d8b with logic and Apogee Ensemble

[Taddertot]

Hi Guys! I’m new here. I just picked up a d8b and I’m try to set up a recording studio where I teach guitar. I’m a Mac user and have been using Logic Pro X with a FireWire Ensemble for 10yrs. Is it possible to utilize this board with an Ensemble with logic or am I better off running it into a dedicated HD based recorder? Thanks!

[Crash]

There is no Firewire capability for the d8b unfortunately. If you have a way to do anything with lightpipe, TDIF, analog, or AES, you would be in tall cotton given that you had the right cards in the I/O slots of the d8b.

[Y-my-R]

To expand on what Crash said...

There's a few different ways how you could use the D8B together with a computer & DAW. Such as:

1. As a Mixer, transferring audio signals between the D8B and the Computer/Audio-Interface. That's pretty much what Crash said, and for this it depends on the I/O on your audio interface and what expansion cards you have in the D8B, how many channels you can transfer at the same time. Also, ideally, you'd have an Apogee clock card in the D8B. With the stock clock card that came with the mixer when new, the D8B would have to be Clock-Master, while the Computer/Interface would need to run as clock slave... which is a bit of a waste, since the clock in the Ensemble should be better b/c newer. If there's no clock card installed at all, the D8B won't work as a mixer, until you install one (and the D8B-computer needs to boot up successfully for that).

2. You can use the D8B as a MIDI controller, using the faders to change levels inside of the DAW (Logic in your case). This is possible for Faders 17-24 without adding any hardware/software (but the mixer has to boot up successfully for the built-in method). The D8B behaves like a Mackie HUI for these faders in this case, and you should then be able to use the transport controls as well. How to enable this is in the manual (or you can look it up on this page, where I typed up step-by-step instructions for that, before: http://d8bforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2218&p=17332#p17332). There's no way to get more than 8 faders working in HUI mode, unless you add external hardware.

3. When ADDING hardware - specifically the "ProBox" Munkustrap on this forum hand-builds and sells exclusively (for what I think is a more than fair price, when adding parts and labor together) - then you can turn all the faders and rotary knobs into a control surface for a DAW like Logic. It will behave exactly like a Mackie Control Universal with 2 Extenders in this case (it uses the same communication protocol and commands). It's great, and works even if the D8B doesn't boot correctly as a mixer, and thus can't be used as a mixer (...even if you don't have a clock card installed at all). So, it's a good way to make use of an otherwise dead D8B.

So, the first thing would be to figure out HOW you would like to integrate the D8B with your Computer/DAW setup.

[Taddertot]

Thanks for your help guys! It looks like door number 3 would be my best solution. Now I need to order a new Pro Box..unless someone is selling one here on the forum? I'll reach out to Munkustrap in the meantime. Thank you again for the help!