Firewire used on Mac - Does this eliminate the Midi settings?

[Opusover21]

Hi,

I use the mac mini with the Weiss DAC2. If you connect the DAC via firewire you have the option to select the default output in midi settings to the Weiss. I can on the fly change the sampling rate on the Weiss control panel from 44.1 to 192khz...this is confirmed on the LED's also on the DAC so I take this as being correct.

 

My question is as its connected peer to peer via firewire does this "knock out" the functionality within the midi settings? I seem to think so as I can set them independently...

When I change the Weiss settings the DAC goes off for a second and then re-clocks to the signal showing the adjusted sample rate. I guess I was wondering if I was upsampling twice for 44.1 files for example...the mac upsampling them to 96/24 (which is what the midi is set to) and then the Weiss upsampling again to 192khz?

 

[Mr.C]

As far as I know, unless the midi settings are unselectable (light gray), they are active and upsampling your files before output. I could be wrong though, that's just my feeling.

 

[g8k3pr]

I have to agree. If the Midi settings are set to 24 bit / 96khz then the Mac is definitely doing pre oversampling before sending out the data to the DAC. I have a DAC that also supports 96khz/192khz so if I were to set it to the higher sampling rate, then yes it would be oversampled twice.

 

[serengetiplains]

Intuitively, it doesn't square with me that if your DAC2 is set to 192, which then shows as a Midi-selectable parameter, the Mac would upsample to 96 and give the rest of the job to the DAC2. What if one's source is 192? Would that then be downsampled-then-upsampled? I suspect your DAC2 settings bypass Midi, but perhaps someone with more Mac knowhow can answer this without speculation.

 

[weiss2496]

Make sure that in AudioMidi the settings for the Weiss unit are displayed, and not those for the internal audio. You can select that in AudioMidi. AudioMidi and the Weiss Firewire control panel will show the same sampling rate settings independently of where you selected the sampling rate (in AudioMidi or in the Weiss Firewire control panel).

 

If the sampling rate selected is different from the sampling rate of the file played, a upsampling or downsampling is engaged by the operating system.

The upcoming Amarra player will automatically switch the sampling rate in AudioMidi depending on the file played.

 

Daniel

 

 

[LC]

Hi Daniel,

 

I am planning to have a Firewire interface AFI1 (between a macmini and my DAC).

Will you deliver it with this Amarra player or after, and how will you integrate commercialy this software in your products ?

 

[weiss2496]

Sonic Studio, the company doing Aamarra, plans to release Amarra with third party hardware, i.e. not just with their own hardware. We yet have to come to an agreement with Sonic Studio in order to be able to offer Amarra to our Firewire based products customers. I'll check with them how far they have proceeded with Amarra. At CES time it was not quite ready for prime time.

 

Daniel