MADI (AES10)

showstack / protocols / madi

Also called Multichannel Audio Digital Interface, AES10.

A long-established AES standard for point-to-point transport of up to 64 channels of digital audio over a single coax (BNC) or fiber link, still widely used for touring FOH/monitor console splits, digital snakes, and broadcast/live-sound interconnects.

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Media Large, continuous, on time and in order

Continuous streams that are large enough to be sized properly, and that must arrive in order and on time.

What kills it. Anything that starves the link — usually a management transfer nobody scheduled — and jitter that outruns the receive buffer.

The four flows, and why the model is worth having →

What it carries

Sample rates: 48 kHz, 96 kHz
Audio bit depth: 24-bit
Audio channels: up to 64
Audio encoding: Linear PCM

Audio: 64 channels at 48 kHz on one coax or fibre, halving to 32 at 96 kHz. The channel count is fixed by the frame structure, so a MADI link is always the same bandwidth whether the channels carry audio or silence.

What goes wrong

Original AES10-1991 caps out at 56 channels at 48kHz; 64-channel and higher-sample-rate operation needs the AES10-2003/2008 revisions and matching gear.

Point-to-point only, with no built-in routing/addressing - multi-device MADI systems need external routers or matrix switchers.

Coax (75-ohm BNC) and optical (SC) variants are not interchangeable without a converter, and each has different maximum cable runs.

What speaks MADI (AES10) (16)

16 products — 14 hardware, 2 softwareshow all

Product	Direction	Notes
Pro Tools Avid	bidirectional	Via MADI interface hardware.
Waves SoundGrid Studio Waves Audio	bidirectional	Via SoundGrid interface hardware.
Allen & Heath dLive S7000 Allen & Heath	bidirectional	Via I/O card.
Allen & Heath SQ-6 Allen & Heath	bidirectional	Via option card.
Avid VENUE S6L-32D Avid	bidirectional	Via optional card.
Behringer X32 Behringer	bidirectional	Via optional expansion card.
DiGiCo Quantum 338 DiGiCo	bidirectional	Native MADI on the rear, the DiGiCo optical and coax stage-rack backbone.
DiGiCo SD12 DiGiCo	bidirectional	Optical and coaxial MADI.
DirectOut PRODIGY.MP DirectOut	bidirectional	Core format.
Ferrofish A32 Dante Ferrofish	bidirectional	Optical and coaxial MADI.
L-Acoustics P1 L-Acoustics	bidirectional	Depending on configuration.
Midas HD96-24 Midas	bidirectional	Via expansion card.
RTS ADAM Intercom Matrix RTS (Bosch)	bidirectional	Via cards.
SSL Live L550 Solid State Logic	bidirectional	Primary I/O transport.
Yamaha CL5 Yamaha	bidirectional	Via Mini-YGDAI card.
Yamaha RIVAGE PM7 Yamaha	bidirectional	Via HY card.

Sources

Understand the mechanism

Numbers that stand for signals

Something wrong, or missing?

Known gaps on this entry: default_ports, first_published, implementations, spec_url. If you can source one of them, that is a ten minute pull request.

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