Metric Halo LIO-8

[luvdunhill]

I bought mine from Jeff (VPI).

@VPI I can’t imagine Jeff getting sloppy seconds. Any idea when you bought this Jeff or if you registered it (which takes work, so I assume not)?

[ironbut]

Metric Halo is starting their Black Friday sale.

The ULN-2 3D upgrade is discounted $100 until Dec 31.

[luvdunhill]

Metric Halo is starting their Black Friday sale.
The ULN-2 3D upgrade is discounted $100 until Dec 31.

Thanks!

Metric Halo is starting their Black Friday sale.
The ULN-2 3D upgrade is discounted $100 until Dec 31.

Thanks!

[ironbut]

If any of you guys who have upgraded to 3D and are having issues with the front panel knobs not working smoothly (gain jumping up and down), it's an issue with a lag between the software gain and hardware gain sync.

There is supposed to be a fix coming in public beta 10 (pb10). 

In the meantime, open a finder window > open applications> right click (opt click) Mio Console 3D> click Get Info> tick Prevent App Nap

If you're using a laptop it will use a tiny bit more energy so close Mio Console until you need to change something you can't do with the hardware.

[ironbut]

Mike Crehore made a series (6 plus an intro) of tutorials for using the 3D console and put them up on YouTube.

 

Edited January 30, 2020 by ironbut

[luvdunhill]

Well, finally got around to purchasing my 3D upgrade. Didn’t get the discount, but really looking forward to getting this installed and setup (and ditching all my FW adapters).

[jp11801]

Currently feeding the ULN8 via Ethernet from my Mac mini running roon. Sounds great

[luvdunhill]

Cool. My kit just shipped. I probably will run via USB and see if I can get RPi4 to front-end it into Roon. They say they have experimental basic support with Linux, so fingers crossed?

[luvdunhill]

Breathed new life into @VPI and @morphsci old unit

 

 

[Hopstretch]

I didn't know the magic smoke could go back in!

[luvdunhill]

So much sad

[VPI]

You probably need someone that knows how to work computery stuff to assist you.  Let me know if you need my expertise.

[ironbut]

Did you try and install the Mac pb9?

https://mhsecure.com/3d_public_beta/

[luvdunhill]

11 minutes ago, ironbut said:

Did you try and install the Mac pb9?

https://mhsecure.com/3d_public_beta/

Yeah, the link is back. I have things working via Ethernet. I'm not sure why I can't get CoreAudio to pop up with the USB interface. It's not even showing up in System Report. Do I need to install a driver?

[ironbut]

You might need to set the number of channels via USB in the 3D Console.

If you right click on the image of the interface in the upper left corner of the mixer (that strip is called the inspector) you'll see the dialog for setting the number of channels.

 

[luvdunhill]

12 hours ago, ironbut said:

You might need to set the number of channels via USB in the 3D Console.

If you right click on the image of the interface in the upper left corner of the mixer (that strip is called the inspector) you'll see the dialog for setting the number of channels.

 

That shows 12 input and 12 output channels. Taking a step back, I'm taking the output from the monitor output into a headphone amp, through TRS to XLR cable. What I'd like to do, is have the USB interface show up in CoreAudio and play via this device. I'm assuming I can still take output from the monitor. I haven't done anything to "route" anything to do with the USB. The Firewire light is on the front panel.

I'm connecting the USB through a C-B adapter then B-C dongle. I don't see anything in the Hardware->USB tab on my Mac (10.15.3).

edit: If I just use straight USB C, I can manage the device! Interesting. (I'm using the 4-pin XLR power adapter). I still don't get anything in CoreAudio, so I'm guessing a configuration error?

edit: re-installed the firmware via Utilities->Install Current Firmware... and now it shows up!

edit: also works from Linux

edit: and microRendu

edit: yay!

Edited February 21, 2020 by luvdunhill

[ironbut]

In the future, when anything seems out of whack, take a look at the mixer. If anything is yellow, it means there is an issue. 

Usually it just means that you should reboot the Mio or the computer, but sometimes a software number at the top of the Inspector panel will be yellow and needs to be updated/reinstalled.

Let us know how you like the changes in the sound.

The new board has a new clocking system. 

My LIO-8 is more transparent IMHO.

[Pars]

Still trying to wrap my head around all of this... so these things are professional audio interfaces, and you guys are using them as your DACs in your home systems?

[grawk]

yes

[Dusty Chalk]

9 hours ago, Pars said:

Still trying to wrap my head around all of this... so these things are professional audio interfaces, and you guys are using them as your DACs in your home systems?

Sure, why not?  They usually have as much care put into design, if not more, and support the software that we use, like the 3D one.

[ironbut]

Several of us need Analog to Digital converters in addition to a high quality DAC for playback of digital sources.

jp# does needle drops of vinyl and if you want to use digital signal analysis software, you need a way to convert audio and analog sources to get them into your computer.

Me, I have a pretty sophisticated home studio.

I started doing live music editing, a little mixing, post production and now I concentrate on music production of my own works.

It's a real golden age for guys that do stuff like me .

 

I got my first Metric Halo interface (ULN-2) way back in 2009 IIRC. I've updated it once and I still use it for location recordings. 

I bought Voltron's Amarra (LIO-8) a few years ago, added 4 mic preamps and then upgraded it to 3D about a year ago.

Each of these upgrades were like getting a new updated interface with improved sound and more modern connections.

[Pars]

Since my son is studying audio engineering, works in a studio, and has one or more interfaces, I asked him if he had heard of Metric Halo. He hadn't. I'll have to show him these.

[ironbut]

The guys at Metric Halo don't do very much advertising and this was their first year at NAMM in a while (they got a TEC award I think).

Even in pro audio there are plenty of flavor of the month (or year) products and the interface market has been super hot for a decade or so and the magazines are packed with full page ads from different vendors.

IMHO The bottom line, there is a lot of great pro gear and software out there these days and very few dogs manage to hang in there very long with such stiff competition.

 

[luvdunhill]

I am definitely getting some clicking from the USB output, it doesn’t follow a pattern but I was thinking I might need to check on the clock settings?

 

[ironbut]

If you look at the mixer>inspector, there should be a couple of little clock faces. One is just below the MHLink Domain ... (your box and the sample rate you've set). It should say Internal unless you've set up something else intentionally.

If the clock isn't connected, the clock icon should be yellow since something ain't right.

Otherwise,..

Are you getting a regular clicking or is it randomish?

Were you getting it with the ethernet connection?

Can you "see" the click on the front panel level meter?

Does it seem to be getting worse?

The reason I ask this is some of the power bricks have long term issues with bad caps.

The bad supplies were made by Fairway (I have one). 

Luckily, most can be fixed by replacing a couple of cheap 470uF 35v caps.

If you have one of these and it's starting to act up, you might as well pull it apart and replace those 2 caps (or buy a new one for $75 or so).