The AARDVARK LX6 AD/DA

[sabianq]

I have used this card for about 3 years now, the 24 bit processor is quite nice and very accurate. One main reason i switched to this card was the fact that i wanted to move to an AMD based CPU. My old Gina Event Echo is not compatible with the AMD based Chipset.

As for the sound, I have been quite pleased although at the 20 bit setting, it does not seem to have the same quality as the the Gina Echo, when samples are mixed down to CD quality, (16 bit) any sonic differences disappear.

But with the correct setup this card and when running at 24 bit depth, the Aardvark is a great addition to any home recording system with the ability to easily produce professional results.

Although this card's breakout box does not have Microphone preamp, (line in only) there are 4 of them and the internal processor is more than capable of converting Analogue data on all four inputs simultaneously to a depth of 24 bits.

since i use an external Mixing board (Mackie 16X8) I have no need for on-board microphone pre-amps, and to be honest, i have not heard an integrated, on-board microphone preamp that i have liked (within a reasonable budget anyway).

This ASIO driven card seems to work seamlessly with my copy of SONAR 5, however, there is some contention that SONAR 6 is having problems initializing the card but I'm sure Cakewalk will patch this potential error.

One of the biggest issues with using this card is, you have to have a good understanding of computer operating systems and driver installation as there i no longer any support for this card except for various user groups out there in cyberland.

so if you are looking for a professional sounding card and are not scared of doing a little research and learning about driver instillation, owning this card is a pure joy.

http://www.8thstreet.com/images/aardvark_lx6.jpg

[Acousticmood]

I don't believe they are in bussiness anymore

[Audiodude]

True. They went belly-up some time ago.

[passerby3141]

Aardvark, man. It's a shame they went under, I've never used thier products, but I knew the owner of the company! I used to work in a 24 hour dinner as a cook (I'm originally from Ann Arbor MI), he would come in all the time, he was Russian and from Chernobyl, poor guy had some health issues (I won't go into those out of respect). I new nothing about computers at the time and was about to purchase my first interface, Tascam US-428, he scowled at me for even mentioning it! He went on and on about why I shouldn't waste my money, I didn't listen (I didn't understand anything about what he was talking about), I should have.

[Audiodude]

If you are talking about Igor Levin, he went on to found another company - Antelope Audio. They manufacture an improved version of his master clock design (called the Aardsync back in the day).

[passerby3141]

Right, I forgot his name, Igor was it.

[oretez]

just ran into a situation this past week where a four channel (four simultaneous inputs w/mic pres) option was the perfect solution . . . firewire was not an option . . . XP or linux options for any of the four channel aardvark options would have been time and money ahead . . . we even stuck my 24/96 pro into the system but there was not time nor money enough to tweak system to make it work seamlessly . . . and this was not a low rent situation . . . architect designed hall, elevated projection booth style FOH control, long cable run remote recording adjunct to broadcast booth . . . but for this particular situation four PCI channels are what we needed . . . & you can't find it for love or money even the most respectable of the emu is disappearing

by changing the cable runs from the stage, cables on top of stage rather then using built in jacks into my laptop set up worked . . . they have a very respectable stereo recording set up that works for them 90% of the time . . .main point is that prior to XP if you wanted to record stereo with some expansion the 4 channel Aardvark were a very respectable choice . . . i miss them and i still have one . . .

that said . . . frontiers designed (tascam marketed) Us428 was not hobby hardware . . . it lacked xlr (& phantom) inputs (but that was not unusually for it's development cycle) but if you either needed MIDI or could use midi for automation it was a very respectable 4 simultaneous record solution . . . I used one into a PII 300 mHz laptop with ulrtawide SCSI downstream for about four years . . .

main point (for future reference) is that while there is some overlap for the target market for the US428 and the 4 channel Aardvarks it was (is) more important for an end user to understand & learn to anticipate (not an easy task) their needs then to buy into any marketing BS. The US428 was not a toy . . . I owned one simultaneous with a Pro 24/96 never really (though I could swear at either) regretted purchasing either

and for aardvark to disappear and a previous equity holder to show up as antelope does nothing to increase my confidence in antelope . . . I was a big time promoter of aardsync (even though there were design features that pissed me off from jump) but it's unlikely I'll ever authorize purchase of an antelope . . . I'm not quite sure that drawmer has convinced me that EQ expertise parlays into clock . . . but . . . i'm not ready to pimp for the drawmer but @ entry level it . . . might . . . be way to go . . . 'clock' is one of those things that it's relatively easy to do a marketing snake oil dance on . . . my projects and system (and their needs) are different from yours, so how do we determine real world metrics (cause even SOS remains, after twenty years, a bit unconvincing) for distribution clock?

and when I first learned of antelope I had a 'happy thought' moment . .. . which is not all that common for me . . .but for the same guy that abandoned me as aardvark to expect support as antelope is a bit naive . . . f#$%$#% 'em drawmer works (or prior to exhaustive tests appears to)

anyway . . . I have as many curses for 4 channel aardvark as for US428, while there this some overlap they do essentially address distinct markets.

[passerby3141]

I don't mean to bash the US-428. It is still with me, and I use it as a control surface. But I would have enjoyed recording more, if my first card had been a PCI based one. Mostly because of the lower latencies, which makes live software monitoring more enjoyable.

[Sonic dB]

This is my first post here. I know Igor well, having worked for Aardvark as their Sales Manager from 00 to 03. Spent a lot of time with the guy, both in office and on the road at NAMM, AES etc. As far as I knew, he didnt have any 'health issues' at the time... last spoke with him about 6 months ago on the phone and he was fine.

Antelope Audio is not related to Aardvark in any way other than its Igor's company. Igor was not the reason that Aardvark went under, specifically.
He was the principal owner, however there were 2 other partners and one other partner's dept. was specifically responsible for the driver issues. The Motorola DSP did not play nice with certain PCI chipsets on motherboards at the time. This lead to a whole host of installation problems. Code and packets were constantly being rewritten but never solved the issues completely. Eventually the software partner was relieved of the situation, which lead to a court battle and legal fees....but it was too late to pull out of the nose dive that was created by this, plus small company with limited marketing resources trying to fight the Midiman monster as well as production issues, as this was the only audio sound card that was completely made in the US... we could have saved so much money doing it over seas but Igor was never comfortable with the lack of quality on the sample units built there.

Anyway, Igor is a flat out genius in both electronics and audio.... I can say that without hesitation as Ive been around many people in my audio and business career...and no one has his mind and capability for design. Please trust me when I say that he did not screw anyone or take the money and run...cause there was none. Given a choice they most certainly would still be there in Ann Arbor because he loved Aardvark...but they could not compete...and shi- happens sometimes.

Regarding the LX6....I was after them for a long time to put that unit out. Basically its a Direct Pro 24/96 - without the mic preamps. Converters and everything else is the same. Breakout box is smaller due to not needing the space for the preamps. One thing that all Aardvark interfaces share is excellent sound quality. Im working with a USB3 on my laptop at this very moment.

If you can find one, pick up an Aardsync II on ebay to clock your studio and further improve the sound.. peace out.

[Sonic dB]

PS: Im starting to get back into recording again, which is why I am here. I have 2 Q10s, 1 DP 2496, a USB3 and an AardSync II... perks from working there lol...

Can anyone recommend a good PC to record with? Would a standard $600 PC do just fine (AMD 3200 + 512MB)... This would be certainly more powerful than the 4 year old system that I used to record with.

Thx.

[Audiodude]

First of all, welcome to AF, and thanks for the inside info on Aardvark. I've always wondered what happened there.

I'd re-post your question about PC specs in the PC OS forum. I think you'll get a lot more help there. One thing I'll tell you is that I haven't seen a $600 off-the-shelf PC that could really do a decent job with recording. You might be able to piece together a system yourself from parts for close to that, but that's still pushing it. I'd say look to spend at least double that if you want to just buy a manufactured PC that'll do a respectable job. You'll probably want more than 512 MB of RAM, as well.

And, for what it's worth, Sweetwater builds a dandy line of audio PC's called Creation Stations (http://www.sweetwater.com/creation_station/). They are the result of a very long (and ongoing) r&d process to hand-pick components, tweak the OS, and build PCs specifically for multitrack audio recording. We have systems starting at $999 (but you'll probably want to add a hard drive and upgrade the RAM if you pick the entry level model).

[Sonic dB]

Hey Jeff.... We loved Sweetwater over at Aardvark. You guys became one of our biggest accounts for awhile there, and we used to like going down to Ind. to meet with you guys and do some training. It was too bad that Aardvark went down because they did have some great hardware and some innovative ideas. Anyway...I will check out your systems...there is a great thread over in the PC section regarding buiding a system.

[jkountz]

Audiodude, Id have to disagree with you about the cost of a PC to record music with. $600 will get you more than enough PC for a decent setup. Hell Im using a bottom of the line freebie Dell that I got for signing up for DSL service and I just finished a 10 track recording with plugins and all!! Yes I did upgrade the ram to 1gb but other than that its totally stock. And its a Celeron. I didnt even start out to use this PC for recording but after trying it out it worked fine. So although this PC may be a fluke my point is that you can get a good PC for recording for $600 or in my case........Less!!

Jim

[jkountz]

PS, your name sounds awful familiar, AudioDude, I bought an LX6 from Sweetwater back some years ago, perhaps we crossed paths then?? I will agree with you that the LX6 rocked! It was stable and I thought it sounded great. I upgraded to a digital mixer and it seemed kind of redundant then so I sold it. Still miss it sometimes though!

[Audiodude]

Audiodude, Id have to disagree with you about the cost of a PC to record music with. $600 will get you more than enough PC for a decent setup. Hell Im using a bottom of the line freebie Dell that I got for signing up for DSL service and I just finished a 10 track recording with plugins and all!! Yes I did upgrade the ram to 1gb but other than that its totally stock. And its a Celeron. I didnt even start out to use this PC for recording but after trying it out it worked fine. So although this PC may be a fluke my point is that you can get a good PC for recording for $600 or in my case........Less!!

Jim

$600 is an extremely low price point for a pro audio computer. I'm glad you got yours working, but 10 tracks is still well shy of what I would shoot for on an "audio" computer. Also, the fact that it has a Celeron processor would be a concern. There are some software packages that do not run well (or sometimes even at all) with a Celeron processor.

[Audiodude]

PS, your name sounds awful familiar, AudioDude, I bought an LX6 from Sweetwater back some years ago, perhaps we crossed paths then?? I will agree with you that the LX6 rocked! It was stable and I thought it sounded great. I upgraded to a digital mixer and it seemed kind of redundant then so I sold it. Still miss it sometimes though!

It's possible. I'm a dinosaur. Been here a long time. I wasn't your salesperson at the time, but I was on Nika's team and I talked to a lot of his customers, so it's possible that we spoke at some point.

[jkountz]

I see your point on the 10 tracks, I suppose doing a whole band would require more and thats probably where my PC would let me down. I just thought it was amazing I could do anything at all with it since its a freebie PC anyway! I defer to you and the experts at Sweetwater for the big rig setups!! Have a good one!

[RedBrick]

Hi all, 1st post here. Searching for aardsync II info led me here. The mod to convert it to double speed, (88.2k+96k) was it a mod per-se or just some jumper settings. If a mod, does anyone know who might still do this?
I need the higher sample rates, but have always loved this clock. Would rather not dump it.
TIA
Best,
Bud Johnson

[Sonic dB]

Hello Bud...the Aardsync II "2X" option was a hard wired modification which was done at the factory upon request for $200. AardSync II owners would send their units back to us and it was a hard wire modification...not a jumper. Unfortunately Aardvark went out of business years ago and I left the company 5 years ago. I have no schematics on how to modify a unit... my advice would be to contact Antelope Audio (google them) and send an email requesting to see if Igor can either a) modify the unit for you at whatever cost, or b) send you the details on how to do it or c) you can buy a new Antelope product.

good luck!

PS: If you are working in Pro Tools HD, as I recall there is a way that HD will double the inputted clock... if im not mistaken it can do this...