I need the low down on an Apogee Symphony system..

[jonnypowell]

OK, I have a mac-book pro and have just bought a Toft ATB 24trk.
I currently own 2 x FireFace 800's providing 16 outs, which ain't enough..
I'm considering selling them and upgrading to an Apogee Symphony system -
so I think I'd need a Rosetta 800 & DA 16X. I only need 2 ins, as I never record more than 2 channels at the same time.
What I want to know is what cards do I have to get with them to interface with my Mac.. I know they have the Symphony mobile for laptops, but do I need to buy other cards as well for each Apogee unit? Is this the case and how much do they cost?

Cheers in advance,
Jonny

[prismtheory]

You have to have the Symphony Mobile card installed on your laptop. It gives you a maximum 32 ins and outs.

Then for the Rosetta and the da 16x you need to buy the x-symphony card to be able to interface to the symphony mobile.


Apogee Electronics: Premium Digital Audio Solutions

[jonnypowell]

Originally Posted by prismtheory

You have to have the Symphony Mobile card installed on your laptop. It gives you a maximum 32 ins and outs.

Then for the Rosetta and the da 16x you need to buy the x-symphony card to be able to interface to the symphony mobile.


Apogee Electronics: Premium Digital Audio Solutions

So do you need one x-symphony card for each unit? I.E. one inside the AD16X and one inside the Rosetta 800?? That's the bit I didn't get..

[Farout]

Yes. You have to have (1) X-Symphony card installed in each unit.

[Rat Salad]

I had this dilemma last summer. I bought a laptop as i was living between wo cities and travelled a lot. I hoped the laptop would be fast enough to power my studio brain.I was buying the apogee symphony plus DA16x regardless. Yes those laptops are super fast apart from one thing. Disk Access speed, if you're are using more than a moderate amount of audio they just get to it fast enough. I tried everything recommended to me by clever looking people. The internal drive is SATA and you can have a firewire external or even an ethernet drive with the macpros. However, to really get over a track count of 40 you need alot more. Maybe giging out to the teeth may help however if you are using live stuff this won't really help. I ended up needing 4 sata drives in my MacPro. With the track information running across them all to get up to 96 tracks at 24 bit 44.1kHZ ouch. Not laptop can do that (disk access wise) according to what i was told.
If you can find away great, hope you don't find this advice usefull as i had to totally blow my budget (yet again) to buy a macPro. Good Luck

[jonnypowell]

Originally Posted by Rat Salad

I had this dilemma last summer. I bought a laptop as i was living between wo cities and travelled a lot. I hoped the laptop would be fast enough to power my studio brain.I was buying the apogee symphony plus DA16x regardless. Yes those laptops are super fast apart from one thing. Disk Access speed, if you're are using more than a moderate amount of audio they just get to it fast enough. I tried everything recommended to me by clever looking people. The internal drive is SATA and you can have a firewire external or even an ethernet drive with the macpros. However, to really get over a track count of 40 you need alot more. Maybe giging out to the teeth may help however if you are using live stuff this won't really help. I ended up needing 4 sata drives in my MacPro. With the track information running across them all to get up to 96 tracks at 24 bit 44.1kHZ ouch. Not laptop can do that (disk access wise) according to what i was told.
If you can find away great, hope you don't find this advice usefull as i had to totally blow my budget (yet again) to buy a macPro. Good Luck

Uh shit... I wont be running more than 26 tracks at once (24 out and 2 in) at the same time. Do you think the Mac Book-Pro will be able to handle it?

[Rat Salad]

That should be OK. I wouldn't fancy it's chances at 192kHz though. Enjoy.
I always use more tracks than the analogue outputs. For example Bass DI & Bass Amp. Sn Top & Sn Bott.etc. All depends i guess. Cheers

[jonnypowell]

Originally Posted by Rat Salad

That should be OK. I wouldn't fancy it's chances at 192kHz though. Enjoy.
I always use more tracks than the analogue outputs. For example Bass DI & Bass Amp. Sn Top & Sn Bott.etc. All depends i guess. Cheers

Thinking I might just keep my Firefaces now.. I can use the head-phone outs as well to get a total of 20 outs, or add a fireface 400 to give me 22, which is all I really need..
The Apogee route is looking quite expensive!