[LAU] RME Babyface Pro questions

[Joe Hartley]

On Wed, 27 Feb 2019 21:32:27 +0100
<audio at fn.de> wrote:

> On Wed, 27 Feb 2019 13:08:06 -0600, Brent Busby wrote:
> >I think the thing I would miss the most if I had to start using it as
> >my main interface would be not having hdspmixer available to setup
> >intricate monitor mixes in hardware.
> 
> It's an advantage, if routing for monitoring could be handled by
> software, especially in this case, since Joe mentioned desktop usage
> without the need to use a large mixer. In my modest experiences, a
> small mixer with a few sub and aux channels is a must-have tool.

Well, I just pulled the trigger on the Babyface.  I went over my use
cases and it works well for me when the Soundcraft board is just too
much.  The fact that it's portable just makes it more flexible, though
it'll rarely leave the desk.  I know the quality of the RME preamps,
and the unit got a glowing review from my son, whose opinion I value 
highly.

Another plus here is that I will get rid of the rack which has had
its occupancy dwindle as I did more with plugins.  Now it's just a
power conditioner, patchbay, and the Delta 1010 external unit.

Brent also wrote earlier, "Does interface hardware go to heaven when
it dies, if it's very good?"  It makes me think about the fate of the
pair of 1010s that I have.  At one time I was considering building a
home studio around them (and the work in pairing them with a clock sync
got documented at delta.brainiac.com), but when I bought the Soundcraft
board, there was really no need for me to get crafty.

The hardware got older, and I learned about the 1010's capacitor issue,
and actually acquired my 2nd 1010 from another user here who gave it to
me for free with the provision I document how to fix it for others.
That was actually the start of the brainiac site mentioned above.
(Thanks, Brett!)  At any rate, I'm going to see what I can do to keep
this from becoming toxic scrap in a landfill.

Oh, an odd note - as I was searching my email archives to confirm that it
was Brett that gve me the broken 1010, the first hit contained this exchange:

Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2008
Subject: Re: RME Multiface II
> there are no known issues with it at this time, although a few newer
> features of the h/w are not available.
>
> > And hdspmixer is the Linux equivalent of the TotalMix tool?
>
> correct. you *must* run this before getting any sound out of the box -
> there is no other tool that can manipulate the matrix mixer and its all
> silenced at driver loading time.

Circles within circles...

-- 
======================================================================
       Joe Hartley - UNIX/network Consultant - jh at brainiac.com
 Without deviation from the norm, "progress" is not possible. - FZappa