New 500 Series Chassis With a Twist

[sr1200]

https://www.facebook.com/emanateaudio

I tagged some people from here about this on FB (wound up winning the thing).  Just wanted to see if anyone had any thoughts about this.  I think its a pretty cool twist to the 500 series. 

The info:  500 series with converters built in (only up to 96k but fine for me, I never go above that anyway unless specifically requested)  You can run it without the converters if you like as well.  It also has MIDI integration (first time ive seen this).  I've been told they plan on using that to be able to automate 500 series units or have 500 series synth modules (from what i know most modular synth modules are 18v but thats not too hard to get around).  Word clock in/out.  Has switches on the front to accept from the converter OR analog (so if you've racked up some compressors and wanna use them through your interface and have a spare ADAT connection)  doesn't get rid of a conversion stage, but might be more convenient for some and allow others to expand their input/output count.

Anyone wanna dabble with MIDI control?  I think there was a digital pre on the boards here at one point that might make good use of this.

 

[pucho812]

I think the only other people to do automation/midi etc was aphex where their 500 rack had a usb port.

 

[ruairioflaherty]

IMO the beauty of the 500 series is it's simplicity and small form factor. Ideal for simple things like pres etc. 

When people jam too much into the 500 series I lose interest fast.  Too many knobs, convoluted routing (gimme a patch bay anyway), conversion…

I wish them well but I couldn't get through the webpage, the Facebook was worse.

 

[weiss]

i like the idea of implementing ADAT

 

[emrr]

We already rejected the 900 series format, which did more....

 

[G-Sun]

Cool.
I've been wandering if anyone was using their audio interface as a digital patchbay.
Now with a rack like this, one could easily go  8 instances analogue processing within a digital framework.

 

[fum]

I visited 500 series automation in 2008 (the guillotine hp/lp filter had digital control support from the beginning).

Preventing digital noise from creeping into other modules(most of which were designed with no concern for there being digital anything nearby), maintaining backwards compatibility, and getting digital communication to the module without a kludge(some sort of cabling or extra edge cards that would prevent some fully enclosed modules from working) were the main sticking points.

Creating a pro solution that was seamless was elusive.  It's obviously a good idea, but the devils in the details. =)