NuBus Recording and Audio Setups

[kvanderlaag]

I recall reading a lot of posts here and there about a number of forum members who are very well-seasoned in the use of our old machines for recording, both when they were current and relevant, and now as well. I recently picked up a WGS 9150/80 that was apparently used in a studio, as its hard drive is primarily filled with Digidesign applications, and the only expansion card in the beast is a Digidesign PowerPC ECI.

Well, I don't exactly have the NuBus expansion chassis, and I don't anticipate being able to find one for any semblance of a reasonable price - or at all, really. So, my question becomes this:

What sort of hardware is out there that's compatible with these machines? I've always wanted to build an early-90s era studio rig, but to be perfectly honest, I have no idea where to start. Does anyone have any resources to follow up on that would point me in the direction of what I should be looking for, hardware-wise? I know Digidesign's site, though a little painful, has a lot of info about what's compatible with what cards are compatible with what hardware, but even outside of Digi, what's available?

Nothing would please me more than to be able to use one of these old tanks for recording.

 

[Bunsen]

For simple 2-channel recording and stereo playback (of however many software tracks mixed internally), it's hard to beat the Digidesign AudioMedia or (preferably) AudioMedia II. They are available reasonably inexpensively from time to time. They have a pair of analog line-level ins and outs on the card (no breakout box required) with decent quality converters, and the II also has S/PDIF digital audio I/O on RCAs. Also onboard is a DSP that can be used (in Deck II multitrack recording/mixing software for example) for realtime effects, or with the hard to find and somewhat unstable TurboSynth, as a real-time modular software synthesizer.

Another useful starter system would be the Pro Audio Spectrum 16. Available for either Nubus or LC PDS, it has an external, software-controlled input mixer for four inputs (mixed down to 2), a mic level preamp, and MIDI in and out. DriverGuru managed to get two of them working in one Mac. The analog I/O is not considered as great as the AMII.

If you want to go to 4 or 8 channels of I/O, you will be looking for something like the Digidesign 882 or 888 external I/O rack units, with the appropriate Nubus card and cable. IIRC, the rack units will work with either Nubus or PCI cards, and it's the cable that makes the difference.

It may be possible to run more than one AMII in the same system, but I have no idea if the software/drivers will cope.

Another device you might consider is the Digidesign SampleCell Nubus - a hardware sample player with 8 seperate outputs controlled from a Mac software front end. Again, everything is on the card so no breakout is required.

And if money is no object you can always keep an eye out for a Lexicon Nuverb

 

[Bunsen]

It's worth picking up a G3 accelerator for these systems, too, with 512k or 1MB of cache. I would not recommend overclocking - at 80MHz, the CPU bus and the 10MHz Nubus are nicely lockstepped in timing, which according to reports helps with performance when using Nubus cards.

With a Sonnet G3 (and video extender ribbon cable), you can use an HPV PDS card for video, which is faster than motherboard video and keeps traffic off the Nubus compared to using a Nubus video card (though you still lose a Nubus slot due to space issues).

Sonnet may still have the Crescendo Nubus G3 400 and/or 500 in their store.

 

[TylerEss]

I wrote a couple articles about this question on Low End Mac a few years back. They're still useful, methinks.

Software Info: http://www.lowendmac.com/sable/06/0605.html

Story of a system I built: http://www.lowendmac.com/sable/06/0508.html

 

[Bunsen]

Related topics:

PPC/G3 Nubus sound system

OSC and Deck

Digidesign Session 8

840av/ Nubus DSP

Vintage Audio/Video Nubus Cards & MIDI

NuBus DSP for audio

AVID/Digidesign hardware (with photos)

old Mac audio & MIDI software

AudioMedia II Sound driver

PAS 16 vs AudioMedia II

Nubus Audio Hardware

 

[Bolle]

Ah nice to see my conquest thread already linked here.

Have been using my Session 8 with 882/IO to record live performances, copy them over to my recent Mac and import everything for further editing in Logic 9. Works like a charm and is a perfect (and cheap) alternative to having to spend loads of money on a more recent USB/FireWire interface that offers 8xStereo Inputs.

Regarding multiple AM2 cards: It wont work to use multiple cards at once to get more than one stereo input - at least not with the driver setup I have been using. That included all standard Digidesign drivers (DAE init and whatever kind of control panel you needed to get the AM to be recognized)