Too much gear? Try a digital network matrix synth setup // Mixer vs Audio Interface //ft.Dante,H9000

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Check out part one of this series here:

Other places I hang out:

My music:

Gear in this video:
► H9000 by @EventideAudio
► Erica Synths Matrix Mixer @EricaSynths
► MRCC from Conductive Labs for matrix routing of MIDI, and NDLR @ConductiveLabs
► Samson Patch bay
► CXM1978, MOOD II, Genloss and Blooper by @ChaseBlissAudio
► KGB Fuzz by Valco Effects
► Microcosm by @HologramElectronics
► DM-101 by @rolandglobal
► ZOIA by @empresseffects
► Analog Chorus 60 by @isakmgm
► Cosmos and LYRA 8 by SOMA @somasynths
► Shallow Water by @FairfieldCircuitry
► NTS-2 by @KorgOfficial
► Maschine+ by @NativeInstruments
► Keystep Pro by @ArturiaOfficial
► JX-08 by @rolandglobal
► Play by @Polyend
► Digitone and Digitakt by @WeAreElektron
► Sub 25, Subharmoncon by @MoogSynthesizers
► ARP2600 by @KorgOfficial
► Hydrasynth by @AshunSoundMachines
► RE-303 by dinsync
► 8PRE by @ArturiaOfficial
► Patchbay by Samson
► Magnetismus 2 by @Tegeler

►► Other stuff keeping the setup together
► Color cables and 90 degree cables by Designacable
► 90 degree black cables by Tendrils
► Jaspers 3D-120B stand with various accessories from Jaspers (I bought them on the Thomann site)
► The Rack is called "Thon Studio Line" and I bought it from Thomann
► Wood blocks from my son's now unused marble set

TIMELINE:
0:00 Intro
2:00 Final warning
3:10 Mixer or interface?
4:55 Ease of use
5:10 USB channels
5:40 MIDI mapping
6:15 DAW as mixer
6:35 Latency
7:10 DAW as matrix
8:20 Need pre-amps?
9:10 I/O types
9:50 Expanders
11:50 Need DSP?
13:20 Multitrack rec
13:40 Inputs vs outputs
14:05 Matrix audio
15:20 Sub mixes/sends
15:50 USB vs analog
16:40 Multiroom setups
17:30 RTP MIDI
18:15 Routing MIDI
19:50 Bome network
20:25 Ableton Link
20:55 Network audio
21:35 Dante via PC
24:10 Dante AVIO
25:30 Dante controller
27:05 It works!
28:10 H9000 worth it?
32:15 Setup tour
33:15 Patch Bay crimes
34:00 Outro

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NOTE: Occasionally I’ll try out affiliate marketing and include affiliate links. This means that I may earn a commission when you click on or make purchases via affiliate links to stores like Amazon, Sweetwater, Thomann and others. The content of this clip is entirely my opinion, and was not paid for or dictated in any way by the company creating the gear. Without addressing the particulars of products shown here as they might be under NDA, gear shown on this channel may be either sent by the manufacturer, on loan for review or bought at a discount.

[AngMoKio]

Would you mind making a video of all the gear that has accumulated over the years in your house? Would love to see that.... 😃

[fiftyshadesofurban]

This dude has reached god-like status at this point. Most people envision having their own studio. This dude has gone beyond studios and into inventing the Midinet. LOL

[EshockT]

Couple of Tips. Behringer X Touch can be your one control surface that tracks to any DAW or digital mixer. It can connect via USB or over IP. Very customizable and only $500. For Dante, the last three years have been tough with chip shortages, but we are seeing a rise in Dante-enabled digital mixers. The Behringer/Midas X32 range has been a $2-3k standard for over a decade. This gives you 32 analog and 32 dante I/O. You lose USB but you can use Dante Virtual Soundcard as your DAW interface. But, we now have the Yamaha DM3D which is compact and does 18/18. Also, Tascam and RME have some nice analog / dante converters so you can control your sub mixes from an iPad, PC or back at your main mixer. Keep your Dante switches Isolated from your computer network. Netgear has the M4250 series to make network optimization easy and robust.

[fergadelics]

I learned a lot by connecting / networking everything and getting it all working. The most important thing was probably that if you want to make music in the moment and there is a simple way of just patching a few things together or it’s nbd to track one thing at a time, just do that. You can spend all day troubleshooting and lose any creative inspiration by the time it’s all working. Regardless of how nice your aggregate boxes are. Everything works perfectly when you’re drawing plans out. The flip side of it is, if you enjoy the puzzle of it - it’s fun.

[dankeplace]

I posted this whole long post, and it failed, so my point was that the interface vs mixer is always a good debate, knowing the pros and cons is always a resourceful tool.
People need to assess which works better for them, it may save some headaches latter in their studio time.

Thx for the upload Ziv.

[samprock]

I avoided “too many gear” problem by buying few “too expensive analog synths” (extending Apollo Twin X with 8 optical outs from less expensive Presonus) 😂 cool vid series, Loopop!

[ryanpaul]

I really appreciate the information density in this video. This is extremely comprehensive coverage of the topic without wasting any time. Very nicely done.

[JamesDeBono]

Great video! It's cool to see someone as popular as yourself talking about audio networking!

One minor criticism. I feel like AVB was a bit misrepresented here. You don't need a proprietary switch, rather you need a layer 2 switch that supports a few IEEE standards (open) for it to work. There are a few overpriced switches made by audio companies but there are also many made by networking companies that are fairly generic. AVB is also natively supported on MAC hardware. AVB has the advantage of having reserved bandwidth for audio, meaning you can achieve even lower latency and it's practically impervious to clock sync issues and drop-outs, the same cannot be said about Dante. It also supports video! Which could be very cool for remote monitors to see your DAW from your synth room for example. You are certainly right though in saying that it is far less common at this stage but I think it would be good to promote it as it is far superior in my opinion and broader adaptation would be great for musicians.

One more thing to note is that AVB is a transport protocol but it's isn't so specific to define bit rates and stuff. Milan is a profile of AVB that aims to solve that and create a common standard between AVB devices.

Aside from that, really nice video! So thorough yet digestible as always. Great work

[MaxPatissier]

Thank you for your video, I learn something every time. I have a X32 with 16 synths connected to the first 16 channels and the other 16 for USB via Ableton. I can enjoy both of hardware and software sound generators. The good point is that, in less that 20 secondes, I can turn on my X32, a synth and enjoy to record on the fly with only one button press. All machines are connected to MIDI via Expert Sleepers FH-2 and MidiHub.

[vinylsuite]

Great video! I buddy my H9000 with my RME UFXII, so this was fun to watch and learn from. Most of the RME current Fireface interfaces have the "DuREC" feature. Which allows for recording up to ALL of the units I/O to WAV files to a connected flash drive as separate stems or to a summed stereo mix if you choose. This feature is amazing- and can be used with or without a computer connected. Sidenote- If you like Dawless setups, this is the way to go.

[hovermotion]

Wow that is some setup and production..
I only have a basic setup and like to keep it as simple as possible without.a daw, in this video I learnt some new stuff..it's mind blowing what can be done with today's tech, hardware and software etc..
Superb video as always....
Jim

[vgmandstuff]

Man, while I love Dante's reliability and ease of use, I feel like musicians still get rawed over by licensing. The XLR pair of inputs to ethernet is 289€ on Thomann atm and that is definitely not the cost of the hardware... I wish there was a license-free alternative that was as robust and didn't require any fiddling -- because right now all that's keeping most musicians to get a more flexible setup is the absurd licensing cost.

[linusblomberg]

Great video, thanks! It could be worth mentioning Madi also, which carry both audio and midi through optical cable over long distances. I use an RME audio interface and expand that with a Ferrofish Pulse 16 interface across the room adding 16 more audio channels (can be 64) and midi across the room through one thin optical cable.

[ellagreen]

Thanks very much Loopop. Much appreciated. Very well timed for me! I am in the middle of this very exercise, having recently spent a small fortune on used RedNet devices to go along with the eye-watering fortune I have already spent on accumulating analogue gear, effects and processors. The gear overwhelm has managed to kill creativity so often that I now steal a few boxes from the studio and set them up in a spare room ... I can see that I am not alone in this affliction! 😆

[supercompooper]

I’ve been using Dante for 5 years in my home studio! Nice to see the world catching on. I have over 100 I/O all on at the same time!

[SnapImaX]

this channel is the best for solving both "i have 5000 bucks too much" and "i have 50000 bucks too much" problems

[evendrones]

Very good summary! Love it! We use AVB (128 Channels ) and Dante (64 Channels) on two floors and one analog desk. For Quality of Service both systems do need a "good" network hardware but not "special" ones.

[niallmacdonald]

I had the same problem a fair few years back, not everything fit into one room any more. I solved it at the time with Yamaha 01/x and i88x submixer systems in 2 other rooms, linked over long firewire leads with a firewire hub halfway along the cable runs. One in the guitar room, one more in the drum room, with 2 more i88x in the main studio, 1 each from the other rooms.
This was possible as I bought the Yamaha gear at the point in time many were getting rid of their systems because of driver issues so I only paid a small percentage of their original cost.
This system you're showing here is slicker and more straightforward, but also a lot less cost effective. Still very interesting to see though.

[ETcarbon]

This was your most informative video I've seen from you that addressed such a major issue in my large production multiroom environment. I appreciate that. I just felt it was rushed and contained a couple unneeded tangents. However, you did provide some starting points for me to dig further so thank you.

[n.l.]

Would be great to have more videos like this about settings, connections, solutions. Especially routings and remote controls.