Hi, newbie poster here ; thanks in advance for your thoughts, opinions and assistance and my apologies for the length - I tried to make it as concise as possible.
I'm searching for a solution to the following problem and have not found a definitive answer yet anywhere on the web or any forum post.
I am determined to mix from logic through my desk with all the outboard gear I prefer to use.
I would also like to mix back to that same logic session. Since 14 channels of d/a for mixing is enough for my purpose, i decided to purchase 2 8-channel a/d/a boxes, link them as an aggregate audio device (AAD) and connect them to my mac pro (intel dual quad core w/ 16gig ram) via firewire. I planned on using channels 15/16 to both send the mix back to Logic and also to return the ' printed ' mix to the desk for end of the line monitoring.
I am in fact set up like this right now (for the past 6 months) and when it works it is fantastic. The trouble is there is a glitch that appears very irregularly yet all too often - the audio on the second box starts sounding like static - I've been calling it zipper noise.
The first company I tried working with (major convertor maker) immediately decided to stop supporting the AAD in 2x sample rates so I sold the boxes and bought another 2 from a different well known company. These folks have been incredible to work with (writing me custom drivers, spending hours on the phone configuring my system , reading my system logs and kernal logs after glitching etc.) but have not yet solved the problem.
This quote from them the other day -
Hi George,
Hope you had a nice weekend.
It's looking like the Mac OS X aggregate device is not stable enough to support reliable box aggregation at 2x sample rates, at least on the current version of the OS. We unfortunately do not have a solution at this time that would continue to allow you to use a DAW like Logic. Again, our goal is to have a solution that works around the need for the aggregate device, but there is no timeline for it at the moment.
So, I found yet another 'name brand' company with a 16 channel a/d/a and a PCIe card option.
Their tech support ( very patient and informative on the phone) assured me it would work as per my set up since no need for an ADD. Before I spend another load of dough could anyone verify that this will work or tell me if am I just trying to do the unreasonable?
How do others accomplish this work flow and with what set-up?
Cheers, George the baffled !?