MR816X as standalone preamp/converter?

I could not get a clear answer from the site, so let me ask here:

Can the MR816X be used as a standalone preamp/converter, ie. connect ADAT I/O to another interface? Are the analog ins defaulted to the corresponding ADAT outs? Adn vice versa?

Thanks.

If you connect your MR816 via ADAT to any other piece of equipment, the Pres’ and AD converters are used, and the whole lot (0’s and1’s) travel through your other gear into whatever you have at the end :slight_smile:

Thanks, Tom. Have you done this yourself?

Yes, but what about the DtoA? I’m trying to integrate my volume knob (via adat) with the MR816 and don’t know a way to use the DtoA of the MR816 (which sounds WAY better than my volume knob’s DtoA).

I’m not sure that you can do what you describe. If I understand correctly, you’re trying to use the ADAT in on the MR816 to feed digital audio to and play it back via the MR816’s analog out’s. Dont think you can route this way inside the MR.

I use the MR regularly as an analog/mic pre in, with ADAT out’s running to an RME Multiface or Digiface (the unit moves back and forth between my mobile rig and studio DAW.

I wanted to do exactly this so I could use the MR816 to create mjultiple headphone mixes when I was doing location recording’s (use an ADAT out from my RME Digiface, go into the MR and route different digital mixes to several analog stereo pairs on the MR816, come out of them to headphone amps for the musicians). Went into the MR’s mixer and searched long and hard but could find no way to route it.

It looks to me as though the MR has an ADAT in but signals coming in to it are simply passed through to the firewire interface.

If someone does know of a way to do this (route inputs to the MR816’s ADAT in to the MR’s analog out’s) I would love to know how to do it.

In the Mr editor the adat channels show up as 9-16 (as long as you’re in adat mode)
then choose the analog output pairs on the right one at a time and raise the level for the adat channels you want to go to that output set. don’t forget to save your changes.

This works great. Unfortunately, my volume knob does not affect anything now. I guess the adat out is a “pass through” so back to the drawing board.

you can stack 6 MR816’s this way

3 units via firewire with their discrete ASIO ports in the hosts
and 3 additional units, not connected via FW feeding the ADAT I/O’s in the first 3 units.
no problem whatsoever 48 ports of I/O mapped 1:1 in Cubase

Hi Raphie.

I tried connecting 2 MRs via firewire(Daisy-chain) but i cannot monitor the sound from the 2nd unit via the 1st unit.

Have you tried this before?

yes u need to chain via spdif as well if u want to monitor via other outs than cubase studio out

This is the only (but huge) limitation of the MR816, especially with the lack of a independant spdif I/O. Another reason why I use my 2 MR816s via adat and my RME Digiface…

Hi all

I can use the mr816 like a preamp but i need to use for D/A converter too. I spend a lot of time in the MR Editor but i can´t get it.

Someone Can Help me?

Thankx

Hi Raphie,

I realize this is an old post but could you please explain how you enable the 3 additional units via Adat into the 3 firewire units? I have a 4th MR816CSX that i am trying to patch into my 1st Firewire CSX via Adat, but I am not getting any signal on the Adat ins on my first device. I have all the correct routings in Cubase studio setup. But no input signal. I have a signal at the 4th CSX with a microphone. Its not being received at the Adat ins on the 1st CSX.
What specifically do i need to setup in the MR Editor?
Also, what should the Clock settings be for the additional 3 MR816 devices be set at to patch into the first 3 units via Adat? I have a difficult time changing the Clock settings on the 4th device because it does not show in the MR Editor nor Cubase due to the 3 firewire device limitation.

Thank you!

  • Dan