Dante PCIe Card Recommendations

Everything to do with the Dante Audio Networking aspect of the digital eco-system
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MJKlein
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Re: Dante PCIe Card Recommendations

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thunfisch wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 7:06 am


Okay, you have to like the humour of the channel, as it's a bit over the top silly in that video, but that's so far the source of my information. And Present Day Production usually doesn't bullshit, so I tend to rely on what they are saying.
That's the review I saw too. Straight and to the point. Thanks.
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Re: Dante PCIe Card Recommendations

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thunfisch wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 6:57 am
That's some nice specs. Although I am a big fan of the recent AMD CPUs, Intel for Pro-Audio still seems to be a bit better because of more tightly controlled memory latencies. Also, the Nvidia graphics card drivers sometimes interfere with stuff. Would be interesting to see if you get any dropouts while having substantial CPU load with Plugins. Also, RTL-Utility test report would be amazing :D https://oblique-audio.com/rtl-utility.php But please don't feel obliged to do so.
I don't mind doing that at all. Thanks for reposting the link. I can also disable the Nvidia card on this machine for audio. I did that on my previous machine. Less stuff running overall is better anyway. Also, I have to see how low I can go on the Rednet control buffer. I'm getting microsecond latency reported by Dante Controller but I think the ASIO driver is adding to that.

What is considered a substantial load with plugins? I have no idea because I normally don't use them for anything but Mastering. Everything like EQ, compression, FX, are all done in the console. I generally have very little load on the DAW.
thunfisch wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 6:57 am
The stock cooler is a bit too small for the i9-10900 though. If you get annoyed with the noise or overheating, there are many cheap aftermarket coolers that would improve thermals/noise a lot.
The nominal temp on my CPU is 40, so it's quite low. The msi heatsink seems pretty good. There is a fan on the HS, and one directly over the CPU and 4 in the case. I got the larger fans because they tend to make less noise by running slower. As for the noise, I haven't begun to address any of that yet.

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thunfisch wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 6:57 am Also, very nice that the tech who installed the Dante card for you put it in the slot below the GPU. This slot is very likely directly connected to the CPU via PCIe. The slots at the bottom usually are connected through the chipset to the CPU, and can thus add a tiny bit of latency to the internal PCIe communications. I had some weird issues with that when doing 10G Networking sometimes. Just ran with much less jitter when using a direct-to-CPU slot.
It was the only slot that it would fit in. The other 2 slots are the mini PCIe slots but the Rednet card has one more small connector and so he had to put it in the single large slot. That's cool though because nothing else is going in that case that I can think of.
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Re: Dante PCIe Card Recommendations

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I tried using the RTL-Utility. I cannot select the Rednet card because it is "already in use". It would seem that this util is for people who have a USB interface and use a patch cable from output to input. I can do that with Reaper's ReaInsert plugin and do a ping for latency compensation. But that doesn't give me a latency number - only packets to add for adjustment. I am unsure how to implement the RTL utility with a console.
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Re: Dante PCIe Card Recommendations

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Yesterday I recorded a drum track with MIDI sync. I played back the recorded tracks alongside the direct audio and I couldn't hear any strange polarity artifacts going on. I'm literally astonished with the lack of latency I'm experiencing in Reaper. I'm pretty sure since the Dante devices are reporting microsecond latency, the ASIO driver is responsible for the difference.
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Re: Dante PCIe Card Recommendations

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If Reaper had direct Dante support, that would probably be a Godsend for Dante users. Having their own configurable driver instead of the 3rd party driver could potentially reduce latency even further. I know I'm being a bit 龜毛 but I think that if I have microsecond network latency, that should be more closely achievable to/from the DAW.
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Re: Dante PCIe Card Recommendations

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MJKlein wrote: Thu Sep 09, 2021 2:08 am If Reaper had direct Dante support, that would probably be a Godsend for Dante users. Having their own configurable driver instead of the 3rd party driver could potentially reduce latency even further. I know I'm being a bit 龜毛 but I think that if I have microsecond network latency, that should be more closely achievable to/from the DAW.
I would vote for that :)
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Re: Dante PCIe Card Recommendations

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MJKlein wrote: Thu Sep 09, 2021 2:08 am If Reaper had direct Dante support, that would probably be a Godsend for Dante users. Having their own configurable driver instead of the 3rd party driver could potentially reduce latency even further. I know I'm being a bit 龜毛 but I think that if I have microsecond network latency, that should be more closely achievable to/from the DAW.
So are you saying DVS can't be used in Reaper?
Even so I'm not so sure that would help all that much as even DVS introduces some latency. That is whenever I look at the latency settings in Dante Controller, device to device is microseconds but DVS to those same devices introduces more, in my setup about 2ms is about average (with the minimum set for 4ms, lowest it can be set) for DVS to any other device in my system.
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Re: Dante PCIe Card Recommendations

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GaryH wrote: Thu Sep 09, 2021 10:12 am So are you saying DVS can't be used in Reaper?
No @GaryH, that's not what I'm saying. I used DVS for quite some time to get used to it and try to figure out what kind of gains would be made with a PCIe card interface instead of a software interface.
GaryH wrote: Thu Sep 09, 2021 10:12 am Even so I'm not so sure that would help all that much as even DVS introduces some latency. That is whenever I look at the latency settings in Dante Controller, device to device is microseconds but DVS to those same devices introduces more, in my setup about 2ms is about average (with the minimum set for 4ms, lowest it can be set) for DVS to any other device in my system.
Yes, DVS has a minimum of 4 ms because it uses the computer main CPU for audio conversion.

This is basically what I'm talking about, only instead of DVS, I'm talking about Rednet controller (or whatever other ASIO software is provided with the card manufacturer). The Dante network has microsecond latency, but the Rednet ASIO adds something to that even though the PCIe card is supposed to handle the heavy lifting instead of the computer CPU. So, what I'm saying is that if Reaper was able to directly interface (and I have no idea how) with the Dante network that might reduce the added latency. I guess that no matter what you do, the audio conversion process takes time - even if it is only milliseconds.

Left unchecked in Preferences, the sample size that Reaper sets is 32. If I manually put it at 16 or 8, the ASIO reporting of Reaper remains the same. The lowest selectable sample size in the Rednet controller is 32. I would like to be able to try 16. If my CPU can handle it, then it should be fine. But the choices are a pulldown menu. Perhaps there is another ASIO driver that would work with the Rednet card. I have no idea.

I know these are ridiculous latency numbers. I also have to set a buffer size in the Mackie control software for the Big Knob Studio because yes, that can add latency to your monitoring. It just never ends.
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Re: Dante PCIe Card Recommendations

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MJKlein wrote: Thu Sep 09, 2021 2:08 am龜毛
What an interesting expression :D The literal translation left me quite confused. Is that a japanese saying?
MJKlein wrote: Mon Sep 06, 2021 10:36 am I tried using the RTL-Utility. I cannot select the Rednet card because it is "already in use". It would seem that this util is for people who have a USB interface and use a patch cable from output to input.
Hmm, never had that issue before. Too bad. But thank you for trying! I think it's possible to disable latency compensation in Reaper, and then the ping time using ReaInsert should be quite accurate as well. But it's really nice to hear about your "luxury problems" with the card, and that everything seems to be running smooth. :)
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Re: Dante PCIe Card Recommendations

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thunfisch wrote: Mon Sep 13, 2021 8:36 pm MJKlein wrote: ↑Thu Sep 09, 2021 10:08 am
龜毛
What an interesting expression The literal translation left me quite confused. Is that a japanese saying?
It's Chinese. Literally means "turtle hair" and as such it means that one is very picky or fussy about something. The implication is that it is unreasonable and is causing unnecessary trouble.

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thunfisch wrote: Mon Sep 13, 2021 8:36 pm Hmm, never had that issue before. Too bad. But thank you for trying! I think it's possible to disable latency compensation in Reaper, and then the ping time using ReaInsert should be quite accurate as well. But it's really nice to hear about your "luxury problems" with the card, and that everything seems to be running smooth. :)
Please tell me how you use it with a console. The Mackie ASIO connection is available but I don't want to measure the monitoring path. But yes, it's working flawlessly. I haven't heard a single anomaly since I got it up and running. Thanks.
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