Syncing s/pdif devices, S/pdif devices with no word clock, S/pdif devices with word clock – MOTU 828x 28x30 Audio Interface with ThunderTechnology User Manual

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I N S T A L L I N G T H E 8 2 8 X H A R D W A R E

SYNCING S/PDIF DEVICES

S/PDIF devices will sync to the 828x in one of two
ways:

■

Via the S/PDIF connection itself

■

Via word clock

S/PDIF devices with no word clock

If your S/PDIF device has no word clock sync
connectors, just connect it to the 828x via the
S/PDIF connectors. When the device records
S/PDIF audio (from the 828x), it will simply
synchronize to the clock provided by the audio
input.

On the other hand, when you transfer audio from
the S/PDIF device into the 828x, you’ll have to slave
the 828x to its S/PDIF input. If you have other
digital audio devices connected to the 828x, and
they are not slaved directly to the 828x itself, you
may hear clicks and pops resulting from their
unsynchronized audio clock. If so, just turn them
off during the transfer.

S/PDIF devices with word clock

If your S/PDIF device has a Word Clock input, slave
the S/PDIF device to the 828x via their word clock
connection. You can then freely transfer audio
between the 828x and the S/PDIF device.

S/PDIF

DAT deck

or other S/PDIF device

828x

Clock Source setting =

Internal

(when transferring from the

828x to the S/PDIF device)

Figure 4-16: Two setups for synchronizing an S/PDIF device with the 828x. In the top diagram, sync is achieved via the S/PDIF connection itself.
In this case, you have to choose S/PDIF as the 828x’s clock source when recording from the S/PDIF device. If you don’t want to have to worry
about switching the Clock Source setting depending on the direction of the S/PDIF transfer, you can slave the S/PDIF device to word clock from
the 828x or vice versa (not shown). The Word Clock connection maintains sync, regardless of the direction of the transfer.

828x

Clock Source setting =

S/PDIF

(when transferring from

the S/PDIF device to the 828x)

SPDIF

DAT deck

or other SPDIF device

828x

Word Clock Out

Word Clock In

828x

Clock Source setting =

Internal

With this setup, in the MOTU Audio Console window, choose

Internal

, or any other

clock source setting except SPDIF. The DAT deck (or other SPDIF device) slaves to the
828x via word clock for SPDIF transfers in both directions.