Newbie needs help about d8b connecting to Motu 2408 Mk1

[angelinc]

Hey guys,

I'm totally new here. So first:...Hi everybody!

I just bought d8b for the band's studio, because we had it once under different circumstances, so I know how to work with it IF it's already installed. Here comes my problem. I never had to look behind the mixing desk. It just worked that time.

Now I plan to set up a studio first time in my life And the first I already bought, ist the d8b.
Now it comes to the soundcard.

My question is:
Would a MOTU 2408 MK1 connected to d8b work proberly with an intel mac pro on the latest Mac OS?
Is it possible to record 24 channels connected to the d8b into Logic Pro simultaneous?
And is the 424 pci wordclock card needed to synchronize d8b and MOTU? Or ist enough to connect the 3 adat IO's.
I'm also asking because in my homestudio I use logic on my Macbook Pro.
If I could bring my laptop to the real studio, and just connect the Motu via firewire to the laptop without needing the wordclock card it would be perfect deal for me.

Any help would be very welcome

[Phil.c]

I use an HDR for 24 track recording but also a Mac Pro running Logic for VST instruments, via a Motu 2408.

8 line outs and ins from the d8b to the 2408 which means I can record on only 8 tracks in Logic and also play 8 back.

You will need an Apogee word card to run everything or a master clock.

MIDI from the HDR controls transport.

Phil

[angelinc]

Hi Phil,
thank you very much for your answer.
So I need definitly a word clock to sync d8b on all 24 Channels to Logic.
But not for the 8 line in / outs, right?

Do you know if the old 2408 Mk1 is still supported by a newer Mac OS?
COuld you give me a hint, which other soundcard I could buy to have the possibility of clocking without putting a
pci card into my Mac?

And is it possible to synchronize the d8b faders to the faders of logic in the meanwhile?
I heard somebody was working on it in the past...

Sorry for the amount of questions

Marco

[Phil.c]

You need an Apogee card for the d8b to work which includes making sound, someone else will need to chip in regarding your other questions.

[FrankH]

The first part of this equation is what kind of I/O cards is your D8B equipped with? If you have three of one flavor or another of Mackie's digital I/O cards installed, connecting 24 channels to your Mac digitally will be a snap. If you have 3 analog cards...then 8 analog channels will be it and the D8B will work with either a stock or Apogee WordClock card installed. Hard to say without knowing.

Your 2408 Mk1 should work with a reasonably current MacPro (4,1 and above), provided you have the MOTU PCIe424 interface card and are using OSX 10.6.8 up to 10.12.1. The driver software MOTU provides online should work with this card (see above). If that's the card you have, you're good to go. If not, get in touch with MOTU because their earlier cards won't work.

If you want the most trouble-free connection to the D8B, your D8B must be equipped with an Apogee WordClock card. Just using light pipes alone is iffy at best. Lightpipe plus a WordClock connection (with either the Mac or D8B as master) is my recommendation.

What is your D8B equipped with? What interface card did MOTU provide? What OS is on the Mac?

[angelinc]

Thans very much for help.

So here is what the d8b comes with:

1x Digital I/O 1 AES/EBU , Digital I/O 2 S/PDIF I/O --- 1x Apogee I/O plus ADAT OPT I/O TDIF & Sync, --- 3x OPT 8 I/O, Software Version 3

This is the info plus the picture I got from the seller.
I still have to wait a week until I'll have it on my desk to check it.

@Frank: I want to run logic X on an old PowerMac with El Capitan Intel Xeon Quad Core 2,8 Ghz. At the moment I dont have the Pci-424 card. Not even have the MOTU 2408 yet. But I could get it for a good price but without the Pci-424 card.

All I want as a first goal in the bands studio, is to record the whole thing on at least 16 Ch through the d8b into logic and play it back through the desk. If possible with one fader section synchronized to the daw'S faders. But I guess this will not be included in step one of trying

I have to switch it on and learn when it comes in about a week. So I will probably ask a lot of more questions soon

[FrankH]

In order for the 2408 to communicate with the Mac, it needs to have a MOTU PCIe424 card plugged into one of the Mac's PCIe slots. The 2408 won't work with a Mac if you don't have that card.

There is more than enough optical I/O on that D8B to do what you want but it's missing the Apogee WordClock card, and without that, it will make a stable, trouble-free hookup with any W/C equipped digital I/O interface troublesome. In theory, ADAT optical cables carry W/C sync but the D8B doesn't deal with it well. I know, because I use a 2408Mk3 with a Mac and I've tried it without a W/C connection. It works like shit. I don't recommend using that combo of gear without the Apogee WordClock card in the D8B.

If you buy this board, you should be looking online for a used Mackie Apogee WordClock card. And you should be looking for a complete 2408/PCIe424 set (preferably a Mk3) or consider an RME RayDat card set.

BTW, the fact that this board has all four I/O slots populated with digital I/O and no Apogee W/C card makes me wonder if the seller sold the Apogee card separately for a large profit and shoved the stock card back in to get rid of the board. Most users with all digital I/O almost always had the board equipped with the Apogee card. This makes the deal kinda suspect....but that's just me.

[Phil.c]

Good info from Frank.

Just for your info, these desks are the biz but can be very temperamental, when they work, there's not much out there to compete for the price, but they can have issues, especially if bought without testing, the problem is that you probably have no come backs if there's something wrong...anyway enough of negetivity, fingers crossed that your new desk is ok and you should have a lot of fun with it

Phil

[angelinc]

Back to the game. It took a long while until I got the desk. Then I found out I need an AT Adapter for my keyboard to get it running because it said: Press F1 to continue... Another week later now I pressed f1, were setting all bios values to default and now I have a big problem. Its not booting.
The host tries to boot and it says: Searching for boot record from IDE-0: OK
Copyright (C) 2000 MDI
File Not Found
BOOT FAIL

What I tried now was make myself a bootdisk on the last floppy disk I found in my house.
Creating it was not a problem on an old Win Xp System, but again the host is not even reading the floppy disk:
Searching for Boot Record from Floppy: OK.
DISK I/O Error
Replace the disk and press any key

What can I do now?

I really wanted to have this desk, but now its not a nice start

Marco

[Phil.c]

This is an "old" floppy you've found? you really need new ones, download the OS from the database, what OS are you trying to load?