Arpangel wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:20 am
...it’s like these things are designed by engineers for engineers, not musicians.
Germany believes in technical education. It shows in their approach to many things, including product design. I like that!
Basically, some of us, like me, are idiots regarding certain technical things, we aren’t all created equal, unfortunately some designers don't take this into account, that’s why I like American stuff, they know how to "idiot proof" things. What they remember is that idiots, are also "customers" too.
My particular affliction is a block regarding numbers, maths, a complicated page of software does the same, puts my brain into melt down, a mental panic that I find paralysing.
I've recently moved over to RME, and I've found TotalMix to be pretty logical. Anything that comprehensive will always have a bit of a learning curve, but it could certainly be a lot worse. I've not spent too much time with it, but I've simply hidden the various bits I don't want or need and labelled everything to match my I/O, that's made a big difference.
Arpangel wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:33 am...we aren’t all created equal, unfortunately some designers don't take this into account...
Why should they? Making something genuinely idiot proof inherently also simplifies it, reducing it's versatility and capability. I get why some designers and manufacturers aren't prepared to do that.
They're aiming products at people who appreciate the design capabilities.
If you don't, find something simpler and be happy with that — but don't criticise a product you simply don't understand or can't be bothered to invest effort in understanding.
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
The Elf wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:37 am
There was a saying oft quoted in IT circles: "Design it for idiots and only an idiot will want to use it."
It's probably a bigger market!
Seriously, though, idiots and braniacs can both be served by the asme product. I must admit, I preferred the older version of Totalmix, before the DSP FX came along and necessarily made the interface busier. But the whole point about it is that a 'friendly' view is possible, and so too is lots of logically laid out info in one screen...
There must be a reason Cubase became to go to DAW for many people
If anyone needs a coder to produce instantly accessible software, I'd suggest go see the coders at TikTok, it's almost become addictive, no wonder the USA wants the forced sale of TikTok, so FaceBook can buy it and get at those algorithms they can't figure out - You heard it here first
Luke W wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:41 am
I've recently moved over to RME, and I've found TotalMix to be pretty logical. I've not spent too much time with it, but I've simply hidden the various bits I don't want or need and labelled everything to match my I/O, that's made a big difference.
Same here - once the input and output names reflect your real-world hardware, TotalMix becomes a lot clearer.
Hugh Robjohns wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:48 am
If you don't, find something simpler and be happy with that — but don't criticise a product you simply don't understand or can't be bothered to invest effort in understanding.
Maybe I should stop beating about the bush and just say I don’t like the sound of it.
Well its back to square one for me! Andertons now have the RME UCXii in stock and I was very happy to get it today. I'm sure it's a professionals piece of kit but its a bridge too far if you don't know your spdif from your adat from your DSP. Four hours after unboxing I'm yet to get a sound out of it. It ships without a manual now, and as someone who likes to have the info in front of me to go through that's a negative. There's not even a quick start guide to help you along, for the expense that's poor. I eventually managed to get total mix to appear but its looks different to my old fireface 400 one and I felt there was another learning curve there. May be they have totalmix templates ready for new users to get them started? I couldn't find them if they do. Their graphics look dingy and old as the hills, personally not very inspiring. RME have some videos to get you started but as I had no sound that wasn't best pleasing. The display on the unit itself is busy and postage stamp tiny meaning you have to be close to read it. I know rme is loved universally here for its drivers and reliability, but I've found you need to have a fair level of expertise to get it working. I've accepted defeat, it will go back and I will now look for a two channel interface that's user friendly. Back to the drawing board it seems............
To their credit my old fireface 400 worked straightaway on being re-connected, what a relief that was!
I've just reviewed the new RME Digiface AES. It came with a thick user booklet in English and German, as have all the other RME interfaces cos I've reviewed or bought over the years. So I'm surprised the UCX II didn't have one.
I downloaded and installed the DF-AES drivers, rebooted the computer, and it all worked as expected. TotalMix FX looked and worked as I expected. Audio went in and out of the DAW with no problems once I'd selected the appropriate I/O channels, and configured the clocking. The unit's display screen presents a lot of info, but it's fine once you know what's where.
The UCX II is getting quite long in the tooth now and I imagine an updated model will be along soon...
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
I have zero interest in this kit and will never be buying one.
Out of interest, I just put the product name into a well-known search engine, and the first thing that came up was RME's own page header about the product. On that page, I clicked 'Downloads' and found what appears to be a detailed User Manual for both Windows and Mac installs...
Yes, all of RME's manuals are available and easy to find online, but I think rggilespie was upset that a hard copy wasn't in the box — something that I find very odd as every RME product I've seen has included comprehensive paper manuals.
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
I'm at the point where I don't care what interface anyone buys and will not be offering any recommendations Unless maybe it's for some special use case where I have direct experience that will help solve a specific problem
I have this perverse dream sometimes, that if Woolworths were still trading, would they have a "Winfield Interface" on the market, but I guess Behringer have fulfilled that role.
Arpangel wrote: ↑Wed Apr 05, 2023 10:18 pm
I have this perverse dream sometimes, that if Woolworths were still trading, would they have a "Winfield Interface" on the market, but I guess Behringer have fulfilled that role.
Obviously a Pick'N'Mix selection, so you point out the number and type of inputs and outputs you want to the assistant. They then scoop them up into a paper bag for you, weigh it, and ring the price up on the till.
Hugh Robjohns wrote: ↑Tue Apr 04, 2023 9:12 pmIt came with a thick user booklet in English and German, as have all the other RME interfaces cos I've reviewed or bought over the years.
Yeah, that's been my experience of several different interfaces and preamps over the years too.
I think perhaps its changed or is now changing, my UCXii came with a postcard saying there is an online manual and drivers available from their site. No printed manual or cd with drivers, its good practice from an environmental point of view perhaps that's their reasoning?
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
I'm trying to remember if my MADIface came with a manual... I think it may have just been a card with a link to the PDF. I have to say, although I like a good manual more than most, I think the argument for saving paper is a good one (if that is the case).
As for a CD with drivers, it's been about a decade since I owned a machine with a disc drive, so I do understand why that's less common these days!
IIRC my MADIFace didn't come with paper manuals. But then I just plugged it in and it worked - nothing to figure out beyond a spot of routing allocations. Having previously had a FireFace 800 it was all familiar stuff.
No, he sent it back because he couldn't get sound through it.
The absent paper manual was just one of several annoyances.
rggilespie wrote:I'm sure it's a professionals piece of kit but its a bridge too far if you don't know your spdif from your adat from your DSP. Four hours after unboxing I'm yet to get a sound out of it. It ships without a manual now, and as someone who likes to have the info in front of me to go through that's a negative. There's not even a quick start guide to help you along, for the expense that's poor. I eventually managed to get total mix to appear but its looks different to my old fireface 400 one and I felt there was another learning curve there. May be they have totalmix templates ready for new users to get them started? I couldn't find them if they do. Their graphics look dingy and old as the hills, personally not very inspiring. RME have some videos to get you started but as I had no sound that wasn't best pleasing. The display on the unit itself is busy and postage stamp tiny meaning you have to be close to read it. I know rme is loved universally here for its drivers and reliability, but I've found you need to have a fair level of expertise to get it working. I've accepted defeat, it will go back and I will now look for a two channel interface that's user friendly.
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
I took delivery of a Digiface USB a couple of weeks ago and that didn’t come with a manual. Then again (and meaning no disrespect to others) it seemed pretty obvious the USB B connected to/from the USB A computer using the supplied cable and the Toslink ports connected to/from the equivalent Toslink ports on my interfaces. However . . . Nothing worked even after I’d downloaded the relevant driver and Totalmix software from RME.
The problem sat with guidance from Focusrite which ran contrary to what was required. I’ve posted elsewhere on this so I won’t repeated what I’ve already said.
My point here is that a manual wouldn’t have made a jot of difference. These are not ‘plug and play’ products. The manufacturers cannot think about every use case and therefore a degree of knowledge (or in my case blind experimentation) is inevitable.
ore_terra wrote: ↑Fri Apr 07, 2023 8:57 pm
My Adi 2 pro came with a booklet… that I never used as I found more convenient to use the pdf version!
Sentiments with which I agree!
Even if I have a paper manual, I'll still download the PDF... IME experience far easier to reference when you want to find out quickly about a specific function and how, say, it might interact with other functions...
... something I was doing for one of my video cameras just last night!
Well its back to square one for me! Andertons now have the RME UCXii in stock and I was very happy to get it today. I'm sure it's a professionals piece of kit but its a bridge too far if you don't know your spdif from your adat from your DSP. Four hours after unboxing I'm yet to get a sound out of it. It ships without a manual now, and as someone who likes to have the info in front of me to go through that's a negative. There's not even a quick start guide to help you along, for the expense that's poor. I eventually managed to get total mix to appear but its looks different to my old fireface 400 one and I felt there was another learning curve there. May be they have totalmix templates ready for new users to get them started? I couldn't find them if they do. Their graphics look dingy and old as the hills, personally not very inspiring. RME have some videos to get you started but as I had no sound that wasn't best pleasing. The display on the unit itself is busy and postage stamp tiny meaning you have to be close to read it. I know rme is loved universally here for its drivers and reliability, but I've found you need to have a fair level of expertise to get it working. I've accepted defeat, it will go back and I will now look for a two channel interface that's user friendly. Back to the drawing board it seems............
Unless maybe it's for some special use case where I have direct experience that will help solve a specific problem 
