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anonymous 12 March 2004

Help me sort out my wordclock-situation. The gear:

- G4 Mac
- RME Digi9652 soundcard (3*ADAT I/O, S/PDIF I/O, wordclock I/O)
- Apogee Rosetta 24/96 AD
- Apogee DA16 24/96 DA
- Lucid ADA1000

I'm not having any problems with the setup, I'm more thinking of possible ways to improve. As it is now, the RME is the masterclock and the Apogees get the clock through the lightpipe connections. The (older) Lucid is only used for two extra analog outputs (spdif) and is clocked in that very same way. Works fine.

Since the Rosetta has a wordclock output I'm thinking about using that as the masterclock. Question: If I connect the WC output of the Rosetta to the WC input of the RME, and the WC output of the RME to the WC input of the DA16, would these be properly clocked ? In other words what's coming out of the RME's WC output when the RME is clocked to the Rosetta ? And would the ADA1000 (which has no WC-connections) still get the clock via spdif, but this time the Apogee-clock ?

Hope you're following...help appreciated. Thanx.

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Comments

sdevino Fri, 03/12/2004 - 08:12

The pass through on the RME may or may not be buffered. You would have to ask RME to be sure or open it up and look.

I would get a word clock distribution amp send the Apogeee WC to it and then send WC from it to the others in parallel. The Lucid running off the S/DIF will be OK but I would not use it for anything where a really clear and well defined high frequency is needed. Same for the converters you are referencing to the ADAT inputs. ADAT is OK but it is also noisy (jittery) which will tend to smear the high frequencies at the converters.

Steve

anonymous Wed, 03/17/2004 - 05:01

Marcus Black wrote: Thanks. Any good WC-distribution amps you can recommend ?

Marcus,

we at MUTEC are manufacturing a word clock distribution amp and converter box which is called DISTRIBUTOR ws. You can have a look at their specs at:

http://www.mutec-net.de/content.php?lng=e&pg=dws

This distribution amp could meet your requirements. It consist of 8 word clock outputs which are adjustable in pairs to output word clock or super clock simultaneously - not depending which reference signal comes in! Furthermore you can extract word clocks out of AES/EBU or S/PDIF signals. The DISTRIBUTOR ws has an internal power supply. If you need further details, please let me know.

Hope this email will not violate the regimentations of this forum.

Regards, Christian.

anonymous Mon, 03/22/2004 - 08:38

Greetings :)

I have a quite similar setup.

RME9652
Apogee DA-16
Apogee Trak-2

I wordlock the system by using the Trak 2 as the master, feeding both the RME and the DA-16. ( Using a BNC T-Connector at the RME, to split off to the DA-16.

I apreciate that using a T-connector on the Wordclock cable might not be the best way of doing it, but it works great, and buying a high quality WC distribution amp for a simple 1 to 2 split isn't a good economics for me.

Paul

anonymous Thu, 03/25/2004 - 23:53

Paul Woodlock wrote:
...I apreciate that using a T-connector on the Wordclock cable might not be the best way of doing it, but it works great, and buying a high quality WC distribution amp for a simple 1 to 2 split isn't a good economics for me...

Paul,

I agree with you in general for your set-up. But Marcus inquired for his set-up which consists of some more units and I think in his situation a distribution amp is not uneconomically. Please note that you will receive losses in clock signal quality at any time, whether your studio consists of three or ten devices, when using T-connectors.

Regards, Chris.

Doublehelix Fri, 03/26/2004 - 05:22

Christian Peters wrote: [quote=Paul Woodlock]
...I apreciate that using a T-connector on the Wordclock cable might not be the best way of doing it, but it works great, and buying a high quality WC distribution amp for a simple 1 to 2 split isn't a good economics for me...

Paul,

I agree with you in general for your set-up. But Marcus inquired for his set-up which consists of some more units and I think in his situation a distribution amp is not uneconomically. Please note that you will receive losses in clock signal quality at any time, whether your studio consists of three or ten devices, when using T-connectors.

Regards, Chris.

Also, when "daisy chaining" units together like that, you can get some reclocking issues. Some devices son't just pass through the clock signal that they receive, but *regenerate* it from thier own internal clock. This can lead to inconsistencies, plus latency.

My advice as has been mentioned, buy either a master clock with muliple outs, or a distribution piece. Well worth the investment.

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