Digilink vs Dante connection

[studioj]

Hello-

Exploring picking up an H9000r soon.

I have Dante ability with my Focusrite Red 8pre (but no Dante network set up yet). and I also have an HDX card… 

What is the functional difference locally when interfacing the H9000 with the Pro Tools expansion card vs the Dante card exactly? 

I do use other software besides Pro Tools (like Logic) so it seems Dante would give me more flexibility there of course, but I’m curious if there are other differences except for the obvious network flexibility of the Dante I/o. Latency? ease of use? 

Thank you!

[tbskoglund]

Hi,

 

The functional differences between using the PTHD and Dante expansion cards are minimal. The PTHD card has a few configuration options in the H9k’s settings, while the Dante card does not have any settings on the H9k itself and all setup is done in Audinate’s Dante settings. Beyond that, there is no difference when you are routing your effects and I/O using Emote. 

 

Latency information for each can be found here: 

 

Dante: https://dev.audinate.com/GA/dante-controller/userguide/webhelp/content/latency.htm#:~:text=The%20typical%20default%20latency%20for,megabit%20links%20to%20Dante%20devices.

 

HDX: https://www.avid.com/products/pro-tools-hd-native/specifications

 

As you said, Dante networking could provide you with more flexibility for future expansion. 

 

Let me know if you have any other questions. 

 

-Tyler

[studioj]

Thanks! Very helpful. 

[donrwatters]

I’ll add that I use Dante throughout my studio and I can send audio from the Iso Booth mic using Dante, to the H9K for fx, back to talent in a headphone mix over Dante still, with much lower latency than letting it go through HDX in the recording rig, out to H9K as an insert, and back to the recording rig. I can go to amps with fx, headphones, get audio from the guitar rig through the H9K or keyboards, etc, all with Dante connectivity. So, it’s much more flexible. I also have an Avid Studio MTRX that has Dante and HDX, and I can pass any audio over Dante to record through the MTRX via HDX. I’m not against HDX at all, but Dante is just a much more capable platform, once you’re in the ecosystem.

[studioj]

Very cool. Ordered from Sweetwater with the Dante card. looking forward to digging in. thanks!!

 

[studioj]

Does Dante provide clock in this scenario or do I need a separate wordclock connection between focusrite and h9000? Thank you

[donrwatters]

Dante will provide clock to everything on the Dante network, if you choose to set the Master Clock. If there are devices that need syncing that aren’t on the Dante network, they will need WC or an alternate clock, like ADAT.

[studioj]

good to know, thank you!

[studioj]

I am loving the H9000 so far. It was incredibly easy to get set up and get everything running reliably including the Dante network. only some very small hiccups that took very little time to figure out.  new Emote 2.0 is really impressive… I found it very intuitive and easy to get going with quickly. Great job Eventide!

Only thing I found myself wanting was a way to automagically set presets to load with the Dante IO already patched instead of what was typically saved with the preset (USB or analog). But that’s a very small thing.

 

 

[hemlocxl]

I could never get the Dante card to work with H9000R and ended up returning both to Sweetwater.  I went with the faceplate H9000 and the PT HD card.  If you have HDX, waaaaaaaaaay better to have the HD Expansion card.  I use ADAT for working in Cubase and Logic if I need to call up my H9000, but I usually do most of my mixing in PT 

[studioj]

For me it was all about getting the Dante Controller software and Rednet Control configured properly. That took a minute… And so in essence I would definitely agree that if you’re just using ProTools HDX on a single rig the HD expansion card would be a much simpler set up. One important thing was making sure all devices were plugged into the same network switch… To start anyway… This would include the Focusrite, my computer, and the Dante card from the Eventide. And then setting the input and output routings in RedNet Control to available IO that I had attached between the HDX and the Focusrite (for instance inputs and outputs 16-32). And then lastly routing the Focusrite and eventide to each other with the Dante Controller software matrix. I only had to do this stuff once though and now it works every time I boot. I also think I plugged into this ecosystem at a perfect time with solid firmware and a great version of Emote.

[tbskoglund]

studioj wrote:

I am loving the H9000 so far. It was incredibly easy to get set up and get everything running reliably including the Dante network. only some very small hiccups that took very little time to figure out.  new Emote 2.0 is really impressive… I found it very intuitive and easy to get going with quickly. Great job Eventide!

Only thing I found myself wanting was a way to automagically set presets to load with the Dante IO already patched instead of what was typically saved with the preset (USB or analog). But that's a very small thing.

 

 

Great to hear that your are enjoying your H9000! 

Thanks for the suggestion, we've discussed adding global I/O settings in a future update and I think that would solve your issue. 

[studioj]

tbskoglund wrote:

Great to hear that your are enjoying your H9000! 

Thanks for the suggestion, we’ve discussed adding global I/O settings in a future update and I think that would solve your issue. 

this would be a great feature addition!

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