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Post by winetree on Jun 29, 2018 13:31:13 GMT -6
I love my Apex 500 rack with 4 - 500 slots and added features. ( they aren't making them anymore ) With over 100 - 500 series modules this is my next purchase. I heard $1195. U.S. www.cranborne-audio.com/500r8
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Post by jeromemason on Jun 29, 2018 14:24:55 GMT -6
Man..... Tell you what I discovered over there was what their freaking pre sounds like on bass...... The thump setting, if the pre can do that with the flip of a switch I'd buy the pre just for bass, I love that sound. https%3A//soundcloud.com/cranborneaudio/bass-guitar-di-drythumpcreammix%3Fin%3Dcranborneaudio/sets/mojo-audio-examples
Also that pre isn't shabby at all on Vox, the thump, again, really pulls the bucket out of the guys voice. You can really hear it doing it when the guys sings the phrase "one last chance" as he's sliding into the world "one" it really pulls the bucket out of his voice.
https%3A//soundcloud.com/cranborneaudio/warm-vocals-drythumpcreammix%3Fin%3Dcranborneaudio/sets/mojo-audio-examples
If I had to guess, it almost sounds like the "mojo" is a parallel EFX circuit that has some TX stuff for the thump, some THD for the cream..... Really sounds like that mojo sub circuit might have a kind of all buttons in 1176 limiter too because in some of those clips it feels like it's limited but also has that ballsy throw to it.
Pretty impressive little preamp.
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Post by brenta on Jun 29, 2018 15:35:01 GMT -6
Yeah, they seem like an unbelievable value. They can get about as clean as anything, but then have a variable distortion circuit with two different flavors. Listening to the clips I really like the thump on drums and the cream on guitars and bass. Plus a HPF. I’ll probably get a pair and maybe the ADAT 500 converter rack as well.
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Post by christopher on Jun 29, 2018 16:49:35 GMT -6
I love my Apex 500 rack with 4 - 500 slots and added features. ( they aren't making them anymore ) With over 100 - 500 series modules this is my next purchase. I heard $1195. U.S. www.cranborne-audio.com/500r8That's a fair amount of features, and manufactured in UK? It would be tough to assemble the same thing using only ali baba stuff for that price. It's the right price if they want to sell a lot (which I would want if I were them)
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Post by guitfiddler on Jun 30, 2018 4:53:44 GMT -6
Bookmarked!
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Post by Tbone81 on Jul 1, 2018 9:05:27 GMT -6
I've literally been waiting years for some One to make this product.
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Post by geoff738 on Jul 1, 2018 19:12:15 GMT -6
I can’t believe they can make this and survive at this price point. If the initial reviews are positive I may have to loosen my wallet.
Cheers, Geoff
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Post by M57 on Jul 3, 2018 6:55:17 GMT -6
So I'm a bit confused about who the target market for this is. Right now I'm in the market for an interface. My budget is <$1000, but I'm also interested in a larger 500 series rack than my OST-4, and at a price point in the $1200 range this looks like an option I should seriously consider. On the one hand it looks like it's an unbelievably affordable way to get into a hybrid/500 setup. But there are a lot of things about this that don't make as much sense to me?
Why all the ethernet looking connections for an 'entry level' piece ..with what looks like locking XLR style tabs at the top of each port? My first thought is that it's for expansion, but expansion into what? - and why so many? Are these the way to get my 19" pres and compressors in? I've got a couple of those and I would want an affordable way in for them. Are there standard after-market cables that let me do this easily?
On the 500 side (I have a couple of those too) it's obvious that with a just a few EQ's and compressors the thing is going to fill up real fast and the user is going to need more inputs ..but four ports? Also, your going to want a couple 1/4" inch line level inputs - that's going to eat up slots, right? I guess what I'm getting at is that this seems a far cry from 'entry-level' when you start to price out what a functional unit would cost. With my needs, I'm 90% there when it comes to outboard gear, and assuming there's an easy way in for my 19" gear, I don't see needing more slots - at least not in the medium term. Again, I'm just thinking of who the target market is. Home-studio guys like me?
No Thunderbolt. That's almost a deal breaker for me right there. I read on the purple site that it's because of the expense with licensing and all, and the manufacture claims that USB2 is fast enough ..but damn.
It uses an external power supply but they don't show it. Is that included in the cost? If so it seems like if it's heavy duty it would be expensive to manufacture and that doesn't exactly add up given the price.
Does anyone have an idea what are the "DAW Inputs" (upper left next to the monitor outputs) are for? I mean, where are my DAW outputs? Shouldn't that be coming in on the USB cable?
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Post by Tbone81 on Jul 3, 2018 10:31:09 GMT -6
So I'm a bit confused about who the target market for this is. Right now I'm in the market for an interface. My budget is <$1000, but I'm also interested in a larger 500 series rack than my OST-4, and at a price point in the $1200 range this looks like an option I should seriously consider. On the one hand it looks like it's an unbelievably affordable way to get into a hybrid/500 setup. But there are a lot of things about this that don't make as much sense to me? Why all the ethernet looking connections for an 'entry level' piece ..with what looks like locking XLR style tabs at the top of each port? My first thought is that it's for expansion, but expansion into what? - and why so many? Are these the way to get my 19" pres and compressors in? I've got a couple of those and I would want an affordable way in for them. Are there standard after-market cables that let me do this easily? On the 500 side (I have a couple of those too) it's obvious that with a just a few EQ's and compressors the thing is going to fill up real fast and the user is going to need more inputs ..but four ports? Also, your going to want a couple 1/4" inch line level inputs - that's going to eat up slots, right? I guess what I'm getting at is that this seems a far cry from 'entry-level' when you start to price out what a functional unit would cost. With my needs, I'm 90% there when it comes to outboard gear, and assuming there's an easy way in for my 19" gear, I don't see needing more slots - at least not in the medium term. Again, I'm just thinking of who the target market is. Home-studio guys like me? No Thunderbolt. That's almost a deal breaker for me right there. I read on the purple site that it's because of the expense with licensing and all, and the manufacture claims that USB2 is fast enough ..but damn. It uses an external power supply but they don't show it. Is that included in the cost? If so it seems like if it's heavy duty it would be expensive to manufacture and that doesn't exactly add up given the price. Does anyone have an idea what are the "DAW Inputs" (upper left next to the monitor outputs) are for? I mean, where are my DAW outputs? Shouldn't that be coming in on the USB cable? I don't have the pics in front of me but I'm assuming that the Ethernet ports are for cascading more than one unit together. It seems that this rack is setup to be used in more than one way. So that you can have your outputs going analog, adat, and USB. I'd guess that the outputs all mirror each other and can be used simultaneously. And setup so that you can use it as an Adat in expansion, full interface, or keep it analog and work it into your current setup. DAW input is referring to your interfaces stereo output, typically outputs 1&2 by default on a lot of interfaces. This is where you'd connect the output of your daw to feed the monitor controller. Hope that helps.
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Post by M57 on Jul 3, 2018 10:40:15 GMT -6
DAW input is referring to your interfaces stereo output, typically outputs 1&2 by default on a lot of interfaces. This is where you'd connect the output of your daw to feed the monitor controller. But isn't the Cranborn the interface? If I still need an interface, then it's just a franken500 series box.
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Post by LesC on Jul 3, 2018 11:14:52 GMT -6
I was following this with enthusiasm until Cranborne issued the following statement in the GS thread " Updates on Cranborne Audio Camden 500, 500R8, 500ADAT - Test Drive Mojo!": I have no interest in an interface with no SPDIF or AES/EBU connections so that you can add an ADC or DAC of your choice. The photo on their website still shows the SPDIF RCA connections, but apparently those are gone. It's too bad, other than that the R8 looks like an interesting box.
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Post by winetree on Jul 3, 2018 11:16:43 GMT -6
SPDIF in and out. "Nobody found it useful." Who did they ask? I could find it very useful. Don't know if the removal would be a deal breaker for me.
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Post by Tbone81 on Jul 3, 2018 11:30:06 GMT -6
DAW input is referring to your interfaces stereo output, typically outputs 1&2 by default on a lot of interfaces. This is where you'd connect the output of your daw to feed the monitor controller. But isn't the Cranborn the interface? If I still need an interface, then it's just a franken500 series box. Yes, its being billed as an interface so I'm assuming that your DAW returns can be routed (in the DAW) to come back over usb to the monitor controller section of the rack. However, having the flexibility to use it in other ways is a big plus. For example: Say you have it loaded with 8 pres, and use it via ADAT to add inputs to your current interface. But then something comes up and you need to record something remotely. You can then simply take the chasis, use it as in interface with out the added hassle of transporting your main rig. Its crazy convenient if you do remote work.
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ells
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Post by ells on Jul 18, 2018 7:38:01 GMT -6
Hey guys, I'm the Product Manager at Cranborne Audio and part of the design team responsible for the product design. I found this thread via the remarkable powers of the internet and the referrals to our website from this thread, so I thought I would join-up and be on-hand to answer any questions you may have about Cranborne Audio and our products. There are some great questions on this thread and so I just wanted to go through and answer a few of them for you guys. Yep, all in the UK, not too far from where we all live! It would certainly be tough achieving these price targets using ali baba! (it's not uncommon for vendors to lie about their pricing on that site just to drive interest!) The trick is that we go way beyond that and talk to the component manufacturers themselves. We also look into all the dark corners of the market to find components that offer the very best performance vs price - whereas other manufacturers tend to just go with what they know. Our sourcing is probably our key trick to getting the prices down to the right level. I actually wrote a little article about this topic on our website where I explain how we get the prices to this level whilst maintaining the quality - might be worth a read! www.cranborne-audio.com/knowledge/how_do_we_do_it_for_the_price?So the ethernet ports are a little bit special. We call them our CAST ports (Cat5 Analogue Snake Transport) Basically, they are our way of repurposing off-the-shelf Cat5 cables to transport 4 channels of fully-balanced audio between 2 devices. We will be working on a bunch of passive and active breakout boxes that will connect to the CAT5 ports on 500R8 and will basically act as an inexpensive analogue snake to transport inputs and outputs from 500R8 to your vocal booth, live room, spare bedroom, bathroom, or similar. It's basically a way of relocating I/O where it's needed in order to make the most out of your space. As I say, it's 4 channels of balanced audio and so we can do a lot with that - think of remote headphone amps, inputs, personal monitoring, all using a cheap CAT5 cable rather than 4 XLRs. As we will control both ends of the cable, we can using impedance matching and balancing to ensure that the audio is quality unaffected - even when travelling through bog-standard CAT5. If you want to connect preamps straight into 500R8, you can bypass the 500 series slots and run the output of your preamp straight into the ADC of the channel (as well as the summing mixer and analogue mix bus). This is great if you haven't filed up your 500 series slots yet but still want to record all possible channels. If you want to connect compressors etc, you can use the inserts located on each channel. The inserts are post module but pre ADC. Use the USB return switch and you can send audio out into the 500 series slot, into your compressor, and then into the converter for recording. Or use it as a standard insert during tracking. The locking-tabs on the ethernet ports are 'ethercon' connectors from Neutrik and they are basically ruggedised cat5 connections protected by an XLR-style case. We have since removed these ethercons in favour of standard Cat5 plugs based on further user feedback. Cat 5 cables are locking anyways! Indeed, not using thunderbolt is a contentious topic... Purple are right - it does cost a fortune to use it, not to mention the manpower required to implement it... but our reasons go beyond that. Ultimately there is no benefit for us to use thunderbolt in our system. USB2 is plenty fast enough for 26/28 channels at 32 sample buffer size and minimal latency. RME manage to get 128 channels down USB2 easily enough so the bandwidth is there. Thunderbolt is great for those with macs (including myself!) but PC users are having a harder time integrating thunderbolt into their systems. UA released a USB version of the Apollo - USB is still the best universally accepted standard and it works on legacy machines as well as tomorrow machines. If we did make the effort to included thunderbolt, ultimately the final retail price would increase drastically (could be by a couple of hundred) and you guys would be getting absolutely no benefit. One day I'm sure we'll move onto something like thunderbolt/ethernet-based solutions but for now USB is still the most accessible and universally accepted (and cost effective). 500R8 and 500ADAT both do use an external power supply. We believe in keeping the power stuff away from the sensitive audio stuff - that's the only way to get the audio performance to our high standards. The power supply is 24v 5a and is included in the retail price. It's similar in size to a laptop charger rather than a console power supply! and it's worth noting that this is plenty of power to deliver ample current to each slot with extra headroom even if you are running all the modules very hot. Yeah you got it! We kept the DAW2 jacks on the unit incase someone wanted to use the 500R8 with their own converters- In which case they would plug in their DAW outputs into these connections and they can use the monitor controller and headphones outputs as normal. The implementation of our ADCs result in 121dB (unweighted) signal-to-noise ratio and - 112dB THD+N whilst our DACs achieve 127dB (unweighted) signal-to-noise and -115dB THD+N; so there aren't really any better converters that you could plug into the 500R8, but we wanted to make sure the option was there. Haha yeah we didn't ask everyone in the world... but a (surprisingly) huge amount of people did not see the benefit of keeping them on. I originally added it onto the unit as I even use SPDIF in my own studio however I was shocked by how often I had to justify the feature. Sadly, we just couldn't justify keeping it on. It would of added significant cost (our costs as well as the final sales price) and would of taken weeks-more time for our software team to implement correctly due to our complex sample rate requirements. This is time and money we aren't able to spare for a feature that our customer feedback found was not worth it. Also, if you look at the vast majority of interfaces out there nowadays, a lot of them have stripped off spdif - with a few of them moving to AES, and some moving to nothing at all. Conversion is getting better and better nowadays, and to be honest, the converters on our box far exceed most other things you'd want to connect via spdif. We do have 16 channels ADAT that can be used if you want to bypass the D/A process, however I totally understand that SPDIF is important to some people and to some use cases - I spoke to Les about it on the GS thread and he has a very valid use for SPDIF that the 500R8 cannot facilitate. The decisions to remove things suck at times, however sometimes, you just have no choice. Thats a lot of text guys sorry about that! ... but I hope you fond those answers useful! Please feel free to fire-back any other questions you may have! Best, Elliott
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Post by M57 on Jul 18, 2018 8:11:57 GMT -6
Welcome to the site Elliott - and thanks for such an in-depth response.
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Post by Tbone81 on Jul 19, 2018 19:15:29 GMT -6
Thats a lot of text guys sorry about that! ... but I hope you fond those answers useful! Please feel free to fire-back any other questions you may have! Best, Elliott Hey Elliot, thanks for chiming in. I'm very excited about this product. I've been waiting years for someone to do this and have actually mentioned it to several manufacturers in the past. A few questions for you: 1) Are the digital and analog outputs independent from each other? For example, If I have a preamp in slot 1, can I send that via ADAT to my interface, while simultaneously taking the analog out from slot 1 and patching that into other outboard gear and returning that into my interface on another channel? Basically, can you use it to mult signals in that fashion? 2) Is there a software mixer/control panel? Or does it run on standard Core Audio Drivers with all mixing/routing handled in the analog domain. 3) Whats the expected release date? And whats the price? (might have overlooked that on your site) Thanks in advance. This might be the perfect ticket for me as I have enough 500 series pres that I can almost fashion a modular console setup.
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ells
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Post by ells on Jul 20, 2018 2:27:23 GMT -6
Thats a lot of text guys sorry about that! ... but I hope you fond those answers useful! Please feel free to fire-back any other questions you may have! Best, Elliott Hey Elliot, thanks for chiming in. I'm very excited about this product. I've been waiting years for someone to do this and have actually mentioned it to several manufacturers in the past. A few questions for you: 1) Are the digital and analog outputs independent from each other? For example, If I have a preamp in slot 1, can I send that via ADAT to my interface, while simultaneously taking the analog out from slot 1 and patching that into other outboard gear and returning that into my interface on another channel? Basically, can you use it to mult signals in that fashion? 2) Is there a software mixer/control panel? Or does it run on standard Core Audio Drivers with all mixing/routing handled in the analog domain. 3) Whats the expected release date? And whats the price? (might have overlooked that on your site) Thanks in advance. This might be the perfect ticket for me as I have enough 500 series pres that I can almost fashion a modular console setup. Hey Tbone81, No problem, thanks for your questions! So on the 500R8, the ADAT ports operate like they would on a standard audio interface; so you can receive & send up to 16 channels of ADAT to be recorded/patched to/from your DAW via USB. The ADAT is patched-to and addressed separately to all of the analogue outputs. If you are talking about the 500ADAT - which is the unit you would most likely use with a 3rd party audio interface - then you are correct, slot 1 would be sent out of ADAT out 1, and also separately out of the Analogue output so you could patch that to somewhere else and bring it in on another channel or straight into your audio interface. As a quick note, those ANLG/CAST/USB(or ADAT) switches beneath each slot are related to the slots input source so that you can re-amp USB sources through your 500 series EQ/Compressor/saturation modules. Each module's output is sent directly to a dedicated A/D converter to be recorded back into your DAW as well as sent out of the analogue outputs for extra connectivity if you wish. The outputs remain un-affected and are separate to the input source switch. The drivers are core audio compliant and so will be plug-and-play for Mac OS. For windows there is a basic control panel where you can control buffer sizes etc. We've used this method in order to keep the panel as lightweight as possible. All of these software mixers and control aspects can complicate the process with frequent OS system upgrades, compatibility, and they often are big and complex to operate. We've kept our implementation streamlined, lightweight, and - best of all - reliable. All the mixing and switching duties are be done in the analogue domain on the unit itself using analogue mix busses and physical controls. We're currently working out the last few bits with our contract manufacturers in terms of component lead times and manufacturing schedules so we need to confirm and finalise that before announcing official shipping dates, however that should be very soon. At that time, the retail price will also be confirmed. We announced a price of $1399 US retail for the 500R8 back in January. That price may change a little bit, however it will still be in that ballpark - we have added a load of new switches (16 new switches!) as well as a few DAC changes that have driven up costs but we're working with our suppliers to get that down. As soon as that is confirmed, we'll let you all know. Thanks a lot for your questions! Hope that helps! Elliott
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Post by Tommy Harron on Sept 4, 2018 20:45:19 GMT -6
Hi, ells . Any update on the 500ADAT release date? I'm looking at one or two for my setup. Thank you! Tommy
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ells
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Post by ells on Sept 26, 2018 4:03:20 GMT -6
Hi, ells . Any update on the 500ADAT release date? I'm looking at one or two for my setup. Thank you! Tommy Hey Tommy, Yes we do have an update! A few bits of news in fact! Production begins for 500ADAT/500R8 in late November! - pre production went well and the units have been validated, tested, and approved by the team. The components have been ordered and we will be entering production for 500R8/50ADAT in late November - around Black Friday, for delivery in early December. We're now working with our distributors/dealers to setup pre-order programs around the world... as soon as 500R8/ADAT are listed online and ready to view/pre-order we will send you the relevant links, update our where-to-buy page on our website, and tell you the date you can expect them to arrive... just a little longer now!! Camden 500 is now shipping! - We entered production for Camden 500 last week and we have 250 of them assembled, tested, and ready to ship from our UK Manufacturer. The end result is simply stunning and we're over the moon with how its turned out. It has a few notable upgrades fro the pre-production versions, such as Gold flashing on the card-edge connector, and a swish black PCB. New Camden 500 By The Numbers video: By our calculations and measurements, Camden 500 is the cleanest and most transparent preamp on the market, even more so than some of our favourite preamps like Millennia and Grace Design. In this video I dive into the tech specs and explain how we've come to this conclusion by comparing some technical data and performance specs against some undisclosed competitors preamps as well as showing off some audio examples of Camden 500 and Mojo in action. S/PDIF I/O is back on 500R8- we listened to your valuable feedback and decided that as a lot of people still integrate S/PDIF into their setup, we should bring it back. We're ordering a quick round of pre-production as a final check, and that will feature the SPDIF I/O ports. The current photography on our site doesn't reflect this, but that will be updated soon (you guys are the first to know about this!)There are also tons of mechanical changes including strengthening of the handle and removable screw-on feet... there really has been no stone left unturned! Distributors/resellers/dealers in the US, and UK will be announced in the next couple of weeks - We've signed the dotted line with some amazing partners in the UK and US, and now Camden 500 is ready to ship we can get the ball rolling and get the products listed, ready to sell/pre-order. We will update you on where you can order/pre-order/view/test our products and at which dealers around the world. This is no mean feat for a start-up audio brand - some of these dealers are pretty huge...
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