There just isn’t enough space here for me to get into the nitty-gritty about all that Carbon has to offer, so I’ll just quickly explain DSP Mode, and then give you my main pros and cons. Also, it does not work through a switch it has to have a dedicated home run to the computer. Not all Ethernet adapters work for AVB I had to purchase Apple’s Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet dongle to get Carbon to work with my Mac laptop even though I already had two different off-brand Ethernet adapters. There’s no Windows support yet, and for now, you can’t daisy-chain Carbon units, but there is a second jack for future expansion possibilities. The Carbon interface shows up as a Core Audio device on a Mac, so it can be used for non-Pro Tools applications. For outputs, it’s 34 at the lower sample rates, since the stereo monitor outputs and the four stereo headphone outs (!) can all be accessed separately from within Pro Tools’ I/O Setup window.Ĭonnection to the computer is over the AVB protocol, which uses the now ubiquitous RJ45 Ethernet jack. For the digital inputs, you get eight fewer at 88.2 kHz and 96 kHz, and twelve fewer at 176.4 kHz and 192 kHz, due to the antiquated and annoying ADAT protocol. Basically, you get 25 inputs at 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz sampling rates (8 analog, 16 digital, plus the talkback mic). You can search for pictures and descriptions online to get an idea of the specifics of the I/O and how to control it via the two rotary encoders on the front of the unit. I’m going to spare you the full description of the physical layout of Carbon. This is absolutely huge for those of us who love incorporating our analog gear into our mostly digital mix workflows, and not even something that most non-Avid HDX interfaces do properly! (My trusty old Lynx Aurora system did I miss that thing…). The deal is, if you send a source from Pro Tools out into the real world, through, say, an outboard compressor or pedal chain, and record it back into the DAW, Carbon automatically aligns the processed signal with the original in a sample-accurate fashion, allowing for easy prints of phase-aligned parallel hardware processing. The second above-mentioned game-changer may be less obvious, but I can’t tell you the number of sessions I have received to mix over the years that could have used this feature. Carbon solves this problem handily by utilizing what Avid calls its “patented Hybrid Engine technology.” As opposed to a classic HDX system (without the Hybrid Engine) – where most audio processing is happening on an external DSP card, or an HD Native system – where all processing is happening directly on your computer’s CPU, the Hybrid Engine lets you determine on a track-by-track basis which “brain” is doing the “thinking.” I’ll explain more about this below. This process of switching monitoring sources works alright for simple tracking, but during overdubs, especially when punching in, this double-pronged approach quickly falls apart. However, when it comes time for playback, you now need to listen post-Pro Tools, necessitating a completely new monitoring chain. These applications allow you to tap into the audio that you’re recording before it hits Pro Tools, minimizing the delay between what’s being played live and what you’re hearing in the headphones. Most readers will likely understand the benefits of ultra low-latency monitoring immediately, since latency during tracking and overdubbing is something everyone has to jump through hoops to avoid, utilizing either an analog front end or one of the software solutions that interface manufacturers include with their hardware, such as Universal Audio’s Console or Metric Halo’s MIO Console. It has the two main features that I have been waiting for in a non-HDX system for the two-plus decades I’ve been using Pro Tools: near-zero latency monitoring through the DAW itself, and latency-compensated round-trip printing. It’s very simple – if you record music using Pro Tools with any regularity, and don’t require (or can’t afford) a full-blown HDX system, I cannot advise you strongly enough to buy Avid’s new Carbon interface.
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