First Look: The Carbon Interface from AVID - Integrated DSP Power and I/O for Pro Tools and More

Mo Volans walks us through what might be AVID's most ambitious and feature-packed interface in years, with integrated DSP power for Pro Tools.
Learn more about Carbon here: www.avid.com/p...
Special thanks to Avid for helping us put together this first look video and sponsoring the channel.
#ProTools #Avid #Carbon #AudioEngineer #mixing #Avid #RecordingStudio

[@hakangurdol]

Am waiting the AVB adaptor from Sonnet to power up my Carbon. 🤞🏽🧿

[@bossthemessiah409bigron6]

Do you have to have a pci card or an hd native? How does it connect with your computer?

[@jamescave7102]

Can someone please tell, if i can combine the Avid Carbon with the Avid Mtrx Studio to get 24 I/O?

[@patrickbear6727]

Avid MTRX Studio requires an HDX card to work so, if you have HDX cards and a MTRX Studio there are more cost-effective ways to get 24 channels of IO. If you have MTRX Studio and HDX then you have 18 analog I/O already right? MTRX Studio has ADAT and Dante IO so you can easily get to 24 IO using these capabilities--the limit is the capacity of the HDX card/s I believe. If you weren't aware that MTRX Studio requires HDX then you are probably more interested in the Carbon which does not require HDX. The Carbon handles 24 IO on its own at 44.1/48khz using the ADAT IO--8 via Mic/Line/Inst inputs + 16 via ADAT Plus the Monitor and 4x headphone outputs are available on top of that.

[@jamescave7102]

@@patrickbear6727 Thank you for Responding. Here what i did, cause i am very new with Avid Hardwares. I didn’t really know anything about that HDX thing. So i bought the MTRX Studio without the HDX card. Avid Support helped me to use it without the HDX card, i just had to buy for $50 the Dante Virtual Controller. Then it works perfectly. So, when i look in to buy a HDX Card. MAN ! It is so expensive, then I check the price which is $6499 including Pro Tools Ultimate. With the MTRX Studio all my analog gears are finally connected for mixing and Mastering. Instead of buying the HDX Card, i bought the Carbon with includes DSP and Pro tools Ultimate. Now i am using the Carbon for recording using the 0 Latency(So Nice). Plus 16x16 I/O. And switch to MTRX Studio to mix.. Till Avid can decide to let the Carbon be daisy chained with other devices. What do you Think ? Did i do too much ?

[@marlowdurden4419]

I am just asking What is the I/O 's , and would you use two of these interfaces . Does this unit have Thunderbolt ? The reason why I'm asking I'm using Apollo 8 now. just wondering which may be better interface What would you day about this ? Please get back to me on this soon as you can. Thank you

[@patrickbear6727]

I don't think that multiple interfaces are supported so, my understanding after reading the manual, is that you have 8 analog inputs (any combination of mic pre/line/instrument) PLUS the ADAT I/O. Dual ADAT I/O handles 16I/O at 44.1/48khz and 8I/O at 88.2/96khz. One very cool feature is that the ADAT inputs and outputs can also be used as stereo S/PDIF IO so, if you don't need the outputs for ADAT, you could use them in S/PDIF mode for higher end DAC conversion for your monitoring rig. Carbon does not use Thunderbolt, it uses an AVB network connection BUT, as far as I can tell, it can't be used as part of an AVB network. The manual states that it must be directly connected to the host computer and there is no information in the manual talking about using the hybrid engine with any other AVB inputs so I have to assume that you can't do it otherwise it would probably be in big letters on the front page that it can "hybrid engine" your current AVB network--it does have a second network jack though so I may be absolutely wrong--let me know. The main difference between Carbon and the Apollo 8 is that everything that you do in the Apollo mixer (sorry, don't remember what it is called) happens directly in ProTools with the same plugins that you would use in ProTools and at sub-millisecond latency--so you just set your signal chain up once in ProTools and you can switch between low-latency record mode and playback mode quickly. Additionally, all stems that your record active tracks use (i.e. effects sends, sub-mixes, etc.) automatically switch to low-latency monitoring when you record activate the input channel. I'm not sure how this is handled with Apollo--it may have it's own effects subs which are outside of ProTools)--this feature can be over-ridden by using the DSP Safe function if you are running low on DSP resources and don't mind latency on, for example, your reverb bus.

[@TheAerovons]

I have to put my head next to Carbon to even remotely hear the fan ;)

[@teddym2808]

Got excited till I saw it's mac only.. wow.... I left the apple ecosystem in 2020 and never looked back and certainly won't for this either.. I'll stick with my UAD and 64 inputs via asio for now then, I have plenty of DSP for low latency monitoring, but an all in one solution using the DAW for monitoring would be great and I'd definitely be interested in a PC Carbon.

[@williamgorelander8290]

Cooling fans are definitely a deterrent. I wonder if one would hear it if it was sitting in a rack under a desk.

[@Justin_Allen]

If it could do 5.1 and above I would buy this in a minute. However stereo only monitoring kills it for me.

[@TheAerovons]

Avid has already said they plan to expand it...

[@NONE2NONE]

What is a similar hardware device that can work with other DAWs? I use Cubase.

[@patrickbear6727]

The Apollo series from Universal Audio are the best known. The Antelope stuff with "synergy core" also do DSP very low latency monitoring. The catch is that these require a separate monitoring application running alongside your DAW so you have a mixer app running that adds and edits the effects that you want to monitor then you either print them to your DAW or set up similar effects plugins in your DAW to add to a dry recording.

[@NONE2NONE]

@@patrickbear6727 Thanks for the response. I have the Apollo but unfortunately, UAD sound cards ONLY work with UAD plugins....meaning I cannot use the DSP chip on the card to play non-UAD plugins. I'm looking for a soundcard that will use a DSP chip to work with ALL NON-UAD plugins...like Neural DSP or Waves, or whatever.

[@patrickbear6727]

@@NONE2NONE The same is true for the Synergy Core stuff-the plugins are proprietary to their specific DSP for low-latency monitoring.

[@markfulton956]

Yeah Mac only and no input for Midi, ill find something else

[@dannydaniel1234]

I wished they'd start making 4 and 8 track cassettes recorders again....they sound so much better

[@nine27]

bruh 🤣

[@ameeromedia5883]

@@nine27 LMAO... The first thing I thought about was that big blue Tascam that I wanted soooo bad in 2000.

[@debonbon]

Can you hear me, Steven?

[@ic5169]

Yay 20 dollar plug-ins with my 4k interface they gotta do better on that front LOL

[@marvin1574]

booo, mac only...lol

[@boulevardsound5137]

This is the least friendliest interface I've ever seen come out. 5 grand for this just coz it has dsp? might as well just buy a scarlett and and aud dsp and you're good to go. Even if i was an avid pro tools user, I still don't see how you could justify spending that kind of money for something so old for what it does.

[@TheAerovons]

If you think this wonderfully easy to use interface is complex, yeah buy a scarlett lol....and it is no where near five grand for heavens sake

[@boulevardsound5137]

@@TheAerovons oh shit,, you're right it's 6 thousand dollars! I live in australia. But what would i know about audient have an even lower noise ratio than my clarett 8 pre which only cost 1.5k

[@TheAerovons]

@@boulevardsound5137 I live in US so have to go by what it costs here, not in other countries. Worrying about noise ratio is total nonsense, it's dead quite, no latency ANYONE could perceive, no second layer of low latency mixer to deal with it, just press record. Plus don't forget how much PT costs per year....and it gives you a free year. And BTW, check out how old UAD chips are ;)

[@boulevardsound5137]

@@TheAerovons I haven't had latency issues for like 10 years. Its a thing of the past. I don't need less latency than 2ms. And for carbon costs compared to what other devices that have better technical aspects, then why wouldnt someone consider specifications and value? its a no brainer. and No thanks to pro tools haha.

[@boulevardsound5137]

@@TheAerovonsi know how old uad is since ive got one. but hasn't stopped people making revenue using even older equipment today. Uad tape still runs rings around anything virtual out there today. to my ear anyway.