RME HDSPe MADI

The RME Hammerfall HDSP MADI is both an inexpensive and outstanding PCI card with MADI interface. Hammerfall DSP MADI is based on the award-winning Hammerfall DSP technology, and represents the top model of this worldwide successful card line.

MADI, the professionals' multi-channel audio interface, offers 64 channels of 24-bit audio at a sample rate of up to 48 kHz and 32 channels at up to 96 kHz. Transmission is done via a single line, either coaxial with BNC plugs or with fiber cable. In both cases more than 100 m cable length can be achieved. Hammerfall DSP is fully compatible to all devices with MADI interface. In combination with the ADI-648 an 8 x ADAT optical PC interface is realized, unbeatable in price and performance.

Hammerfall DSP MADI offers full support for 56 and 64 channel modes and double and single wire technology (96k frame) for 96 kHz. Full 64 channel support can also be found in the hardware mixer TotalMix. All 64 inputs and 64 playback channels can be routed and mixed to 64 physical outputs completely freely, which translates to an 8192 channel mixer. With that, Hammerfall DSP MADI offers the most powerful router/mixer ever implemented on a PCI card and allows much more than a usage as pure computer I/O unit:

• MADI optical patchbay and router
• MADI coaxial/optical or vice versa converter and splitter
• MADI redistributor, patchbay and router
• Furthermore, the hardware delivers RMS and peak level meters for full control over 192 audio channels at minimal CPU load.

As usual with RME, Hammerfall DSP MADI offers further sensible features. For instance an analogue 24 bit 192 kHz line/headphone output with 110 dB dynamic range for direct control of all input and output signals. While most MADI-based devices require an additional word clock or AES line, the Hammerfall DSP MADI (like the ADI-648) uses SteadyClock to extract the reference clock at the lowest jitter directly from the MADI signal, making long-distance connections even more convenient.

The included expansion board carries word clock I/O (BNC) and MIDI I/O. The word clock input is galvanically isolated via transformer and operates on both single and double speed signals automatically. MIDI I/O offers 2 completely independent MIDI inputs and outputs via breakout cable (4 DIN sockets). A virtual MIDI port allows for a direct transmission of MIDI data over MADI.

For the first time, RME uses a configuration memory for the most important settings of the card. Instead of operating in a default mode on computer power-up until loading the driver, Hammerfall DSP MADI activates the last used sample rate, master/slave configuration and MADI format immediately when switched on. This eliminates disturbing noises and clock network problems during power-up or re-boot of the computer.

Included software:

• HDSP Meter Bridge: Scalable level meter with Peak- and RMS calculation in hardware
• DIGICheck 4.0 for Windows: Spectral Analyser, professional level meter for 2, 8, or 64 channels, Vector Audio Scope, various other audio analysis tools.
• Drivers: Windows 2000/XP (full ASIO multi-client operation of MME, GSIF 2.0 and ASIO 2.0), Mac OS X (Core Audio and Core MIDI)