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Author Topic: The Apogee Converter thread. 16x unit care and feeding.  (Read 28011 times)

rankus

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Re: The Apogee Converter thread. 16x unit care and feeding.
« Reply #30 on: March 06, 2009, 06:14:07 PM »

compasspnt wrote on Fri, 06 March 2009 11:11


Now I just need some of those silly metric screws!



Apogee sent me some by mail at no cost when I asked them "what was up with that"  CALL: 310 584-9394 - Jay is a nice guy in support and will drop some in the mail for you same day prolly


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Rick Welin - Clark Drive Studios http://www.myspace.com/clarkdrivestudios

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Phil Mayor

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Re: The Apogee Converter thread. 16x unit care and feeding.
« Reply #31 on: March 07, 2009, 07:53:06 PM »

Phil Mayor wrote on Sat, 31 January 2009 22:38

ha..just spotted this thread. I have the dreaded DA/AD16x switch problem too.. Confused


I just did the jumper on mine bypassing the switches..Kind of sucks though that both my AD and DA have flakey switches.
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tom eaton

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Re: The Apogee Converter thread. 16x unit care and feeding.
« Reply #32 on: March 13, 2009, 10:23:45 PM »

http://www.apogeedigital.com/newsletter/macpro-compatibility 0309.html

Now approved for the new Mac pros.

My units are less than a year old and power switches are flaky.  My AD16x sometimes refuses to recognize the "down" button required to get it to sync to external clock, too.  At least the things sound good.

t

rankus

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Re: The Apogee Converter thread. 16x unit care and feeding.
« Reply #33 on: March 16, 2009, 03:30:30 PM »



Ok here's an update on my system.

I should note at the outset that Apogee know of this thread and I have asked their management/sales to comment. It has been many weeks....

A couple of weeks ago I threw out the completely flaky Apogee Firewire Interfaces (see earlier in the thread for complete details on the FW issues)and replaced them with RME's AES32 Interface Card.

I can report back that this system is the way to go for attaching your PC to Apogee AD/DA16x's.  I have 100% rock stable operation and after running it real hard for two or three weeks it has shown stability that can be considered pro level. (Unlike the Apogee FW interface) No glitches of any kind.

As far as my communication with  Apogee has gone:  I had several conversations with a company employee who tried to get the upper echelons to acknowledge the situation to no avail.  The contact when pressed regarding the FW interface (in relation to the AD/DA16x's) confessed that they had never been able to set up system that ran stable on a PC.  Yet they (sales dept) have no problem recommending this system. So they are aware that the system is flaky yet sell them anyway.  

He went on to say that they had not had 100% success running the FW interface on Macs either.  In short, I asked them to provide me with specs of a machine that they had tested that works and they could provide none.  In fact he stated that they do not plan to update the software beyond where it is now (Windows service pak 2) when we have progressed to SP3or4 as far as I know. So even though you cannot buy a windows machine with the correct operating system, they continue to sell these cards to be used with Windows....

I sent a request to have my money refunded due to the fact that they know the system is faulty and got no response. I sold the cards at a serious loss on eBay and lick my wounds.

It has been stated that Apogee provide good support, and I agree from the standpoint of the tech/service dept. who were very forthcoming (when pressed)... Although I cannot say the same of the sales or after sales / management.  The proper thing to do would have been to admit the issue and refund my money IMO.  

(Kind of reminds me of the switch issue... apparently no plan to remedy that either) (And no admission they have an issue)

PS:  If your planning to run the RME AES32 card as an interface you will need to have custom cabling made up.  The RME card uses Tascam pinout and the Apogees use a proprietary pinout... Thus the cables need to be loomed and cross-wired to match. As well as having metric screws and AES plug on one end, and Imperial on the other end. I had mine made up by Radial engineering here in Vancouver.  Ryan was my contact there, and I asked him to save the schematic that we came up with in case future orders come in due to this thread.  You can contact me and I will pass along contact info to Radial.

Hopefully my costly adventure will save others $ pain and grief!

Thanks Apogee







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Rick Welin - Clark Drive Studios http://www.myspace.com/clarkdrivestudios

Ive done stuff I'm not proud of.. and the stuff I am proud of is disgusting ~ Moe Sizlack

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tom eaton

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Re: The Apogee Converter thread. 16x unit care and feeding.
« Reply #34 on: March 16, 2009, 08:59:51 PM »

Ugh.  Thanks for the update, Rick.  I still haven't pulled the trigger on a rig to support all my 16x units with 1:1 input-output monitoring.  

Bottom line: Apogee converters sound great.  Apogee interfacing stinks.

I would love for some positive stories to be in this thread.
 
Anyone?

marcel

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Re: The Apogee Converter thread. 16x unit care and feeding.
« Reply #35 on: March 17, 2009, 11:42:15 AM »

Anyone have any experience with the X-HD cards, which allow direct interface to PTHD?  I was hoping to go this route later this year but if they're as sketchy as the X-FW and Symphony stuff I may have to re-think.  JJ, you're not using PT interfaces, are you?  Or are they just hidden in your rack pic?
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KB_S1

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Re: The Apogee Converter thread. 16x unit care and feeding.
« Reply #36 on: March 18, 2009, 01:16:04 PM »

marcel wrote on Tue, 17 March 2009 15:42

Anyone have any experience with the X-HD cards, which allow direct interface to PTHD?  I was hoping to go this route later this year but if they're as sketchy as the X-FW and Symphony stuff I may have to re-think.  JJ, you're not using PT interfaces, are you?  Or are they just hidden in your rack pic?


I have used them on a couple of occasions.

Each time was a case of simply swapping the PT card-Interface cable from the existing studio setup to the Apogees.

The I/O setup when PT was opened reflected the change, reporting a pair of 192s to be attached.

I took my time with it and all worked well.

These were only short term setups, a couple of days at a time and I encountered no problems.

It was on a Mac G4 both times.
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kats

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Re: The Apogee Converter thread. 16x unit care and feeding.
« Reply #37 on: March 22, 2009, 08:11:35 PM »

rankus wrote on Mon, 16 March 2009 19:30




Hopefully my costly adventure will save others $ pain and grief!

Thanks Apogee



For what it's worth, we put in a new HD system at the studio and were going to go with the apogee ad/da16's converters. Including another Rosetta 800 plus HD-LT cards to make it 24 in and out it would have been about 10k (CDN). But after reading the power switch headaches and other stuff, I couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger. So we kept our RADAR system and just bought the digital 192's to interface with it.

The types of problems related on this thread are very unprofessional IMO. You cannot run a studio this way.


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J.J. Blair

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Re: The Apogee Converter thread. 16x unit care and feeding.
« Reply #38 on: March 23, 2009, 01:46:20 AM »

Sorry I missed your question, Marcel.  I have the cards installed in my converters so that I can connect them directly to my PTHD cards.  Works flawlessly.
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BrianS

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Re: The Apogee Converter thread. 16x unit care and feeding.
« Reply #39 on: March 23, 2009, 09:58:42 AM »

J.J. Blair wrote on Mon, 23 March 2009 01:46

I have the cards installed in my converters so that I can connect them directly to my PTHD cards.  Works flawlessly.


Same here. No problems.
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J.J. Blair

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Re: The Apogee Converter thread. 16x unit care and feeding.
« Reply #40 on: April 06, 2009, 05:27:23 PM »

I went and visited Ed Cherney last week, and he had just had his switches replaced.  I don't know if they are using a switch that will not have that problem again.  I finally broke down and just switched the jumper literally 5 minutes ago.  

BTW, does anybody know if Apogee is running the op amps in these units at Class A?  That would account for how hot these stupid things get.
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studio info

They say the heart of Rock & Roll is still beating, which is amazing if you consider all the blow it's done over the years.

"The Internet enables pompous blowhards to interact with other pompous blowhards in a big circle jerk of pomposity." - Bill Maher

"The negative aspects of this business, not only will continue to prevail, but will continue to accelerate in madness. Conditions aren't going to get better, because the economics of rock and roll are getting closer and closer to the economics of Big Business America." - Bill Graham

Steve Hudson

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Re: The Apogee Converter thread. 16x unit care and feeding.
« Reply #41 on: April 06, 2009, 05:33:21 PM »

BrianS wrote on Mon, 23 March 2009 08:58

J.J. Blair wrote on Mon, 23 March 2009 01:46

I have the cards installed in my converters so that I can connect them directly to my PTHD cards.  Works flawlessly.


Same here. No problems.


Ditto. Four converters (2 of each), four HD interface cards, never had any down time.
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ryan streber

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Re: The Apogee Converter thread. 16x unit care and feeding.
« Reply #42 on: April 06, 2009, 09:25:30 PM »

2 AD16Xs, 1 DA16X, 1 Rosetta, all with XHD cards, all with no problems for over a year and a half now.  I had a few issues in the beginning caused by "user error," but after that was resolved, I've been a happy camper.  
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Fibes

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Re: The Apogee Converter thread. 16x unit care and feeding.
« Reply #43 on: April 12, 2009, 03:09:06 PM »

I was thinking of upgrading my studio to AD16X x 2 and using them in the field for remote stuff, is anyone using them with the firewire or express card interface with success?


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tom eaton

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Re: The Apogee Converter thread. 16x unit care and feeding.
« Reply #44 on: April 12, 2009, 04:35:46 PM »

Rick Welin (Rankus) has had a hell of a time with the firewire stuff... read his posts in this thread.  I also would be interested in Symphony mobile experience.

I must say again that I am really disappointed that Apogee has not chimed in here, even to open a line of communication to a particular person there that folks should call or e-mail.

I wonder who JJ has dealt with there in terms of support?

t
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