RME Hammerfall with D8B

[IronBone]

I have finally gotten my D8B set up using the RME hammerfall card, and have successfully been tracking for a couple of weeks now. But there are still a few questions that I have that I haven't been able to figure out reading through my D8B and RME owner manuals. I am using Version 3.0 with 3 DIO-8 cards, RME Hammerfall card, Apogee word clock card, with Sonar X1 on a PC.

My first question is about the in/out per channel. Everything works fine tracking to the PC in SonarX1, but I was hoping that I would be able to send the tracks back to the board on the 2nd layer for a quick playback mix. Everytime I try it sends the tracks back in stereo pairs. I'm not sure if there is a setting in the RME or Sonar settings that I am missing or if it just isn't supposed to work that way.

The next question is about the midi in/out. I have the breakout cable for both the D8B and the RME and I was hoping that I would at least be able to use the Play, Rec, FF, Rew, and Stop functions on the console. But once again, I'm not sure if it is supposed to work that way and or the midi in/out is there to be used with different intentions.

The last question is about the Apogee wordclock card. It's kind of a two part question, the first being do I really need this card if I am tracking just fine without it syncing properly, and the second part is obviously how do I get the card to sync? I have read a couple things in my RME manual about needing to terminate the bnc connections, but I bought this card off of ebay and i'm not sure if there is a way to tell if they have been terminated or not.

Any help with these questions will be much appreciated.

[anyhorizon]

I can answer the last part first. The Apogee clock card is always terminated unless someone has been inside and removed the 75Ω resistor. You need the card or at least, a clock card but since you have the Apogee, all the better. The A/D and D/A converters won't work otherwise.

The stereo scenario will be a Sonar setting. Can't help there as I don't know the program.

The transport functions will also need to be set up in Sonar to receive and send Midi Machine Control (MMC). You will also need to have both way connections for the transport functions to work.

Peter

[Casey_Pittman]

You pretty much have the same set up as I do with the exception that I use Cubase, so I'll do my best to give you some detailed answers.

1. You should be able to send individual tracks back to the d8b. If it's sending back in pairs then there is a setting in Sonar that you need to look at. When selecting your output routing, does the RME come up as "adat 1 & adat 2" or just "adat 1" "adat 2"? If it's the first then you need to create mono out buses if the software allows you to do that. If that doesn't work you could try panning the channels in the daw hard left and hard right to get separation back to the d8b.

2. You need to look at your MMC/MTC (I can never remember which) settings and do a trial by error to get this to work. It should ask you what mini ports your using. Once this is done then your transport buttons will work.

3. Yes, use the Apogee card, save yourself the headache and use it. I set mine up as the master and the RME as the slave, never have any problems. The difference between word sync and no word sync is night and day to me. You can sync via adat but......I've had more adat cables go bad on me than BNC cables. To each his own though.

Of course I welcome any corrections if I'm wrong, I haven't had to set it up in awhile.

Hope this helps,

-Casey

[FrankH]

Of course I welcome any corrections

It should ask you what mini ports your using. Once this is done then your transport buttons will work.

That would be MIDI, I believe.

Casey's setup is correct. As he notes, you'll need to turn to the Sonar software for proper MMC/MTC setup and Stereo pair routing to TotalMix. The only other thing I can remember about this (outside of Sonar) is if "linking" was possible on the DAW returns in TotalMix. It's been a while since I used TotalMix (a miserably documented bit at that)

[IronBone]

Thanks for the help guys. I will look into these suggestions next time I'm at the console. I'm not sure if I was real clear about the word clock, but I was talking about the BNC connections on the RME card not being terminated.
Btw, Casey, I kinda modeled my setup after noticing your setup and reading a few of your posts while browsing this site over the last few months, so thanks for the input. I figured a fellow Texan wouldn't steer me wrong.

[Casey_Pittman]

Thanks for the catch Frank!

IronBone, I wouldn't worry about the termination, I don't run mine with it. You could always try it though and see if you find a difference.

What part of Texas are you in?

-Casey

[IronBone]

Ft. Worth

[Crash]

We have the I-35 corridor covered.

[Casey_Pittman]

Sounds that way Crash. IronBone I'm south of you in Waco.

-Casey

[IronBone]

Good deal! I actually grew up in west Ft. Worth, in White Settlement. I just recently moved a little further west to Weatherford, but still work and do all my business in funky town.

On a side note, another question: do you think I should be using ASIO or WDM?
I am currently using WDM.