There are several ways to integrate the Pacamara into your studio or live performance setup:
- Use USB-C to route audio and MIDI between the Pacamara and audio applications running on your computer
- Use a dedicated audio interface for the Pacamara and mix/route audio from that interface with your other studio gear
- Use a digital mixer as the audio interface for the Pacamara and mix/route audio from your other studio gear with the Pacamara audio
- Use an audio interface with more than one computer connection (for example, USB+Ethernet or USB+USB) to mix/route computer audio with Pacamara audio
The following are a sampling of configurations to give you an idea of the universe of possibilities…
USB-C connection to a computer
If you connect the Pacamara’s USB-C port to a USB port on your computer, the Pacamara will appear as an audio and MIDI interface connected to your computer. This makes it possible for audio software on the computer to receive audio and MIDI from the Pacamara and/or send audio and MIDI to the Pacamara for processing (see Routing Audio and MIDI on your Computer).
USB 2.0 or USB-C audio / MIDI interface
Connect a class-compliant USB audio interface and/or USB MIDI keyboard, controller, foot pedal or 5-pin adapter to one of the USB 2.0 ports or the USB-C port on the back of the Pacamara.
Using the DSP Status window in Kyma, you can select the devices the Pacamara uses for audio and MIDI input and output and control the sample rate and sample rate clock source (see Routing Audio and MIDI in Kyma).
Most USB audio interfaces use the USB 2.0 protocol irrespective of whether they use a USB-C connector. This means that you can use either the USB-C or USB 2.0 ports on the Pacamara, whichever is most convenient.
Digital mixer as the audio interface for the Pacamara
For lower latency, more flexible channel routing, and more reliable sync, you may prefer to use a digital mixer as the Pacamara audio interface to integrate the Pacamara audio with the rest of your studio. Most digital mixers have built-in class-compliant USB audio interfaces.
If you connect the Pacamara to the mixer’s USB port, treating the digital mixer as the Pacamara’s audio interface, the Pacamara can access the mixer and the mixer’s other I/O through the USB interface and internal routing. In this configuration, the Pacamara audio could be mixed with audio from other sources, or the Pacamara could be used as an effects processor by routing audio from a mixer bus through audio processing on the Pacamara and returned back to the mixer.
There are also some high quality DJ mixers that function as multichannel, class-compliant USB interfaces. For example, the Allen and Heath Xone 96 mixer has 2 x USB ports; if you connect both the Pacamara and your laptop to the mixer, you can integrate audio from Kyma, from external hardware devices, and from multiple applications running on your laptop.
Bridging to Dante or MADI
If the mixer has other networking interfaces available, such as Dante or MADI, you could use the mixer as a configurable bridge to that network. For example, Allen and Heath SQ and Yamaha’s TF series digital mixers have built-in USB class-compliant interfaces, full internal routing matrixes, and 64 channel Dante. If you connect the Pacamara to one of these mixer’s USB port, the Pacamara can send, receive and process audio using both the analog audio ins and outs and the audio ins and outs of the Dante or MADI network connection.
Audio interface with more than one computer connection
An audio interface with more than one computer connection, like those from Metric Halo, iConnectivity, or the Allen and Heath Xone 96, can be used to mix and route audio between the computer, the Pacamara, and audio gear connected to the analog ins and outs of the interface.
For example, if you connect the Pacamara’s USB 2.0 or USB-C port to the SCP (satellite computer port) of a Metric Halo audio interface, the Pacamara’s inputs and outputs can be routed through the 128-channel 64-bus mixer built into the interface. Using a MHLink connection to a computer, the MIO Console app can be used to route and mix audio between a DAW, the Pacamara, and other audio gear connected to the analog and digital ports of the Metric Halo interface.
This lets you integrate all of your gear in the MIO Console where you can mix and route input and output audio signals in various ways. You could define Aux-sends to send any signal directly to Pacamara and return any Pacamara output channel directly as an input to the same MIO Console. You could also route a DAW’s I/O through the MIO Console alongside any other connected outboard gear and the Pacamara’s I/O.