500 Series Rack with Digital Out?

[JB872]

I couldn't find any posts on this subject so I thought I'd give it it's own thread due to the recent flood of 500 series modules.

Does anyone else see a market for a 500 series rack with a digital out option? For remote recording nothing else could compare IMO... 11 different pres in 3 rack spaces, connected only by two adat cables to a lightbridge. For me it's all about keeping it simple when recording remote. Something like this would make my job at lot easier.

Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here, but somewhere down the road I'd like to see the high end converter companies join the VPR alliance so you have the option of what converter you go with.

Does any of this make sense?

[The Marrvel]

This would be absolutely great if they could do it!

[JB872]

Originally Posted by The Marrvel

This would be absolutely great if they could do it!

I can't see why not since it's already been done with a few 8 channel pres. I'd say API would be a good candidate for this since they just designed an adat out card for their API A2D and also build 500 series racks.

Another thought I had (I could be off base on this one) was that if there was a AD converter onboard along with the Digital Out, you'd have some routing capablilities within the rack. From what I've read, there's some limitations to what can be done with the 500 series in terms of making it more like a Tonelux Vrack...so maybe some ADDA converters with a matrix software mixer would solve some of these issues. Or maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

[nathanvacha]

well how're they gonna fit 8 or 11 a/d converters in there if the space is already taken up with pre's? perhaps a really reall big chasis that was extra deep would accomodate it... but i think at best you'd have to buy simple 500 size pre's each w/ a digital out to make that even feasible. anything like an 8 channel pre/converter is usually a very simple pre' w/ only a gain control and maybe phase and pad switch. 500 pre's tend to have a bit more on the front, right? Usually?

there's an aweful lot working against it and probably not a huge market for it, which makes it pretty hard on manufacturers...

would be a handy thing, though...

[JB872]

Originally Posted by nathanvacha

well how're they gonna fit 8 or 11 a/d converters in there if the space is already taken up with pre's? perhaps a really reall big chasis that was extra deep would accomodate it... but i think at best you'd have to buy simple 500 size pre's each w/ a digital out to make that even feasible. anything like an 8 channel pre/converter is usually a very simple pre' w/ only a gain control and maybe phase and pad switch. 500 pre's tend to have a bit more on the front, right? Usually?

there's an aweful lot working against it and probably not a huge market for it, which makes it pretty hard on manufacturers...

would be a handy thing, though...

Well I"ll use the Audient ASP008 as an example.

Here's the amount of space the adat takes up on the back



And here's the size of the card on it's own. I imagine some can design a pcb to fit in a 500 series rack.

[DISCERN]

Originally Posted by nathanvacha

well how're they gonna fit 8 or 11 a/d converters in there if the space is already taken up with pre's? perhaps a really reall big chasis that was extra deep would accomodate it... but i think at best you'd have to buy simple 500 size pre's each w/ a digital out to make that even feasible. anything like an 8 channel pre/converter is usually a very simple pre' w/ only a gain control and maybe phase and pad switch. 500 pre's tend to have a bit more on the front, right? Usually?

there's an aweful lot working against it and probably not a huge market for it, which makes it pretty hard on manufacturers...

would be a handy thing, though...

Digital electronics take up very little room. It could very easily be incorporated into a 500 series rack, not into a 500 series module. The problem would be the cost... high quality conversion isn't cheap.

[JB872]

Originally Posted by DISCERN

Digital electronics take up very little room. It could very easily be incorporated into a 500 series rack, not into a 500 series module. The problem would be the cost... high quality conversion isn't cheap.

The cool thing about the 500 format is that you can pull out one module and replace it with another from a total different manufacture. I'd like to see the same thing with the digital cards, where you could buy a card that fits your budget from say RME, Apogee, Lynx and pop it into a small slot at the back of the 500 rack.

This will help keep the digital part of rack future proof too.

[Gerax]

Would be totally cool.
I also agree with the size thing: I take my ISA428 as an example. It's a 2RU preamp with lots of electronics, and still, the AD card (which sounds really good BTW) it's just a 2x4" PCB with 2 ADATs, WC in and OUT, AES and SPdif on a DB9 connector...and it does 8 channels @192KHz...Shouldn't be that difficult to fit one in a 500 series rack...
I think the problem is API has always been mainly interested in analog design, the A2D being the first of their products to have AD conversion. It may be a little of an uncharted territory for them and product design is, as always, based on sales response.
I guess if we inundate them with requests they could eventually take that into account: I'd love a digital option for a 3124 too

L.G.

[JB872]

I guess if we inundate them with requests they could eventually take that into account: I'd love a digital option for a 3124 too

I think it might take more than 8 post on the topic for a manufacture to take the 500 Series with Digital Option into account. I thought there'd be more interest in this myself. Maybe someone with a little experience in both 500 series racks and digital conversion can comment on how difficult or expensive something like this would be to make.

[NOCCA]

I think this would be a really cool idea, but it should have AD and DA so that we can use all those cool EQs and Compressors coming out!!

[JB872]

Originally Posted by NOCCA

I think this would be a really cool idea, but it should have AD and DA so that we can use all those cool EQs and Compressors coming out!!

It would be great for external effects and eliminate the need for a patchbay. It might even open up a way for routing one module to another within a rack.