Macs and "aggregated" audio interfaces

goldtop

I've got an old and trusty RME Fireface 800 (that still works on Sonoma thanks to the geniuses at RME), and a Yamaha MODX. For various reasons it would be great to aggregate the two using the Audio MIDI Setup (MacOS). 

Are there any significant issues doing this?

And I could add the Kemper, although for my use case the PSDIF connection to the RME is working fine.

octatonic

What DAW do you use?

(It is S/PDIF by the way).

goldtop

Cubase 13.

(and slippery fingers!)

octatonic

OK so aggregate devices are generally undesirable because of the different round trip latency of each device and the overhead on the OS to try to make things line up, which they never quite do.

But, if you are not using loads of hardware inserts then it is probably ok.

I avoid using them as much as possible, but in Pro Tools it isn't possible to have the mono MBP mic input and the stereo output addressed separately so you have to create an aggregate device.

Give it a go and see how it works for you.

Bod

goldtop said:

Cubase 13.

(and slippery fingers!)

How are you finding 13?  I took the plunge and upgraded and, for once, I'm very pleased with it.

goldtop

Bod said:

goldtop said:

Cubase 13.

(and slippery fingers!)

How are you finding 13?  I took the plunge and upgraded and, for once, I'm very pleased with it.

I've dipped in and out of Cubase trials for years, and never really stuck with it, just dabbled when I had an alternative. But I've got one particular project to do for my singing sister, and I'm knuckling down to doing it in Cubase with nothing but the stock plugins. So I don't have any deep background in v12 or earlier. 

For the first time, I started building the project from scratch with the Chord Track and it's a huge change in workflow and I'm very happy.

@octatonic - I have got a Ventris Reverb connected to the RME's analogue I/O. That's it.

Aggregating the MODX with the RME will help me avoid the USB ground noise that appears when using the MODX's analogue outputs and also using the MODX by USB or MIDI. I could use one of those transformer isolating widgets on the analogue outouts, but that seems inelegant and requires the use of adapters and/or other kludges.

octatonic

That seems like an even more complex work around with a real penalty in terms of latency and sync.
Personally I'd figure out the ground issue first.

Stuckfast

octatonic said:

I avoid using them as much as possible, but in Pro Tools it isn't possible to have the mono MBP mic input and the stereo output addressed separately so you have to create an aggregate device.

I haven't tried but I think you should now be able to use Aux I/O in Pro Tools to do this. 

octatonic

Stuckfast said:

octatonic said:

I avoid using them as much as possible, but in Pro Tools it isn't possible to have the mono MBP mic input and the stereo output addressed separately so you have to create an aggregate device.

I haven't tried but I think you should now be able to use Aux I/O in Pro Tools to do this. 

Yes I didn't want to get into that if he wasn't using Pro Tools.

You still need to have a default audio output in Pro Tools.
If you don't create an aggregate then it has to be either the mic input (and no output) or the stereo out (and no input) and then can add the other one into the Aux IO.
I usually have the mic input on Aux IO and the stereo output as the default output in playback engine.

If Avid allowed separate input and output assignments none of this would be necessary, but there you go.