RME Fireface UCX II 40-Channel USB-B Audio/MIDI Interface - Manual (Page 45)

User's Guide Fireface UCX II © RME
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21.3 SPDIF (Coaxial, Optical)
The Fireface UCX II has up to three SPDIF inputs and outputs: coaxial, optical and AES can be
used simultaneously, with different audio signals. Note that the sources have to be synchronous,
as the unit does not have a dedicated sample rate converter.
The SPDIF coaxial input accepts SPDIF and AES/EBU, Consumer as well as Professional for-
mat.
To receive signals in AES/EBU format,
an adapter cable is required. Pins 2 and
3 of a female XLR plug are connected
individually to the two pins of a phono
plug. The cable shielding is connected to
pin 1 of the XLR and the ground contact
of the phono plug.
The optical input automatically switches to SPDIF operation when such a signal is detected. The
audio information is then shown in TotalMix on the first two ADAT channels ADAT 1/2, which are
channels 13 and 14.
SPDIF coaxial Output
Apart from the audio data itself, digital signals in SPDIF or AES/EBU format have a header con-
taining channel status information. False channel status is a common cause of malfunction. The
Fireface UCX II ignores the received header and creates a totally new one for the output signal.
The output SPDIF coaxial can have the Channel Status Consumer or Professional, changed in
the Settings dialog. When selecting Professional, the carrier level is also doubled for better
AES/EBU compatibility.
Operation as second AES/EBU Output
Professional AES/EBU equipment can be connected to the output SPDIF coaxial thanks to its
format option
Professional and a doubled output voltage. Output cables should have the same
pinout as those used for input (see above), but with a male XLR plug instead of a female one.
SPDIF optical output
To send out SPDIF from the optical output, select the option Output Format Optical – SPDIF in
the Settings dialog. The output signal in TotalMix has to be present on the ADAT channels 1/2.
Note that most consumer HiFi equipment (with optical or phono SPDIF inputs) will only ac-
cept signals in ‘Consumer’ format!
Therefore in SPDIF mode the optical output is fixed to Consumer status.
21.4 MIDI
Fireface UCX II offers one MIDI I/O via two 5-pin DIN sockets. The MIDI ports are added to the
system by the driver. Using MIDI capable software, these ports can be accessed under the
name
UCX II MIDI Port .
The MIDI ports support multi-client operation. A MIDI input signal can be received from several
programs at the same time. Even the MIDI output can be used by multiple programs simultane-
ously. However, due to the limited bandwidth of MIDI, this kind of application will often show
various problems.
Note: The MIDI input indicator displays any kind of MIDI activity, including MIDI Clock, MTC and
Active Sensing. The latter is sent by most keyboards every 0.3 seconds.