Future-Proofing The DM4800 With Dante?

[Nick C]

Hey All,

I have a DM4800 and have been recently looking at ways to get some more i/o going than what I have right now (usbstreamer b, which gives 8in and 8out through the adat ports on the back). I have an IF/FWdmmkii but can't use it as my primary computer runs macos catalina and have had no luck whatsoever connecting it (yes i've read the thread on here using terminal, the kext, ect. ect., no luck). There are a lot of options out there, but most of them are a bit out of my budget as a fresh out of college 22 year old.

It might be unconventional, but my thought is I use the IF/FWdmmkii that i already have, plug that into an older mac mini that supports firewire, then route the audio out of the mac mini to my 2020 Macbook Pro via a Dante connection between the computers.

Would latency render this setup unusable? I know it's a bit unconventional, but in theory could this work? This could future proof the DM as well because Dante is unlikely to go away any time soon. Maybe i'm nuts. Curious to hear what yall think.

Thanks!

 

[-mjk-]

I've been at Dante user for over 2 years now with a console and a DAW. I will tell you right off that if your computer does not have a Dante networking card your latency may be too great to work with because you'll have to use the software solution, DVS. I have the RedNet PCI card and my network latency is in the microseconds. Typically my latency in and out of Reaper can be measured in samples. Reaper ASIO reports 1.3 milliseconds round trip, but I have been able to completely compensate for that. My guess is, all the conversions that you're thinking of doing will add up and make it not very usable in the end. It all depends on what you're doing though; if you're mostly just mixing then it doesn't really matter all that much. It's a shame that there isn't a Dante card for that console.

 

[Arjan P]

I'd say this should make for a workable solution, as long as you monitor signals being recorded directly from the board and not from the DAW (which would be a good idea anyway) - which will prevent you from using real time plugins on recording inputs (like EQ or Amp simulation for guitar, or reverb for vocals). Another requirement would be that the DAW should have a correct latency measurement, or newly recorded tracks won't line up. If that's all correct, I would think latency shouldn't be an issue if you can stay below, say, 40 ms.

 

[Rockum]

I am doing exactly what you described. Latency has not been a big issue.

 

[Nick C]

Oh wow that’s great news @Rockum . how are you routing audio through the computer connected to the if/fwdmmkii? is there a way you can do it within Dante or do you need to have like a pro tools session always open to route audio in/out?

 

[Rockum]

Since you are going Mac to Mac, you should also investigate using Apple's built in audio networking protocol, AVB.

I think you might be able to get that working with no added hardware or software. The setup is not obvious. I investigated and got 16 channels working one way, but had crackling the other direction. If someone knew what they were doing I don't think it would be difficult. You might want to get a second ethernet port for the two machines, but those are inexpensive.

As for Dante,

DM4800 | if/fw -> Mac Mini -> Ethernet -> dedicated 1 gig ethernet router -> Ethernet -> PC using Audinate's Virtual Sound Card.

VSC should be available for silicon Macs soon.