Cranborne 500 ADAT

The Cranborne 500ADAT is the ideal tool for discerning audio engineers looking to expand the I/O of their current audio interface while integrating the 500 format into their studio setup.

It is a hybrid analogue/digital ADAT extension that combines our favourite analogue characters with digital precision by offering a fully customisable 500 format analogue interface while incorporating the high performance AD/DA conversion required for the modern DAW-based workflow.

The 500ADAT also offers the essential analogue features you need to unite digital and analogue workflows such as an 8x2 analogue summing, ADAT return switches for each slot, a zero latency mixer with 2 reference quality headphone outputs and true ADAT & SMUXII/IV transmission to enable operation at the highest sample rates.

The best of the analogue characters with the 500 format
500ADAT puts performance capture back into the heart of your recordings and into the hands of the recording engineer. Capitalizing on the vast and growing 500 format market, 500ADAT lets you set up your own custom analog recording front end directly in your DAW. Fill 500ADAT with vintage preamps for drum recording, clean transparent preamps for string recording, or even create your own preamp / EQ / Compressor slices and assign them to your recording; the possibilities are endless.

500 module integration doesn't stop once the performance is captured.... Dedicated ADAT source selection switches for each 500 slot allow you to send your recorded Stems/VSTs through your 500 format EQs/Compressors and print their effects to your DAW for convenient, all-analogue processing. The 500ADAT also features a high headroom 8x2 analog summing unit that you can use to sum your instrument Stems into a stereo track for recording into your DAW.

Digital Accuracy
Having an almost unlimited choice of analogue preamps to choose from would be pointless if the 500ADAT conversion applied its own colour and effects. To capture all the subtle nuances of your analogue signal, 500ADAT offers reference-class analogue-to-digital conversion with a signal-to-noise ratio of 121dB (unweighted) and an ultra-low jitter ( < 0.5 picoseconds) master-reference quality internal digital clock. The combination of high precision, low jitter and high performance, low latency digital conversion ensures that every ounce of analogue character is captured in the utmost detail - without unwanted digital artefacts from the conversion process, and with a wide dynamic range thanks to the high headroom, low noise 500ADAT analogue design.

ADAT 8-input / 8-output interface
The ADAT format has proven itself and remains one of the most widely used interface protocols. Almost every major audio interface on the market today has a pair of ADAT optical I/O ports; the 500ADAT is compatible with all of them. Using ADAT to route audio to and from the 500 format means that excessive cabling is eliminated and installation couldn't be easier.

Furthermore, as the 500ADAT's internal clock exceeds the Jitter performance of most standalone master clocks, slaving your audio interface to the 500ADAT's internal clock will introduce a noticeable improvement to your audio interface conversion.

Summing
Analogue summing can give your mix the last bit of analogue character needed to achieve professional and polished sound results. What makes the 500ADAT's 8x2 summing mixer so special is that it is positioned after the 8 500 modules - allowing you to insert saturation or BUS compression modules and create a stereo mix using dedicated analogue level and pan controls. The 500ADAT's summing mixer has a huge 26.5dBu headroom that allows you to drive the 500 format modules and dial in the saturation level of your choice. With the addition of slot inserts, external analogue equipment can also be inserted before the A/D converters for further integration with analogue equipment.