Gigantoad:
You are using only 2 analog inputs and that frees up the 2 slots on the main in to send another pair to DSP B basically. If you had to use all 4 analog ins though you'd be stuck with 2 channels total for both DSP's just like me, allowing no parallel use.
Furthermore, as far as I know, you'd be stuck with presets that use only 2 channels of either DSP like that, so you won't be able to use these 4-8 channel ones. I mean, you will be able to use them, but they won't sound as intended. Or maybe I'm wrong and I just don't understand how these DSP channels work.
Afaik the DSP presets using 4 or 8 outputs are designed for quad and surround setups. Your whole studio- or live setup would have to be that 'wide' in terms of output channels to make these presets useful. In my case I'm simply stereo all the way, so no loss.
No doubt though that some of these 'many-out' presets would do perfectly well in a stereo setting. Remember that I have 4 firewire IO channels available (5,6,7 and 8), and I have an alternative routing here where these 5 go into DSP A, which is connected to DSP B, which is connected to the four FW1 outputs 5,6,7,8. So that would give you a 4-channel wide bus to play with. Didn't post that picture, tell me if you need it.
Hi Gigantoad.
I find it unfortunate that it seems impossible to use the unit as both a firewire audio interface with all 4 analog ins and a full blown effects processor with 2 parallel DSP's at the same time. I really think 16 main in channels would have helped a lot. Or remove these main in/out blocks entirely and let me route anything to anything, just like the product description says.
As it stands now I cannot use it as a DA unless I want to considerably limit the effects. So I really need to use another audio interface to handle my studio gear.
I see your pain, and it looks like you use your AD device as a mixer for your analog gear, so you need as many analog inputs as you can get. In that case there's a problem indeed. But like I wrote above, I'm totally happy with two analog ins and two analog outs, especially considering the quality.
Robert
