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I am doing a bunch or live recording this summer and am multi-tracking to an HD24. For backup & reference I am also recording CDs on a TDK DA-5900 CD recorder. For this I am sub mixing L/R FOH with 3+ AUD mics onto CD. I was trying to take my resulting 2 mix out of a 16-channel Mackie VLZ into my DigiMax FS in hopes that the optical out into the TDK would help my AD conversion rather than use the TDK analog ins. questions:
1. Has anyone had success with this setup and is the DigiMax conversion worth it.
2. For some reason, the TDK recorder shows a "D-Unlock" error when selecting optical as the input mode not allowing me to get signal in.

Thoughts anyone? Thanks in advance!

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Comments

TheJackAttack Sun, 04/26/2009 - 16:07

Make sure that your Digimax is set to slave and not master. I'm sure your consumer TDK cd copier does not have any user accessible word clock functions.

Additionally, the TDK unit won't understand the spdif unless it is in the format the TDK wants. This is likely 16/44.1. Sending it 24 bit or anything higher than 44.1 will be ineffectual.

Boswell Mon, 04/27/2009 - 06:57

Being an 8-channel pre-amp, the Digimax FS has ADAT optical output. The TDK recorder is 2-channel (stereo), expecting S/PDIF optical protocol. Connecting the two with an optical cable is not going to work directly. Short of getting a box that will perform ADAT-S/PDIF conversions (such as the discontinued M-Audio SAM), you may be stuck with using the analog inputs of the TDK.

As an aside, S/PDIF is an adaptive format, and should cope with 16, 20 or 24-bit wordlengths at whatever frame rate is transmitted. The sample (frame) rate can theoretically go up to 192KHz, but it's up to individual pieces of gear what rates they will accept.

TheJackAttack Mon, 04/27/2009 - 07:16

Good catch. I read optical but "knew" that the cd player had to be a spdif config. From there it was a quick hop to morphing optical into rca. Boo. 100 incentive pushups for me!

Spdif itself may be adaptive as a protocol, but my experiences with consumer end stereo gear (hifi or not) tells me that the receiving electronics are pretty finicky in what they understand with regards either coax or optical spdif.

At any rate, we are in agreement that 8 channels of optical ADAT aren't going to be converted and understood by the 2 channel optical S/PDIF cd copier.

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