Cranborne Audio 500R8 USB Audio Interface and 8-slot 500 Series Rack

The Cranborne Audio 500R8 is the new home for 8 of your favourite 500 series modules. It's also your new 28/30 channel USB audio interface, monitor controller, ADAT interface, and discrete analogue summing mixer.

500R8 takes analogue electronics and USB integration to the next level by allowing you to utilise your favourite 500 series modules as your very own customisable tracking front-end directly into your DAW.  Dedicated USB source selects for each slot and a discrete analogue summing mixer with it's own USB send allows you to bring your 500 series modules- such as EQs, compressors, and saturation devices -into your mixing process and bring analogue sound back into your workflow.

500R8 features reference-class analogue-to-digital conversion with 121dB (unweighted) signal-to-noise ratio and a master-reference grade internal digital clock with ultra-low jitter (<0.5 picoseconds). The combination of highly-accurate clocking and high-performance digital conversion ensures that every subtle nuance of your analogue signal is captured with the utmost detail, free of any unwanted digital artefacts from the conversion process and with a wide dynamic range due to 500R8's high-headroom and low-noise floor design.

Build your dream studio around 500R8's built-in 28-in/30-out channel USB audio interface that provides recording/playback of analogue and ADAT sources as well as connectivity via MIDI and clock distribution via Word-clock.

Control all aspects of your control room and artist monitoring setup by utilising 500R8's built-in monitor controller that includes options for Speaker A & B switching, Mono sum, Mute, Dim, and Talkback facilities.

Move away from clunky software mixers and get your hands back onto the mix by using 500R8's analogue summing mixer to create artist mixes that can be blended with the DAW playback, and sent to your musicians with zero-latency. 

Give your mix the final bit of analogue character and send instrument groups and stems back-through your 500 series modules, into the discrete analogue summing mixer, summed, and sent into your DAW via USB.

To create a "studio in a box" where your favourite 500 series modules could shine on your digital recordings, it was critical to ensure our digital conversion and analogue processing is best-in-class. We squeezed every possible .1dB of performance out of 500R8 to achieve digital and analogue performance that ensures that the only thing colouring your recordings are mic placements and mix decisions.

The implementation of our ADCs result in 121dB (unweighted) signal-to-noise ratio and - 112dB THD+N whilst our DACs achieve 127dB (unweighted) signal-to-noise and -115dB THD+N. Our analogue design stages operate at between 0.0002-0.0004% THD+N to ensure that the only factors influencing the converters' dynamic range are the converters themselves and not the supporting analogue circuity.

A/D and D/A numbers don't tell the whole story. Converters are only as good as the clocks that are governing them. Our internal digital clock reaches atomic-clock level accuracy, for master reference-quality with < 0.5 picoseconds of jitter. Our designs feature isolated analogue and digital ground planes and power rails so that our digital elements receive accurate clocks and our analogue signals are noise- and distortion-free.

Utilising the 500 Series standard as a your own front-end puts you back in control of exactly how audio is received and processed before being sent to the DAW. Mix and match to find the best preamp combinations during recording, and then swap them out with EQ's and comps when it's time to mix.

Each 500 series slot has 3 input source select options; Analogue In, CAST, and USB. Selecting USB allows the 500 series module to pickup audio coming via the USB stream, process it in the analogue domain, and then send it back to your DAW. There's also a Chain switch for each slot that allows you to create custom channel strips of your favourite modules.

An abundance of Inputs and outputs allows 500R8 to integrate with a number of hardware components around your studio. Combine 500R8's analogue performance with your own converters or patch outboard gear into each 500 series slot using dedicated TRS insert jacks. The summing mixer also has a dedicated mix output as well as the artist and control room mix output