RME LT 1896 Mobile Kit Laptop Recording Bundle

Manufacturer's Description for RME LT 1896 Mobile Kit Laptop Recording Bundle

The RME LT 1896 Mobile Kit Laptop Recording Bundle offers a high quality, reasonable priced for recording to laptop computer. This package includes not only RME's award winning Hammerfall DSP PCMCIA CardBus, but the Hammerfall Mutiface multichannel interface and Magix Samplitude Pro Recording Software.

Hammerfall DSP PCMCIA CardBus
For some time now, laptops have become powerful enough for even ambitious hard disk recording thanks to high computing power and powerful hard drives. Up to now, a powerful interface was missing though. USB is neither offering the necessary bandwidth, nor the desired compatibility. Available PCMCIA solutions at the moment are nearly always designed as 16 bit PC Card and therefore only make use of the ISA bus.

For the Hammerfall DSP System RME developed a world-exclusive PCMCIA type II card in Zero wait state CardBus Busmaster technology. With up to 130 MB/s transfer rate in both directions the same basic performance is provided on a notebook as a PCI card would offer on a desktop computer. Additionally the card offers highest compatibility by being 100% Plug & Play compatible under Windows and MacOS, and being able to share interrupts. The card itself will only use one interrupt (IRQ) for all functions (audio/MIDI.)

The connection between CardBus card and I/O box is established using ordinary firewire cable (closed LAN to IEEE 1394.) The data transfer does not use Firewire protocol, but our own proprietary bus protocol. The supplied cable is 4.5 m (15 ft.) long, a cable length up to 10 m (33 ft.) has been successfully tested. A specially designed Repeater can be used to reach cable lengths of up to 20 m (66 ft.) The CardBus card does not provide power to the attached I/O-box. Therefore a hi-tech switching power supply is included.

Hammerfall Mutiface multichannel interface

The Multiface is not only multi because of the many different interface formats supported, but also multi-channel! Based on the technology of the Project Hammerfall the Multiface includes ADAT optical I/O, ADAT-Sync In, SPDIF I/O, MIDI I/O, word clock I/O and a separate analog line output. On top we provide 8 analog inputs and outputs, balanced and 96 kHz/24 bit, of course. All this can be used on laptops as well as on desktop computers with 'zero cpu load' and low latency!

Features

8 x analog line I/O, 96 kHz/24 bit, SNR 105 dBA, 1/4" TRS jacks
1 x ADAT digital I/O, based on RME's reliable Bitclock PLL
1 x SPDIF digital I/O, based on RME's reliable DIGI96 technology
1 x ADAT Sync In (9-pin D-type) for sample accurate transfers
1 x Word clock I/O (BNC)
1 x analog line/headphone output, separate output for independent submix
1 x MIDI I/O, 16 channels high-speed MIDI
HDSP Meter Bridge: freely scalable level meters, peak- and RMS calculation directly in hardware
TotalMix: 720 channel mixer with 40 bit internal resolution
S/MUX poured in hardware: 4 channels 96 kHz/24 bit for record and playback on ADAT optical

...and numerous other features found already in the Hammerfall series. And all this for an unbeatable price!

The Hammerfall(R) DSP System comes with drivers for Windows 98/ME (MME with multi-client operation, ASIO 2.0, GSIF), Windows 2000/XP (fully multi-client operation of MME, GSIF and ASIO 2.0 plus ASIO multi-client), Mac OS 9.x (ASIO 2.0, OMS MIDI) and Mac OS X (Core Audio, Core MIDI).

The small box using half the space of a 19" rack doesn't show the included outstanding power and extensive features at first glance. The front panel hosts some useful status LEDs, like MIDI state, lock state of the digital inputs and error state of the host-bus. Additionally there's a high-quality 24 bit/96 kHz analog line output, also usable with headphones, and one MIDI I/O.

We think the little Multiface is an unrivalled flexible and powerful unit. Why Have a look at its back: 8 analog line I/Os on 1/4" TRS jacks (balanced, 24 bit/96 kHz), ADAT optical I/O (switchable to SPDIF optical), ADAT-Sync In, SPDIF I/O coaxial, word clock I/O and MIDI I/O. Can there be more? We doubt...

Just click on the hammer symbol in the systray of the taskbar and the settings dialog of the Multiface comes up. The clear structured, easy to understand window plus the unique informative status windows for input signal, clock mode, sample rate and time code make your work with Hammerfall DSP System to a real pleasure. With a simple mouse click you gain access to the full power of your system.

When working with several digital sources it is not only necessary to know if these are properly locked, but also if they are totally synchronized. RME's exclusive SyncCheck checks all input signals and displays their actual state, and thanks to our new Intelligent Clock Control concept you have all clocks and states under control - with ease.

A display of the time code at the ADAT Sync-In port offers a quick check of the communication between external device and Hammerfall.

Unique Technologies in Hammerfall DSP

AutoSync
Intelligent clock control according to operational mode and present/desired sample rate.

Bitclock PLL
The most reliable receiver circuit for ADAT optical signal.

Dynamic Bus Utilization
Scalable computer load according to the current usage.

Enhanced ZLM(R)
Monitoring of the input signal, independent from clock mode and sample rate.

Intelligent Clock Control
Measurement and display of all incoming and used clocks.

Latency Fast Change
Change latency on-the-fly under ASIO, without manual reset or re-boot.

SyncAlign(R)
Surveillance and sample accurate synchronization of all channels.

SyncCheck(R)
Comparison and display of all input clock status.

Zero Latency Monitoring (ZLM(R))
Automatic monitoring of the input signal with zero latency.

TotalMix
Mixes all inputs and all outputs on all outputs. Several independent submixes possible.


All I/O boxes of the Hammerfall DSP System contain a hardware mixer in TotalMix technology. Any input and output can be routed and mixed to any output. Limited only by the available outputs of the I/O-box, up to 14 independent submixes are available. Internally, the mixer works with 40 bit wordlength. For level alterations there are 65536 steps that allow for a virtually continuous change between 6 dB gain and maximum attenuation. In unity gain setting, the mixer is even bit-transparent and can pass the input signal unaltered. The Digiface processes 1456 channels in real-time, which corresponds to the computing power of a Motorola DSP at 100 MHz.

TotalMix not only leads to perfect and complete ASIO direct monitoring, but is also useful without ASIO. Thanks to a proprietary mixer surface, submix and Zero Latency Monitoring can be used with all audio applications. An external mixer thus becomes unnecessary in many cases.

Hammerfall DSP implements RME's DIGICheck in hardware. This means: level metering of all inputs, all playback channels and all outputs at the same time with a minimum of CPU load, because the display data is already calculated in the hardware. The hardware catches both peak and RMS values. With these features, you have a unique multichannel level meter in broadcast quality worth several thousands of Dollars virtually at no cost. In addition, the level meter is integrated into the mixer surface, thus making setting and control easier. zZounds is an authorized dealer of RME products.

Hammerfall DSP PCMCIA CardBus

HDSP Interfaces:
100% Plug & Play compatible

Hammerfall hardware design: mono channels in block mode, organized in 32 bit ASIO double buffers

ASIO poured in hardware! 0 (zero!)% CPU load when using the maximum number of channels (52)

Byte swap for Mac included in hardware

Automatic hardware selftest when booting

Hardware update via software (virtual EPROM update)

Complete interrupt sharing

HDSP CardBus - Mobile Kit:
PCMCIA type II, 32 bit CardBus card

Zero wait state PCI Busmaster interface (130 MB/s transfer rate in both directions)

Current load: ca. 300 mA

Output: Closed LAN connector

Package contents: PCMCIA type II card, cable 4.5 meter (15 ft) (Closed LAN to IEEE 1394), switching power supply 100 V-240 V/12 V - 1.25 A, card cable, battery cable

Hammerfall Mutiface Multichannel Interface

Supported sample rates: 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, variable

8 buffer sizes/latencies available: 1.5 ms, 3 ms, 6 ms, 12 ms, 23 ms, 46 ms, 93 ms, 186 ms

ASIO zero CPU load technology: 0 (zero!)% CPU load when using ALL 36 channels!

All settings changeable in realtime

Clock modes slave and master

Automatic, intelligent master/slave clock control

Enhanced Mixed mode: All inputs and outputs simultaneously operational

Unsurpassed Bitclock PLL (audio synchronization) in ADAT mode

Enhanced Zero Latency Monitoring for latency-free submixes and perfect ASIO Direct Monitoring

Comes with DIGICheck: the ultimate measurement, analysis and test tool

Dynamic ratio analog AD: 105 dBA, DA: 112 dBA

THD+N AD: -96 dB (0.0016%), DA: -91 dB (0.002%)

Analog level @ 0 dBFS (set by internal jumpers): +2 dBV, +13 dBu, +19 dBu

Input 8 x line (1/4 in. TRS jacks), 1 x optical (TOSLINK), 1 x coaxial (Cinch), 1 x MIDI, word clock (BNC), ADAT Sync

Input format SPDIF, AES/EBU (Consumer, Professional), ADAT optical

8 x line (1/4 in. TRS jacks), 1 x optical (TOSLINK), stereo analog line (TRS), 1 x coaxial (phono), 1 x MIDI, word clock (BNC)

Format output SPDIF, AES/EBU (Consumer/Professional), ADAT optical