H9000 Surround setup in Logic Pro X

[chriscarter]

Hey there,

I have my H9000 working fine over USB with stereo projects in Logic Pro X. I have it configured to use four stereo FX Chains (L&R pairs) spread over 8 channels, works like a dream, sounds fantastic.

The issue I have is trying to get the Emote configured for Surround in Logic (mostly 5.1, some 7.1). For stereo I use the Logic I/O plugin to route the Emote channels but that plugin is not available when Logic is setup for Surround. Previously with my H8000FW I used the ADAT connections to route audio to/from Logic (via a MOTU 828x interface). Do I have to resort to ADAT again to make use of the H9000 Surround presets, or is there a way to keep my (preferred) USB option?

 

Thanks, and stay safe…

[jbamberg]

chriscarter wrote:

Hey there,

I have my H9000 working fine over USB with stereo projects in Logic Pro X. I have it configured to use four stereo FX Chains (L&R pairs) spread over 8 channels, works like a dream, sounds fantastic.

The issue I have is trying to get the Emote configured for Surround in Logic (mostly 5.1, some 7.1). For stereo I use the Logic I/O plugin to route the Emote channels but that plugin is not available when Logic is setup for Surround. Previously with my H8000FW I used the ADAT connections to route audio to/from Logic (via a MOTU 828x interface). Do I have to resort to ADAT again to make use of the H9000 Surround presets, or is there a way to keep my (preferred) USB option?

 

Thanks, and stay safe…

Hi Chris,

We don't have an answer yet, but I just wanted to let you know that we are working on this and will post an update when we do.

Joe

[chriscarter]

Thanks Joe… good to hear.

C

[chriscarter]

Yes I already have the H9000 and MOTU (an 828x) set up as an aggregate device. I have the MOTU connected via Thunderbolt alongside the H9k using USB and they are working well paired. I will try your suggestions for setting up the Logic bus arrangement and see if I can get it to work as I need for 5.1. – thanks for that.

The H9000 sample rate is behaving well for the majority of the time over USB and as is locking to the MOTU/Mac without any real issue. One thing I do find is when I turn on the H9000 (always first on in the ‘on sequence’ seems to work best) is that it insists on booting up in 44.1k mode even though I’ve set it to 48k the previous day. Is there any way to save the setup so it always stays at 48k? – which is what the majority of our projects are in.

[jbamberg]

Hi Chris,

Are you planning to use the MOTU audio interface and the H9000 together from Logic?  In that case, you'll need to create an aggregate audio device in Audio/MIDI Setup.  Apple has some docs here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202000

Using the H9000 USB interface can be tricky as the H9000 is always the clock master from the point of view of the computer (although the H9000 could itself be clocking off an external device or word clock), but the H9000 cannot enforce that the computer's sample rate matches its own.  The practical upshot of this is that you have to select the sample rate on the H9000 first, then select it on the computer.  For example, you might need to select the sample rate on the H9000 before opening your project in Logic.

For the I/O routing I've attached a screenshot of something that could work, although I haven't really tested it beyond checking that it can get 6 channels out of Logic and back in from the H9000.  In my example I'm using channels 11-16 for the H9000.

Since, as you point out, there's no surround version of the I/O Plugin, and there doesn't seem to be a way to set the input or output of a surround track to an arbitrary group of channels on the interface, I created 4 busses to the outputs to the H9000 (stereo front, stereo rear, center and LFE) and added sends from the source track to these.  Then I created 4 busses in the same way from the corresponding inputs from the H9000.  I expect some care would be needed to set up all the panners correctly.

Happy to talk about this further over email or phone,

Best wishes,

Joe

 

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