Can a Yamaha AW2816 recorder and a Alesis MultiMix8 talk?

S

SIPdesk

Member
I have a Yamaha AW2816 mixer and I need to feed a Alesis MultiMix8 firewire mixer into it.

I can buy a Yamaha MY8-AT card the uses ADAT format to communicate with MIDI devices but I don't know what black box I would need to make them play nice?

Yamaha also makes a firewire card but who knows what, if any recognition between the two units would take place?

The MultiMix8 has 4 XLR plugs with phantom power but the AW2816 only has 2 powered XLR plugs. I need to power 6 condenser mics to record in Dolby Surround Sound.

Do any Audio Engineers have any experience connecting these units together?
 
From what I can see on the website, the Alesis MultiMix8 appears to be USB, not Firewire.
ADAT is a multi-track, optical, audio interface protocol. It has nothing to do with MIDI.
The Alesis MultiMix8 is designed to to be an I/O device which interfaces with a computer.
The Alesis MultiMix8 appears to have no other digital outputs that are compatible with any of the Yamaha interface options.
You didn't mention what you are recording TO?

Surround Sound is typically NOT recorded in the field with 6 microphones.
At most, it is recorded with four channels. The other two channels (center/dialog, and subwoofer) are created during the post-production mixdown.
 
Well Richard, I must have bought the ONLY Firewire box they made. Since Firewire is many times faster then USB, I thought it was the way to go...

I could never get the Alesis drivers to work on Windows 7 so I had to install them on a old Dell XP box. I use ASIO4All and Mixcraft 4 audio editor to record 4 tracks at a time. I can record 8 at a time if I could find drivers for a CRAY and if I had a CRAY :happy:

BTW: I found the guy who wrote the BAD drivers for the Firewire and sent him an email asking for help or the code. No response. My brother-in-law is a driver GURU, so I'm sure he could fix'em.

I wish I could write the Firewire stream to a HD file so I could take a look at it. It might give me an idea of how the channel data is separated on the buss.

About the Dolby:
I like to mix the other two mics in the RR & LR tracks to get more of the sound I'm looking for. I'm a total Newbie when it comes to encoding Surround so I'm sure you are correct. But, can you have too many tracks when you are recording live. I'm sure we both agree... Never

What do you think the AW2816 would SEE if I added a Firewire port and plugged in the MultiMix8? RED?
 
Richard Crowley said:
Surround Sound is typically NOT recorded in the field with 6 microphones.
At most, it is recorded with four channels. The other two channels (center/dialog, and subwoofer) are created during the post-production mixdown.
Click to expand...

Regarding recording in surround: I'd have to agree that surround sound is synthesized in post and yields better results IMHO. I've used DPA's surround sound mic to record ambiences and the self-noise in that array makes it unusable. You're better off using an upmix plug-in to synthesize surround, such as UM225/226 (from Waves). I've seen people use Zoom's H2n in Quad mode and made that work. Lots of times recordists just don't want to lug the darn gear out in the field. For convenience, it's easier to carry a 702/722 with a MS or XY rig and make surround out of that.
 
SIPdesk said:
What do you think the AW2816 would SEE if I added a Firewire port and plugged in the MultiMix8? RED?
Click to expand...

You are correct, of course, Alesis does make a FireWire version of the MultiMix8. Strange their website didn't mention it when I searched for it.

While "peer-to-peer" communication via FireWire is defined in the protocol, of course, the equipment would need to be designed to support that kind of operation. If the AW2816 were designed with that feature I can only believe that it would be touted in the marketing information. Absent any mention of that feature, one would assume that it wasn't designed to do that.
 
Thanks Ryan, I'll check out the UM225/226. Should I be ready for sticker shock? Well, I do most of my work on "The Islands" so I let FedeX deliver and a couple local kids do the heavy lifting. Just as long as they don't kick sand in my drink! I'm looking for a couple of used long shotgun mics, to pick up the waves and gulls. My next set of videos should have surround sound. I'm making them into pre-movie commercials in theathers. I want them to sound like you're there and viewers to leave with sand in their shoes.
 
I'll check with some of the boys over on the Yahoo/AW4416 group, Richard. I know there is a Firewire card for the AW2416. But once I bought it, I'm not sure what to feed it? Would you know where I could find a small bust-out box with 4 XLR plugs w/phantom that would plug into 4 channel jacks on the AW2816? Black Box might have one but it's going to be BIG.
 
If it were me, I would make a phantom box. They are frightfully expensive "store-bought", but they are easy to make. Especially if you use five 9V batteries for the power. It is as "clean" as it gets, and the batteries will essentially last the shelf-life.
 
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