ProFire 2626

[otobianki74]

I've been keeping my eye on this thread... wondering if anybody has been using this unit solely as an i/o box as a replacement for the profire lightbridge.

I've been using the lightbridge for a year now and it has its buggy moments. my apogee symph system is where I do most of my tracking and mixing but I still like to edit in pro tools and occasionally mix in it.

the profire lightbridge is not a box to be relied on IMHO for mixing. I've done so much "beta" testing with the unit, the works, but at the end of the day my box exhibits three consistent problems; audio drops out for a quick second every now and again (happening less frequently now on my current settings), random occassional clicks/pops... I mean, when printing a mix this is a HUGE , and also my box can only work in smux clocking internally and clicks and pops are more apparent.

I'm just looking for a simple i/o solution that's stable enough to let me mix in PT LE without any of the above mentioned problems.

of course, I could just have a lemon, but too many people have been complaining about similar problems for some time now.

thanks for any feedback.

cheers.

oto

[d1rtynyc]

I messed with one at NAB. M-Audio shared part of our booth.
6 days of running it for playback & recording. It ran nice with no bugs I could tell. Of course I had to run the booth as well.
I thought it sounded really nice for the M-Audio stuff & liked the look.
The pres sound nice too.
I know there are allot of M-Audio haters out there, but for the money I find it really hard to beat their stuff...

[otobianki74]

thanks d1rtynyc.

anybody have any experience running sessions just with the adat i/o with another converter (clocking externally)... I will be using it with my ad-da/16xs.

thanks.

oto

[Dean7]

Originally Posted by otobianki74

thanks d1rtynyc.

anybody have any experience running sessions just with the adat i/o with another converter (clocking externally)... I will be using it with my ad-da/16xs.

thanks.

oto

Yeah I've done some testing using just adat clocking externally and it worked like a charm with Reaper, but unfortunately my testing was limited and I didn't try it with PTMP.

-Dean

[otobianki74]

thanks dean!

RayT... got any demo units floating around? maybe I can beta test for this scenario . you will have a lot of happy PT LE campers if this thing is more stable than the PFLB.

oto

[stingray1122]

RayT... got any demo units floating around?

I wish! Even I'm on a waiting list to get one at this point. Demand is high so all our stock is going straight to the dealers. We just have a couple floating around for testing. :(

RayT

[Dean7]

Originally Posted by stingray1122

I wish! Even I'm on a waiting list to get one at this point. Demand is high so all our stock is going straight to the dealers. We just have a couple floating around for testing. :(

RayT

Glad to hear that demand is high. Keep up the good work!

[pmdundee]

Originally Posted by stingray1122

I wish! Even I'm on a waiting list to get one at this point. Demand is high so all our stock is going straight to the dealers. We just have a couple floating around for testing. :(

RayT

With the few you have, have you had any more chance to do testing with Sonar? I seem to remember you saying there were some problems with 7.0.2. I'm getting ready to spring on one of these and want to know if it's going to be stable. My Presonus Firestudio is anything but, so that's priority number one for my next purchase.

Thanks!
Eric

[Yung]

lookin to get a new interface.. upgrading from the fw410 i just sold and have been lookin at the profire for alil while now but have been finding great deals on project mix i/o's lately..

kinda leaning towards the project mix due to the fact that its a control surface and a interface.

My question is, is the sound quality of the project mix comparable to the profire 2626 or would the difference in qaulity not justify going with the 2626 when in the future i plan to run a better converter like an apogee rossetta 200?

btw they are both running about the same price range.

[LeyvaR]

Originally Posted by Yung

lookin to get a new interface.. upgrading from the fw410 i just sold and have been lookin at the profire for alil while now but have been finding great deals on project mix i/o's lately..

kinda leaning towards the project mix due to the fact that its a control surface and a interface.

My question is, is the sound quality of the project mix comparable to the profire 2626 or would the difference in qaulity not justify going with the 2626 when in the future i plan to run a better converter like an apogee rossetta 200?

btw they are both running about the same price range.

I am also wondering how the 2626 compares to the ProjectMix. The controller is nice but at this time I'm trying to get a good signal in that I can afford and still use my PT M-Powered. Either way I know I need to also get a good tube pre, but that's a whole other can of beans. Anybody's experience comparing the PF 2626 and the PM I/O would be much appreciated.

[Chris.Anderson]

Well, i thought i was out of the woods on this one....guess not -

I've been having a terrible problem over the past few weeks with channels 9-16 (coming out of my Mackie board, into the Profire, and then into my Firewire 1814 via ADAT) having extremely loud clicks and pops at periodic intervals (almost certainly a latency issue). I have TWO 2626s here at my house, and i've tried them both, with the same result.

Upon contacting M-Audio support, the guy there recommended that I use the 2626 as my primary interface, and use the 1814 just for AD conversion. That's all well and good - i updated ProTools MP to cs4, and swapped everything around. I've checked my I/O setup, it's fine. There's a signal coming out of the Firewire 1814 (at least i think there is, there's red light on the other end of the cable), but the ProFire isn't registering a signal coming from the 1814, which should be on channels 9-16. 1-8 are analog-ins, and they work fine, apart from being pretty weak signals.

Any ideas here? I've reconnected the 1814 and ensured that Optical In/Out are both set to ADAT instead of S/PDIF. There's probably something really simple i'm missing.

I appreciate any help, gentlemen.
Thanks- Chris Anderson

[fizzler]

Originally Posted by Chris.Anderson

Well, i thought i was out of the woods on this one....guess not -

I've been having a terrible problem over the past few weeks with channels 9-16 (coming out of my Mackie board, into the Profire, and then into my Firewire 1814 via ADAT) having extremely loud clicks and pops at periodic intervals (almost certainly a latency issue). I have TWO 2626s here at my house, and i've tried them both, with the same result.

Upon contacting M-Audio support, the guy there recommended that I use the 2626 as my primary interface, and use the 1814 just for AD conversion. That's all well and good - i updated ProTools MP to cs4, and swapped everything around. I've checked my I/O setup, it's fine. There's a signal coming out of the Firewire 1814 (at least i think there is, there's red light on the other end of the cable), but the ProFire isn't registering a signal coming from the 1814, which should be on channels 9-16. 1-8 are analog-ins, and they work fine, apart from being pretty weak signals.

Any ideas here? I've reconnected the 1814 and ensured that Optical In/Out are both set to ADAT instead of S/PDIF. There's probably something really simple i'm missing.

I appreciate any help, gentlemen.
Thanks- Chris Anderson

AFAIK the "1814" doesn't support standalone mode like the "2626" - Correct me if I'm wrong.
Try to connect both interfaces to your computer and then try the routing.
Good Luck!

- fizzler

[crossroad]

A Few days ago i picked up a 2626.
I have it running by adat to apogee da16x and ad16x with PTMP clocked to the apogee.

Sofar no problems with an agere firewire chip win xp. (Asus P5K-E wifi)
I connected a longer firewire 6 pins calbe 13.7 feet, no problems too.

Next week i expect a Mac Pro.
I'll test and report.

[Chris.Anderson]

Originally Posted by fizzler

AFAIK the "1814" doesn't support standalone mode like the "2626" - Correct me if I'm wrong.
Try to connect both interfaces to your computer and then try the routing.
Good Luck!

- fizzler

you're quite correct!
The first guy i spoke to was completely uninformed..
I spent another 3 hours on the phone with M-Audio today, and it's all working perfectly now - The issue (hopefully this could help someone else) was that there needs to be 2 (two) ADAT cables running between the two interfaces; one to carry the signal FROM the 2626, and the other to carry clock information from the 1814 (and both cables need to connect to the same ADAT bus on the ProFire). This is the first time i've used an interface such as this to do AD/DA conversion, so it was quite a learning experience.

Anyhow, all my sync issues are gone, and i'm tracking beautiful pop/click-free drums and guitar :)

[jonesboy]

Figured it was worth reporting that I'm now under 10.5.3 with PTMP 7.4.2pr and the latest 2626 drivers on M-Audio's site and am now experiencing

(1) Greatly enhanced performance of Pro Tools (i.e. CPU utilization is down dramatically), and
(2) Really bad pops, clicks, repeated buffer glitches, etc., some of which correspond with MIDI events being sent to RTAS instruments, some of which don't seem to have any explanation, all with CPU meter showing ~10% utilization.

I've tried everything from 256 to 2048 sample buffers; 512 seems to be the best at this point. I'm hoping that it's some combination of not-quite-finished M-Audio drivers for 10.5.3 (they *are* marked as being for 10.5.2, after all) and the pre-release PTMP, because I can't actually use this for tracking or mixing right now.

Everything was great under 10.4.11 though, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get my perfect audio back while keeping the lower CPU utilization with the next patches...

-Matt

[drumkideric]

Originally Posted by otobianki74

I've been keeping my eye on this thread... wondering if anybody has been using this unit solely as an i/o box as a replacement for the profire lightbridge.

I've been using the lightbridge for a year now and it has its buggy moments. my apogee symph system is where I do most of my tracking and mixing but I still like to edit in pro tools and occasionally mix in it.

the profire lightbridge is not a box to be relied on IMHO for mixing. I've done so much "beta" testing with the unit, the works, but at the end of the day my box exhibits three consistent problems; audio drops out for a quick second every now and again (happening less frequently now on my current settings), random occassional clicks/pops... I mean, when printing a mix this is a HUGE , and also my box can only works in smux clocking internally and clicks and pops are more apparent.

I'm just looking for a simple i/o solution that's stable enough to let me mix in PT LE without any of the above mentioned problems.

of course, I could just have a lemon, but too many people have been complaining about similar problems for some time now.

thanks for any feedback.

cheers.

oto

My Profire Lightbridge just gave out on me today. It stopped clocking period. I bought a Profire 2626 and WOW. Man, this thing works great for just doing i/o for my Apogee converters. Clock is fast solid and stable, unlike the lightbridge. I am very happy!

[Dean7]

Originally Posted by drumkideric

My Profire Lightbridge just gave out on me today. It stopped clocking period. I bought a Profire 2626 and WOW. Man, this thing works great for just doing i/o for my Apogee converters. Clock is fast solid and stable, unlike the lightbridge. I am very happy!

Good to hear. I'm happy with mine. :)

Anyway, what software you using?

[drumkideric]

I am mainly on PT M-Powered. Although, sometimes I am in Logic 8.

[Dean7]

Originally Posted by drumkideric

I am mainly on PT M-Powered. Although, sometimes I am in Logic 8.

Cool. Good to hear some reports of stability in PTMP. :)

[breathsavers]

Some of you had asked for a sample of something recorded with the Profire 2626, so I thought I'd oblige. This is one of my band's songs that I recorded track by track with the Profire and my MacBook, mixed in Logic. I'm not quite done mixing it, I want to tweak some levels, but you get the idea.

she's lookin on new.mp3

I used pretty average mics, but I am still happy with the result. I am the drummer, by the way.

Sennheiser 601e on guitar amps
Drums- MXL 993 pair (overheads), SM57 (snare), Beta 52 (kick), sennheiser MK II (low tom), MXL 603S (hats)
bass- direct in
vocals- MXL 2003
Aux. percussion- MXL 603S

[Yung]

Originally Posted by breathsavers

Some of you had asked for a sample of something recorded with the Profire 2626, so I thought I'd oblige. This is one of my band's songs that I recorded track by track with the Profire and my MacBook, mixed in Logic. I'm not quite done mixing it, I want to tweak some levels, but you get the idea.

she's lookin on new.mp3

I used pretty average mics, but I am still happy with the result. I am the drummer, by the way.

Sennheiser 601e on guitar amps
Drums- MXL 993 pair (overheads), SM57 (snare), Beta 52 (kick), sennheiser MK II (low tom), MXL 603S (hats)
bass- direct in
vocals- MXL 2003
Aux. percussion- MXL 603S

sounds pretty good considering the mics used..

[breathsavers]

Originally Posted by Yung

sounds pretty good considering the mics used..

thanks!

[jeronimo]

sounds good to me too!

[Dean7]

Originally Posted by breathsavers

Some of you had asked for a sample of something recorded with the Profire 2626, so I thought I'd oblige. This is one of my band's songs that I recorded track by track with the Profire and my MacBook, mixed in Logic. I'm not quite done mixing it, I want to tweak some levels, but you get the idea.

she's lookin on new.mp3

I used pretty average mics, but I am still happy with the result. I am the drummer, by the way.

Sennheiser 601e on guitar amps
Drums- MXL 993 pair (overheads), SM57 (snare), Beta 52 (kick), sennheiser MK II (low tom), MXL 603S (hats)
bass- direct in
vocals- MXL 2003
Aux. percussion- MXL 603S

Sounds pretty good, man! Nice job and thanks for posting!

[JonesH]

I've made several acoustical recordings and concerts with the PF2626, my MacBook and a LaCie harddrive. It's performed excellently.

I haven't gotten past my anxiousness when recording with any pro tools not being HD yet; I had some really bad experiences with my MBox system. It was terribly unstable and I figured it was my full-o'-junk system screwing things up, but when I installed the PF2626, 10.4.11 and M-Powered 7.4 it just performed fine, recording 8 tracks for 120min without having a breakdown or a single glitch.

Today, I made an organ recording of a 17th century replica organ in northern Sweden, recording 5ch in PTMP. However, thanks to the flexibility of the PF2626 DSP mixer, I was listening to the PT mix in my monitors and phones #1, while feeding a mix from the DSP mixer to my CD recorder and headphones #2. Very nice.

Can't say much about the mic amps yet; today was all but the first time I used them, and with Neumann TLM50s everything sounds good ;)
Otherwise I've only been using the line ins with a Milennia systems mic amp wich is great.

So far I'm extremly pleased with this unit. Rock solid, very stable. But, oh yeah, the master volume knob comes off. What's up with that?

[otobianki74]

sorry if this has been covered... just throwing this out for a quick answer:

does anybody know if this unit can be used in standalone mode, just for preamps/converters?

oto

[Yung]

just wondering before my profire2626 makes it here... will it even operate with my ptmp 7.1???

[drumkideric]

Originally Posted by Yung

just wondering before my profire2626 makes it here... will it even operate with my ptmp 7.1???

No, it only works with 7.4. You will have to upgrade to use it with PT.

[JonesH]

Originally Posted by otobianki74

does anybody know if this unit can be used in standalone mode, just for preamps/converters?

Sure can; it works excellently syncing either internally, from ADAT in, S/PDIF in (optical or coaxial) or wordclock via included breakout cable.

[JonesH]

Oh, and Ray:

How does the ProFire2626 react to, say, having its FireWire cable jacked out while in host mode?
Does it automatically revert to standalone mode (analog in 1->analog out 1 & digital out 1) or will it keep doing what the computer most recently instructed the DSP to do?

Please enlighten me :)