Lynx AES16e PCI Express card!

[desotoslo]

off topic, but I wish Lynx made the Aurora in a 2 channel ADA unit. (boxed, not a card... in this rare case I wish I had a desktop, I'd grab the PCI card!)
They could charge $1k for it and make a killing. There's a hole in the market for $1000 stellar ADA. Price point comparison seems to be $1800+ for a pair of the Mytek 96 stereos. Can anyone think of something that would compare for $1k 2 channel ADA? (please don't chime in about the ULN2)

[dbweenie]

Originally Posted by mmcfarlane

I received my Lynx AES16e last week and I have had a couple flawless recording sessions. I'm running an Aurora16 through the AES16e at 48K. I have no other cards installed and no external firewire devices,. The AES16e is connected to a 2GHz dual CPU Intel Mac Pro tower.

A a separate test I recorded 8 tracks from a drum machine for 1.5 hours at a 192 buffer setting under Cubase 4 and Leopard OSX without a drop out. (normally I record under Tiger) At 48K you need to add 28 samples of extra delay not reported by the driver, 52 samples at 96K.

I used Cubase's Control Room mixer to create the headphone mix. It worked like a charm. I think I am really going to like the Control Room feature. I'm now mixerless and loving the extra space.

If I add effects the buffer size has to go up, obviously, or turning on Cubase's delay compensation seems to work, but I haven't thoroughly tested everything yet.

The digital out meters in the Lynx Mixer appear to max out a long time before the Stereo LR meters in Cubase (set to post-panner, hold forever), and I have a few other Lynx Mixer metering peculiarities I need to figure out, but so far its a keeper. For example, when the Digital Out 5 (one headphone feed) meter on the Lynx mixer output page goes into the red the headphones distort. The first red bar is something like -18dbfs, so it shouldn't distort. Setting this channels Lynx mixer fader at -18 seems to cure the problem but it shouldn't distort at -18dbfs.

Anyone else seen metering peculiarities in the Lynx mixer?

Just got an AES16e last week. Flawless recording @44.1 & 48k on an 8 core w/ Leopard.

Some mixer weirdness though - settings don't save reliably and it always has dither and synchrolock enabled when the mixer app is launched. Otherwise this is a problem free card - Very happy!. UAD-1e is another story... Removed it until a fix is here.

[djanogil]

Originally Posted by dbweenie

UAD-1e is another story... Removed it until a fix is here.

Hey, could you explain a bit more, did you have problems with the combo AES16e and UAD1e?

[dbweenie]

Originally Posted by djanogil

Hey, could you explain a bit more, did you have problems with the combo AES16e and UAD1e?

Not sure they are related:
I get general instability (low level crashes) that go away when I remove the UAD-1 card. Not sure if it has anything to do with the AES16 as it happens when switching to system audio also.

UA has put out this press release.

The Latest News in the World of DAWs

Apple 8-core Mac Pros
We've seen many reports from users in the field regarding CPU spiking and lowered performance from the 8-core Mac Pros when UAD-1 plug-ins are in use. We've taken delivery of a new 8-core Mac Pro and are working with Apple to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. The issue seems to affect Logic users to a much larger degree than other hosts; however, reports overall are varied in their severity. What we've been able to reproduce in house is not as extreme as some of those reports by users. There clearly are some additional factors involved, and we are investigating.

Overall, it's difficult to say how much you will be affected by this if you have one of these machines. All we can advise at this point is caution and awareness to those customers who are potential buyers of new Mac Pros. If you need a new machine, just be aware that you may experience some degree of reduced performance when using UAD-1 plug-ins. If you can, we suggest waiting until this issue has been ironed out.

Thanks for your patience, and we'll get it sorted out soon enough!

[author]

Originally Posted by dbweenie

Just got an AES16e last week. Flawless recording @44.1 & 48k on an 8 core w/ Leopard.

That's good news. What about latency and track numbers?

[dbweenie]

Originally Posted by author

That's good news. What about latency and track numbers?

Buffer settings in Logic 8 work reliably @ 64 and 128 w/ no latency issues. I have tried 32 but haven't since I took out the UAD card.

Low track counts (audio only - no plugs).

[author]

Originally Posted by dbweenie

Buffer settings in Logic 8 work reliably @ 64 and 128 w/ no latency issues. I have tried 32 but haven't since I took out the UAD card.

Low track counts (audio only - no plugs).

Thank you! I asked Lynx about performance, and they said they had measured round trip latency of 2.05 ms at 96k on a dual core Mac Pro. That's in the same ballpark as Symphony.

Do you think you would be able to reproduce that? Oh, and may I ask which converters you use?

[dbweenie]

Originally Posted by author

Thank you! I asked Lynx about performance, and they said they had measured round trip latency of 2.05 ms at 96k on a dual core Mac Pro. That's in the same ballpark as Symphony.

Do you think you would be able to reproduce that? Oh, and may I ask which converters you use?

Lavry Blue and Mytek 192's

Tried it @ 96k w/ 32 sample buffer - still perfect

I assume that you are referring to the numbers quoted by Lynx on page 3 of this thread. Posts 83 - 89.

Lynx AES16e PCI Express card!

As far as measuring the latency - do you know what method they used - haven't done this in a while. Is this correct: take the differential between the direct signal and then the signal through the computer back into another input - then measuring the difference in the waveform locations. Is there a better way? - or a utility for a Mac.

[author]

Originally Posted by dbweenie

Lavry Blue and Mytek 192's

Tried it @ 96k w/ 32 sample buffer - still perfect

That's really great, thanks! Okay, I think I'm gonna get one. No, I didn't see the the posts you mention, but I'm gonna read them now.

Originally Posted by dbweenie

As far as measuring the latency - do you know what method they used - haven't done this in a while. Is this correct: take the differential between the direct signal and then the signal through the computer back into another input - then measuring the difference in the waveform locations. Is there a better way? - or a utility for a Mac.

I'm afraid I'm not the right one to ask, but there's some info here:
Measuring latency

As for Mac utilities, there's Expert Sleepers' Latency Fixer:
Expert Sleepers - Latency Fixer

[dbweenie]

>Originally Posted by dbweenie
>Lavry Blue and Mytek 192's

>Tried it @ 96k w/ 32 sample buffer - still perfect
>That's really great, thanks! Okay, I think I'm gonna get one. No, I didn't see the the >posts you mention, but I'm gonna read them now.

Before you pull the switch you might want to head over to the Lynx forum and see if your setup has any issues associated with it. Good Luck.

[author]

Originally Posted by dbweenie

>Originally Posted by dbweenie
>Lavry Blue and Mytek 192's

>Tried it @ 96k w/ 32 sample buffer - still perfect
>That's really great, thanks! Okay, I think I'm gonna get one. No, I didn't see the the >posts you mention, but I'm gonna read them now.

Before you pull the switch you might want to head over to the Lynx forum and see if your setup has any issues associated with it. Good Luck.

Thank you -- but my set up will be much like yours, so...

[dbweenie]

Originally Posted by author

Thank you -- but my set up will be much like yours, so...

Just to be clear - my tests thus far were through the Lavrys only.

[kLyon]

Had too much time on my hands, was researching "round-trip latency," and just read this whole thread. What an odyssey; there's some serious craziness and recurrent vitriol in there.
I just thought I'd toss in an extra voice to counteract:
My old Lynx Two C is the most trouble-free piece of computer audio gear I've ever had. It's been chugging away for years, and as my computers (self-built PCs) have gotten faster, I've reached the point that I can work at 32 samples -- 64 with a lot of softsynths and *more plugins than anyone should reasonably want* -- all day long. Every issue I've had over the years has been immediately and successfully addressed.
That's all.

[steveschizoid]

Lynx promised a product, didn't deliver, then kept saying "just a few more weeks;" if you are designing a system and have clients/projects lined up to use it, this is enough to give a person some angst. And there was an issue with drop outs and subsequent recording offsets - a very serious problem of which most of us were unaware - that has since been fixed. I am pretty sure some weird phase problems that I encountered in a couple of projects resulted from this issue. My AES16e seems to be working fine now, and Paul and David have been cordial and helpful throughout. I was lucky in that I decided to get a AES16 while waiting on the new card, which made patience a little easier for me; however, the craziness and vitriol that you've read was, if not completely warranted, certainly understandable.

[DRC]

Now that it has been out for a while does anyone have any huge problems running it on a MacPro? What DAW are most of you using it with?

[trancekid]

Originally Posted by DRC

Now that it has been out for a while does anyone have any huge problems running it on a MacPro? What DAW are most of you using it with?

i'd like to know exactly the same !

[mmcfarlane]

Originally Posted by DRC

Now that it has been out for a while does anyone have any huge problems running it on a MacPro? What DAW are most of you using it with?

My AES16 PCIe has worked flawlessy for 3 or 4 days of tracking sessions on an Intel Mac Pro dual-dual configuration under Cubase.

I primarily mix ITB through the Mac's optical out into a Lavry Black DA...

[DRC]

Originally Posted by mmcfarlane

My AES16 PCIe has worked flawlessy for 3 or 4 days of tracking sessions on an Intel Mac Pro dual-dual configuration under Cubase.

I primarily mix ITB through the Mac's optical out into a Lavry Black DA...

Thanks for the info. I may be looking into one. I got the bug to write again.

[SeanG]

Anymore info on how the new lynx PCIe cards are doing?

Any new info would be greatly appreciated.

[tinpig]

Just in case anyone is interested I have a working setup using the Lynx AES16e in the Magma ExpressBox Pro connected to a MacBook Pro 17" 2.33ghz, 3gb Ram running OSX 10.4.11 and 10.5.4.
Seems very solid in both versions of OXS and can I can easily run sessions at a buffer of 32 without glitches etc...
I am running FW800 drives as my audio/sample media and overall I'm very happy with this configuration.

Cheers,

TP

[dbweenie]

AES16e is working perfectly after quite a bit of use (on a current 8 core). I think unless you have some unusual hardware etc ... - a single card setup seems very solid at this point - like it is not even there - it just works. If you go to their support bbs you will see they are responsive to any user questions or issues. The latest driver and firmware update fixed the minor mixer issue, that I mentioned in an earlier post (mixer not saving settings issue) - works fine now. Very happy with this card - best card I have owned (use to have an AES16 that was problematic (clicks/pops) on my old G4 hardware - don't thinkthe problem was the AES16.

Good Luck!

db

[tsvisser]

Originally Posted by tinpig

Just in case anyone is interested I have a working setup using the Lynx AES16e in the Magma ExpressBox Pro connected to a MacBook Pro 17" 2.33ghz, 3gb Ram running OSX 10.4.11 and 10.5.4.
Seems very solid in both versions of OXS and can I can easily run sessions at a buffer of 32 without glitches etc...
I am running FW800 drives as my audio/sample media and overall I'm very happy with this configuration.

Cheers,

TP

Cool, good to hear. I suspect that this might be one of the highest performance options out there, mainly due to the direct connection via PCIe via the EXPRESSCARD interface. I would be doing the same, if it were not the need to get time code inputs that only the RME flavor of the card can offer. If someone would just make the double or tripple bay EXPRESSCARD to PCIe host interface already...