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Swissonic upgrades their new product before it ships and plans FireWire Audio as future upgrade! The Swissonic AD8 is an 8-channel universal preamp and A/D converter. Much like the Swissonic USB Studio D, the AD8 has nearly every signal source ready at your beck and call. Microphones (condenser/dynamic), instruments with HI Z outputs or keyboards can be connected to the combination XLR/jack input sockets. Two channels provide an insert jack. According to advance information from Swissonic, "The eight fully featured channel preamps provide excellent audio quality and signal conditioning for the high end AD converter stage. 44,1/48/88/96 kHz sampling rates are supported, with internal and external sync." "Different digital output modules provide the innovative AD8 future expandability and compatibility." Eureka! This is what we want to know about! It seems, upon a little digging, part of Swissonic’s future plans towards FireWire include the A8. But there’s more! To make things easier, the company has decided to change their initial plan and to sell the AD8 and the digital output modules separately as single products. This move is to ensure future expendability and compatibility. MacRocks gets exclusive comments from Daniel Feusi of Swissonic AG: MR: Is it reasonable to assume the A8 is compatible with any Mac based digital audio solutions other than ProTools , e.g. Sonorus STUDI/O, Creamw@re Pulsar/SCOPE, Yamaha DSP Factory as well as (of course) Alesis ADAT machines? DF: The AD8 can be used with ProTools (using an ADAT bridge), as well as with any other DAW with ADAT lightpipe or AES/EBU inputs. In combination with some cards like the Sonorus STUDI/O, it is also possible to record 24bit/96kHz using the S/MUX technology. S/MUX is a protocol for multiplexing 4 channel of 24bit/96kHz signal on 8 channels of 24bit/48kHz (on the ADAT lightpipe). MR: Are there any Mac compatibility issues (drivers, etc.)? DF: Every ADAT card can be used - with any Mac compatibility issues these cards come along with. For 24bit/96kHz systems I recommend a PCI card with S/MUX support, like the Sonorus STUDI/O (see above). MR: Does the A8 have the future potential of IEEE 1394 and/or mLAN interface/hub? DF: The preamps and converters are on the main board, while the digital out board is modular. By the time we ship AD8, ADAT optical and AES/EBU interfaces will be available. Later this year we plan to ship a FireWire / mLAN interface that allows to connect one or multiple AD8 to any FireWire equipped desktop or portable computer. There will be no need of a soundcard anymore! MR: Would units purchased prior toFireWire compatibility be field upgradable? DF: Absolutely. Since the digital output module is swapable, a FireWire interface for AD8 can be purchased as soon as it's available, and then swapped with the ADAT interface. MR: What's the release time table for the AD8? DF: End of April with ADAT and AES/EBU interface. Here are the estimated US MSRP for the new Swiss solution: Prices of new interfaces, such as FireWire are to be announced. The expected shipping date of AD8 and the ADAT and/or AES/EBU interface is end of April and a great likelihood of both FireWire and SPDI/F format modules to follow. MacRocks is looking forward to testing this new unit as soon as the AD8/mLan unit is available on our shores. We have great anticipation about this. Swissonic seems to be tapped into the pulse of what all users are looking for in a product like this. The AD8, with the new modular interface scenario, makes for a reasonable, flexible and expendable audio I/O unit with great looking preamps and overall impressive specs on paper. I suspect it would be suitable for the expanding home studio as well as a fine addition to a pro quality DAW system, such as ProTools. Swissonic is the maker of stereo and multi I/O high resolution A/D and D/A converters. Swissonic America, Or send email to Geoffrey Clegg at Swissonic SONIC innovation <> SWISS creation Sound Matters
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