Studer / IMS Dyaxis I - experiences, comments, sound?

I get a dyaxis 1 system this week. Since i heard the AD converters were very good sounding (years ago) i'm very interested in your experiences with it.
I nearly found nothing about the hardware - i would be really interested in modifying it to use the converter standalone.
The previous owner never got it running in a mode where it passes spdif or aes/ebu or adat to his system...due to lack of time reading the manual.
The unit is coming out of german broadcast tv production and is in a well serviced state (complete, mac and manual included).
Any opinions about the hardware, sound, tech information, usage possibilities, recommendations etc. are highly welcome.

Anyone still knows this dinosaur (16bit 44.1khz) from personal experience?
:?:
(i bet someone is... :grin: )

Kind regards

Martin

(...and yes, i mailed studer about any available docs, still waiting...)

I had some experience with the dyaxis II--good sound, a very limited (by today's standards) DAW. And it had a nasty software bug where it would occasionally destroy all your unsaved edits & emit a high pitched whine instead of your recorded audio--fun fun! (the very last revision on the II fixed this quirk more or less.)
I read an interview with some respected mastering engineer several years back who was still using the Dyaxis for A/D conversion, long after the unit's obsolescence--he was very happy with the unit & didn't see the need (at that time) to "upgrade".

That's all I've got.

Tom

Don't tell me you bought it from Ebay Germany. I saw it and was thinking who would buy that thing even at that price.
There was also a "vintage" Fairlight MFX3 harddisc recorder for something like 4000euros. :grin:

chrissugar

Sounds like it is...1991 Mac...
Sonic impressions are much more comparable to nowadays as processing power :grin:

I know of some mastering engineers who have them and use them as A-D converters.

Yep, that sounds good...exactly what i want to use them for...
btw...they were not that expensive...in fact an ebay quick shot from a very fair seller who called me on the phone to say he decided to give me money BACK because i paid a good amount more than he did.... :shock:
So they were nearly as cheap as the b*ringer box!

[quote author="smallbutfine"]
So they were nearly as cheap as the b*ringer box! [/quote]

:thumb:

chrissugar

@chris: BTW, YES i did it (e*b*y germany).
And if i don't like them i already had offers for them :grin: ...
So should be no risk at all...
I just wanted the AD, ok they look pretty used, but i'll see...should arrive end of the week.

After debugging cables and SCSI stuff ("...dammit, when is this F§@king volume mounted, why is this cpu not recognized...") :? i finally brought this one completely back to life a few minutes ago and just tested the DA...
sound: awesome. :shock:
If the AD is the same quality (i bet it is, i listened to the last radio jingle productions that were still on two of the three scsi drives...funny! :razz: ) it is surely worth twice the money i spent on it (or even more).
Thanks alot everyone for your thoughts. For cheap, i can really recommend this unit... :grin:
Will be used for sensible vocal recordings and mastering. (fine, fine :roll: )

Martin

BTW:
INSTANTLY FAST i got mail answer from Alan from Magicsound concerning my first problems. He is VERY helpful and kind troubleshooting this old beast. I already did some of his recommendations (move the midi/serial slider back and forth a few times, press ic's to overcome corrosion...) and i think that really was a big part of the problems why the processor didn't boot correctly first.
So i think it is really fair to post that he is constantly developing the bios further until today (making it possible to use modern IDE drives and stuff)...i definately consider buying his last version.
I hope nobody is offended by this ad type post as i'm not affiliated with magicsound...but i'm really very surprised and thankful getting such a good and detailed support with the speed of light, while studer ch didn't even answer anything to my mail...

If it's the same original Dyaxis I tried years ago, I'd be very surprised if the A/D and D/A is of any use by today's standards. I compared it to a Digidesign AudioMedia NuBus card at the time and the card blew it away. The Dyaxis was obviously thinner and harsh sounding. It was being offered to me by a Dyaxis expert, so I presume it was working OK. In fact it worked fine, I just thought it sounded terrible so gave it back right away.

Maybe that was a different version, maybe it wasn't set up properly, whatever, that's my experience.

Good luck. For quality converters, "vintage" is not usually something to aspire for in digital audio. (But I do like the undithered black ADATs, but that's another topic...)

cheers,
t

thin and harsh

Click to expand...

? :shock:
My first impression is definately not like that really...
I think the bottom is quite right and round, maybe it has a little bit of "warmth" (read 2nd order dist) but i'm not sure. it sounds simply good down there. I recognized impressive higher mids (maybe 'transparent' is the right word) and maybe a little bit too strong high end. i wouldn't really describe it as harsh. however i am used to a dark colored sound so i think the hi end is just anything from ok to really good. I have to make more listening tests before i can tell more about it. :?
But the overall impression i got from the first listening test says:
Yes, it sounds right, it sounds really good.
In fact i began to really like it after just a few seconds of anxious listening :grin:. (i had some serious concerns against buying such an old system really...and never thought it sounds that good)
Now i really don't regret i bought it. Although my decent old soundcard and the b*ringers are not bad really, this one is a completely other league soundwise and i heard some quite expensive gear like soundscape and similar that i wouldn't prefer.

Perhaps like PRR said: "Good sound is not a new invention..." :wink:

kind regards

Martin
PS: It's a dyaxis 1 with processor bios 3.98 (relatively new, actual is 4.16 from jan 2005) and macIIci with dsp card, speed card, maxed ram, dedicated 2nd video card. don't know if the bios update does something to the conversion / filter quality...

HI MARTIN
At home I have a working Studer Dyaxis I system..I am running it with a IICi with system 6..It doesn't sound bad for 1989 technology!! The IMS version (pre studer) is hard to do anything with such as upgrading.

The studer version... upgraded drive support and other goodies
can be had. Check these guys out:

http://members.aol.com/magicsound/dyaxis.html

Note.. use macmix 3.1.2 never 4.2 for Dyaxis I.

I have been using Dyaxis systems from 1989 to today. Viitalahce
is right about Dyaxis I..change ANYTHING in the mix window and it has to remix the whole edit and with a 25Mhz IICi it can take forever!! They are fun to play with however!!

Dyaxis II version 3.0.2 running on a beige g3 with either system 8.6 or 9.2 is wonderful. The 16 bit 48k converters sound as good or better than most 24 bit converters. These machines are great for editing and are very fast in a session. I STILL do a lot of video post every day with one. Unlimited virtual tracks ..need 150 tracks..no problem!! It is probably
the most user friendly DAW ever made. I feed it with an AMEK Angela
and mix to the outside world on an Ampex ATR 100 or SONY Digibeta. Its a very nice sounding setup and with 8.6 its very stable.

If Studer hadn't lost the vhs-beta style of competition to protools
in 1997 because of dyaxis's very high price tag, Dyaxis II would be king today.

GARY

BTW
The Dyaxis 1 ROM Version 4.16 is from the magicsound folks noted in the above link. They are great people to deal with. Martin have fun with your new Dyaxis!!

GARY

I would love to see a Dyaxis II system. I'm sure they sound good. At the time they were more expensive than a new car, IIRC.

Yeah i'm using macmix 3.1.2 as recommended by the author (most stable version made). All dsp soft, books and docs came with it completely. It was in broadcast production until march this year and seems to be in a quite good condition for it's age. The processor/converter pcbs looked like new ('no smoking in my studio'), just a little touch of the ages as described above, not visible. And yes, the 'feel' of the system is simple and fun.
It's the studer version and everything looks like the mac has been optimized to the max (dedicated video to free processor ressources from the onboard graphics, speed card...), however that doesn't mean anything :grin: ...
I really have to change the ventilator of the drive unit (too loud for my ears and overdimensioned: after a minute of running, my room dropped two degrees of temperature...brrr :shock: )
ultra heavy and sturdy system...
btw i'm not stuck with 'vintage=old' gear really, i'm mixing modern with oldschool.
heart of my system is a 2.6 GHz Pentium IV with 3 sonorus cards&sync backplate resulting in 48 ch 48/44.1 or 12ch smux 96 capability over adat lightpipe...2x be*ringer ada, yammie sampler (spdif), m-audio midisport 8x8s, electribe EM-1 and EMX for songsketching, JD800, several outboard + effects, rack synths and rack mixers... monitoring: mini edirols, b*hringer truth and decent hifi all fitting nicely right in my living room :shock: :razz: ...

btw a guy in prague sold his dyaxis 2 for 170 ? at ebay two weeks ago or so, i saw it too late. Transport would have cost me a 100?, but all in all would have been a great bargain...

Here is the cover of the 1990 sales sheet:



This was the full blown DYAXIS I set up....

From top to bottom:

Chase/sync
Processor#1 (2ch)
Processor#2 (2ch)
2 full height maxtor XT-8760s 760mb drives
DAT streamer tape backup

This version was called the DYAXIS 2+2 system...total of 4 channels.

This thing ran on a Macintosh IICi with a 33mhz daystar processor upgrade and 12 megs of ram on system 7.1

Each 760 meg drive would hold 6 hours of 16 bit 44.1khz stereo files.
the DAT Streamer would hold 1.3 g of files

An optional nubus dsp card in the mac used a 56001 dsp chip
that would allow you to time scale very nicely and would speed up
mixing. 5 bands of parametric EQ per channel

The chase/sync unit would read and generate SMPTE/EBU and
VITC and would chase and lock to these or film tach.

You can record 32, 44.056, 44.1 or 48khz all in 16 bit mono or stereo
and could intermix sample rates in the same mix window (something DYAXIS II can't do)

formats supported:
ANALOG
AES/EBU
Pro Digi
SONY 601 PCM
SDIF-2
S/PDIF
YAMAHA STEREO

DYAXIS still sounds great today...not bad for 1989-90!!
Price around 20K USD

GARY