Choosing RME Audio Product for Cubase

Hello Everyone,

I am looking into 2 RME products to use with Cubase (WIN 10 x64) and an 02R96.

HDSP 9652
DIGIFACE USB

Are there any significant issues performance or otherwise about using either of these products on a Cubase system?

I look forward to any suggestions and advice.

Thanks,

Steve.

PCI(e) is always preferable, as there are less possible issues then with usb. That said if your usb subsystem is working 100% ok there will be very little difference.

Thank-you.

Good experiences with RME. Used to have a RME PCI card, then owned two Fireface 800 (FW). For some years now a UFX (the old version) which I use via USB. And an old Babyface as redundancy as well.

RME drivers are great and stable. Zero problems on desktop and laptop. 30 ch in/out simultaneously via USB2 works as advertised, also with low latencies.

I used a RME HDSPe MADI FX with a ADI-648 connected to ADAT cards on a Yamaha DM2000VCM. The RME drivers were rock solid. I had the entire system clocked from the HDSPe madi card. The recordings were open and blissful on the top. Good mid range and the bottom was tight.

Thank-you. I am replacing an RME DIGI9652 card that was very good, for all the reasons you mentioned, in a 32-bit O.S., which is no more. I am just curious about sending all the audio data through a USB cable with the DIGIFACE as opposed to a PCI card. It just seems amazing that this is possible.

Indeed :wink:

Years ago I had a live recording with 50+ tracks - my first time to use an RME Madiface that came with the Vi6 the show was mixed on. I was in doubt if my laptop would handle the task, had no first hand experience with it. Chained my two FF800 together to have a backup solution just in case.

The laptop was a dual core (2 x 2 GHz). CPU load on test recording via the Fireface cluster was @ 50%. Worked but felt slaggish. CPU load via Madiface was @ 5%. Felt like I was arrived in the future :laughing:

There’s something RME do excellently right in terms of sending data reliably through absurd busses.

I don’t have direct experience with the two specific RME products you mentioned, but I’ve had a Fireface UFX since August of 2011, and a Fireface UFX+ since November of 2016. Both have worked absolutely flawlessly with Cubase (and other DAW’s). I started with Cubase Pro 6, and have upgraded consistently through 9.5, and have had multiple computers (Win7 Pro 64 and Win10 Pro 64). Not as much as a hiccup through multiple versions of Cubase, multiple systems, and multiple Win OS’s. The UFX I ran both USB and Firewire, but stuck with USB as I got slightly better performance. The UFX+ I run Thunderbolt. For my money, RME has been as rock solid as it gets. They’re very active on their forums as well, so it’s easy to get help/advice if you need it.

Thank-you. I suppose my only remaining concern is if there are versions (REV) of the HDSP 9652 that I should be concerned about. There is a used one available to me at a very attractive price.

I love RME - HOWEVER… be aware that “hardware insert delay compensation” in Cubase does not work properly with some RME interfaces… and unfortunately, this has been broken for MANY MANY years (Cubase always reports 0ms latency). If you search on the forums here, you will find many posts about the issue. If you don’t need hardware insert delay compensation, you’re good to go and RME is amazing. If you need it… well, sorry… Many of us are waiting and hoping for a fix someday.

There is no issue with the HDSP9652 as it has no onboard converters. The problem starts when you use external converters (via adat for example) that are faster then the onboard, which makes their latency less then the reported ones (by the driver) and would result in a negative ping (which cubase does not support).
I am not aware of a hdsp9652 hardware revision that is problematic. I believe that that was with the hdsp cards for the multi and digiface.

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