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anonymous 19 January 2009

Regarding ADAT, I'm still a bit confused as to it's benefits.
The new V-studio 700 by cakewalk (http://www.sonarvstudio.com/) claims 20 inputs... but only 8 are xlr/.25"... the rest are digital claimed under the ADAT port?

1) But you need an ad/da converter like the PreSonus firepod to actual make it an input channel... and for 8 channels max?

I'm considering the Vstudio but I have to wrap my arms around this first.

Can some one give me an example of what you have that can connect an additional 12 channels of audio through one ADAT or S/PDIF port directly.
Seriously, how do you have it hooked up?

I know I'm pretty old school.. I learned on consoles with 48 faders, records that used huge spools of tape, and everything was connected (including outboard gear) via XLR and 1/4".. but I'm not getting this ADAT thing.

Is what I said above not true? What's the benefit?

2) If you plugin a keyboard to the ADAT port, do you get individual channels of audio out of it? (Do keyboards and drum modules have ADAT ports now-a-days?)

3) Can ADAT be daisy chained like midi was supposed to be able to? So you can run your drum unit to another drum unit to a keyboard to a keyboard and then finally back to the v-studio? Is that the benefit? up to 12 separate channels of digital audio from multiple instruments into one port?

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Boswell Tue, 01/20/2009 - 05:09

An ADAT lightpipe input carries 8 channels of digital audio at 44.1 or 48 KHz. The channel count is progressively halved as you double the clock rates. You can't connect 12 channels via a single ADAT input.

To use an ADAT input you would need a pre-amp or an interface with an ADAT lightpipe output.

S/PDIF is a 2-channel digital protocol, not compatible with ADAT.

Add these channel counts up. I don't know where V-studio gets the figure of 20 channels from.

You can't plug a keyboard into an ADAT port.

You can't daisy-chain ADAT lightpipes.

Boswell Wed, 01/21/2009 - 02:56

AES/EBU and S/PDIF are pro and consumer versions of the same bitstream, so I don't think the V-700 has both - more likely switchable to be either one or the other.

Their specification-challenged site says "21/30 (19/24 simultaneous)" for number of I/O channels. My guess is that the difference between 19 and 21 is the AES/EBU to S/PDIF switch, although how the input channel count can be an odd number is almost as big a mystery as how they manage to count 30 output ports. The rear panel photo clearly shows 14 analog outs plus only one ADAT in and out. Presumably the "dual headphone output" is on the console, but it still doesn't add up.

anonymous Wed, 01/21/2009 - 05:06

There is one 1/4" input on the front of the board. That accounts for the odd number of inputs.

There are two headphone outputs on the front of the board as well.

My biggest red flag is the idea that adat counts as 8 inputs..... I see it as more of a port like firewire or USB. You have to have a ad/da interface that has 8 inputs of it's own in order to utilize the adat port.... But if you had that you could use a firewire port on your computer instead... so how can Cakewalk claim their adat port as extra inputs?... the inputs don't belong to them. Unless there is some other way to utilize the adat port that doesn't have to do with buying another interface and still utilizes all 8 inputs of the adat?

anonymous Wed, 01/21/2009 - 05:25

All Audio interface manufactures (that I have seen) seem to count ADAT as 8 inputs. Just take it for what it is.

Instead of an AD / DA converter you could also use an A to D such as the Presonus DigiMax. That way you don't spend any unnecessary money on the digital to analog half.

Most software only allow the use of one audio interface driver at a time, so if you got the V-Stuido and a Fire Pod, you would not be able to record from all of them simultaneously. However if you connect the ADAT out of a A to D to the V-Studio you now have 8 more analog inputs available for simultaneous recording.

There is a lot in there:
Sonar 8
Roland hardware synthesizer
Control surface with flying faders
Audio interface

If you can use everything bundled in the package, maybe it is worth the money.

anonymous Wed, 01/21/2009 - 05:49

GeckoMusic wrote: All Audio interface manufactures (that I have seen) seem to count ADAT as 8 inputs. Just take it for what it is.

Instead of an AD / DA converter you could also use an A to D such as the Presonus DigiMax. That way you don't spend any unnecessary money on the digital to analog half.

Most software only allow the use of one audio interface driver at a time, so if you got the V-Stuido and a Fire Pod, you would not be able to record from all of them simultaneously. However if you connect the ADAT out of a A to D to the V-Studio you now have 8 more analog inputs available for simultaneous recording.

There is a lot in there:
Sonar 8
Roland hardware synthesizer
Control surface with flying faders
Audio interface

If you can use everything bundled in the package, maybe it is worth the money.

Thanks! Great input

BobRogers Wed, 01/21/2009 - 11:02

xpesrx wrote: ...My biggest red flag is the idea that adat counts as 8 inputs....

As the others said - don't get put off by this. It is technically correct even though all of your objections are valid. Now that you know how to read the specs (and yes, all manufacturers count this way) just focus on finding the interface that works for you.

bwmac Wed, 03/04/2009 - 05:09

Boswell wrote: [quote=bwmac]My Motu 828 is the same way.
It has 8 1/4 I/O (16ports)
I dont use the SPDIF but if I wanted I could plug a mixer with SPDIF into it and get an extra 8 (correct?)

No, S/PDIF carries two channels only, both in its coax (electrical) form and optical form.

I'm not sure what you are saying here Boswell because I know for a fact that the Motu 828 mkll that I have does have SPDIF, now I can't sware by the amount of channels because I haven't used it but the factory says 8 optical, so please expand on what you mean.
thanks

Boswell Wed, 03/04/2009 - 07:23

bwmac wrote: I'm not sure what you are saying here Boswell because I know for a fact that the Motu 828 mkll that I have does have SPDIF, now I can't sware by the amount of channels because I haven't used it but the factory says 8 optical, so please expand on what you mean.
thanks

You are talking about two different things here. The 828 has both S/PDIF I/O and ADAT I/O.

S/PDIF is a 2-channel protocol, as I said in my previous post, and on the 828 is available in either electrical or optical formats.

The 828 also has ADAT optical lightpipe I/O in the form of two ADAT inputs and two ADAT outputs. Using both connectors gets you either 16 channels of audio at 44.1/48KHz or 8 channels (using the S-MUX scheme) at 88.2/96KHz.

Now the complicated bit. You can selectively route the S/PDIF I/O to use the optical connectors. If you do this, then those optical connectors are not available for ADAT usage, so the ADAT channel count goes down to 8 at the lower rates or 4 at the higher rates if one set of optical connectors is used for S/PDIF, or to zero ADAT channels if they are both used for S/PDIF.

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