Wordclock problems?

[bhodgson0739]

Hi all... I'm having some issues with my new set-up... I got the Apogee clock card. It's set to internal. I have an RME hammerfall 9652... I can set it to Autosync, master, or Wordclock. Any way it's clocked (Autosync or Wordclock), I have noise bursts, distortion on tracks 9-18... 1-8 work great.

I use the Mackie to record to Samplitude, then monitor playback back out the Adats to individual channels on the mixer... Adats 1-8 panned hard left and right respectively, same with 9-16 and 17-24. I haven't tested 17-24 yet as I am only mixing an average of 12 tracks right now.

Slot Tape 1-8 on the mixer is the OPT-8 card, both Slot Tape 9-16 and Slot 17-24 are DIO-8... both second cards are set to ADAT on the D8B... I am not syncing with BNC, but through ADAT and my RME control panel says I have sync. No matter whether I try Autosync or Wordclock in the RME control panel, and no matter which unit I power on first, I have either constant noise or distorted bursts on tracks 9-16 . Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Thank you!
Brad

[anyhorizon]

ADAT W/C Sync is notoriously inconsistent. I would use the RME BNC W/C out (set to master) into the d8b Apogee W/C in via a 75 Ω BNC cable and set the d8b to "Wordclock" (external). Alternatively, if you use the d8b in standalone mode and the RME is not switched on, you could run it the other way, ie 75 Ω BNC out of Apogee, d8b set to internal, into RME BNC in set to "Wordclock" (external).

Just as a matter of mentioning, the DIO 8 cards are gonna deliver and receive signal from your RME at opposite polarity to your OPT 8. It might be worth getting another 2 OPT 8 cards for the sake of consistency.

Peter

[bhodgson0739]

Hi Peter,

Thank you for the response... I'll get the BNC and see if that helps...

Just as a matter of mentioning, the DIO 8 cards are gonna deliver and receive signal from your RME at opposite polarity to your OPT 8. It might be worth getting another 2 OPT 8 cards for the sake of consistency.

I'm sorry, I don't understand this... what does that mean and how will that affect me/the recording process? Is this in regards to phase problems?

[fishtail]

This does get kinda messy. The dio cards send out the signal with the polarity reveresed, but rereverse it on the way back in. The opt8 does no such tom foolery. Problems with this is that if you send 9-24 into your daw, then decide to reroute them into the opt8 card, then the polarity will be reversed. On the data base there is info on the problems of the dio card. I guess you can decide if you want to spend any extra money on cards, but its best to work with three of the same cards for lack of confusion in the powerful routing capabilities of the d8b. Also, when you pull your dio cards out make sure they are version 2 or 2.1, otherwise you might have to ditch them. There is an eprom chip in there that will verify which version you have. version 1 is 16 bit. I don't know if those eprom updates are still avalailable, but chances are that they will be hard to find.