SoundPool FA8 and FDI

[Metrophage]

Finally I scored a set of Steinberg-branded Falcon Audio 8 and Falcon Digital Interface. Actually two FDIs and one DSP cable.

I have used my Falcon almost entirely for MIDI sequencing and editing, with a little bit of sample editing and dumping on the side. As I prepare my Falcon for audio work, is there anything I should know? Any programs which the interfaces are known to work well/not work with? I heard that Logic can use it in some limited way.

Are these really useful without CAF or AudioTracker? I will try to get these programs later when I can. Is there any harm in having these boxes connected to my Falcon if I am using other software in the meanwhile?

Thanks in advance for any advice or opinions

[NCGM]

I bought my first ever Falcon 030 in January and then a second in March, with the intention of making one a Cubase Audio machine. I had the Steinberg FDI to begin with but that was a 16-bit version, so I bought another from Ebay, this time a SoundPool SPDIF and that is 24-bit compatible so I can at last connect my ART DPSII preamp to it. I intially could not record anything into Cubase Audio but that was with IDE drives connected via a SCSI-IDE adapter, so I later bought an old external SCSI drive of 1995 vintage and that worked with CAF, successfully recording and playing back all eight tracks. This later stopped working for some reason, so I bought two more drives but this time larger and more modern ones; 18GB 80-pin internal type. I used a 80-pin to 50-pin SCSI adapter and this works fine with CAF. The drive is a 10,000rpm model and makes an ear splitting racket, so I have bought a Scythe Quiet Drive enclosure to seal the noise in.

It's my week off work starting from now, so I hope to have a proper go at recording actual MIDI and audio as full songs/instrumentals. I also have most of the software needed to create the music and edit it, and then write to CDR with my Yamaha CRW8424S SCSI writer. A few weeks ago I bought a couple of Motorola 68882 FPU processors, which I believe Cubase Audio and Zero X use to speed up the power hungry features. Earlier this year I picked up a MIDEX+ from Ebay for only £17, so that will provide 4 MIDI OUTs and 2 MIDI INs. I even managed to find the CAF user manual in the ring binder on Ebay; the audio chapter is around 200 pages I think.

As for the FA8 and FDI/SPDIF interfaces being plugged in with other programs, I have not noticed any problems yet. Many other programs make use of them though, so it is well worth leaving them plugged in.

I'll post here on the forum once I have done some meaningful recording later this week all being well. It's a bit daunting though as I have not done anything for ten years, including playing my guitars or keyboards; just dabbling at playing every now and then a couple of times each year.


NCGM

[mal7921]

Zero-X will make use of the FDI as I've used this to do some transferes from DAT, though I've not yet tried to use any of the other inputs at the Falcon's disposal.

As I remember, Logic Audio can make use of additional inputs, though I have not yet had chance to try this out.