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Several years ago, Tom Sailor founded a company called X-Vision Audio that distributed products to the music industry. Synthax, the German-based global distributor of RME products, was one of his main business partners. Eventually, the two companies merged to bring together a collection of German products centered around native-based recording systems. With combined resources - including tech support - these companies and their niche products benefit from a shared Synthax support infrastructure.
This month we'll look at three products marketed by Synthax: the Fireface 800, Samplitude Professional 8, and Suzy. How well do these products stand up individually, and do they integrate easily with one another?
RME Fireface 800
Last year, Video Systems gave the RME Fireface 800 a Vanguard award, which it richly deserved. Ultimately, audio interfaces are judged by the quality of the sound they pass, and on a price-performance scale, this device is hard to beat. Although lacking the creaminess of higher-priced converters like those made by Apogee, the Fireface 800 (which I own) is solid throughout the frequency spectrum. Many top-end audio houses own these devices.
The Fireface 800 includes connections for a pair of ADAT Lightpipe devices, eight balanced line-level inputs and outputs, SPDIF, and four excellent mic-pres. Currently, the Fireface 800 supports eight channels of 96kHz/24-bit recording and playback.
In addition to its sound quality, the Fireface 800 offers extensive routing through Total Mix, the companion software bundled with it. The flexibility that Total Mix provides - which lets you quickly route any input to any output, set up separate cue mixes, and easily keep track of your signal flow - will be most beneficial for music recordists, who may use Total Mix in conjunction with a digital audio workstation as an integrated mix environment.
Audio post engineers and composers will most likely set up their studio environment once, save this setting as a preset in Total Mix, and be done. For example, I route stereo audio in from my Mac G4 via ADAT input 1, and eight inputs from my TASCAM GigaStudio computer using ADAT input 2. I also leave a microphone input open on the fourth mic pre channel. Once I completed this routing scheme, I used the Fireface 800's control panel software and turned on...