Topic: At this late date, I remain a Dante Newb. | Allen & Heath Digital Community

At this late date, I remain a Dante Newb.

This topic contains 3 replies, has 2 voices, and was last updated by timtrace 10 years, 7 months ago.

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2013/08/30 at 8:08 pm #23956

timtrace
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Can someone help me with this? I want to add Dante to my iDR-32. My goal is to enable virtual soundcheck, and sometime after the gig, send a virtual soundcheck through the iDR two 2-track using all of the per-channel and per-mix processing of the iDR.

I know I need an M-Dante card, I’m seeing them for about $1.4k, correct?

I bought a single-seat Dante Virtual Soundcard permanent license in February, from Audinate for $29.99. Does this mean I’m covered for all necessary software?

Can I run Dante on the same notebook as the editor? It’s a decent i5 with a 250GB OCZ SSD. Can Dante run on the iLive control network or does it require separate VLAN or switch hardware?

I know this is a loaded question, and I’ve probably got my terminology all wrong, but how many channels should I be able to send to an external USB 2.0 disk and how much space might I need to record ~24 channels for 3 hours?

Thanks much

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2013/08/31 at 7:05 pm #34703

CMattE
Participant

Our church bought an M-Dante card just as they were released. I think we paid a little less, but they may have had a price increase since then. But that price doesn’t seem unreasonable.

I don’t use it for virtual soundcheck, but to multi-track record. And there’s a global option in the iLive setup for whether that send is pre or post processing. And when we started it defaulted to post processing. This may have changed by now, but I had a surprise the first time I listened back. Nothing major, I just prefer to record dry and use my DAW to process it.

I also run separate networks for Dante and ACE, and then connect to editor with a Macbook Pro over wi-fi hooked to the surface. I have a Mac Mini at FOH by the board for recording and ran two cables for each network. So I can’t help with running them over the same network. Plus I now have a back-up cable if something happens to the ACE connection. I will probably run another cable or two one of these days.

You should get another license with the card. So you’ll have spare. But I bought a couple also just in case I want to add some other computers later for other things. And you can’t beat that price. There’s actually two parts to the software. There’s a controller software that controls the routing, latency, and other details. And then Dante Virtual Soundcard. It’s what passes the audio to the DAW. I believe the license is actually for DVS. The other is free to use.

As far as recording, I record to a Firewire 800 drive without issues. I use Reaper to record and Pro Tools and Harrison Mixbus to edit/mix. However the times I forgot the drive, I’ve recorded to the internal 5400 rpm drive without issue. Even up to 64-tracks. So I would think USB 2.0 should work. I’d make sure it had a 7200 rpm drive or even better an SSD.

And my recordings are normally around 20-25 GB. That’s for around 24 channels and 1.5-2 hours. So 3 hours could hit 35-40 GB in my guesstimation. However after editing out the silence, and I have a pretty good chunk with nothing but the pastor preaching, I can get it down to 5-8 GB.

T112/48, MacBook Pro, D-link DIR-815, iPad 1 w/mixpad, Dante card feeding a Mac Mini w/DVS.

2013/09/02 at 5:35 am #34706

timtrace
Participant

Thanks, CMattE. Great input []

2013/09/02 at 6:20 am #34707

timtrace
Participant

I just found Nicola’s “Understanding M-Dante” guide. Very helpful.

If I do this, I’ll dust off a Core-2 Duo notebook with SSD and turn it into a Dante/Reaper system, with a direct Ethernet connection between the M-Dante card and the notebook. I’ll have to get a gigabit Expresscard Ethernet adapter for the notebook.

More mulling to come
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