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I've got a Digi001 rig with a PreSonus Digimax as my mic preamp. I use the ADAT output on the Digimax into pro tools as to free up all the analog i/o's on the 001 for outboard gear/additional mics. My question is regarding converters vs external wordclocks. It's no secret that the converters in the 001 are less than impressive but I don't have the money to buy a Rosetta (apogee) or anything comperable. I've heard pretty good things about some of the various external wordclock generaters like the Lucid for example, and for the price it sounds like a worthy endeavor. Is it safe to say that I would hear imporvements during both record and playback if I went the wordclock route, or would I be better off saving up for a AD/DA conversion unit? Granted, the digimax is probably a fairly weak link in the chain as well, and has it's own converters, but it will be replaced soon.
Any suggestions would be greatlt appreciated. Danka!

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anonymous Wed, 09/10/2003 - 13:21

the digimax is probably a fairly weak link in the chain as well, and has it's own converters, but it will be replaced soon.

Is that bad the Digimax? what do you have? the LT? i`ve been thinking about buy one, and use the optical, i have a Focusrite voicemaster but i decided to buy the Digimax because the 8 inputs...isn`t an improve in matter of sound quality and conversion? please, i need an advice... :roll:

anonymous Thu, 09/11/2003 - 23:43

el_jamon,

from my point of view both devices, a separate AD/DA converter and a master clock, are essentials in a digital studio environment. But in the case that your budget is limited and you are unsatisfied with the results of your 001 converter I would recommend to concentrate on a new AD/DA at first. We also did a lot of comparisons with different AD/DAs and clocks. We found out that a master clock can improve the qualtity of an AD/DA considerably, for shure. But the largest differences were between poor and well engineered AD/DA designs. With regards to your current system I think the Rosetta or a similar would be really a good choice. In the case that Apogee develops good clock designs you can use the word clock out together with a (cost effective) clock distribution amp to synchronize your studio as well without investing in an expensive master clock additionally.

Maybe an alternative for you...?

Regards, Christian.

Doublehelix Fri, 09/12/2003 - 17:34

I have a Digimax (not the LT) that is clocked from a Lucid Genx8-96, and I have been using the ADAT outs with great results. The mic pres are really not that bad on the Digimax, and the A/D is also pretty good, especially when clocked with a good stable clock source.

Buy a clock and keep your Digimax for a while is my recommendation, but for truly "pro" results, you might want to think about adding a really high quality A/D in the future.

anonymous Sat, 09/20/2003 - 00:30

Thanks for all the feedback. I dunno' man, I'm torn. I can either spend $500 on the genx to clock my digimax...or spend $795 and do the 002 hardware exchange through digi. Everyone's saying the 002 is a huge improvement, better converters, PT6/32 tracks, etc. They're also saying "but you'll have to kiss all your plugz goodbye," which doesn't really concern me. My main hard-drive in my mac fried about 2 months ago so I've gotten used to all the stockplug-ins which I actually tend to favor for some reason anyway. Like I said earlier, there's a few other weak links, ie. my monitor amp, the digimax (don't get me wrong, it's a "bang for your buck" unit, but I need a better front end), and my mic cables and patchbay are shit! So...basically I've not yet made a decision...
we'll see. I suppose at some point I should try to remember that "they're just demos," but it's getting harder and harder to supress the geek in me. Thanks again, and if anyone wants to try and talk me out of buying the 002, I'm open to opinions.

AudioGaff Sat, 09/20/2003 - 04:46

Your likley to get much more for your money out of the 002 than the improvement you'll get from the genx. Also, the digi upgrade discount won't last long.

Not all units that have word clock input will greatly benifit from a better word clock because some units don't sync and/or re-clock as well as they do outputting their own internal clocks.