Due to Steinberg’s inability to address audio dropout issues, I’m considering moving to some different interfaces. It occurs to me I might be able to keep my beloved UR824 and slave it to an RME RayDAT if the stars align, but Im curious to know how the UR824 functions in ADAT slave mode, because cursory searching yields very little information on that topic.
Im sure the I/O works as expected, but Im curious to know if the monitor knob still dims audio on the outputs, and if the headphone outputs still function when connected to an ADAT master.
Thanks in advance for any help on the matter.
Cheers!
Safest bet would be to contact Steinberg. These forums seem virtually dead and for such a specific question I doubt the “know how” is present here. Leaving the issue Steinberg support sucks (having an open ticket for +6 weeks now).
You probably looked into this already but just in case: audio dropouts are caused 99% of the time by DPC latency, in effect IRQ conflicts, busses of your PC being used by two or more components, most notoriously wifi-adapters. In essence tuning your OS for audio work like setting the CPU to focus on background processes etc.
Although I love Steinberg products but loathe their support I understand they can’t solve your issues as these are 100% dependent on individual hardware & OS setups. I’ve had my system build by a professional DAW builder for this exact reason since it’s impossible to predict upfront if a certain combination of PC-components cause issues (hence why DAW builders only offer limited setups which have been thoroughly tested).
Again, you probably looked into this but just in case you can use latencymon (http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon_whatsnew) to look for IRQ conlficts then find the culprit.
Thanks for the reply! At this point, its not even necessarily the DPC spikes that have put me off this unit, as latency in general was kind of the final nail in the coffin, which sucks because otherwise, I LOVE the UR824. The sound quality and general feature set is absurdly good for the money, but I simply can’t abide the terrible overall latency, the DPC spikes combined, mediocre driver feature set, and (as you mentioned), Steinberg’s apparent support abandonment have combined to essentially push me become an RME convert, as they seem to be the polar opposite when it comes to support and software.
Its looking more and more viable to slave the unit via the RayDAT, but now I’m largely concerned that the conversion implementation in the UR824 might slow down the gains of the PCIe card, so the jury is still kind of out, and quite frankly, I don’t necessarily expect Steinberg support to be knowledgeable, or forthcoming with information that makes the UR824 look even less capable in comparison to a competitor Im about to give my business too. You’re correct, though, they’ll probably be fairly knowledgeable about how the unit functions in slave mode, anyway.
I can’t help but have a bad taste in my mouth after this whole affair, I will say. Far too many corporations these days are all too happy to crap out a product and then tell you to go stuff yourself after they’ve got your money. I was hoping Steinberg would be a little different, but its apparently not the case, and its 100% going to affect my decision to purchase future products from Steinberg, as well as colour my advice and recommendations to engineer and musician friends.
Im sure they couldn’t care less, but the $700.00 USD I spent on my UR824 will probably be the last dollar amount Steinberg will ever see from me, or people who value my opinions on music gear.
I see & agree -especially with the lack of support. I always avoided Steinberg because of iLok but with the UR-series they pulled me over with the feature set and quality pre-amps. Never though twice about support as they’re basically one of the oldest parties and “inventors” of VST. Such a desillusion…
If I had the money I’d probably go for RME as well, just a few notches up but superior as for latency and have read nothing but positive things about the RayDAT.
You’re probably correct though regarding any reluctance from Steinberg as for proposing a fluid transition to a competitor 
Hope someone will be able to provide you with some conclusive facts.