NTP Technology DAD AX Center - 256-Channel ThunderCore Audio Interface

AX Center was born to sit in a rack right next to you in the studio, in your portable rig – or maybe even on your desktop. It’s the audio interface that dreams are made of, as it unites the legendary audio quality of pristine Digital Audio Denmark AD - DA conversion with the renowned transparency and musicality of their mic preamps.

It’s all about capturing the source truthfully and get it into any DAW you may use exactly as it is – and to get your production out exactly as you intended, envisioned and simply heard it.

Features:

• Thunderbolt 3 interface, with 256 Bidirectional Channels at 48 or 96 kHz, 128 channels at 192 kHz and 64 channels at 384 kHz
• Interchangeable Thunderbolt 3 main and expansion port w. 15W power for ancillary equipment
• Audio Drivers for macOS and Windows
• MADI interface on BNC connectors with 64 Bidirectional Channels at 48kHz, 32 channels at 96kHz, 16 channels at 192 kHz and 8 channels at 384 kHz
• Dual ADAT interface on TosLink Light pipes with 16 Bidirectional Channels at 48kHz, 8 channels at 96kHz, and 4 channels at 192 kHz. Configurable also as 2 Ch. S/PDIF input
• DANTE AoIP interface via Ethernet with 256 Bidirectional Channels at 48 and 96kHz, 128 channels at 192 kHz.
• Module Slot for optional dual Madi module via 2 x SFP (LC Fiber or HD/BNC Coax) connectors with 128 Bidirectional Channels at 48kHz, 64 channels at 96kHz, 32 channels at 192 kHz and 16 channels at 384 kHz
• Two card slots available for DAD I/O Expansion Cards
• Word Clock I/O, and Video Black and Burst input on BNC connectors
• 128 channels speaker processing with a total of 1024 filters and delay
• Summing Processor 64 Output / 512 Input Busses
• Internal Router: 4096 x 4096
• 32bit Floating Point Processing
• DADman control software for macOS and Windows connecting via Ethernet or Thunderbolt
• Pro|Mon monitor control functionality and integration for Avid Eucon Enabled Devices via DADman
• 19" Rack Unit 1U Height

Even without utilising the expansion options, you will get access to that über-musical and finger-licking delicious audio quality that DAD converters and preamps have been loved for by many of the world’s most acclaimed audio engineers and producers. Easily accessible right in the front plate, you get two XLR / 1/4" Jack combo inputs for connecting microphones and instruments.

This is your right-out-of-the-box A/D conversion stage that is already coupled with the preamps that have only been available as part of the Analog In expansion card (with preamp license) until now.

On the rear, you’ll find one of two out-of-the-box D/A conversion stages, as you get two stereo outputs for connecting two sets of studio monitors on balanced jack connectors, knowing that most studios – regardless of size – would like to have an alternative pair of studio speakers connected. On the front, you get another D/A conversion stage via two independent headphones outputs – perfect for co-producing.

In total, AX Center provides you with 2 channels of A/D conversion (with preamps) and 8 channels of D/A conversion right out of the box.

Optional Analog Expansion
DAD AX- Center Expansion SlotsStaying within the analog realm, you can add even more AD/DA converters to the table via the two available expansion slots.

These cards can be either balanced line signals or with preamp stages activated, which is available as a separate license that you can apply at any time in case you want to upgrade one or both cards according to your needs. Yes, that’s correct – you can have up to 18 input channels with DAD preamps and A/D conversion in a single AX Center unit!

You can also choose to install one or two Analogue Out expansion cards for an additional 8 or 16 balanced line channels with pristine DAD D/A conversion.

Installing one 8-channel D/A card in addition to the build-in 4 output channels, makes it the perfect 7.1.4 solution for immersive Dolby Atmos music production where unmatched sound quality is top of mind, as well as a true desire of the heart – and the ears.

Obviously, you can also mix the analogue cards, adding 8 channels of Analogue In and another 8 channels of Analogue Out. One application that comes to mind with this configuration would be high-end mastering.

But regardless of which configuration you ultimately decide on, you will always get that legendary DAD sound quality when AX Center is present in your rack.

Optional Digital Expansion
You can also utilise one or both of the available expansion slots for our digital expansion cards, including Dante, AES, Dual MADI, and Dual SDI cards. For example, the AES card could deliver digital outputs for studio monitors with digital input options, or you could use it for inserting digital outboard gear without additional AD/DA conversion stages. Or you may want to add Dante channels with onboard SRC.

Finally, you have two different ways to expand your MADI channel count, as you can both install our Dual MADI expansion card and/or use the SFP MADI module ports.

Onboard Monitor Control
Also right-out-of-the-box, AX Center comes with the world-renowned PRO|MON monitor controller that is being used in thousands of music studios and post-production facilities worldwide, which provides ultimate flexibility for any speaker configuration from mono to full 64-channel Dolby Atmos, with speaker processing, delay and configurable monitor groups.. This is simply a tried, tested and trusted monitor control solution that has been put through its paces in real-world studios for years and years.

And of course, PRO|MON can be controlled remotely and hands-on from the MOM hardware monitor controller, as well as Eucon-enabled control surfaces such as Avid’s Dock, S1, S4, S6, and even the free Avid Control app.

You can set the listening levels, Dim and Cut for your main speakers, as well as two alternate pairs of studio monitors. Further, you can control level and cut on up to four additional speaker sets.

You can define the signal output configuration for each speaker and monitor set to any format you’d like: Mono, Stereo, 5.1, 7.1, 9.1.6, and multi channel up to 64 channels, using any of the audio outputs on your DAD interfaces in any combination.

The sources for monitoring can be selected from any of the configured signal sources. Then you can route to a monitor output as switched, or more sources can be summed to a control room speaker or monitor output providing Stem summing functionality. Talk back functionality is available for any of the control room speakers and monitor outputs, and the talk back can activate Cut or Dim on any output as well.

You can also apply a folddown function on each of the control room speaker and monitor outputs. The Folddown can handle any of these formats: Mono, Stereo, Left-Center-Right, Left-Center-Right-Sub, 5.1, 7.1 and 9.1.6 surround formats. On the sources, as well as the speaker and monitor outputs.

SPQ EQ Filter Processing
The SPQ feature can be configured to various different filter characteristics and channel layouts via the DADman control software and is all integrated and easily managed by the PRO|MON monitor control section in DADman.

SPQ supports all the system sample rates and will reconfigure automatically and fast when sample rates are changed, with equal filters and delay independent of the sample rate. Delay can be set individually per channel as well as generally for a whole set of speakers to also accommodate lip-sync applications.

The SPQ setting is stored in the Pro|Mon monitor profile in DADman, and speaker settings can be recalled separately from stored monitor profiles for fast change of parameters. Measurement of the speaker curves and frequency responses have to be done using a separate measurement program, as this is not a part of the SPQ functionality.

Also, importantly, you can easily save and recall all configurations in the DADman monitor profile.

Speaker / Cue channel filters
– Parametric EQ
– Low Shelving
– High Shelving
– Low Pass Butterworth
– Low Pass Linkwitz-Riley
– High Pass Butterworth
– High Pass Linkwitz-Riley

Bass Management Filters
– Low Pass Butterworth
– Low Pass Linkwitz-Riley
– High Pass Butterworth
– High Pass Linkwitz-Riley

A Wealth of Channels. A World of Flexibility.
Included on the rear panel are a host of connectivity, covering Thunderbolt, Dante AoIP, MADI, ADAT, S/PDIF and Word Clock. In total – and fully expanded – you can max out AX Center with a staggering 984 input and output channels.

AX Center introduces, as a world-first, a compact audio interface with a staggering 256 Dante IP Audio channels on board by default. The expansion capability is unlimited, as you can add any Dante device of your liking to your setup, whether that should be additional A/D-D/A converters, microphone preamps, headphone amps, mixing consoles, speakers or whatever you’d imagine.

And if 256 channels should not be enough, you can simply add up to two Dante expansion cards, which also supports samplerate conversion, that would add 2 x 128 extra Dante channels to your AX Center for a total of 512 channels.

Also on the Thunderbolt side of things, you get a massive 256 Thunderbolt 3 channels for virtually unlimited interfacing capabilities. And not only does it support an impressive amount of channels, it also boasts near-zero latency and 32-bit floating point processing.

The Core Audio driver supports both Apple Silicon and Intel hardware platforms so you get a future-proof solution. And if you prefer to work on Windows, AX Center also comes with an ASIO driver.

Since the Core Audio driver for macOS can be shared across several different software applications, your AX Center could be shared between e.g. Logic Pro, Ableton, Cubase and/or Nuendo simultaneously. And with 256 Thunderbolt channels under the hood, there would be plenty of channels available for each application.

Expandability Galore: DAD I/O Card Options
Right out of the box, AX Center comes with a Thunderbolt 3 interface, 2 x 8 analogue interface (2 combo input jacks, 2 analog monitor outs, and 2 stereo headphone outs), 256 ch. Dante I/O, 64 ch. MADI I/O and 2 x ADAT/SPDIF. However, should that not be enough to cover your I/O needs, you’re not to worry.

Choose from the following I/O expansion cards when you consider what to add to the two expansion slots of your AX Center:

– 8 Channel Balanced Line A/D
– 8 Channel Balanced Line + Mic Preamp A/D
– 8 Channel Balanced Line D/A
– 8 Channel AES
– Dual MADI (128 Channels)
– Dante w built-in SRC (128 Channels)
– Dual SDI embedder/de-embedder

DAD Expansion Cards
Further, you can also add 2 x 64 channels of MADI to the base unit as SFP modules. This does not occupy any of the two available expansion card slots.

Unlimited Applications
Adding all of the above together, the result is a compact studio miracle that ensures your precious audio is converted from analog to digital completely true to its natural expression, seamlessly routed and summed with utmost precision, and finally it passes through a world-class D/A stage before reaching your speakers and ultimately your ears.

While this adds up to the perfect audio interface for production in Music Studios, AX Center can be configured and used for virtually any pro audio application you could ever think of.

DAD Mastering
Mastering is another obvious area for AX Center to excel. In this scenario, installing one Analogue In card and one Analogue Out card with 8 channels each would be ideal for inserting analog outboard units such as EQ’s and compressors. Naturally, a super-clean signal chain is critically important in mastering, and using our A/D and D/A stages would ensure that you can trust every little detail you hear and every little tweak that you make.

With Dolby Atmos immersive sound quickly becoming one of the central audio formats of the future, AX Center is ready to take on immersive projects and productions. And this is regardless of whether it’s for Dolby Atmos Music, streaming on e.g. Apple Music, or if it is object-based productions in post and film destined for Netflix, YouTube, TV or Cinema.

DAD Live Sound
AX Center could also find its way into meaningful applications in Live Sound. For example, recording, virtual soundcheck, inserting external effects processors, routing and much more. Since it offers a wealth of Dante and MADI connectivity within the same 1 RU box, it easily covers both of these commonly used live sound formats seamlessly and simultaneously if needed. Whatever the console, AX Center will adapt to fit.

AX Center can also be used in an OB truck for instance as part of a multi-track recording setup. Or in any other application where audio needs to be converted between formats (AD/DA/DD), routed flexibly and in general kept at the highest possible sound quality through and through.

Ultimately,the goal with AX Center to give you a solution that ensures you can trust what you hear from capturing the source to your audience listens to the final production.