needs of professional video applications as well as to maximum flexibility The dialog DDS inc
23. stereo output defined above to monaural playback Useful to check for Ae Monit mono compatibility and phase problems Or du Phones Talkback A click on this button will dim the Main Monitor output see above by an amount set up in the Preferences dialog At the same time the control room s microphone signal source defined in Preferences is sent to the three destinations described below as Monitor Phones The mic level is adjusted with the channel s input fader Monitor Phones 1 2 38 Use the drop down menu to select the hardware outputs where the submixes are sent to These submixes are usually phones mixdowns for the musicians A click on the button allows to hear the specific submix via the Main Monitor outputs So when setting up or modifying the submix for the musician this process can be monitored easily and any time Or in other words you can easily check other hardware outputs submixes by using the Monitor Phones function without the need to copy paste routings back and forth or to reconfigure the cabling at the hardware Preferences 24 10 Preferences r Talkback The dialog box Preferences is available via the menu mu Mic9 e Options or directly via F3 Dim 11 5 dB Talkback Input Select the input channel of the Talkback signal Listenback microphone in control room Input Mic 10 Dim Amount of attenuation of the Main Monitor output in dB oh F 19 4 dB Listenback Monit
24. t cause a wrong trigger The word clock input is shipped as high impedance type not terminated A push switch allows to activate internal termination 75 Ohms The switch is found beside the word clock input socket Use a small pencil or similar and carefully push the blue switch so that it snaps into its lock position The yellow LED will be lit when termination is active Another push will release it again and de activate the termination Output The word clock output of the HDSP MADI is constantly active providing the current sample frequency as word clock signal As a result in Master mode the provided word clock is defined by the currently used software or the DDS dialog In Slave mode the provided frequency is iden tical to the one present at the currently chosen clock input When the current clock signal fails the HDSP MADI switches to Master mode and adjusts itself to the next best matching fre quency 44 1 kHz 48 kHz etc Selecting 96 kHz 48K Frame in the Settings dialog causes the output signal to always stay within the range of 32 kHz to 48 kHz So at 96 kHz sample rate the output word clock is 48 kHz User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 39 The received word clock signal can be distributed to other devices by using the word clock out put With this the usual T adapter can be avoided and the HDSP MADI operates as Signal Refresher This kind of operation is highly recommended because e input and output are phase locke
25. to make sure that factory preset 5 is loaded The faders in the top row are set to maximum attenuation called m a in the following so there is no monitoring of the input channels The Submix View is active therefore for improved over view all outputs except 63 64 are greyed out Additionally all faders are set to the current routing target 63 64 All faders of the middle row are set to 0 dB so no matter on which channels a playback happens the audio will be audible via the Phones output Just try it We will now create a submix on outputs 1 2 Please start a multitrack playback In the third row click on the channels of hardware output 1 or 2 The Submix View changes to 1 2 Both the fader settings and the output levels of all other channels are still visible but greyed out for im proved orientation As soon as 1 2 became active all faders of the second row jumped to their bottom position except those of playback channels 1 2 This is correct because as mentioned above the factory preset includes a 1 1 routing Click on 3 4 and the faders above are the only active ones same for 5 6 and so on Back to 1 2 Now you can change all the faders of all inputs and playback channels just as you like thus making any input and playback signals audible via the outputs 1 2 The panorama can be changed too Click into the area above the fader and drag the green bar in order to set the panorama between left and right The level meters of the third
26. will always be on top of the Win dows desktop Note This function may result in problems with windows containing help text as the TotalMix window will even be on top of those windows so the help text isn t readable Deactivate Screensaver When active checked any activated Windows screensaver will be disabled temporarily Ignore Position When active the windows size and position stored in a file or preset will not be used The routing will be activated but the window will not change ASIO Direct Monitoring Windows only When de activated any ADM commands will be ignored by TotalMix In other words ASIO Direct Monitoring is globally de activated Link Faders Selecting this option all faders will be treated as stereo pairs and moved pair wise Hotkey L Level Meter Setup Configuration of the Level Meters Hotkey F2 See chapter 24 14 Preferences Opens a dialog box to configure several functions like Pan Law Dim Talkback Dim Listenback Dim See chapter 24 10 Enable MIDI Control Turns MIDI control on The channels which are currently under MIDI con trol are indicated by a colour change of the info field below the faders black turns to yellow Deactivate MIDI in Background Disables the MIDI control as soon as another application is in the focus or in case TotalMix has been minimized 54 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 24 14 Level Meter The HDSP MADI calculates all the display values Peak Over and RMS in hardware
27. 63 64 phones monitoring Hardware output 63 64 selected and at 12 dB Preset 6 Description As prest 5 but submix of all input channels to channels 63 64 phones monitoring Preset 7 Description As preset 5 but submix of all input and playback channels to channels 63 64 phones monitoring Preset 8 Description Panic As Preset 4 but playback channels muted too no output signal Preset Banks Instead of a single preset all eight presets can be stored and loaded at once This is done via Menu File Save All Presets as and Open All Presets file suffix map After the loading the presets can be activated by the preset buttons In case the presets have been renamed see chapter 24 11 these names will be stored and loaded too 50 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 24 9 The Monitor Panel The Monitor panel provides several options usually found on analog mixing desks It offers quick access to monitoring functions which are needed all the time in typical studio work Monitor Main Use the drop down menu to select the hardware outputs where your main monitors are con nected to Monitor Main 83454 Dim A click on this button will lower the volume of your main monitor output see W above by an amount set up in the Preferences dialog see below This is the same as moving the third row faders down a bit but much more convenient as the old setting is back by a simple mouse click Dim Mono Talkback Mono Sets the
28. Check DSP Level meter in hardware peak and RMS calculation TotalMix 8192 channel mixer with 40 bit internal resolution SteadyClock Jitter immune super stable digital clock Quick Boot technology for immediate loading of the hardware settings User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 5 Hardware Installation Before installing the PCI card please make sure the computer is switched off and the power cable is disconnected from the mains supply Inserting or removing a PCI card while the computer is in operation can cause irreparable damage to both motherboard and card 1 Disconnect the power cord and all other cables from the computer Remove the computer s housing Further information on how to do this can be obtained from your computer s instruction manual e Important Before removing the HDSP MADI from its protective bag discharge any static in your body by touching the metal chassis of the PC gt A plied flat ribbon cable ONDA Prior to installation Connect the HDSP MADI card to the Expansion Board using the sup Insert the HDSP MADI firmly into a free PCI slot press and fasten the screw Insert the Expansion Board and fasten the screw Replace the computer s housing Reconnect all cables including the power cord 6 Hardware Connectors 6 1 External Connectors The bracket of the main board has two MADI inter faces optical and coaxial input and output each a MADI error LED and the analog stereo output
29. Guide HDSP MADI RME 10 4 Firmware Update The Flash Update Tool updates the HDSP MADI to the latest firmware version It requires an already installed driver Start the program madi aes fut exe The Flash Update Tool displays the current revision of the HDSP MADI and whether it needs an update or not If so then please press the Update button A progress bar will indicate when the flash process is finished The bar moves slowly first program then faster verify If more than one interface card is installed all cards can be flashed by changing to the next tab and repeating the process After the update the PCI card need to be resettet This is done by powering down and shutting off the PC A warm boot is not enough When the update fails status failure the card s second BIOS will be used from the next cold boot on Secure BIOS Technology Therefore the card stays fully functional The flash process should then be tried again on a different computer Note Because of the changed hardware revision Windows 2000 XP will start the hardware assistant and wants to install new drivers Do NOT let Windows search for new drivers but follow the instructions given in chapter 10 2 11 Configuring the HDSP MADI 11 1 Settings Dialog Configuration of the HDSP MADI is done via its own settings dialog The panel Settings can be opened e by clicking on the hammer symbol in the Task Bar s system tray The mixer of the HDSP MADI To
30. IEC 9413 3 compatible optical module accord ing to AES10 1991 More information can be found in chapter 30 1 MADI Basics HDSP MADI includes automatic input selection Safe Mode Input In case the current input signal fails the unit switches to the other input immediately This mode called redundancy mode offers improved safety against errors on the transmission line Switching the inputs is done in about one second Redundancy operation is displayed in the Settings dialog The BNC output is built according to AES10 1991 The output s impedance is 75 Ohm The output voltage will be 600 mVpp when terminated with 75 Ohm Changing the internal blue jumper X4 to the upper position the output voltage is increased to 1 2 Vpp This setting is not intended to be used in normal operation But in case of a very long or lossy coaxial cable this setting may ensure an error free operation of the transmission line 38 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 22 3 MIDI The HDSP MADI offers two MIDI I O via 5 pin DIN connectors The MIDI ports are added to the system by the driver Using MIDI capable software these ports can be accessed under the name MADI MIDI Using more than one HDSP MADI a consecutive number is added to the port name like MAD MIDI In 1 2 etc The MIDI In port is available for both GSIF GSIF 2 Low Latency and standard MME MIDI si multaneously The third MIDI port MADI MIDI In 3 1 and MADI MIDI Out 3 1 receives and trans
31. ROW DOWN or Assignable2 PAGE EQ PLUGINS INSERT STOP PLAY PAN MUTE Ch 1 8 SOLO Ch 1 8 SELECT Ch 1 8 REC Ch 1 8 F1 F8 F9 F10 F12 Meaning in TotalMix volume Main Monitor channel s faders reset fader to Unity Gain pan pan center move one channel left move one channel right move eight channels left move eight channels right move one row up move one row down Master Mute Master Solo Dim Main Monitor Talkback Mono Main Monitor Mute Solo Select in Submix mode only select output bus load preset 1 8 select Main Monitor Monitor Phones 1 3 Tested with Behringer BCF2000 Firmware v1 07 in Mackie Control emulation for Steinberg mode and with Mackie Control under Mac OS X 62 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 27 5 Simple MIDI Control The stereo output faders lowest row which are set up as Monitor Main outputs in the Monitor panel can also be controlled by the standard Control Change Volume via MIDI channel 1 With this the main volume of the HDSP MADI is controlable from nearly any MIDI equipped hardware device Even if you don t want to control all faders and pans some buttons are highly desired to be available in hardware These are mainly the Talkback and the Dim button and the new moni toring options listen to Phones submixes Fortunately a Mackie Control compatible controller is not required to control these buttons as they are steered by simple Note On Off commands on MIDI ch
32. Use power outlets on different branch circuits or install AC line filters e Contact your local retailer or any qualified radio and television engineer FCC compliance statement Tested to comply with FCC standards for home or office use 10 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME User s Guide RTE INTELLIGENT AUDIO SOLUTIONS HDSP MADI Driver Installation and Operation Windows User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 10 Driver and Firmware 10 1 Driver Installation After the HDSP MADI has been installed correctly see 5 Hardware Installation and the com puter has been switched on Windows will recognize the new hardware component and start its Hardware Wizard Insert the RME Driver CD into your CD ROM drive and follow further in structions which appear on your computer screen The driver files are located in the directory MADI_AES32_w2k on the RME Driver CD Windows will install the Hammerfall DSP System driver and will register the card in the system as a new audio device After a reboot the HDSP MADI is ready for use In case the warning messages Digital signature not found Do not install driver not certified driver or similar come up Don t listen to Microsoft listen to us and continue with the installation In case the Hardware Wizard does not show up automatically after installation of the card do not attempt to install the drivers manually An installation of drivers for non recognized hardware will cause a
33. User s Guide NE INTELLIGENT AUDIO SOLUTIONS Hammerfall DSP System MADI DVD TotaiMix 24 Bit 96 kHz Y SyncAlign ZLM SyncCheck SteadyClock PCI Busmaster Digital I O Card 64 Channels MADI Interface 24 Bit 96 kHz Digital Audio Stereo Analog Monitoring 128 x 64 Matrix Router 2 x MIDI I O MIDI embedded in MADI Quick Boot General 1 Introduction aaaaaeaeeenenenenrnrnenrrnnenrnrnnnnnrnnnennnnnnn 6 2 Package Contents 6 3 System Requirements 6 4 Brief Description and Characteristics 6 5 Hardware Installation ssss 7 6 Hardware Connectors 6 1 External Connectors eese 7 6 2 Internal Connectors 8 7 Accessories corriere rentia ran apad Ri 8 8 Warranty iis cic cedido aii ei hie 8 9 APPENA iiec DE 9 gt Driver Installation and Operation Windows 10 Driver and Firmware 10 1 Driver Installation essseeseeeeeee 12 10 2 Driver Update 12 10 3 Deinstalling the Drivers sseesss 12 10 4 Firmware Update 13 11 Configuring the HDSP MADI 11 1 Settings Dialog 13 11 2 Settings Dialog DDS sesssssss 15 11 3 Clock Modes Synchronization 16 12 Operation and Usage 124 Playback riot dto e
34. air can t be used in Gigasam pler Studio GSIF nor under MME WaveLab etc anymore This is no limitation at all because TotalMix allows any output routing and with this a playback of multiple software on the same hardware outputs Note that the inputs can be used at the same time as the driver sends the data to all applications simultaneously ASIO Multiclient RME audio interfaces support ASIO multi client operation It is possible to use more than one ASIO software at the same time Again the sample rate has to be identical and each software has to use its own playback channels Once again the same inputs can be used simultaneously RME s sophisticated tool D G Check is an exception to this rule It operates like an ASIO host using a special technique to access playback channels already occupied Therefore DIGICheck is able to analyse and display playback data from any software no matter which format the software uses 20 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 12 5 Recording Unlike analog soundcards which produce empty wave files or noise when no input signal is present digital I O cards always need a valid input signal to start recording To take this into account RME has included two unique features in the HDSP MADI a compre hensive I O signal status display showing sample frequency lock and sync status in the Set tings dialog and the protective Safe Mode Frequency function If a 48 kHz signal is fed to the input and the app
35. am next page the record signal usually stays un altered To talMix does not reside within the record path and does not change the record level or the audio data to be recorded exception loopback mode The hardware input signal can be passed on as often as desired even with different levels This is a big difference to conventional mixing desks where the channel fader always con trols the level for all routing destinations simultaneously The level meter of inputs and playback channels are connected pre fader to be able to visually monitor where a signal is currently present The level meters of the hardware s out puts are connected post fader thus displaying the actual output level User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 43 v9 01 c 919 jauueu ved re T UM jndino a1eMpieH Ae eee v9 40 1 c ouueut ndn eje pae m l BIEMYOS oipny L U9 p10994 jauueyD m BEER jndino a1eMpieH i 90 G00Z g0 uejbeig 901g IOYVN dSQH jauueyD J8XIN dSq I EJeulueH yndu sempuey XINIEIOL JWH 79 01 S amp ow User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 44 24 2 The User Interface The visual design of the TotalMix mixer is a result of its capability to route hardware inputs and software playback channels to any hardware output The HDSP MADI provides 64 input chan nels 64 software playback channels and 64 hardware output channels HARDWARE INPUTS SOFTWARE PLAYBACK zm jum m emm jam mm ja emm
36. anel Sounds lt Also HDSP should not be the Preferred Device for playback as this could cause loss of synchroniza tion and unwanted noises If you feel you cannot do without system sounds you should con sider buying a cheap Blaster clone and select this as Preferred Device in Control Panel Multimedia Audio lt The screenshot to the zo Pref x right shows a typical TUUS Six configuration dialog as Q Tempo Time code amp Audio Database eG CD Burning A Syne displayed by a ste B General i Audio Card Fite i Appearance Le Editing E Display reo wave editor After Playback Rues selecting one of the 32 MME WDM MADI Dut 142 1 MME WDM MADI In 1 2 1 z i MME WDM Microsoft Soundmapper audio data is sent to Mair E EI E Buffer Size 2048 2 ist Par MME WDM MADI In S 6 1 the according audio x MME WDM MADI In 748 1 Latency 16bit 44 1kHz stereo 46 ms MME WDM MADI In 9 10 1 channels MME WDM MADI fi S l n M Convert mono to stereo ___ MMEWDM MADI In 13414 1 i 3 il MME WwDM MADI In 15 16 1 Increasing the number en Playback Resolution v Auto Stop if drops ou MME WDM MADI n 17418101 f f di it Threshold 20 MME WDM MADI In 19 20 1 and or size of audio C 20bit MME WDN MADI R121 221l p A n buffers may prevent t a Eee MME WDM MADI In 25 26 1 the audio signal from EE PS M Get position from audi EX MEDI Mc ertorm s
37. annel 1 The notes are hex decimal keys Monitor Main 3E 62 D3 Dim 5D 93 A5 Mono 2A 42 F 1 Talkback 5E 94 A 5 Monitor Phones 1 3F 63 D 3 Monitor Phones 2 40 64 E3 Monitor Phones 3 41 65 F 3 Preset 1 36 54 F 2 Preset 2 37 55 82 Preset 3 38 56 G 2 Preset 4 39 57 A2 Preset 5 3A 58 A 2 Preset 6 3BB 59 B2 Preset 7 3C 60 C 3 Preset 8 3D 61 C 3 An example of a small MIDI controller covering such MIDI functionality and even some more is the Behringer BCN44 This little box has 4 pots and 8 buttons for all the above functions for less than 60 Euros 27 6 Loopback Detection The Mackie Control protocol requires feedback of the received commands back to the hard ware controller So usually TotalMix will be set up with both a MIDI input and MIDI output Un fortunately any small error in wiring and setup will cause a MIDI feedback loop here which then completely blocks the computer the CPU To prevent the computer from freezing TotalMix sends a special MIDI note every 0 5 seconds to its MIDI output As soon as it detects this special note at the input the MIDI functionality is disabled After fixing the loopback check Enable MIDI Control under Options to reactivate the TotalMix MIDI User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 63 64 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME User s Guide RUE INTELLIGENT AUDIO SOLUTIONS HDSP MADI p Technical Reference User s Guide HDSP MADI RME
38. are offers a number of helpful well thought of practical functions and options which affect how the card operates it can be configured to suit many different requirements The following is available in the Settings dialog e Input selection e Configuration of digital I Os e Synchronization behaviour e State of input and output e Current sample rate 009 HDSP MADI AES 32 Settings 3 Any changes performed in the AES 32 1x0 MADI SLOT 4 DDS About Settings dialog are applied MADI In Clock Mode System Clock immediately confirmation e g by exiting the dialog is Optical AutoSync et a not required However settings S cme Prises mnis b should not be changed during MADI Out Pref Sync Ref SyncCheck playback or record if it can be 56 28 ch O Word Clock Word Clock No Lock avoided as this can cause 9 64 32 ch MADI In MADI Sync Unwanted netsee 96 kHz Input Status AutoSync Reference The status displays at the bot 48K Frame 64 channels Input MADI tom of the dialog box give the Q 96K Frame assumens a lesen nen user precise information about ak eae NE the current status of the sys zu sing tem and the status of all digital E signals Quick Boot All the card s settings described below are stored in a hardware memory and are loaded im mediately after a power on of the computer In clock mode Master even the last used sample rate is set Directly after switching on the computer a stable and predictab
39. as to make sure that both programs have been removed from the system to prevent the old Settings dialog and TotalMix from being loaded 18 3 Flash Update The Flash Update Tool updates the HDSP MADI card to the latest firmware version It requires an already installed driver Start the program HDSP MADI AES 32 Flash The Flash Update Tool displays the current revi sion of the HDSP interface and whether it needs an update or not If so then simply press the Update button A progress bar will indicate when the flash process is finished The bar moves slowly first program then faster verify If more than one interface card is installed all cards can be flashed by changing to the next tab and repeating the process After the update the PCI card needs to be resettet This is done by powering down and shutting off the PC A warm boot is not enough When the update fails status failure the card s second BIOS will be used from the next cold boot on Secure BIOS Technology Therefore the card stays fully functional The flash process should then be tried again on a different computer 28 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 19 Configuring the HDSP MADI 19 1 Settings Dialog Configuring the HDSP MADI is done via its own settings dialog The panel Settings can be opened by clicking on the hammer icon in the dock The mixer of the HDSP MADI TotalMix can be opened by clicking on the mixer icon in the dock The Hammerfall DSP s hardw
40. ata rates which are unnecessary for audio playback and recording but tend to disturb the PCI bus In this case taking the step back to PATA controllers and drives can turn out to be a big step forward On Macs keeping audio files on an external FireWire drive may be worthwile Even FireWire 800 efficiently limits peak performance but the aver age data rate will be sufficient for many audio tracks Using two HDSP MADI cards to full capacity requires boards with a very high transfer rate be tween north bridge and south bridge in order to also allow the processing of other data hard drive in real time The 266 MByte s of an Intel 875 chipset are simply not sufficient The solu tion is found in motherboards with server chipsets that usually incorporate several separated PCI busses One good example is the Tyan 8KW S2885 which not only operates flawlessly with two MADI cards but also provides ample CPU power thanks to Dual Opteron CPUs User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 75 30 8 Terminology Single Speed Sample rate range originally used in Digital Audio Typical applications are 32 kHz digital radio broadcast 44 1 kHz CD and 48 kHz DAT Double Speed Doubles the original sample rate range in order to achieve higher audio quality and improved audio processing 64 kHz is practically never used 88 2 kHz is quite rare in spite of certain ad vantages 96 kHz is a common format Sometimes called Double Fast Quad Speed Controver
41. aving multiple PCI busses The PCI bus load of 128 channels plus the realtime behaviour necessary for audio are critical parameters A usage of two cards at full track count is therefore difficult to achieve on current Mac computers See chapter 30 7 PCI Performance 34 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 21 Hotline Troubleshooting The newest information can always be found on our website www rme audio com section Sup port Macintosh OS Playback works but record doesn t e Check that there is a valid signal at the input e Check whether the Hammerfall DSP has been selected as recording device in the audio application e Check whether the sample frequency set in the audio application Recording properties or similar matches the input signal e Check that cables devices have not been connected in a closed loop If so set the systems s clock mode to Master Crackle during record or playback e Increase the number and size of buffers in the application e Try different cables to rule out any defects here e Use an external FireWire drive for the audio data Internal SATA drives overload the system bus in some Macs thus disturb PCI audio The card and drivers have been installed correctly but playback does not work e Is Hammerfall DSP listed in the System Profiler PCI Vendor 10EE Device ID 3FC6 e Has Hammerfall DSP been selected as current playback device in the audio application User s Guide HDSP MADI RME
42. blue screen when booting Windows 10 2 Driver Update RME s driver updates often include a new madi aes inf file Also the revision number of the hardware might change after a flash update To prevent Windows 2000 XP from using an old madi inf or to copy some of the old driver files be sure NOT to let Windows search for the driver Instead tell Windows what to do Under Control Panel System Device Manager Sound Video and Game Controllers RME Hammerfall DSP MADI Properties Driver you ll find the Update Driver button Select Install from a list or specific location advanced click Next select Don t search I will choose the driver to install click Next then Have Disk Now point to the driver update s directory 10 3 Deinstalling the Drivers A deinstallation of the HDSP s driver files is not necessary and not supported by Windows anyway Thanks to full Plug amp Play support the driver files will not be loaded after the hardware has been removed If desired these files can then be deleted manually Unfortunately Windows Plug amp Play methods do not cover the additional autorun entries of To talMix the Settings dialog and the registration of the ASIO driver Those entries can be re moved from the registry through a software deinstallation request This request can be found like all deinstallation entries in Contro Panel Software Click on the entry RME Hammerfall DSP MADI and AES 32 12 User s
43. buted in the form of a network split with BNC T adapters and terminated with resistors We recommend using off the shelf BNC cables to connect all devices as this type of cable is used for most computer networks You will find all the neces sary components T adapters terminators cables in most electronics and or computer stores Ideally the word clock signal is a 5 Volt square wave with the frequency of the sample rate of which the harmonics go up to far above 500 kHz To avoid voltage loss and reflections both the cable itself and the terminating resistor at the end of the chain should have an impedance of 75 Ohm If the voltage is too low synchronization will fail High frequency reflection effects can cause both jitter and sync failure Unfortunately there are still many devices on the market even newer digital mixing consoles which are supplied with a word clock output that can only be called unsatisfactory If the output breaks down to 3 Volts when terminating with 75 Ohms you have to take into account that a device of which the input only works from 2 8 Volts and above does not function correctly al ready after 3 meter cable length So it is not astonishing that because of the higher voltage word clock networks are in some cases more stable and reliable if cables are not terminated at all Ideally all outputs of word clock delivering devices are designed with very low impedance but all word clock inputs with high impedance in o
44. ce Latency shad n Clock Mode quency of the current sync source G4 1 5 ms Coaxial f AutoSync C 128 3 ms g Optical Master MADI In a 256 6 ms MADI Qut Pref Sync Ref Defines the input for the MADI sig 512 12 ms 56 28 14 ch Word Clock nal Optical relates to the optical C 1024 23 ms G 64 2 6 ch C MADIIn input Coaxial to the BNC socket 2048 46 ms C 4096 93 ms caer M MADI Out C g192 186ms 48K Frame Defines the format of the MADI out TEE 96K Frame p AutoSync Ref put signal MADI can be a 56 or 64 Input MADI h si Word Clock No Lock Input Status Freg 48kHz channel signal MADI E a channels 48K Frame System Clock 96 kHz Time C 48 kH Mode SI Sample rates higher than 48 kHz E m ut can be transmitted using the normal Bs 48K Frame or using a native 96K Frame at the card s output Abbrechen 14 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME Input Status Displays the state of the current input signal Channel format 64 or 56 channels Frame format 48K or 96K Sample rate measured Active input optical or coaxial Clock Mode The unit can be configured to use its internal clock source Master or the clock source pre defined via Pref Sync Ref AutoSync Pref Sync Ref Used to pre select the desired clock source If the selected source isn t available the unit will change to the next available one The current clock source and sample rate is displayed i
45. ck provides the user with an easy way of checking whether all digital de vices connected to the system are properly configured With SyncCheck finally anyone can master this common source of error previously one of the most complex issues in the digital studio world ptical pae HDSP MADI AES 32 Settings AES 1 MADI 2 DDS About Safe Mode Frequency M SyncAlian V Input V TMS Buffer Size Latency MADI In Clock Mode 64 1 5 ms Coaxial AutoSync C 128 3 ms Optical C Master ad hs 2 Eu MADI Qut Pref Sync Ref igs aliem C 56 28 14 ch Word Clock ieee eme 64 32 181ch C MADIIn C 2048 46 ms C C 4096 83 ms Se C giS2 186ms 48K Frame 96K Frame AutoSyne Ref SyncCheck Input MADI Word Clock No Lock Input Status Freg 48kHz MADI Sync 64 channels 48K Frame System Clock 48 kHz Mode Slave Freg 48 kHz Abbrechen User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 12 Operation and Usage 12 1 Playback The HDSP system can play back audio data only in supported modes channels PCM and formats sample rate bit resolution Otherwise an error message appears for example at 22 kHz and 8 bit In the audio application being used HDSP must be selected as output device This can often be found in the Options Preferences or Settings menus under Playback Device Audio Devices Audio etc We strongly recommend switching off all system sounds via Control P
46. ck which processes the read out of the embedded data Example The HDSP MADI is set to 44 1 kHz internally clock mode Master and a mixing desk with MADI output is con nected to the card s MADI input The status display will show LOCK immediately but usually the mixing desk s sample rate is generated internally it is Master too and thus slightly higher or lower than the HDSP MADI s internal sample rate Result When reading out the data there will frequently be read errors that cause clicks and drop outs Also when using multiple clock signals a simple LOCK is not sufficient The above described problem can be solved elegantly by setting the HDSP MADI from Master to AutoSync its inter nal clock will then be the clock delivered by the mixing desk But in case the card is clocked to word clock this signal can also be un synchronous and there will again be a slight difference in the sample rate and therefore clicks and drop outs In order to display those problems the HDSP MADI includes SyncCheck It checks all clocks used for synchronicity If they are not synchronous to each other the status display will show LOCK If they are synchronous to each other i e absolutely identical the status display will change to SYNC In the example above it would have been obvious immediately that the entry LOCK is shown in SyncCheck instead of SYNC right after connecting the mixing desk With external synchronisation via word clock both entries Word
47. ctive to activate it Minimum step size 1 Hz Fine Fader for fine modification of the basic sample rate Click Active to activate it Minimum step size 1 Hz Notes on the faders A mouse click within the fader area above or below the fader know will move the fader with the smallest step size up or down Holding the Ctrl key while clicking will cause the fader to jump to its center 0 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 31 Application examples DDS allows for a simultaneous change of speed and tune during record and playback From alignment to other sources up to creative effects everything is possible DDS allows to intentionally de tune the complete DAW This way the DAW can match instru ments which have a wrong or unchangeable tuning DDS allows to define a specific sample rate This feature can be is useful in case the system randomly changes the sample rate for unknown reasons It also prevents a change from Dou ble Speed 96 kHz to Single Speed 48 kHz which would cause configuration and routing problems by the changed amount of MADI channels 19 3 Clock Modes Synchronisation AutoSync The HDSP MADI has been equipped with AutoSync an automatic clock source selection which adopts the first available input with a valid digital signal as the clock reference input The input currently used as sync reference is shown in the AutoSync Ref status field together with its current sample frequency AutoSync guarantees that
48. d and in phase 0 to each other e SteadyClock removes nearly all jitter from the input signal e the exceptional input 1 Vpp sensitivity instead of the usual 2 5 Vpp dc cut Signal Adapta tion Circuit plus SteadyClock guarantee a secure function even with highly critical word clock signals e the Expansion Board provides two word clock outputs with separated driver stages Thanks to a low impedance but short circuit proof output the HDSP MADI delivers 4 Vpp to 75 Ohms For wrong termination with 2 x 75 Ohms 37 5 Ohms there are still 3 3 Vpp fed into the network per output 23 2 Technical Description and Usage In the analog domain one can connect any device to another device a synchronization is not necessary Digital audio is different It uses a clock the sample frequency The signal can only be processed and transmitted when all participating devices share the same clock If not the signal will suffer from wrong samples distortion crackle sounds and drop outs AES EBU SPDIF ADAT and MADI are self clocking an additional word clock connection in principle isn t necessary But when using more than one device simultaneously problems are likely to happen For example any self clocking will not work in a loop cabling when there is no master main clock inside the loop Additionally the clock of all participating devices has to be synchronous This is often impossible with devices limited to playback for example CD players a
49. de HDSP MADI RME 41 23 4 Operation The HDSP MADI s word clock input is active when Pref Sync Ref in the Settings dialog has been set to Word Clock the clock mode AutoSync has been activated and a valid word clock signal is present The signal at the BNC input can be Single Double or Quad Speed the HDSP automatically adapts to it As soon as a valid signal is detected the green LED at the bracket is lit and the Settings dialog shows either Lock or Sync see chapter 30 2 In the status display AutoSync Ref the display changes to Word This message has the same function as the green Lock LED but appears on the monitor i e the user can check immediately whether a valid word clock signal is present and is currently being used In the line Freg the AutoSync Ref shows the frequency of the reference signal measured by the hardware In this case the frequency of the current wordclock signal is measured and dis played 42 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 24 TotalMix Routing and Monitoring 24 1 Overview The HDSP MADI includes a powerful digital real time mixer the Hammerfall DSP mixer based on RME s unique sample rate independent TotalMix technology It allows for practically unlim ited mixing and routing operations with all inputs and playback channels simultaneously to any hardware outputs Here are some typical applications for TotalMix Setting up delay free submixes headphone mixes The HDSP MADI allows for up to 32
50. dows 2000 XP on single CPU systems e To use ASIO at lowest latencies under Windows 2000 XP even when only having one CPU the system performance has to be optimized for background tasks Go to Control Panel System Advanced Performance Options Change the default Applications to Background tasks The lowest usable latency will drop from 23 ms to around 3 ms User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 25 17 2 Installation Hammerfall DSP is found in the Device Manager gt Settings Control Panel System category Sound Video and Gamecontroller A double click on Hammerfall DSP MADI starts the prop erties dialog Choosing Resources shows Interrupt and Memory Range The newest information on hardware problems can always be found on our website www rme audio com section FAQ Hardware Alert about incompatible hardware The dialog New hardware component found does not appear e Check whether the PCI interface is correctly inserted in the PCI slot The card and drivers have been installed correctly but playback does not work e Check whether the Hammerfall DSP appears in the Device Manager If the Hammerfall DSP device has a yellow exclamation mark then there is an address or interrupt conflict e Even if there is no yellow exclamation mark it is worth checking the Resources tab anyway 26 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME User s Guide INTELLIGENT AUDIO SOLUTIONS HDSP MADI gt Driver Installation and Op
51. dware out puts and have a submix of all inputs and software outputs on the Phones output equals factory preset 2 Setting up such a submix is easy But how to check at a later time that all settings are still exactly the way you wanted them to be not sending audio to a different output The most effective method to check a routing in mixer view is the Submix View stepping through all existing software outputs and having a very concentrated look at the faders and displayed levels of each routing That doesn t sound comfortably nor error free right Here is where the Matrix shines In the Matrix view you simply see a line from upper left to lower right all fields marked as unity gain Plus two rows vertically all at the same level setting You just need 2 seconds to be sure no unwanted routing is active anywhere and that all levels match precisely Example 2 The Matrix allows you to set up routings which would be nearly impossible to achieve by fiddling around with level and pan Let s say you want to send input 1 to output 1 at 0 dB to output 2 at 3 dB to output 3 at 6 dB and to output 4 at 9 dB Each time you set up the right channel 2 4 the change in pan destroys the gain setting of the left channel 1 2 A real hassle In Matrix view you simply click on the corresponding routing point set the level via Ctrl mouse and move on You can see in TotalMix view how pan changes to achieve this special gain and routing when performing t
52. e a so called satety offset otherwise Core Audio won t operate click free The HDSP MADI uses a safety offset of 32 samples This offset is sig nalled to the system and the software can calculate and display the total latency of buffer size plus AD DA offset plus safety offset for the current sample rate 30 4 DS Double Speed When activating the Double Speed mode the HDSP MADI operates at double sample rate The internal clock 44 1 kHz turns to 88 2 kHz 48 kHz to 96 kHz The internal resolution is still 24 bit Sample rates above 48 kHz were not always taken for granted and are still not widely used because of the CD format 44 1 kHz dominating everything Before 1998 there were no re ceiver transmitter circuits available that could receive or transmit more than 48 kHz Therefore a work around was used instead of two channels one AES line only carries one channel whose odd and even samples are being distributed to the former left and right channels By this you get the double amount of data i e also double sample rate Of course in order to transmit a stereo signal two AES EBU ports are necessary then This transmission mode is called Double Wire in the professional studio world and is also known as S MUX abbreviation for Sample Multiplexing in connection with the multichannel ADAT format The AES3 specification uses the uncommon term Single channel double sam pling frequency mode Not before February 1998 Crystal shipped the f
53. e ratios RMS to peak difference loudness long term peak measurement input check Oversampling mode for levels higher than 0 dBFS Vertical and horizontal mode Slow RMS and RLB weighting filter Supports visualization ac cording to the K system e Hardware Level Meter for Input Playback and Output As above received pre calculated directly from the HDSP system hardware with near zero CPU load e Spectral Analyser World wide unique 10 20 or 30 band display in analog bandpass filter technology 192 kHz capable e Vector Audio Scope World wide unique Goniometer showing the typical afterglow of an oscilloscope tube Includes Correlation meter and level meter e Totalyser Spectral Analyser Level Meter and Vector Audio Scope in a single window e Bit Statistics amp Noise Shows the true resolution of audio signals as well as errors and DC offset Includes Signal to Noise measurement in dB and dBA plus DC measurement e Channel Status Display Detailled analyzis and display of SPDIF and AES EBU Channel Status data e Completely multi client Open as many measurement windows as you like on any chan nels and inputs or outputs To install DIGICheck go to the DIGICheck directory on the RME Driver CD and run setup exe Follow the instructions prompted on the screen DIGICheck is conctantly improved The latest version is always found on our website www rme audio de section Downloads Tools 24 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 17 Ho
54. ectly But reality was different the Superclock proved to be much more critical than word clock A square wave signal of 11 MHz distributed to several devices this simply means to fight with high frequency technology Reflections cable quality capacitive loads at 44 1 kHz these factors may be ignored at 11 MHz they are the end of the clock network Additionally it was found that a PLL not only generates jitter but also also rejects disturbances The slow PLL works like a filter for induced and modulated frequencies above several kHz As the Superclock is used without any filtering such a kind of jitter and noise sup pression is missing No wonder Superclock did not become a commonly accepted standard 40 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME The actual end of these problems is offered by the SteadyClock technology of the HDSP MADI Combining the advantages of modern and fastest digital technology with analog filter techniques re gaining a low jitter clock signal of 22 MHz from a slow word clock of 44 1 kHz is no problem anymore Additionally jitter on the input signal is highly rejected so that even in real world usage the re gained clock signal is of highest quality This is especially true when extracting the word clock out of a MADI signal Caused by the MADI format itself such a signal will have around 80 ns of jitter which is reduced to about 1 ns by SteadyClock 23 3 Cabling and Termination Word clock signals are usually distri
55. edited A right mouse click on the white name field brings up TENDO aS el latest the dialog box Enter Name Any name can be entered in this File Edit view Options dialog Enter Return closes the dialog box the white label TT now shows the first letters of the new name ESC cancels the process and closes the dialog box EE ir Moving the mouse above the label brings SR LD a tool tip with the complete name LJ 1 Floor Tom 73 z Guitar ER 1 Chorli2 Chor in 5 DAT L DAT D DAT Le DAT Le DAT LH A 1 2 A 3 4 A 5 6 CRE The hardware outputs third row can be edited in the same way In this case the names in the routing drop down DATEKOSTE menus will change automatically Additionally the names in L Main R Main the drop down menus of the Monitor section will change as well Submix The preset buttons can get meaningful Presets names in the same way Move the mouse 1 above a preset button a right mouse click a6 7 8 will bring up the dialog box Note that the Submix DAT name shows up as tool tip only as soon as the mouse stays above the preset Mr ee button The preset button names are not stored in the preset files but globally in the registry so won t change when loading any file or saving any state as preset But loading a preset bank see chapter 24 8 the names will be updated 52 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 24 12 Hotkeys In many situations TotalMix can be controlled quickly and com
56. emely jittery word clock signal of about 50 ns jitter top graph yellow Again SteadyClock provides an ex treme clean up The filtered clock shows less than 2 ns jitter lower graph blue W 10 0ns The cleaned and jitter freed signal can be used as reference clock for any application without any problem The signal processed by SteadyClock is of course not only used internally but also available at the HDSP MADI s word clock outputs It is also used to clock the digital MADI output 74 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 30 7 PCI Performance The HDSP MADI card s sheer number of audio channels makes it more demanding for a com puter s PCI bus performance than any other audio card Furthermore measurements of pure data throughput are not sufficient for measuring realtime audio performance or compatibility Large amounts of data may be transferred in short and fast bursts with small interruptions which will result in a relatively high data rate when measured averaged but audio signals will suffer clicks and dropouts because of the interruptions Theoretically PCI can transfer up to 133 MByte s A single HDSP MADI card will cause about 24 6 MByte s of traffic So three cards should work in any modern computer without problems but in fact they won t That is they can be installed and accessed but audio will crackle like hell According to our research even using two cards with all 128 channels of playback and re cording is not
57. eration Mac OS X User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 27 18 Driver and Flash Update 18 1 Driver Installation First fit the card see 5 Hardware Installation then switch on the computer and install the driv ers from the RME Driver CD The driver file is located in the folder HDSP MADI AES32 Instal lation works automatically by a double click on the file hdsp madi aes32 mpkg RME recommends to download the latest driver version from the RME website If done the procedure is as follows Double click onto madi aes xx gz to expand the archive file to madi aes xx tar and the folder HDSP MADI xx which includes the driver file hdsp madi aes32 mpkg Installation works automatically by a double click on this file During driver installation the programs Settings and Mixer TotalMix will also be installed Both programs start automatically as soon as a HDSP system is detected They stay in the dock when exited and remove themselves automatically from the dock when the HDSP system is removed Reboot the computer when installation is done 18 2 Driver Update In case of a driver update it s not necessary to remove the old driver first it will be overwritten during the installation Exception driver updates from version 2 5 Remove the former Settings dialog and To talMix from the Login Items and delete both files from your hard drive This driver version did not have the features AutoLoad Dock Lock and AutoRemove Therefore one h
58. fects Devices 60 27 TotalMix MIDI Remote Control 27 1 Overview ssesssssssesseeeeeen enne 61 21 2 Selt p iiis reto idee tpe irt eat de texted atteste 61 27 3 Operation 61 27 4 Mapping seeeeeeerenmenn ens 62 27 5 Simple MIDI Control 63 27 6 Loopback Detection ssssssssss 63 Technical Reference 28 lechinfo oie Haee 66 29 Technical Specifications 29 L DUS sena e Poe nb rere errr 67 29 2 OUIDUIS eir rettet er bee Ega 67 29 3 Digital terree er nno eet pando 68 29 4 i 68 29 5 Transfer Modes Resolution Bits per Sample 68 30 Technical Background 30 1 MADI Basics 69 30 2 Lock and SyncCheck ssssssss 70 30 3 Latency and Monitoring 71 30 4 DS Double Speed sssssssss 72 30 5 QS Quad Speed 73 30 6 SteadyClock sss 74 30 7 PCI Performance sseesssseseeeee 75 30 8 Terminology eee 76 4 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME User s Guide RUE INTELLIGENT AUDIO SOLUTIONS HDSP MADI e General User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 1 Thank you for choosing the Hammerfall DSP MADI This unique audio system is capable of transferring digital audio data directly into a computer from any device equipped with a MADI interface Installation is simple even for the inexperienced user thanks to the latest Plu
59. fortably by the keyboard making the mixer setup considerably easier and faster The Shift key for the fine mode for faders and panpots has already been mentioned The Ctrl key can do far more than changing the routing pairwise e Clicking anywhere into the fader area with the Ctrl key pressed sets the fader to 0 dB e Clicking anywhere into the pan area with the Ctrl key pressed sets the panorama to lt C gt meaning Center e Clicking a preset button while holding down Ctrl the original factory preset will be loaded e Using Ctrl and any number between 1 and 8 not on the numeric keypad will load the cor responding factory default preset Alt plus number loads the user preset e Using multiple HDSP MADISs clicking the button Unit 2 while holding down Ctrl opens a sec ond TotalMix window for the second HDSP system instead of replacing the window con tents The faders can also be moved pairwise corresponding to the stereo routing settings This is achieved by pressing the Alt key and is especially comfortable when setting the SPDIF and Phones output level Even the panoramas can be operated with Alt from stereo through mono to inversed channels and also the Mute and Solo buttons ganged or inversed switching At the same time TotalMix also supports combinations of these keys If you press Ctrl and Alt at the same time clicking with the mouse makes the faders jump to 0 dB pairwise and they can be set pairwise by Shift Alt in fine
60. g and Play technology The numerous unique features and well thought out configuration dialog puts the Hammerfall DSP MADI at the very top of the range of digital audio interface cards The package contains drivers for Windows 2000 SP4 Windows XP and Mac OS X Our high performance philosophy guarantees maximum system performance by executing as many functions as possible not in the driver i e the CPU but directly within the audio hard Introduction ware 2 Please check that your Hammerfall DSP MADI package contains each of the following A Package Contents HDSP MADI PCI card HDSP MADI expansion board Quick Info guide RME Driver CD MIDI breakout cable Expansion Board ribbon cable 14 conductor System Requirements Windows 2000 SP4 Windows XP Mac OS X 10 28 or higher PCI Interface a free PCI rev 2 1 Busmaster slot Brief Description and Characteristics Hammerfall design 096 zero CPU load even using all 128 ASIO channels All settings can be changed in real time 8 available buffer sizes latencies 1 5 3 6 12 23 46 93 186 ms 32 channels 96 kHz 24 bit record playback Automatic and intelligent master slave clock control Word clock input and output TotalMix for latency free submixes and perfect ASIO Direct Monitoring SyncAlign guarantees sample aligned and never swapping channels SyncCheck tests and reports the synchronization status of input signals 2 x MIDI I O 32 channels high speed MIDI DIGI
61. ght mouse key Save Target as Despite this procedure some older browsers like Netscape 4 78 will not save the file correctly the archive will be corrupted The driver consists of a package file pkg which contains various folders and files similar to TAR A double click will start the OS X installer To save you the hassle of installing both audio and MIDI drivers separately the HDSP driver contains an additional meta package mpkg that points to the single packages Those single packages are not shown in the Finder as they reside within the invisible folder contained packages Only the mpkg is visible Important an installation can only be done with the complete folder If only the mpkg is copied to a different place it will not find the single driver packages The actual audio driver appears as a kernel extension file The installer copies it to gt System Library Extensions Its name is HDSPMADI kext It is visible in the Finder allowing you to verify date and driver version Yet in fact this again is a folder containing subdirectories and files Nonetheless this driver file can be removed by simply dragging it to the trash bin This can be helpful in case a driver installation fails An incomplete installation can currently 10 3 2 only be detected indirectly The installation routine does not open a message window with a note about a restart of the computer This indicates that the driver file was not copied and the driver
62. gs used in the past MIC R were unnecessarily big and are not being used any longer e The cables are available as a duplex variant 2 cables being glued together or as a simplex variant 1 cable The ADI 648 s opto module supports both variants e The transmission uses the multimode technique which supports cable lengths of up to al most 2 km Single mode allows for much longer distances but it uses a completely different fibre 8 um By the way due to the wave length of the light being used 1300 nm the opti cal signal is invisible to the human eye User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 69 30 2 Lock and SyncCheck Digital signals consist of a carrier and the data If a digital signal is applied to an input the re ceiver has to synchronize to the carrier clock in order to read the data correctly To achieve this the receiver uses a PLL Phase Locked Loop As soon as the receiver meets the exact fre quency of the incoming signal it is locked This Lock state remains even with small changes of the frequency because the PLL tracks the receiver s frequency If a MADI signal is applied to the HDSP MADI the unit indicates LOCK i e a valid input signal This information is presented in the HDSP MADI s Settings dialog In the status display Sync Check the state of all clocks is decoded and shown as simple text No Lock Lock Sync Unfortunately LOCK does not necessarily mean that the received signal is correct with respect to the clo
63. he second fourth setting 26 TotalMix Super Features 26 1 ASIO Direct Monitoring Windows only Start Samplitude Sequoia Cubase or Nuendo and TotalMix Activate ADM ASIO Direct Moni toring and move a fader in the ASIO host Now watch the corresponding fader in TotalMix magically move too TotalMix reflects all ADM gain and pan changes in realtime Please note that faders only move when the currently activated routing currently visible routing corre sponds to the one in the ASIO host Also note that the Matrix will show any change as it shows all possible routings in one view With this TotalMix has become a wonderful debugging tool for ADM Just move the host s fader and pan and see what kind of ADM commands TotalMix receives The hardware output row faders are included in all gain calculations in every possible way Example you have lowered the output level of a submix or just a specific channel by some dB The audio signal passed through via ADM will be attenuated by the value set in the third row User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 57 26 2 Selection and Group based Operation Click on the white name label of channel 1 and 2 in TotalMix Be sure to have channel 3 s fader set to a different position and click on its label too All three labels have changed to the colour orange which means they are selected Now moving any of these faders will make the other faders move too This is called building a group of faders or
64. hort fade in when s breaking up but also Sajal Cane sanp MME WDM MADI In 3113211 Increases latency I e T 6 F7 Sta IMME WDM MADI In 35 36 1 F ransport settings are global to 2l MME WDM MADI In 37 38 1 output is delayed For all windows MME WDM MADI In 33 40 1 MME WDM MADI In 41 42 1 synchronized play X canoa MMEWDM MADI nAra i MME WDM MADI In 45 46 1 back of audio and MME WDM MADI In 47481 MIDI or similar be sure to activate the checkbox Get position from audio driver The HDSP MADI allows sample rates of up to 96 kHz via MADI In this mode only channels 1 to 32 are available 18 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 12 2 DVD Playback AC 3 DTS under MME AC 3 DTS When using popular DVD software player like WinDVD and PowerDVD their audio data stream can be sent to any AC 3 DTS capable receiver via the HDSP MADI For this to work an output wave device has to be selected in Control Panel Sounds and Multimedia Audio Also check use preferred device only You will notice that the DVD software s audio properties now allow to use SPDIF Out Use SPDIF or to activate SPDIF output When selecting these the software will transfer the non decoded digital multichannel data stream to the HDSP Naturally a successful decoding also requires a MADI to AES converter like the RME ADI 642 converting the playback signals to stereo AES3 or SPDIF Note This SPDIF signal sounds like chopped n
65. ing channels based on a single channel or monaural design The matrix view of the HDSP looks and works like a conventional patchbay adding functionality way beyond comparable hardware and software soutions While most patchbays will allow you to connect inputs to out puts with just the original level 1 1 or 0 dB as known from mechanical patchbays TotalMix allows you to use a freely definable gain value per crosspoint Matrix and TotalMix are different ways of displaying the same processes Because of this both views are always fully synchronized Each change in one view is immediately reflected in the other view as well 25 2 Elements of the Matrix View The visual design of the TotalMix Matrix is mainly determined by the architecture of the HDSP system e Horizontal labels All hardware outputs RS HDSP MADI Matrix 1 e Vertical labels All hardware inputs Below are all play back channels software playback channels e Green 0 0 dB field Standard 1 1 routing e Black gain field Shows the current gain value as dB e Orange gain field This routing is muted To maintain overview when the window size has been reduced the left and upper labels are floating They won t left the visible area when scrolling 25 3 Operation Using the Matrix is a breeze It is very easy to indentify the current crosspoint because the outer labels light up in orange according to the mouse position If input 1 is to be routed to outpu
66. ing digital audio Latest circuit designs like hi speed digital synthesizer digital PLL 100 MHz sample rate and analog filtering allow RME to realize a completely newly developed clock technology right within the FPGA at lowest costs The clock s performance exceeds even professional expectations Despite its remarkable features SteadyClock reacts quite fast compared to other techniques It locks in fractions of a second to the input signal follows even extreme varipitch changes with phase accuracy and locks directly within a range of 25 kHz up to 200 kHz CURSOR SteadyClock has originally been de Typ veloped to gain a stable and clean re MM AT C EEE EEE Zeit clock from the heavily jittery MADI data AE signal The embedded MADI clock SEEN C aM MM SAS suffers from about 80 ns jitter caused e by the time resolution of 125 MHz within the format Common jitter values for other devices are 5 ns while a very good clock will have less than 2 ns The picture to the right shows the MADI input signal with 80 ns of jitter top graph yellow Thanks to Steady Clock this signal turns into a clock with less than 2 ns jitter lower graph blue M 25 0ns W Pos 408 1 us The other input sources of the HDSP MADI word clock Video and LTC gain a lot from SteadyClock as well In fact extracting a low jitter clock from LTC is not possible without a Steady Clock similar technique at all The screnshot to the right shows an extr
67. irst single wire receiver transmitters that could also work with double sample rate It was then possible to transmit two channels of 96 kHz data via one AES EBU port But Double Wire is still far from being dead On one hand there are still many devices which can t handle more than 48 kHz e g digital tape recorders But also other common interfaces like ADAT or TDIF are still using this technique With MADI sample multiplexing is often used as well to offer sample rates higher than 48 kHz The HDSP MADI supports all formats 96 kHz can be received and transmitted both as 48K Frame using S MUX and as native 96K Frame In 48K Frame Double Speed mode the HDSP MADI distributes the data of one channel to two consecutive MADI channels This reduces the available channel count from 64 to 32 As the transmission of double rate signals with 48K Frame is done at standard sample rate Single Speed the MADI ports still operate at 44 1 kHz or 48 kHz 72 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 30 5 QS Quad Speed Due to the small number of available devices that use sample rates up to 192 kHz but even more due to a missing real world application CD Quad Speed has had no broad success so far An implementation of the ADAT format as double S MUX S MUX4 results in only two channels per optical output Devices using this method are few In earlier times the transmission of 192 kHz had not been possible via Single Wire so once again sample mul
68. is not available with the HDSP MADI as the FPGA of the card has no resources left Therefore this chapter describes the loopback mode when used with an external cable loop As the HDSP MADI has only one input an external cable loop will only make sense for the following examples in case the signal had been split up into several wires This can be done easily when using the ADI 648 splitting the MADI line into eight 8 channel ADAT lines Then a loopback of specific channels is possible A loopback is used to record the playback signal This way complete submixes can be re corded the playback of a software can be recorded by another software and several input sig nals can be mixed into one record channel Please note these important issues The connection of digital output and input generates a clock loop and with this a malfunc d tion in case the card has not been switched into clock mode Master or an external clock signal of highest priority is used The latter is the case when the card is in AutoSync mode and is synchronized by an external clock signal from the input selected in Pref Sync Ref Connecting digital output and input can cause a digital feedback which is more severe d than any analog one Caution This is a problem for both TotalMix monitoring an input signal to the same output channel and the DAW software which usually activates monitoring in the same way Recording a Software s playback In real world application
69. is would only waste precious space on the hard disk 22 kHz 7 Hilfe 11 kHz c E C a moda X Abbrechen C c uoo Ej It often makes sense to monitor the input signal or send it directly to the output This can be done at zero latency using TotalMix see chapter 24 Currently two solutions exist which enable an automated control of real time monitoring ZLM allows monitoring in Punch I O mode with this the system behaves like a tape machine This method has been implemented in all versions of Samplitude by Magix and can be activated using the global track option Hardware monitoring during Punch As ZLM is limited to MME this mode is no longer supported since TotalMix version 2 3 The second solution is Steinberg s ASIO protocol with our ASIO 2 0 drivers and all ASIO 2 0 compatible programs even Samplitude When ASIO Direct Monitoring has been switched on the input signal is routed in real time to the output whenever a recording is started User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 21 13 Operation under ASIO 2 0 13 1 General Start the ASIO software and select ASIO Hammerfall DSP as the audio I O device The ASIO system control button opens the HDSP s Settings dialog see chapter 11 Configuration Hammerfall DSP supports ASIO Direct Monitoring ADM Please note that currently Nuendo Cubase and Logic either do not support ADM completely or error free Using emulated MIDI d
70. le clock state is found at the HDSP MADI s outputs This advanced technology completely eliminates disturbing noises and clock network problems during power up or re boot MADI In Defines the input for the MADI signal Optical relates to the optical input Coaxial to the BNC Socket MADI Out Defines the format of the MADI output signal MADI can be a 56 or 64 channel signal 96 kHz Sample rates higher than 48 kHz can be transmitted using the normal 48K Frame or using a native 96K Frame at the card s output User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 29 Safe Mode Input activates redundancy operation If the current input signal fails the other input will be used immediately provided a valid signal is found there nput also works as automatic input selec tion in case only optical or coaxial is present as input signal Clock Mode The unit can be configured to amp HDSP MADI AES 32 Settings J use its internal clock source PE TES Master or the clock source AES 32 1x0 MADI SLOT 4 DDS About defined via Pref Sync Ref eae a Sy PIE MADI In Clock Mode System Clock optical AutoSync Mode Slave Pref Sync Ref Coaxial Master Frequency 44 1 kHz Used to pre select the desired MADI Out Pref Sync Ref SyncCheck clock source If the selected O 56 28 ch O Word Clock Word Clock No Lock source isn t available the unit 9 64 32 ch MADI In MADI Sync will change to the next available one The current clock
71. lication is set to 44 1 kHz Safe Mode Fre quency stops the system from recording This prevents faulty takes which often go unnoticed until later on in the production Such tracks appear to have the wrong playback rate the audio quality as such is not affected The sample frequency shown in the Settings dialog see chapter 11 screenshot Settings is useful as a quick display of the current configuration the box itself and all connected external equipment If no sample frequency is recognized it will read No Lock This way configuring any suitable audio application for digital recording is simple After select ing the required input HDSP MADI displays the current sample frequency This parameter can then be changed in the application s audio attributes or similar dialog The screenshot to the right shows a typical dialog used for changing basic parameters such as sample frequency and resolution in an audio ap r Kan le m Samplerate plication Mono 96 kHz Stereo 88 2 kHz Any bit resolution can be selected providing it is C Dual Mono B4 kHz supported by both the audio hardware and the 48 kHz y K software Even if the input signal is 24 bit the application can still be set to record at 16 bit reso lution The lower 8 bits and therefore any signals about 96dB below maximum level are lost en tirely On the other hand there is nothing to gain from recording a 16 bit signal at 24 bit resolution th
72. ludes both a list of typical video frequencies so called pull up pull down at 0 1 and 4 and two faders which allow to freely change the basic sample rate in steps of 1 Hz d The DDS dialog requires the HDSP MADI to be in clock mode Master The frequency set ting will only be applied to this one specific card Changing the sample rate in bigger steps during record playback often results in a loss of d audio or brings up warning messages of the audio software Therefore the desired sample rate should be set at least coarsely before starting the software DDS r 1 HDSP MADI AES 32 Sett Activates all settings of this OOO sisi HOSE MADLLAES 22 SENTS as dialog AES 32 1x0 MADI SLOT 4 DDS About Value DDS Value Coarse Fine Shows the sample rate as B Active 48243 Rex x cos adjusted in this dialog The Frequency kHz 2 48 048 0 1 X sample rate is defined by the basic setting Frequency the 48 000 5 multiplier and the position of O 47 952 0 1 X the activated fader O 46 080 4 ae 0 O 45 864 4 99 Frequency O 44 144 40 1 X x Sets a fixed basic sample O 44 100 rate which can be modified 44 056 0 1 9 by multiplier and fader O 32 000 j Freq Multiplier Mea cud Bas fi BR um cs Changes the basic sample 6 x Ox Ox M Active Active rate into Single Double oder Quad Speed mode Coarse Fader for coarse modification of the basic sample rate Click A
73. m nearly any MIDI equipped hardware device 27 2 Setup e Open the Preferences dialog menu Options or F3 Select the MIDI Input and MIDI Output port where your controller is connected to e When no feedback is needed when using only standard MIDI commands instead of Mackie Control protocol select NONE as MIDI Output e Check Enable MIDI Control in the Options menu 27 3 Operation The channels being under MIDI control are indicated by a colour change of the info field below the faders black turns to yellow The 8 fader block can be moved horizontally and vertically in steps of one or eight channels Faders can be selected to gang them In Submix View mode the current routing destination output bus can be selected via REC Ch 1 8 This equals the selection of a different output channel in the lowest row by a mouse click when in Submix View In MIDI operation it is not necessary to jump to the lowest row to perform this selection This way even the routing can be easily changed via MIDI Full LC Display Support This option in Preferences F3 activates complete Mackie Control LCD support with eight channel names and eight volume pan values Attention this feature causes heavy overload of the MIDI port when ganging more than 2 faders In such a case or when using the Behringer BCF2000 turn off this option User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 61 When Full LC Display Support is turned off only a brief information about the fi
74. me clock signal to all the other slave devices Remember that a digital system can only have one master If the HDSP MADI s clock mode is set to Master all other devices must be set to Slave RME s exclusive SyncCheck technology first implemented in the Hammerfall enables an easy to use check and display of the current clock status The SyncCheck field indicates whether no signal No Lock a valid signal Lock or a valid and synchronous signal Sync is present at each of the digital clock source inputs The AutoSync Ref display shows the current sync source and the measured frequency In practice SyncCheck provides the user with an easy way of checking whether all digital de vices connected to the system are properly configured With SyncCheck finally anyone can master this common source of error previously one of the most complex issues in the digital studio world 32 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 20 Mac OS X FAQ 20 1 Round about Driver Installation The driver with the file suffix gz provided by RME is a compressed TAR archive TAR bundles multiple files and folders into one file but does not save memory space nor download time Both TAR and gz are supported natively by OS X a double click on the file is all you need to do Older browsers do not recognize gz as an archive loading the file as a document This results in a cryptic looking text within the browser window Downloading the file can be done via the ri
75. mits MIDI data via MADI This allows for a direct communication between systems with HDSP MADI cards Additionally MIDI data can be transmitted from to RME s ADI 648 and ADI 642 Also ADI 648 and ADI 642 can be MIDI remote controlled without any additional line or cabling between computer MADI card and both units 23 Word Clock 23 1 Word Clock Input and Output SteadyClock guarantees an excellent performance in all clock modes Based on the highly effi cient jitter suppression the HDSP MADI refreshes and cleans up any clock signal and provides it as reference clock at the BNC output see chapter 30 6 Input The HDSP MADI s transformer isolated word clock input is active when Pref Sync Ref in the Settings dialog has been switched to Word Clock the clock mode AutoSync has been acti vated and a valid word clock signal is present The signal at the BNC input can be Single Dou ble or Quad Speed the HDSP MADI automatically adapts to it As soon as a valid signal is de tected the green LED is lit and the Settings dialog shows either Lock or Sync see chapter 30 2 Thanks to RME s Signal Adaptation Circuit the word clock input still works correctly even with heavily mis shaped dc prone too small or overshoot prone signals Thanks to automatic signal centering 300 mV 0 3V input level are sufficient in principle An additional hysteresis reduces sensitivity to 1 0 V so that over and undershoots and high frequency disturbances don
76. mode Also very useful the faders have two mouse areas The first area is the fader button which can be grabbed at any place without changing the current position This avoids unwanted changes when clicking onto it The second area is the whole fader setting area Clicking into this area makes the fader jump to the mouse at once If for instance you want to set several faders to m a it is sufficient to click onto the lower end of the fader path Which happens pairwise with the Alt key pressed Using the hotkeys I O and P the complete row of Input Playback and Output channels each can be toggled between visible and invisible Hotkey S switches Submix view on off Those four hotkeys have the same functionality as the buttons in the View section of the Quick Access Panel The Level Meter Setup dialog can be opened via F2 as in DIGICheck The dialog box Preferences is opened via F3 Hotkey M toggles Mute Master on off and with this performs a global mute on off Hotkey X toggles the Matrix view on off see chapter 25 hotkey T the mixer view Hotkey L links all fad ers as stereo pairs Further hotkeys are available to control the configuration of the Level Meter see chapter 24 14 Key 4 or 6 Display range 40 or 60 dB Key E or R Numerical display showing Peak or RMS Key 0 or 3 RMS display absolute or relative to 0 dBFS User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 53 24 13 Menu Options Always on Top When active checked the TotalMix window
77. n the AutoSync Ref display The automatic clock selection checks and changes between the clock sources Word Clock and MADI System Clock Shows the current clock state of the HDSP system The system is either Master using its own clock or Slave see AutoSync Ref 11 2 Settings dialog DDS Usually soundcards and audio interfaces generate their internal clock master mode by a quartz Therefore the internal clock can be set to 44 1 kHz or 48 kHz but not to a value in be tween SteadyClock RME s sensational Low Jitter Clock System is based on a Direct Digital Synthesizer DDS This superior circuitry can generate nearly any frequency with highest pre cision DDS has been implemented into the HDSP MADI with regard to the needs of professional video applications as well as to maximum flexibility The dialog DDS includes both a list of typical video frequencies so called pull up pull down at 0 1 and 4 and two faders which allow to freely change the basic sample rate in steps of 1 Hz Application examples DDS allows for a simultaneous change of speed and tune during record and playback From alignment to other sources up to creative effects everything is possible DDS allows to intentionally de tune the complete DAW This way the DAW can match instru ments which have a wrong or unchangeable tuning DDS allows to define a specific sample rate This feature can be is useful in case the system randomly changes the sample
78. names Instead of single presets a complete bank of 8 presets can be loaded at once Advantage The names defined for the preset buttons will be stored and loaded automatically Up to three HDSP MADI and AES 32 can be used simultaneously The Unit buttons switch between the cards Holding down Ctrl while clicking on button Unit 2 or Unit 3 will open another TotalMix window 24 8 Presets TotalMix includes eight factory presets stored within the program The user presets can be changed at any time because TotalMix stores and reads the changed presets from the files preset11 mad to preset81 mad located in Windows hidden directory Documents and Set tings lt Username gt Local Settings Application Data RME TotalMix On the Mac the location is in the folder User Username Library Preferences Hammerfall DSP The first number indi cates the current preset the second number the current unit This method offers two major advantages e Presets modified by the user will not be overwritten when reinstalling or updating the driver e The factory presets remain unchanged and can be reloaded any time User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 49 Mouse The original factory presets can be reloaded by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking on any preset button Alternatively the files described above can Submix be renamed moved to a different directory or being deleted EL S67 8 Keyboard Using Ctrl and any number between 1 a
79. nd 8 not on the numeric keypad will load the corresponding factory default preset The key Alt will load Hijau the user presets instead 2 2 ont When loading a preset file for example Main Monitor AN 1_2 plus headphone mix 3 4 mad the file name will be displayed in the title bar of the TotalMix window Also when loading a pre set by the preset buttons the name of the preset is displayed in the title bar This way it is al ways clear what the current TotalMix state is based on The eight factory presets offer a pretty good base to modify them to your personal needs In all factory presets Submix View is active by default Preset 1 Description All channels routed 1 1 monitoring of all playback channels Details All inputs maximum attenuation All playback channels 0 dB routed to the same output All outputs 0 dB Level display set to RMS 3 dB View Submix active Note This preset is Default offering the standard functionality of a l O card Preset 2 Description All channels routed 1 1 input and playback monitoring As Preset 1 plus 1 1 pass through of all inputs Preset 3 Description All channels routed 1 1 no input and no playback monitoring All faders set to maximum attenuation Preset 4 Description All channels routed 1 1 input and playback monitoring As Preset 2 but all inputs muted Preset 5 Description All channels routed 1 1 playback monitoring Submix of all playback channels to channels
80. nte nine 18 12 2 DVD Playback AC 3 DTS under MME 19 12 3 Low Latency under MME 20 12 4 Multi client Operation sessssssss 20 12 5 Digital Recording 21 13 Operation under ASIO 2 0 x EEEC ICcM E 22 13 2 Known Problems 22 14 Operation under GSIF 23 15 Using multiple HDSP MADI AES 32 24 16 X DiGICheck cocoe eet Pee entries 24 17 Hotline Troubleshooting 17 1 General eec etn treten 25 17 2 Installation 26 2 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME Driver Installation and Operation Mac OS X 18 Driver and Flash Update 18 1 Driver Installation 28 18 2 Driver Update 28 18 3 Flash Update 28 19 Configuring the HDSP MADI 19 1 Settings Dialog 29 19 2 Settings Dialog DDS 31 19 3 Clock Modes Synchronization 32 20 Mac OS X FAQ 20 1 Round about Driver Installation 33 20 2 MIDI doesn t work 33 20 3 Supported Sample Rates 34 20 4 Repairing Disk Permissions 34 20 5 PCI Compatibility sseeess 34 20 6 Various Information 34 21 Hotline Troubleshooting 35 gt Connections and TotalMix 22 Connections 22 1 Headphones
81. ntion the DMA buffers must not be larger than the application s buffers Playback will be stuttering and audio will be distorted This case can happen unnoticed when using ASIO and MME at the same time multi client and setting ASIO to 186 ms while the buffers in the MME application are still set for a lower latency Example when you set the Hammerfall to 512 you can t use 128 in any program But setting the buffer size to 128 allows to use 128 and all higher values within the software Please also note that this is a you re welcome to try feature We can t guarantee that you will be able to use 3 or 6 ms with MME Simply check out by yourself which lowest setting your system and software allows Some motherboards with insufficient PCI bandwidth like older VIA boards suffer from crackling at settings below 512 Be sure to set the buffer size to 512 or higher in such a case or get a new motherboard 12 4 Multi client Operation RME audio interfaces support multi client operation This means several programs can be used at the same time Also all formats like ASIO MME and GSIF can be used simultaneously The use of multi client operation requires to follow two simple rules e Multi client operation requires identical sample rates l e itis not possible to use one software with 44 1 kHz and the other with 48 kHz e Different software can not use the same channels at the same time If for example Cubase uses channels 1 2 this playback p
82. nto the area above the fader and drag the mouse in order to set the panorama in this case the routing between channels 7 and 8 The present pan value is also being displayed below the fader Please carry out the same steps for Out 2 now in order to route it to output 8 as well In short While editing the Submix 7 8 you have direct access to other submixes on other channels because their routing fields are set to dif ferent destinations And you get a direct view of how their faders and panoramas are set up This kind of visual presentation is very powerful but for many users d hard to understand and requires a deep understanding of complex routing visualizations Therefore we usually re commend to work in Submix View Often signals are stereo i e a pair of two channels It is therefore helpful to be able to make the routing settings for two channels at once Hold down the Ctrl key and click into the routing field of Out 3 The routing list pops up with a checkmark at 3 4 Select 7 8 Now Out 4 has already been set to 7 8 as well When you want to set the fader to exactly 0 dB this can be difficult de pending on the mouse configuration Move the fader close to the 0 posi tion and now press the Shift key This activates the fine mode which stretches the mouse movements by a factor of 8 In this mode a gain setting accurate to 0 1 dB is no problem at all Please set Out 4 to a gain of around 20 dB and the pan close t
83. o 192 kHz but need two AES EBU ports to transmit one channel Also called Quad AES S MUX Since the ADAT hardware interface is limited to Single Speed the Double Wire method is used for sample rates up to 96 kHz but usually referred to as S MUX Sample Multiplexing An ADAT port supports four channels this way With MADI S MUX is used as well to transmit up to 96kHz although the 48K Frame format is used S MUX4 The Quad Wire method allows to transmit two channels at up to 192 kHz via ADAT The method is referred to as S MUX4 With MADI S MUXA is used as well to transmit up to 192 kHz although the 48K Frame format is used Note All conversions of the described methods are lossless The existing samples are just spread or re united between the channels 48K Frame Most often used MADI format Supports up to 64 channels at up to 48 kHz 76 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 96K Frame Frame format for up to 32 channels at up to 96 kHz The advantage of this format against 48K Frame using S MUX the receiver can detect the real double sample rate on its own and im mediately With 48K Frame and S MUX the user has to set up the correct sample rate in all involved devices manually User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 77
84. o center Now click onto the routing field You ll now see three checkmarks at 3 4 748 and 63 64 Click onto 61 62 The window disappears fader and pan jump to their initial values the signal can now be routed to the outputs 61 and 62 You can continue like this until all entries have got a checkmark i e you can send the signal to all outputs simultaneously User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 47 You will certainly have noticed that the signal at the outputs 7 8 did not change while you were routing channel 4 to other outputs and setting different gain values for those With all analog and most digital mixing desks the fader setting would affect the level for every routed bus not so for TotalMix TotalMix allows for setting all fader values individually Therefore the faders and the panpots jump to the appropriate setting as soon as another routing is chosen Sometimes you will want the routings not to be independent Let s say you have sent a signal to several submixes and now want to change the signal s volume a bit on a these submixes Dragging the faders by use of the right mouse button activates Post Send mode and causes all routings of the current input or playback channel to be changed in a relative way Please note that the fader settings of all routings are memorized So when pulling the fader to the bottom maximum attenuation the individual settings are back when you right click the mouse and pull the fader up The indi
85. o channels The rest is being eaten up by control commands for mixer settings etc The ADI 648 and the HDSP MADI show that this can be done in a much better way with an invisible transmission of 16 MIDI channels and the MADI signal still being 100 compatible For the transmission of the MADI signal proved methods known from network technology were applied Most people know unbalanced coaxial cables with 75 Ohms BNC plugs they are not expensive and easy to get The optical interface is much more interesting due to its complete galvanic separation but for many users it is a mystery because very few have ever dealt with huge cabinets full of professional network technology Therefore here are some explanations regarding MADI optical e The cables used are standard in computer network technology They are thus not at all expensive but unfortunately not available in every computer store e The cables have an internal fibre of only 50 or 62 5 um diameter and a coating of 125 um They are called network cables 62 5 125 or 50 125 the former mostly being blue and the lat ter mostly being orange Although in many cases not clearly labeled these are always glass fibre cables Plastic fibre cables POF plastic optical fibre can not be manufactured in such small diameters e The plugs used are also an industry standard and called SC Please don t mix them up with ST connectors which look similar to BNC connectors and are being screwed Plu
86. oise at highest level Multichannel PowerDVD can also operate as software decoder sending a DVD s multichannel data stream directly to the analog outputs of the HDSP MADI Supported are all modes from 2 to 8 chan nels at 16 bit resolution and 48 kHz sample rate For this to work an output wave device of the HDSP has to be selected in gt Contro Panel Sounds and Multimedia Audio lt Also check use preferred device only PowerDVD s audio properties now lists several multichannel modes If one of these is selected PowerDVD sends the decoded analog multichannel data to the HDSP MADI The device selected as Preferred Playback Device defines the first playback channel Choosing ADAT 3 4 and 6 channel mode playback will happen on channels 3 to 8 Choosing MADI 3 4 and 6 channel mode playback will happen on channels 3 to 8 The channel assignment using PowerDVD is 1 first chosen playback channel Left 2 Right 3 Center 4 LFE Low Frequency Effects 5 SR Surround Right 6 SL Surround Left Note 1 Setting the card to be used as system playback device is against common sense as professional cards are not specialized to play back system sounds and shouldn t be disturbed by system events To prevent this be sure to re assign this setting after usage or to disable any system sounds tab Sounds scheme No audio Note 2 The DVD player will be synced backwards from the HDSP card So when using Auto Sync and or
87. oitation of these media without express written permission from RME Intelligent Audio Solutions is prohibited RME reserves the right to change specifi cations at any time without notice User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 9 CE FCC Compliance Statements CE This device has been tested and found to comply with the EN55022 class B and EN50082 1 norms for digital devices according to the European Council directive on counterpart laws in the member states relating to electromagnetic compatibility EMVG FCC This device has been tested and found to comply with the requirements listed in FCC Regula tions part 15 for Class B digital devices Compliance with these requirements provides a rea sonable level of assurance that your use of this product in a residential environment will not result in harmful interference with other electronic devices This equipment generates radio frequencies and if not installed and used according to the in structions in the User s Guide may cause interference harmful to the operation of other elec tronic devices Compliance with FCC regulations does not guarantee that interference will not occur in all in stallations If this product is found to be the source of interference which can be determined by turning the unit off and on again please try to eliminate the problem by using one of the follow ing measures e Relocate either this product or the device that is being affected by the interference e
88. only capable of han dling standard frequencies but also any sample rate between 28 and 105 kHz Even the word clock input which most users will use in varispeed operation allows any frequency between 28 kHz and 105 kHz 16 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME The HDSP MADI s outstanding clock control allows for a synchronization of the output signal to the word clock s input signal not only at identical sample rates but also at half quarter double and quad sample rates A playback of 96 kHz can easily be synchronized via a 48 kHz word clock signal SyncCheck If several digital devices are to be used simultaneously in a system they not only have to oper ate with the same sample frequency but also be synchronous with each other This is why digi tal systems always need a single device defined as master which sends the same clock signal to all the other slave devices Remember that a digital system can only have one master If the HDSP MADI s clock mode is set to Master all other devices must be set to Slave RME s exclusive SyncCheck technology first implemented in the Hammerfall enables an easy to use check and display of the current clock status The SyncCheck field indicates whether no signal No Lock a valid signal Lock or a valid and synchronous signal Sync is present at each of the digital clock source inputs The AutoSync Ref display shows the current sync source and the measured frequency In practice SyncChe
89. oo m mm j m m j fos m m jam m m AIA AAA nt i it ii 128 channels don t fit on the screen side by side neither does such an arrangement provide a useful overview The input channel should be placed above the corresponding output channel Therefore the channels have been arranged as known from an Inline desk so that the row Software Playback equals the Tape Return of a real mixing desk TERRE HARDWARE OUTPUTS HARDWARE INPUTS DULL iii ttt HARDWARE OUTPUTS e Top row Hardware inputs The level shown is that of the input signal i e fader independ ent Via fader and routing field any input channel can be routed and mixed to any hardware output bottom row e Middle row Playback channels playback tracks of the audio software Via fader and routing field any playback channel can be routed and mixed to any hardware output third row e Bottom row third row Hardware outputs Here the total level of the output can be adjusted This may be the level of connected loudspeakers or the necessity to reduce the level of an overloaded submix The following chapters explain step by step all functions of the user interface User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 45 24 3 Elements of a Channel A single channel consists of various elements Input channels and playback channels each have a mute and solo button Below there is the panpot reali
90. or Main Input Select the input channel of the Listenback sig IE nal microphone in recording room P ACER MED DESSEN dn Dim Amount of attenuation of the Monitor Phones m MIDI Controller outputs in dB MIDI Input MADI MidiIn 1 1 Note The Mute button of the Talkback and Listenback channel is still active Therefore it is not necessary to select NONE in case one of both shall be deacti vated MIDI Controller Full LC Display Support See chapter 27 3 for details MIDI Output MAD Midi Qut 1 1 X Stereo Pan Law 6 dB X User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 51 Main Monitor Dim Amount of attenuation of the Main Monitor output in dB Activated by the Dim button in the Monitor panel Stereo Pan Law The Pan Law can be set to 6 dB 4 5 dB 3 dB and 0 dB The value chosen defines the level attenuation in pan center position This setting is useful because the ASIO host often supports different pan laws too Selecting the same value here and in the ASIO host ASIO Direct Moni toring works perfectly as both ASIO host and TotalMix use the same pan law Of course when not using ADM it can be changed to a setting different from the factory preset of 6 dB as well You will most probably find that 3 dB gives a much more stable loudness when moving an ob ject between left and right 24 11 Editing the Names The channel names shown in the white label area can be Bl DSP Mixer 1 Preset 1
91. r example in WaveLab The value displayed in the text field is independent of the setting 40 60 dB it represents the full 24 bit range of the RMS measurement thus making possible a SNR measurement RMS unweighted which you would otherwise need extremely expensive measurement devices for An example An RME ADI 8 DS connected to the HDSP MADI s ADAT port will show around 113 dBFS on all eight channel s input level meters 15416 15416 lt ut gt This level display will constantly bring the reduced dy namic range of your equipment maybe of the whole studio in front of your eyes Nice to have everything 24 bit but still noise and hum everywhere in the range around 90 dB or worse sorry but this is the disappointing reality The up side about it is that TotalMix allows for con stantly monitoring the signal quality without effort Thus it can be a valuable tool for sound opti mization and error removal in the studio Measuring SNR Signal to Noise requires to press R for RMS and 0 for referring to 0 aBFS a full scale signal The text display will then show the same value as an expensive measurement system when measuring RMS unweighted User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 55 25 TotalMix The Matrix 25 1 Overview The mixer window of TotalMix looks and operates similar to mixing desks as it is based on a conventional stereo design The matrix display presents a different method of assigning and rout
92. rder to not weaken the signal on the chain But there are also negative examples when the 75 Ohms are built into the device and cannot be switched off In this case the network load is often 2 x 75 Ohms and the user is forced to buy a special word clock distributor Note that such a device is generally recommended for bigger studios The HDSP MADI s word clock input can be high impedance or terminated internally ensuring maximum flexibility If termination is necessary e g because the card is the last device in the chain activate the switch TERM between the BNC jacks on the Expansion Board so that the yellow TERM LED lights up see chapter 23 1 In case the HDSP MADI resides within a chain of devices receiving word clock plug a T adapter into its BNC input jack and the cable supplying the word clock signal to one end of the adapter Connect the free end to the next device in the chain via a further BNC cable The last device in the chain should be terminated using another T adapter and a 75 Ohm resistor avail able as short BNC plug Of course devices with internal termination do not need T adaptor and terminator plug Due to the outstanding SteadyClock technology of the HDSP MADI we recommend not to d pass the input signal via T adapter but to use the card s word clock output instead Thanks to SteadyClock the input signal will both be freed from jitter and in case of loss or drop out be reset to a valid frequency User s Gui
93. re naturally knows the size of the buffers therefore is able to position the newly recorded data at a place equalling a latency free system AD DA Offset under ASIO and OS X ASIO Windows and Core Audio Mac OS X allow for the signalling of an offset value to correct buffer independent delays like AD and DA conversion or the Safety Buffer described below An analog loopback test will then show no offset because the application shifts the recorded data accordingly Because in real world operation analog record and playback is unavoidable the drivers include an offset value matching the HDSP MADI s converter delays Because the HDSP MADI is a completely digital interface and the delays introduced by exter nal AD DA converters or other digital interfaces are unknown to unit and driver the drivers in clude the digital offset values 3 6 samples Therefore the delays caused by external convert ers have to be taken care off in the record software which usually means that the user has to enter specific offset values manually User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 71 Note Cubase and Nuendo display the latency values signalled from the driver separately for record and playback While with our digital cards these values equal exactly the buffer size for example 3 ms at 128 samples the HDSP MADI displays an additional millisecond the time needed for the AD DA conversion Core Audios Safety Offset Under OS X every audio interface has to us
94. riv ers often causes a drift and delay between audio and MIDI You should use non emulated MME MIDI ports in such a case At a sample rate of 88 2 or 96 kHz the number of channels available at the z Ger te konfigurieren Gerate Einstellungen Hinzufiigen Entfernen Ableton Live r 1 All MIDI Inputs ASIO Hammerfall DSP ASIO Treiber Default MIDI Ports d DEESMUSO Eingangslatenz 2 000 ms Giga3 Ausganaslatenz 2 000 ms ORION Clock Quelle Einstellungen Reason Demo Settings VST System Link VST Ausgange M 4510 Treiber im Hintergrund deaktivieren USA st Direktes Mith ren Video Player Windows MIDI Experte Zeitanzeige ETPA RRAS Ubernehmen Hilfe Zur cksetzen Alle zur cksetzen IL ox Abbrechen MADI input and output is halfed 13 2 Known Problems If a computer does not provide sufficient CPU power and or sufficient PCI bus transfer rates then drop outs crackling and noise will appear We recommend to deactivate all Plugins to verify that these are not the reason for such effects Additional hard disk controllers both on board and PCI based aften violate the PCI specs To achieve the highest throughput they hog the PCI bus even in their default setting Thus when working with low latencies heavy drop outs clicks are heard Try to solve this problem by changing the default setting of the controller for e
95. row display the level changes in real time 46 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME As shown it is very easy to set up a specific submix for whatever output select output channel set up fader and pans of inputs and playbacks ready For advanced users sometimes it makes sense to work without Submix View Example you want to see and set up some channels of different File Edit view Op submixes simultaneously without the need to change between them all the time Switch off the Submix View by a click on the green button Now the black routing fields below the faders no longer show the same entry 1 2 but completely different ones The fader and pan position is the one of the individually shown routing destination In playback channel 1 middle row labeled Out 1 click onto the routing field below the label A list pops up showing a checkmark in front of 1 2 and 63464 So currently playback channel 1 is sent to these two routing destinations Click onto 7 8 The list disappears the routing field no longer shows 1 2 but 7 8 Now move the fader with the mouse As soon as the fader value is unequal m a the present state is being stored and routing is activated Move the fader button to around 0 dB The pre sent gain value is displayed below the fader in green letters In the lower row on channel 7 you can see the level of what you are hearing from output 7 The level meter of the hardware output shows the outgoing level Click i
96. rst fader of the block channel and row is sent This brief information is also available on the LED display of the Behringer BCF2000 Tip for Mac OS X users LC Xview www opuslocus com provides an on screen display emulating the hardware displays of a Logic Mackie Control for use with controllers that can emulate a Logic Mackie Control but do not have a display Examples include the Behringer BCF2000 and Edirol PCR series Deactivate MIDI in Background menu Options disables the MIDI control as soon as another application is in the focus or in case TotalMix has been minimized This way the hardware con troller will control the main DAW application only except when TotalMix is in the foreground Often the DAW application can be set to become inactive in background too so that MIDI con trol is switched between TotalMix and the application automatically when switching between both applications TotalMix also supports the 9th fader of the Mackie Control This fader labeled Master will con trol the stereo output faders lowest row which are set up as Main Monitor outputs in the Moni tor panel Always and only 27 4 Mapping TotalMix supports the following Mackie Control surface elements Element Channel faders 1 8 Master fader SEL 1 8 DYNAMICS V Pots 1 8 pressing V Pot knobs CHANNEL LEFT or REWIND CHANNEL RIGHT or FAST FORWARD BANK LEFT or ARROW LEFT BANK RIGHT or ARROW RIGHT ARROW UP or Assignable1 PAGE AR
97. s a change of the effects level here the reverb too so that both always have the same ratio Tip Such a functionality is available in TotalMix via the right mouse button Dragging the faders by use of the right mouse button causes all routings of the current input or playback channel to be changed in a relative way This completely equals the function Aux post fader Example 2 Inserting an effects device can be done as above even within the record path Other than in the example above the reverb unit also sends the original signal and there is no routing of input 1 directly to outputs 11 12 To insert an effects device like a Compressor Limiter directly into the record path the input signal of channel 1 is sent by TotalMix to any output to the Compressor back from the Compressor to any input This input is now selected within the record software 60 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 27 TotalMix MIDI Remote Control 27 1 Overview TotalMix can be remote controlled via MIDI It is compatible to the widely spread Mackie Control protocol so TotalMix can be controlled with all hardware controllers supporting this standard Examples are the Mackie Control Tascam US 2400 or Behringer BCF 2000 Additionally the stereo output faders lowest row which are set up as Monitor Main outputs in the Monitor panel can also be controlled by the standard Control Change Volume via MIDI channel 1 With this the main volume of the HDSP MADI is controlable fro
98. s these have no SPDIF input thus can t use the self clocking technique as clock reference In a digital studio synchronisation is maintained by connecting all devices to a central sync source For example the mixing desk works as master and sends a reference signal the word clock to all other devices Of course this will only work as long as all other devices are equipped with a word clock or sync input thus being able to work as slave some professional CD players indeed have a word clock input Then all devices get the same clock and will work in every possible combination with each other d Remember that a digital system can only have one master But word clock is not only the great problem solver it also has some disadvantages The word clock is based on a fraction of the really needed clock For example SPDIF 44 1 kHz word clock a simple square wave signal has to be multiplied by 256 inside the device using a spe cial PLL to about 11 2 MHz This signal then replaces the one from the quartz crystal Big disadvantage because of the high multiplication factor the reconstructed clock will have great deviations called jitter The jitter of a word clock is multiple times higher than the one of a quartz based clock The end of these problems should have been the so called Superclock which uses 256 times the word clock frequency This equals the internal quartz frequency so no PLL for multiplying is needed and the clock can be used dir
99. sially discussed way of ensuring hi end audio quality and processing by quadrupling the sample frequency 128 kHz is non existant 176 4 kHz is rare if at all then 192 kHz is used e g for DVD Audio Single Wire Standard audio data transfer where the audio signal s sample rate is equal to the rate of the digital signal Used from 32 to 192 kHz Sometimes called Single Wide Double Wire Before 1998 there were no receiver transmitter circuits available that could receive or transmit more than 48 kHz Higher sample rates were transferred by splitting odd and even bits across the L R channels of a single AES connection This provides for twice the data rate and hence twice the sample rate A stereo signal subsequently requires two AES EBU ports The Double Wire method is an industry standard today however it has a number of different names like Dual AES Double Wide Dual Line and Wide Wire The AES3 specification uses the uncommon term Single channel double sampling frequency mode When used with the ADAT format the term S MUX is commonly used Double Wire not only works with Single Speed signals but also with Double Speed As an ex ample Pro Tools HD whose AES receiver transmitter only work up to 96 kHz uses Double Wire to transmit 192 kHz Four channels of 96 kHz turn into two channels of 192 kHz Quad Wire Similar to Double Wire with samples of one channel spread across four channels This way single speed devices can transmit up t
100. sync information either via word clock or by using AutoSync and feeding synchronized signals e f one of the HDSP systems is set to clock mode Master all others have to be set to clock mode AutoSync and have to be synced from the master for example by feeding word clock The clock modes of all units have to be set up correctly in their Settings dialog e If all units are fed with a synchronous clock i e all units show Sync in their Settings dialog all channels can be used at once This is especially easy to handle under ASIO as the ASIO driver presents all units as one Note TotalMix is part of the hardware of each HDSP system Up to three mixers are available but these are separated and can t interchange data Therefore a global mixer for all units is not possible 16 DIGICheck The DIGICheck software is a unique utility developed for testing measuring and analysing digi tal audio streams Although this Windows software is fairly self explanatory it still includes a comprehensive online help DIGICheck 4 42 operates as multi client ASIO host therefore can be used in parallel to any software be it MME ASIO or GSIF with both inputs and outputs The following is a short summary of the currently available functions e Level Meter High precision 24 bit resolution 2 8 64 channels Application examples Peak level measurement RMS level measurement over detection phase correlation measure ment dynamic range and signal to nois
101. system Swapping cards between slots can be helpful in this case 20 6 Various Information The driver requires 10 2 8 or higher Older versions of OS X are not and will not be supported Via System Preferences Audio MIDI Setup the hardware can be configured for the system wide usage Programs that don t support card or channel selection will use the device selected as Standard Input and Standard Output Soundstudio Mplayer Amplitube etc In the lower part of the window the audio hardware s capabilities are shown and can be changed in some cases On the record side no changes are possible Programs that don t sup port channel selection will always use channels 1 2 the first stereo pair Since OS X 10 3 playback can be configured freely and to any of the available playback chan nels This is done via Speaker Setup Even multichannel playback Surround DVD Player can be set up easily OS X supports more than one audio device Their simultaneous usage within one program had been limited to Motu s Digital Performer until 10 3 9 Since 10 4 Tiger Core Audio offers the function Aggregate Devices which allows to combine several devices into one so that a multi device operation is now possible with any software The Hammerfall DSP driver adds a number to each unit so they are fully accessible in any multicard capable software Our experience so far is that using more than one HDSP MADI will work only on dedicated server systems h
102. t 1 use the mouse and click one time on crosspoint In 1 1 The green 0 0 dB field pops in another click removes it To change the gain equals the use of a different fader position see simultaneous display of the mixer view hold Ctrl down and drag the mouse up or down starting from the gain field The value within the field changes accord ingly The corresponding fader in the mixer view is moving simultaneously in case the currently modified routing is visible Note the difference between the left side representing the inputs and software playback chan nels and the upper side representing the hardware outputs Moving a fader in row 1 or 2 in TotalMix view only the specific levels max 2 of this routing will change within the Matrix But moving a fader in row 3 will make all vertically activated levels move at once for example 63 64 analog output A gain field marked orange indicates activated mute status Mute can only be changed in the mixer view 56 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 25 4 Advantages of the Matrix The Matrix not always replaces the mixer view but it significantly enhances the routing capabili ties and more important is a brilliant way to get a fast overview of all active routings It shows you in a glance what s going on And since the Matrix operates monaural it is very easy to set up specific routings with specific gains Example 1 You want TotalMix to route all software outputs to all corresponding har
103. talMix can be opened Al 1522 e by clicking on the mixer icon in the Task Bar s system tray The hardware of the HDSP system offers a number of helpful well thought of practical functions and options which affect how the card operates it can be configured to suit many different requirements The following is available in the Settings dialog Input selection Configuration of digital I Os Synchronization behaviour State of input and output Current sample rate Latency Any changes made in the Settings dialog are applied immediately confirmation e g by click ing on OK or exiting the dialog is not required However settings should not be changed during playback or record if it can be avoided as this can cause unwanted noises Also please note that even in Stop mode several programs keep the recording and playback devices open which means that any new settings might not be applied immediately The status displays at the bottom of the dialog box give the user precise information about the current status of the system and the status of all digital signals User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 13 Quick Boot All the card s settings described below are stored in a hardware memory and are loaded im mediately after a power on of the computer In clock mode Master even the last used sample rate is set Directly after switching on the computer a stable and predictable clock state is found at the HDSP MADI s outputs This advanced technolog
104. tination output channel is done in any routing field or by a click on the desired output pair in the bottom row 24 6 Mute und Solo Mute operates pre fader thus mutes all currently active routings of the channel As soon as any Mute button is pressed the Mute Master button lights up in the Quick Access area It allows to switch all selected mutes off and on again You can comfortably make mute groups or activate and deactivate several Mutes simultaneously The same holds true for the Solo and the Solo Master buttons As with conventional mixing desks Solo operates only for the output defined as Monitor Main as a solo in place post fader As soon as one Solo button is pressed the Solo Master button lights up in the Quick Access area It allows to switch all selected Solos off and on again You can comfortably make solo groups or activate and deactivate several Solos simultaneously 48 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 24 7 The Quick Access Panel This section includes additional options further improving the handling of TotalMix The Master buttons for Mute and Solo have already been described they allow for group based working with these functions In the View section the single mixer rows can be made visible or invisible If the inputs are not needed for a pristine playback mix the whole upper row falls out of the picture after a click on the Input button If the hardware outputs don t interest you either the window can thus be re d
105. tiplexing was used instead of two channels one AES line transmits only one half of a channel A transmission of one channel requires two AES EBU lines stereo requires even four This transmission mode is being called Quad Wire in the professional studio world The AES3 specification does not mention Quad Wire With MADI sample multiplexing is used as well to offer sample rates higher than 96 kHz In fact technical reasons require to use this method beyond 96 kHz A 192K or 384K Frame for mat would not be fully compatible to the MADI standard Therefore 192 kHz is supported as S MUX4 only So in 48K Frame Quad Speed mode a MADI device distributes the data of one channel to four consecutive MADI channels This reduces the available channel count from 64 to 16 As the transmission of quad rate signals with 48K Frame is done at standard sample rate Sin gle Speed the MADI ports still operate at 44 1 kHz or 48 kHz Not supported by the HDSP MADI User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 73 30 6 SteadyClock The SteadyClock technology of the HDSP MADI guarantees an excellent performance in all clock modes Its highly efficient jitter suppression refreshes and cleans up any clock signal and provides it as reference clock at the word clock output Usually a clock section consists of an analog PLL for external synchronization and several quartz oscillators for internal synchronisation SteadyClock requires only one quartz using a frequency not equall
106. tline Troubleshooting 17 1 General The newest information can always be found on our website www rme audio com section FAQ Latest Additions The input signal cannot be monitored in real time e ASIO Direct Monitoring has not been enabled and or monitoring has been disabled globally for example in TotalMix Playback works but record doesn t Check that there is a valid signal at the input If so the current sample frequency is dis played in the Settings dialog Check whether the HDSP system has been selected as recording device in the audio appli cation Check whether the sample frequency set in the audio application Recording properties or similar matches the input signal Check that cables devices have not been connected in a closed loop If so set the systems s clock mode to Master Crackle during record or playback Increase the number and size of buffers in the Settings dialog or in the application Try different cables coaxial or optical to rule out any defects here Check that cables devices have not been connected in a closed loop If so set the system s clock mode to Master Increase the buffer size of the hard disk cache Activate Busmaster mode for the hard disks In case of a recently done BIOS update of the motherboard Propably Load BIOS Defaults was loaded instead of Load Setup Defaults This sets the PCI Latency Timer to O default 32 Low Latency ASIO operation under Win
107. to 1 2 Vpp This setting is not in tended to be used in normal operation But in case of a very long or lossy coaxial cable this setting may ensure an error free operation of the transmission line 7 Accessories RME offers several optional components Additionally parts of the HDSP MADI like the special breakout cables are available separately Part Number Description BOHDSP9652 MIDI breakout cable VKHDSP9652 14 conductor flat ribbon cable ONK1 MADI Optical Network Cable 3 3 ft 1 m ONK3 MADI Optical Network Cable 10 ft 3 m ONK6 MADI Optical Network Cable 20 ft 6 m ONK10 MADI Optical Network Cable 33 ft 10 m ONK20 MADI Optical Network Cable 66 ft 20 m 8 Warranty Each individual Hammerfall DSP undergoes comprehensive quality control and a complete test at RME before shipping The usage of high grade components allow us to offer a full two year warranty We accept a copy of the sales receipt as valid warranty legitimation If you suspect that your product is faulty please contact your local retailer The warranty does not cover damage caused by improper installation or maltreatment replacement or repair in such cases can only be carried out at the owner s expense RME does not accept claims for damages of any kind especially consequential damage Liabil ity is limited to the value of the Hammerfall DSP The general terms of business drawn up by Synthax Audio AG apply at all times 8 User s Guide HDSP MADI
108. uced to the playback channels to save space All combinations are possible and allowed As described earlier Submix sets all routing windows to the same selection Deactivating Submix automatically recalls the previous view The mixer can be made smaller horizontally and vertically This way TotalMix can be made substantially smaller and space saving on the desktop screen if you have to monitor or set only a few channels or level meters The Presets are one of the mightiest and most useful features of TotalMix Be Lis ae hind the eight buttons eight files are hidden see next chapter These contain SS the complete mixer state All faders and other settings follow the changing of View preset s in real time just by a single mouse click The Save button allows for Input storing the present settings in any preset You can change back and forth be Playback tween a signal distribution complete input monitoring a stereo and mono mix Dutput and various submixes without any problem Sub mix Also here RME s love for details can be seen If any parameter is being altered rer after loading a preset e g moving a fader the preset display flashes in order 734 to announce that something has been changed still showing which state the present mix is based on 5 678 Save If no preset button is lit another preset had been loaded via the File menu and Unit Open file Mixer settings can of course be saved the usual way and have long 5 a file
109. vidual settings get lost in m a position as soon as the fader is clicked with the left mouse button As long as no single level is at m a position the left mouse button can be used to change the current routing s gain The checkmarks are un checked by moving the fader to m a This setting deactivates the rout ing why route if there is no level Click onto 7 8 in the routing window pull the fader down open the routing window again the checkmark is gone The number of channels is reduced automatically when entering Double Speed mode 96 kHz The display is adjusted accordingly and all fader settings remain stored 24 5 Submix View Such a wide range of possibilities make it difficult to maintain the overview Because practically all hardware outputs can be used for different submixes as shown up to 32 completely inde pendent stereo submixes 16 4 channel submixes etc And when opening the routing windows you might see an army of checkmarks but you don t get an overwiev i e how the signals come together and where This problem is solved by Submix View mode In this mode all routing fileds jump to the routing pair just being selected You can then see immediately which chan nels which fader and pan settings make a submix for example 1 2 At the same time the Submix View simplifies setting up the mixer as all channels can be set simultaneously to the same routing destination with just one click Changing to a different des
110. was not installed Several users have observed that the installation routine occasionally stops and no longer works correctly This can be fixed by removing the corresponding extension file prior to installa tion In some cases also or only a repair of the disk permission will help We have also received reports saying the driver update could not be installed on the system disk shown red crossed during the installation Repairing permission may also help here If not we re sorry but have to recommend to contact Apple Our driver has no knowledge of fold ers disks etc the installation is handled completely by the OS X installer 20 2 MIDI doesn t work In some cases MIDI does not work after the installation of the HDSP driver To be precise ap plications do not show an installed MIDI port The reason for this is usually visible within the Audio MIDI Setup It displays no RME MIDI device or the device is greyed out and therefore inactive Mostly removing the greyed out device and searching for MIDI devices again will solve the problem If this does not help we recommend manual removal of the MIDI driver and rein stallation of the complete driver Otherwise repairing permissions may help The HDSP MIDI driver is a plugin During installation it will be copied to Library Audio MIDI Drivers It s name is Hammerfall DSP MIDI plugin The file can be displayed in the Finder and also be removed by simply dragging it to the trash bin
111. word clock the playback speed and pitch follows the incoming clock signal Note 3 PowerDVD 5 no longer supports a starting channel other than channel 1 Use TotalMix to send audio to any aother output port if necessary Note 4 In WinDVD 5 and 6 a channel separated 5 1 playback using the HDSP requires a change in the registry Start regedit go to HKEY CURRENT USER Software InterVideo DVD5 AUDIOCHAN c and set its value to 4 hexadecimal Additionally select Waveout as Audio Renderer in the Audio configuration dialog Warning Changes to the registry are done at your own risk Danger of complete data loss User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 19 12 3 Low Latency under MME Buffer Size Adjustment Using Windows 95 or 98 the MME buffer size was nothing to worry about Latencies below 46 ms were not possible Meanwhile both computers and operating system have become much more powerful and since Windows ME 2000 XP latencies far lower can be used SAWStudio and Sonar allowed to use such low settings from the start Sequoia was updated in version 5 91 WaveLab in version 3 04 In the HDSP s Settings dialog the MME buffersize in fact the DMA buffer size is set with the same buttons as the ASIO buffer size Our test computers allow to use settings down to 64 samples without clicks Please note that this setting only defines the buffer size of the hardware The true and effective latency is configured within the MME application Atte
112. x a usage of external hardware like effects devices is easy and flexible Example 1 The singer microphone input channel 1 shall have some reverb on his head phones outputs 11 12 A direct routing In 1 to Out 11 12 for monitoring had been set up al ready The external reverb is connected to a free output for example channel 8 In active mode Submix View click on channel 8 in the bottom row Drag the fader of input 1 to about 0 dB and the panorama fully to the right Adjust the input level at the reverb unit to an optimal setting Next the output of the reverb unit is connected to a free stereo input for example 5 6 Use the TotalMix level meters to adjust a matching output level at the reverb unit Now click on channels 11 12 in the bottom row and move the fader of inputs 5 6 until the reverb effect gets a bit too loud in the headphones Now click on channel 8 in the bottom row again and drag fader 1 down a bit until the mix of original signal and reverb is perfect for the singer The described procedure is completely identical to the one when using an analog mixing desk There the signal of the singer is sent to an output usually labeled Aux from there to a reverb unit sent back from the reverb unit as stereo wet signal no original sound back in through a stereo input e g Effect return and mixed to the monitoring signal The only difference The Aux sends on mixing desks are post fader Changing the level of the original signal cause
113. xample by reducing the PCI Bus Utilization When using more than one HDSP system all units have to be in sync see chapter 15 Else a periodicly repeated noise will be heared Another common source of trouble is incorrect synchronization ASIO does not support asyn chronous operation which means that the input and output signals not only have to use the same sample frequency but also have to be in sync All devices connected to the Hammerfall DSP must be properly configured for Full Duplex operation As long as SyncCheck in the Set tings dialog only displays Lock instead of Sync the devices have not been set up properly 22 User s Guide HDSP MADI RME 14 Operation under GSIF Gigasampler Interface Windows 2000 XP The GSIF interface of the HDSP MADI allows direct operation with Gigastudio with up to 32 channels 96 kHz and 24 bit The new GSIF 2 0 is also supported with both audio and MIDI Gigastudio requires a lot of the computer s calculation power An optimum performance is achieved with a stand alone GSIF PC However when using the Hammerfall DSP the latency is always the same as the one selected for ASIO operation This can cause performance prob lems on slower machines when using GSIF and ASIO at the same time Please note that the W2k XP driver fully supports multi client operation including the combina tion MME ASIO So for example Cubase Gigastudio and Sonar can be used simultaneously provided each of these
114. y completely eliminates disturbing noises and clock network problems during power up or re boot Safe Mode Frequency verifies the current digital input signal against the settings in the record program When de activated a recording will always be allowed even with non valid input signals Fre quency is valid for MME only SyncAlign guarantees synchronous channels when using MME multitrack software This option should only be switched off in case the used software does not work correctly with SyncAlign activated Input activates redundancy operation If the current input signal fails the other input will be used immediately provided a valid signal is found there nput also works as automatic input selec tion in case only optical or coaxial is present as input signal TMS activates the transmission of Channel Status data and Track Marker information from the MADI input signal Buffer Size The setting Buffer Size determines the latency between incoming and outgoing ASIO and GSIF data as well as affecting system stability see chapter 13 14 Under Windows MME this setting determines the DMA buffer size see chapter 12 3 SyncCheck if Le i SyncCheck indicates whether there HOSP MADI AES 32 Settings is a valid signal Lock for the inputs sq MADI 2 DDS About Word Clock and MADI or if there is TERME i are Mode ch ue ot M Frequency M Synclian v Input M TMS display shows the input and fre Fa
115. zed as indicator bar L R in order to save space In the field below the present level is displayed in RMS or Peak being updated about every half a second Overs overload are indicated here by an additional red dot Next is the fader with a level meter The meter shows both peak values zero attack 1 sample is enough for a full scale display by means of a yellow line and mathematically correct RMS values by means of a green bar The RMS display has a relatively slow time constant so that it shows the average loudness quite well Below the fader the current gain and panorama values are shown The white area shows the channel name Selecting one or more channels is done by clicking on the white label which turns orange then A right mouse click opens a dialog to type in a new name The black area routing field shows the current routing target A mouse click opens the routing window to select a routing target The list shows all currently activated routings by checkmarks in front of the routing targets 24 4 Tour de TotalMix This chapter is a practical guide and introduction on how to use TotalMix and on how TotalMix works Starting up TotalMix the last settings are recalled automatically When executing the application for the first time a default file is loaded sending all playback tracks 1 1 to the corresponding hardware outputs with 0 dB gain and activating phones monitoring Hold down Ctrl and click on preset button 5

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