very specific question

user_305 · Post by **user_305** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 11:36 am

i just got a new g5 tower w/ the optical i/o's. i have a tascam tm-d1000 digital mixer with a tdif adat interface. i used to hook up an adat using two optical cables. it seems like i should be able to replace the adat with the mac, but i can't figure out how to do this. does anyone have any experience with either:

a) using the g5 i/o's for recording

b) the tm-d1000 or other tascam digital mixers

i have a buddy who is really good with macs, but he's in japan. until then, i'll be buried in my tascam manual.

thanks!

hatta · Post by **hatta** » Sun Dec 26, 2004 4:44 pm

I can't really help with specifics, but tdif/adat seems to be an 8 - channel digital interface. The G5 seems to use dual channel SPDIF opitical I/O. I have not used LightPipe/ADAT/etc so I can't speak to convertors or anything, but something out there must exist. Check out this article at osxAudio (which is a site that every Mac audio geek should have linked and may have more info on this topic)

user_305 · Post by **user_305** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 9:25 am

thanks! this is a great start.

user_305 · Post by **user_305** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 12:25 pm

ok, as far as i can tell, i need a sound card for my g5. anyone here using anything particularly good for their mac?

hatta · Post by **hatta** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 4:19 pm

This looks real good: Echo Digital Gina 3G It is a PCI card with breakout box that does ADAT, S/PDIF, MIDI and so on. Echo Digital makes quality stuff and more importantly, has full Core Audio support. Core Audio (Apples audio API) support is ideal for whatever product you get.

(I don't have one of these nor work for, endorse, etc. I am familiar with the brand and it came up in a simple search)

user_226 · Post by **user_226** » Mon Dec 27, 2004 4:41 pm

a pci card or external usb/firewire breakout/module would be your best bet for an audio card. i've used a ton of different ones over the years, don't have any "stay away from at all costs" opinions on any of them. they're all good for specific things.

i will say that if you're going to go the pci-card route, make damn sure that the card you get is expressly stated as being g5 compatible. the g5's use a different architecure and power model for pci cards (dubbed pci-x). which means that old pci card are not compatible with the g5s (they'll fry). most manufacturers have updated all of their pci cards (i know motu offers a swap for your old pci card to the new pci-x ones)...

personally, i'm going for the motu traveler... especially for the fact that with an industry-standard 9v battery pack you can run the thing completely ac-free. expect a bunch of high-fidelity recordings of people jamming in the middle of a forest...

user_305 · Post by **user_305** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 12:13 pm

ok, so i ventured out online to find an internal card that would do what i want, but i am a bit overwhelmed. i even checked out some mac msg boards, a lot of it was just over my head. can anyone point me in the direction of some good places to shop for these cards online?

user_305 · Post by **user_305** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 3:23 pm

http://www.rme-audio.com/english/digi96/digi96pa.htm" onclick= "window.open(this.href);return false;

i found this one... now i just have to figure out whether or not it will work on a g5.

hatta · Post by **hatta** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 4:28 pm

notech wrote:http://www.rme-audio.com/english/digi96/digi96pa.htm

i found this one... now i just have to figure out whether or not it will work on a g5.

I did a bit of looking around and while everyone seems to think it is a good card and the Core Audio support good, I could not find one mention of G5 (PCI-X) compatibility. So I'd email the co and ask, if they say a definite YES then go for it. That interface I linked above (Echo Gina) does say prominently on it's info page that it supports PCI-X, which I suspect will be the case for all that do (they want G5 owners to buy them!)

While I was searching I found this guys page that reviews all levels of interfaces, many of which are LightPipe/ADAT compatible. Check it out here

Oh and DJHekla above is dead on, you really can't do better then MOTU products for the Mac. Their compatibility, support and migration to newer standards is spot on.

user_305 · Post by **user_305** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 4:47 pm

nice... this is all much more helpful than any questions i've put on boards specifically made for these kinds of questions.

user_325 · Post by **user_325** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 7:26 pm

I record with a computer stick microphone and Acid : \