its NOT an audio interface, so WHAT the hell is it???? (Audient EVO SP8) 

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Thanks for sharing the video! This is fantastic detailed overview Paul!

I used to use a Focusrite Clarett 8PreX with 2 Clarett range Octopres hooked up Adat and it all worked pretty seamlessly. I had another 2 channels going in though SPDIF from an Aphex 207D so I had 26 channels which was perfect for my studio size at the time. Now I just use the 8PreX for mixing through 8 channels of hardware at home. It was a handy unit because a lot of inferences in that price range wasn't as expandable as that. 🤷🏻‍♂

Using a prism lyra

I got an RME UCX many years ago and have never thought twice about my interface ever again. Worth every $

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I'm glad more people are being able to afford bigger recording options. £800 for evo 16 + sp8 is an amazing deal for a starter studio. You imagine how much that would have cost 10-20 year ago?

@@PaulThird even 5 years ago this would have been really inexpensive! Things surely have come a long way

I think it's definitely a huge leap for large track counts at a really low cost. With 24 inputs tracking bands live off the floor becomes feasible while still retaining the ability to mix each track. That has been traditionally only capable of big studios with massive budgets. I think we'll start seeing younger and younger guys and girls opening up affordable studios that will compete sonically with the big names. I've personally invested a lot of money for an infrastructure that can now be had for a tiny fraction of the price.

@@PaulThird can you do a comparison with a Behringer ADA8200 to see how much better this SP8 unit is?

Why not two evo16 though?

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I was trying to find proper external preamps / ADA's and struggled. I'll look at these ones

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It's so easy through pipeline xt in studio one. Just set the SP8 output source to digital on the ui and then route your audio to the correspondending adat line out & in. Piece of cake

@@PaulThird I mean honestly I was shocked I was searching high and low for a way to connect a rack that would mean I have to take cables in and out all the time, the id44 has send and return but that’s only with signal at a time but then I saw the announcement from audient and I swear then read my mind, I’m getting an ART voice channel first with the sp8, later I’m looking at getting the warm audio 1176 and because of this preamp I can mix in hybrid for half the price or less, it’s honestly insane how cheap things are getting also I’m from Scotland too, it’s hard to find a Scottish audio engineering RU-vid that isn’t just waffling, appreciate what you do man.

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I knew before hand there was me, Warren, Ed, & Adam but didn't know about Kristian until he released his video yesterday. I just couldn't get mines out on time for release day

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Definitely sp8 for expansion. You'll have to adjust software routing, create cue mixes etc to get the evo 16 to send out it's internal preamp signal out via adat. If its purely for 8 extra preamps and xp8 is going to be the master then SP8 is a better buy. Less hassle.

ADA8200 is priced accordingly from what I can see. Lower dynamic range compared to other interfaces and completely seperate inputs and outputs which limits expansion options. I was under the impression it was more for live use. Still do a job, no doubt about that but if you can afford the audient I would definitely be expanding i/o with the SP8. You can do a lot more with it.

@@PaulThird With the RME card and TotalMix I could do any routing you could think of (with 3 samples of latency) so it's not an issue for the ADA8200. Also, from what I read somewhere the preamps are rated at about 105dB-A which is what the ADs are also rated at so there would be no benefit to going direct analog out from the preamps. But I don't think that the SP8 has direct analog out either, more like an internal routing of the digital signals to the DAs. But the SP8 has better SNR and THD, Hi-Z inputs and S/MUX and I like that! 😁

Sp8 line outs can be routed on the unit where it can recieve either the analog preamp input signal or the digital input signal from the daw. This method is better as it means you are using less inputs and less conversion for analog inserts.

If you can afford RME then it's a good investment

I used the unison pre on my voiceover haha 1073 > de-esser > cl1b mk2 > de-esser > Gate Spot on

@@PaulThird I did notice. they are simply amazing. great stuff neebur...thats Scots talk for yeh multinational gadgies. lol

Yeah before I was sent the SP8 I just assumed that most interfaces would be an easy fix to turn into expansion

It's a valid point if you are in a live setup. Never crossed my mind tbh when I was making the video

Out my price range

@@PaulThird I mean ye they are expensive but you’ll only have to buy one of them and your good, RME are great for product support, drivers and warranty, it’s about the same price as your Apollo (give or take) but will last you a lifetime.

I like having the UAD dsp though

Yes. It's a full AD/DA unit. That's what I showed in the video

@@PaulThird my bad. thanks for the quick reply. i paused the video to type my question 😂

Do you need an expander or an interface? If you need an interface then you buy evo 16, if you need an expander then you buy sp8

Unfortunately evo 16 can only provide an additional 16 channels over ADAT and your daw looks for 1 main primary interface, so your capped at 24 i/O with audient

It's a standalone device. No software required. Connect it to an interface and you've got 8 extra inputs.

Sp8 works with any interface that has adat in

Yeah, it's a bit of a pain in the arse at times. I'm liasing with UA to find some solutions to some of my pc related issues. When it's working nicely with my pc its a stellar unit

@@PaulThird Same here with the X4 on the highest end custom pc you can build at the moment. I'm thinking about selling it and going RME soon. It's been 2 years of headaches between 4 different PC's. I have a Presonus Quantum 26x32 that I run for Studio One and it never gave me issues.

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You'd be just as well buying the evo 16 and selling the id14 being honest ID14 will only give you 4 outputs. Evo 16 give you 8 and if you want to expand the evo 16 then just purchase an sp8 to give you 16 line outputs. You can buy an evo 16/sp8 bundle for £760 online

Depends what daw you are using

@@PaulThird I'm using Reaper.

OK. First things first look at what sample rate you are mixing at because ADAT 2 is bypassed at 48khz. ADAT 1 & 2 in X6 are only for splitting the 8 channels (4 +4) over ADAT to 2 seperate expanders. It doesn't give you 16 channels over ADAT. Always 8. So at 96khz you could use two 4 channel interfaces via ADAT 1 & 2 but the 8 channels are split to 1-4 & 5-8 If you are solely using just X6 and SP8 then you'll be able to send 8 channels over ADAT between the 2. in terms of physical connections for hardware you'll need to 2 adat cables. One going from adat out of X6 to adat in of SP8, and the other going adat in of X6 to adat out of SP8. Remember to only use ADAT 1 for in and out of X6. Then in the daw you need to set the output of the track you want processed by the gear to the corresponding line out of the SP8. I dunno how reaper does it's routing but in studio one I needed to setup the I/O to tell it that ADAT 1-8 was the SP8 for inputs AND outputs. I rename the channels through ADAT 1-8 for both input and outputs ie SP8 1, SP8 2, SP8 3, SP8 4 etc I have a plugin called pipeline in studio one and I'm sure reaper has one very similar where all you have to do (after setting up your I/O) is select the output to the corresponding SP8 line out the piece of hardware is connected to, and then your return is corresponding to the SP8 line in the hardware is connected to. Essentially the routing goes like this (let's use a vocal compressor and a kick eq as an example) DAW > vocal output to ADAT 1 (SP8 line out 1). Kick output to ADAT 2 (SP8 line out 2) SP8 > set the output source (on the unit itself) to digital so the line outs are only receiving the digital daw signal over ADAT. Hardware > SP8 line out 1 to line in of vocal compressor. Line out of compressor to line in 1 of SP8. This will automatically send the line in signal over ADAT back to X6 which will show signal coming through in console in adat channel 1. Same procedure for kick eq but it's sp8 line out 2 to gear, returning to line in 2 of sp8 which will again send it's internal line in signal over adat to x6 and show a signal in console for adat channel 2. Recieve processed signal in daw > set your input of source to the corresponding line in of SP8 (so ADAT 1 (SP8 1) for vocal, ADAT 2 (SP8 2) for kick. That's why pipeline plugin in studio one is a god send as it does all the routing for you where you simply select your send (sp8 line out 1) and return (sp8 line in 1) and it's just like using your gear as a plugin in your chain. That's the best I can explain the routing for you

@@PaulThird Thank you very much for the detailed explanation! I will try it! I think I got It! Cheers!

It's just being able to afford it. Even second hand UFX holds its price haha won't hear me arguing about RME quality on here though.

@@PaulThird I'd say it's expensive not to invest in quality! On that note, keep up the excellent, brave, enterprising, entertaining and most of all useful work. I always wished I had the guts to do what you are doing, go get em tiger

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Asp800 is predominantly designed as an AD converter as there is no adat in so it can only send the internal preamp signal to the line outs. This means that whilst you can still use the asp800 as an ADA converter you would use half your inputs cause you'd have do a full round trip for use with hardware. Line out of apollo to line in of asp > line out asp through gear back to another line in which will send that professed signal adat out so apollo can recieve it. That's also incuring a lot of needless ADC/DAC conversion as well So you'd only have max 4 inputs for analog gear where with sp8 cause of adat in and how you can choose for the line outs to recieve the digital adat in signal instead of internal preamp signal you could use all 8 inputs for analog gear. If you are solely interested in external preamps and no ADA then asp800 is still a good shout with the harmonic options but remember you only get that on 2 channels with asp800, it's the 850 that has all the channels with harmonic options & eq

@@PaulThird thanks for the reply but wait hold up. I cannot use the ADAT output on the ASP800 to go into the Optical in on my UAD Apollo to have a total of 10 inputs? I must have been doing my research very badly because after hours on forums and videos it seems that this is exactly what it can do?

Yeah you can I'm not saying that. Read it again. I'm talking about what gets sent to the line outs. Not the adat out. The adat out will always send the internal mic/line signal to adat in of any interface. Adat is digital, line is analog I'm talking about using it with analog gear. It only has adat out so it cant recieve digital signals via adat, only output them via adat where sp8 can output and recieve digital signals via its adat in and out and via its analog output source mode allows you to choose what input the line outs recieve (not the adat out, that's fixed to always send the internal mic/line signal) either the analog input (mic/line) or the digital input (recieved adat in from an interface)

@@PaulThird ok cool thanks sorry was confused since I said I don't really need line outs right now (besides what is used from the apollo). Cheers.

It's cool. I just always try and view a purchase from the angle of future use. If you may potentially need those outputs for expanding with analog then it's a good feature to be able to switch from. Tbh i use the unison preamps so I'd much rather have those than the asp800 circuit which is pretty subtle anyway in most cases. Burr brown converters which is in the id14. Same console pre's, Without the first 2 pre's with the saturation mode it's essentially an expandable id14 as they share the same pre's and converters. Many people prefer the sound of the evo pre's as they sound cleaner but it may be worth seeing if you get either with a 30 day money back guarantee or whatever so you can try them out. I know a lot of guys with asp800's and they just gather dust. Think Ed is selling his now he has the SP8

Nah I use topping dx7 pro+ for all my DAC

@@PaulThird How is it better or should I say different from the Audient ID44 mkii

www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-dx7-pro-review-dac-hp-amp.36978/ One of the best measuring DAC/amps on the market. ID14 has a very high impedance headphone amp which isn't great and it's DAC isn't as clean or ruler flat as topping. Think of the dx7 pro+ as the geekiest DAC/AMP on the market right now rivalled really only by RME ADI-2 FS Read Amir's review and you'll see that it's specs beyond what most actually need but I've not found any thing to sound as good as it. Even the apollo x6 using the l30 mk2 amp still doesn't have that extra detail the dx7 pro+ has. Its audio geek heaven

@@PaulThird compared to the Prism Lyra 2???

I already had a chat with a lyra owner. ADC/DAC wise. Top notch. Headphone amp, low quality. Pretty shit considering its such an expensive unit but tbh it is only its headphone amp that let's it down as it ADC and DAC measure really well. Considering the size of the interface they could only fit so much into it. If I recall it says in the manual that it's not really suitable for headphones under 60 ohm or something like that. They've purposely kept their Headphone output impedance hidden which is always a dead giveaway that it's high impedance which isn't good. Tbh it is nearly 8 years old so there are better options out today. If you wanted a full high quality interface package. Preamps, adat in out, ADA conversion, good headphone amp etc RME Ufx ii would be a much better buy than prism hands down. The ufx headphone amp is 2ohm which isn't absolutely ideal but it's low enough where I'd imagine you'd still get decent linearity from low impedance headphones. It's on the absolute cusp of whats acceptable for low impedance headphones. I'd advise buying a topping l30 ii with it as its only like £150 but will make that RME unit the absolute full package without a doubt. If its just DAC/AMP then topping dx7 pro+ all day long for me. Either that or RME adi 2 FS/ adi 2 pro FS

Saturation and eq too subtle?

​@@PaulThird just used it for the recording of an entire band for their album. after recordings were finished it was idle money so I sold it again. I was doing computer music then...

@@PaulThird I quite liked the impedance switches

@@PaulThird I did not like gain pot curve behaviour.

Check the links in my pinned comment

@@PaulThird woot woot!

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Do you mean one unit at one sample rate and other units at a different sample rate or simply can the units run at sample rates higher than 48?

@@PaulThird higher than 48k for all

You can do 96khz via adat but you'll half the amount of available i/o. ADAT can send and recieve up to 8 tracks at 48khz but only 4 at 96khz (per adat out) So as long as your units are clocked correctly you could run at 96khz in them all. Connect word clock over BNC (pretty sure there are Y cables you can get) if using more than 2 devices and slave them to the master which would be your main interface. That way all the clocking is more stable technically speaking

@@PaulThird so if I got that right what you are saying is that if I aggregate 3 devices at 96 I will be able to utilize 12 in/out via ADAT connection and if I want 24 in/out at 96 I'll have to use BNC connection. Am I right?

No, the amount of inputs available depends on the interfaces. If it's an evo 16 you'll have 8 ins, and if you pair that with 2 sp8's at 96khz via you'll only be able to send 4 signals out from each sp8 via adat out to adat in of evo 16. The main interface can utilise all the inputs and outputs at their maximum supported sample rate. What it recieves IN via adat from external preamps is limited to 4 channels at 96k. So at 96khz with an evo 16 and 2 Sp8's you'd get a total of 16 inputs to use (eight evo 16, four sp8, four sp8) The BNC word clock connection is simply a better way of keeping multiple devices completely time alligned. Doesn't give you any more inputs. ADAT is what controls the amount of inputs you can send out to an interface

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thats a match made in heaven for sure.. USB2 is plenty for home studio projects. ive never had an issue or needed more. unless im tracking an entire horn section or something. I have an ADI2FS paired with my trusty ID44 and man...

Remember to check out my autism channel if you want to learn more about my life 🤓🤓

Cause evo 16 isn't an expendable unit. It's an interface. It is seup to always send out the daw signal via ADAT where SP8 can send out it's internal signal ie preamp/line in out via ADAT That's what the video is explaining is the difference between an interface and an expandable preamp. Their internal routing is different. An interface is built to be the master and expandable unit is built to be the slave

​@@PaulThirdare you sure tho? The evo has adat in and out. I for example us a steinberg ur824 as an adat Pre amp slave to my Antelope tour for example.

I had a full conversation with audient before making the video. I had the same questions. You can use an evo 16 as the slave but not by default. There's quite a bit of software routing needed so it send it's internal signal out via adat. You need to run the evo 16 in standalone mode for it to run as a slave If an interface doesn't have a standalone mode then it cant run ADAT as a slave

@@PaulThird good stuff, yes your right regarding the standalone for sure. I have been researching adat extra io and have swayed towards using a full on interface as the extra io so I have the option to switch it as main device if needed. The price difference between main interface and external Preamp device is small for most brands.

It's a clever workaround 🤓

Why?

@@PaulThird I feel i`m lacking in better converters , but i will upgrade in time . About audient , had id14 and it stopped working, also other users reported id22 crapped out after 2 years of warranty, and i was looking at that one to buy . The preamps are not all that, actually, no audio interface is good enough for recording condensers, you just need a dedicated preamp, and then at least compress on the way in . I didn`t like the audio driver of audient , it either crashed or made loud pops and clicks .... i have a i9 cpu and never run out of processing power . I would look at motu , and most definetly RME ....

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If you can afford it

I own several RME units, but I own other things too. They're definitely solid, but there are some other products that have pushed the boundaries that I find myself using more and more.

@@legacyShredder1 Which ones?

@@legacyShredder1 really? I'd love to know them, please share. I hope you're not gonna say the UA Audio interface.

@@jackc8120 Our studio doesn't use Universal Audio interfaces. We use some of the RME units, a bunch of Antelope's Orion interfaces, we have used Arturia on some mobile rigs but we're phasing them out. Antelope's routing matrix is insane, and it allows us 128x128 simultaneous I/O that can be routed in every possible way imaginable with near perfect latency. That's just my experience.