Recording - February 2016 - 50

...where we bring you follow-up articles
with application hints and upgrade news
about gear already reviewed in Recording

Antelope Audio Orion32+
A newer, faster 32-channel interface...
and a look at the MP32 mic preamp rack
by Paul Vnuk Jr.

Antelope Audio is a Bulgarian company helmed by designer-engineer Igor
Levin. First with Aardvark and now with
Antelope, Igor has been at the forefront
of digital clocking technology for well
over 20 years. To say the $6000
Isochrone 10M clock is legendary would
be putting it mildly.
In February 2014 we took a look at a
new device from Antelope named the
Orion32. This was a multichannel audio
interface/converter, and three things
made it stand out from the crowd: it
offered 32 channels of A/D and D/A
conversion in a single-rackspace unit, all
conversion and clocking was Antelope
quality through and through, and it somehow did all of this over standard USB 2.0!
As you might guess, the Orion32
made significant waves in the industry.
These units can be found as the centerpiece of many home, project, and professional studios around the world.
Now here we are in February of 2016
and the Orion32 has gained a big brother in the form of the newly released
Orion32+. The form factor, channel
count, and conversion quality remain
unchanged, but it offers three new significant enhancements of its own:
1. The Orion32+ adds the option of
Thunderbolt connectivity.
2. It boasts a new, additional masteringgrade monitor output.
3. Like Antelope's Zen Studio (reviewed
October 2014) it offers an onboard DSP
chip that adds DSP mixing and effects. This
includes the company's new AuraVerb
reverb, which I should mention is now
available to Zen Studio owners as well!

RECORDING February 2016

On the plus side
The Orion32+ lives in the same stylish, minimal and modern 19" rackmount
enclosure as the original-the only visible difference is the new blue-green
metering in the central LCD display.
The rear of the unit is also virtually
unchanged, with one significant exception aside from the Thunderbolt port.
Like the original, all 32 analog ins and
outs are handled via TASCAM-style
DB25 connectors. There are also connections for ADAT, MADI, S/PDIF, and
Word Clock, and a pair of BNC connectors for interfacing with one of
Antelope's 10M series clocks. Where
the original Orion32 had four BNC
Word Clock outs, the Orion32+ offers
only two, making room for a pair of 1/4"
TRS output jacks for the mastering-grade
monitor outputs mentioned above.

These outputs make use of their own
output chipset, separate from the other
outputs on the unit. However, it should
be noted that this does not make the
Orion32+ a 32-in/34-out unit. The new
outputs simply offer an alternate, highquality stereo output choice.
Bringing the thunder
In addition to the custom Antelopedesigned USB 2.0 circuit (as on the original), the Thunderbolt circuit on the
Orion32+ is likewise a custom-designed
Antelope creation.
Thunderbolt means even lower latency
and lower buffer settings are now possible on the 32+. In Cubase (my DAW of
choice), the latency spec'ed out at
0.917 ms in and 0.646 ms out at a
buffer setting of 32, and 1.250 ms in
and 0.979 ms out at 64, both at 96
kHz. In plain english-it's freakin' fast!
Software and DSP
The Orion32+ plus sports a brand-new
control application. It still uses the dragand-drop routing matrix found on the
Orion32, but in improved form. It has a
black color scheme with bold routing
color blocks, and a new software mixer
section-4 DSP mixers, actually, which
include onboard EQ, compression, and
the new AuraVerb. This mixer is similar to
the one introduced on the Zen Studio.
Antelope now also uses a universal driver
that, once installed on your machine,
works with any and all Antelope devices.
Only the control apps are unit-specific.
As with the Zen Studio, on the
Orion32+ routing and setup are handled

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - February 2016