The ASIO Driver standard to record and play back through the following Digidesign hardware: Pro ToolsHD audio interfaces Digi 002 Digi 002 Rack.The latest drivers, released on the 20th of June have a number of quirky caveats : Mac driver 11.0.0 Added support for Pro Tools 11 with 003 Rack and Console (Pro Tools 10 not supported) Known Issue: Digi 002 Console and Rack not supported for PT 11 at this time Windows driver 9.0.7 Support for Pro Tools 10.3 - Pro Tools 11 with 003. Be sure to disable the Windows system sounds.If you fancied the well-specified, Firewire-based I/O of Digidesign's Digi 002 but didn't need its control surface functions, you now have a cheaper alternative in the shape of the Digi 002 Rack. Only one application at a time can use the ASIO Driver. Up to 18 channels of input and output with Digi 002 and Digi 002 Rack Up to 4 channels of input and 2 channels of output with Mbox 2 Up to 2 channels of input and output with Mbox The ASIO Driver is not multi-client.
Digi 002 Rack Install A Digidesign
As with the other home/project studio products, this system depends upon host-based processing but does feature high-specification multiple ins and outs, MIDI and a hardware control surface. Therefore, over the last few years, users have seen Pro Tools Free (a cut-down software-only introduction for no cost!), the USB-based M Box (software plus audio/MIDI interface with a sub-£400 price tag) and the Digi 001 (software plus a PCI card/external rack).More recently, Digidesign have added the Digi 002. At first I thought I could install a Digidesign core audio driver and make the 002 show up.In recent years, Digidesign have done their best to bring the essence of the Pro Tools environment to the project and home studio market — and one aim of the strategy has presumably been to get users started with a basic Pro Tools setup with the hope that they will upgrade to one of the more sophisticated Digidesign systems. I get 9 choices of devices, but they are all built-in. Indeed, those who read Mark Wherry's Nuendo 2 review in the September 2003 issue of SOS will have got a sense for how difficult it is for Steinberg to break Digidesign's dominance, despite the very impressive functionality of Nuendo as a music production system.I wanted to use a Digi 002 rack as my interface, but Logic does not offer it as a choice when I go to audio preferences > devices > core audio.
The recommended specifications for both Mac and PC are listed in the 'Hardware Requirements' box, but potential purchasers would also be advised to visit the Digidesign web site, as this contains further information on computer systems that have been tested with the 002 Rack and are therefore known to be compatible. On The RackThe Digi 002 Rack supplied for review included the 2U hardware unit, CD installers for both Mac and PC, a printed Getting Started manual and a 12-foot, 6-pin to 6-pin Firewire cable. As the name suggests, it is housed in a very sturdy 2U rack case, making it easily portable. At about half the price of the Digi 002, this essentially provides the same Pro Tools LE software and I/O hardware, without the control surface. Enter, stage left, the latest addition to the Digidesign product line: the Digi 002 Rack. In their SOS December 2002 review of the Digi 002, existing Digi 001 users Derek Johnson and Debbie Poyser were extremely impressed with the audio quality, flexibility of I/O and the well-designed mixer control surface.While representing good value for money, the Digi 002's £2000-plus price tag might be more than some potential users could bear.
Two small switches engage the 48V phantom power to inputs 1+2 and 3+4 respectively. To the right are inputs 1-4, on both XLRs and quarter-inch balanced jacks. With the exception of a slight repositioning of the power supply, the rear-panel connectivity of the 002 Rack would appear to be identical to that of the Digi 002, in terms of both specification and layout. However, if you compare the photographs of the Digi 002 from the December 2002 review with those of the 002 Rack here, the parentage of the 002 Rack hardware is easy to see. In fact, as described below, I used two PC systems, a P4 desktop and a relatively new Dell laptop — the latter obviously of interest if the 002 Rack is to be used as part of a mobile Pro Tools system.Pro Tools software is based around two main windows: this is the Edit window.Summary specifications of the 002 Rack are provided in the ' Numbers Game' box.
Standard MIDI In and two independent MIDI Out ports are also present and, aside from a footswitch jack for hands-free punch-in/out, the only other connectors are a pair of Firewire (IEEE 1394) ports. Bit depths/sample rates up to 24-bit/96kHz are supported for S/PDIF I/O. As the supplied Pro Tools LE does not support surround sound mixing (which is a great shame), perhaps the most obvious application of the multiple outputs is as sends for integrating external hardware processors into a session.In terms of digital I/O, both optical (Toslink connectors, giving eight channels of ADAT I/O) and two-channel co-axial S/PDIF I/O are provided, and the optical connectors can also provide two-channel S/PDIF I/O if required. The Monitor Outputs mirror the signal send to the headphone output and Main Outputs 1+2. These are followed by the Alt Src inputs (RCA connectors operating at -10dBV) intended for bringing CD or cassette audio sources into the 002 Rack for recording or monitoring.The upper left of the rear panel features all the analogue outputs: the Monitor Output pair, eight analogue outputs and an Alt Mon RCA pair for sending the main output to a cassette deck, for example.
The right-hand side is dominated by output level controls for the main outputs and a headphone output — the only jack socket on the front panel. Above each of these is a pair of switches which select between Mic and Line operation and engage a high-pass filter that rolls off 12dB/octave below 75Hz. To the left, this features four large Gain knobs used for inputs 1-4.
Output dynamic range: main outputs 114dB, Monitor outputs 112dB, outputs 3-8 114dB, Alt outputs 98dB (all A-weighted).The review unit was supplied with both Mac and PC versions of Pro Tools LE 6.1. Input dynamic range: 101dB A-weighted on inputs 1-4 108dB A-weighted on inputs 5-8. I/O frequency response: +0.15/-0.5 dB, 20Hz-20kHz. Maximum input levels: mic +3dBu, line +18dBu. Alternate Source input on RCA connectors for monitoring tape players, CDs and so on. Outputs 1 and 2 mirrored on quarter-inch TRS monitor outputs and RCA outputs.
Aside from reduced audio track counts, one obvious limitation is the lack of surround sound support. As Simon mentioned in his review, Rewire support was promised and, for music production, is perhaps the most significant addition to v6.1 — more on this below.While LE retains all the elegance of the Pro Tools user interface it does, of course, have some limitations when compared to a top-of-the-range Pro Tools system. This does add to flexibility and also means that a large project can be moved from a full TDM Pro Tools system to an LE system.Other key features that appeared with v6 include some of the Digibase functions, providing improved project management facilities, and Groove Quantise for MIDI. Usefully, version 6 now allows up to 128 audio tracks to be opened in an LE session, using a voicing system for selecting which 32 tracks are actually audible. In summary, LE now provides playback of a maximum of 32 tracks of 24-bit/96kHz audio and up to 256 MIDI tracks.
The Getting Started documentation includes some useful instructions on particular BIOS and Windows XP tweaks as part of the installation process, so I also checked each of these.Pro Tools LE allows full control of all the I/O options provided by the 002 Rack.While LE installed and ran first time, it was soon pretty clear that something was not as it should be. I duly connected the Digi 002 Rack to one of the PC's Firewire ports and followed the installation instructions for Pro Tools LE. InstallationMy studio desktop PC features a PCI-based Firewire card (made by Datavision), which I regularly use with an external Canopus ADVC100 video capture device for digitising analogue and DV video footage. It would certainly make the multiple outputs of both the Digi 002 and 002 Rack desirable to a wider group of potential users.
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