PMX 6 & RME Babyface

[mjbennett]

Hi,
I'm looking for an interface for editing, and only I have USB connectivity at the moment. I'm considering a RME Babyface but was wondering what experiences anyone had had with it and Pyramix 6? Would the Babyface be the right tool for the job, or should I consider a USB D-A with Headphone output instead? I'm running PMX6 boot-camped on a late 2008 aluminium MacBook.
Thanks in advance,
Matthew

[fl]

I don't have a Babyface, but I've been working with an RME interface for four years, and I've found the RME drivers to be extremely stable with Pyramix Native 5, 6 and now 7. If all you need are two analog inputs, and ADAT and SPDIF digital inputs, and can monitor through headphones or speakers, then the Babyface looks like a nice, small, versatile interface.

Of course, if you just want to monitor output, you could easily get away with using the Macbook's onboard RealTek audio hardware via ASIO4ALL, which is free.

[Larry Elliott]

Of course, if you just want to monitor output, you could easily get away with using the Macbook's onboard RealTek audio hardware via ASIO4ALL, which is free.

Thanks for this tip Frank! I had never considered this as an option.
Larry

[fl]

Well sure, Larry - cheap and dirty..., to say nothing of portable.

Just be sure to disable the input channels in the ASIO4ALL Control Panel if you're going to be using it with Mac/RealTek hardware - or you'll be limited to a maximum sample rate of 48 kHz. With the inputs disabled, you can monitor up to 192 kHz. material. Also, be sure to max out all the latency sliders.

[Perfect Record]

Don't know if this is of any value to you, but don't forget that a MacBook Pro has digital audio out via the headphone out. It's Toslink optical. You need to either get a special cable, or a little adaptor to connect to a standard toslink cable.

I use this when I'm doing long de-click/de-noise sessions in iZotope RX. Just route the output to my favorite D-A converter.

Since I've never run Bootcamp or Parallels, I don't know if the optical out is active though.

[drfred01054]

I just added a Babyface to my collection this weekend, and it's working fine with my PMX 7/Dell laptop remote system, which usually uses an RME AIO card in a Magma chassis, connected elegantly via ExpressCard (to avoid having to use FW). Freeing up the Magma box while the remote system is back in the studio, I thought, would enable me to add it (with the extra RME card and UAD Duo it also contains) to my Mac Pro setup to increase that system's analog input and plug-in capability, but so far, the Vista OS setup in that bootcamp system is less than stable with the Magma chassis present. Sometimes it works fine for hours, but eventually it gets a (second processor didn't report) blue screen crash, necessitating a reboot. It has nothing to do with PMX; it'll crash just sitting there with no applications running too.

So maybe I should redo its Vista OS to W7/32 to run PMX 7.. but I'd rather wait 'til the new PMX which will run on W7/64 is released, since I already have a W7/64 partition on the Mac ready and waiting; it's been there for some time now. Until the new Pyramix arrives, moving the Magma chassis to the big system remains problematic, but the Babyface "backup" interface on the remote system works just fine, as far as it goes, i/o-wise. Cute little blue thing; sounds good.

"Dr. Fred"

[Graemme]

Hey Dr. Fred!

Good to see you here!

Cheers,

Graemme