Using digital i/o's

Kymeia · Post by **Kymeia** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 3:04 am

I'm planning to move a lot of my more CPU needy apps to my laptop soon as it's much more powerful than my DAW, and just use my DAW for mixing and audio, running Scope and hardware synths - but want a way to input the audio into my DAW so I can mix everything together. I will be using NI KORE as my audio interface for the laptop and my Luna (I have a Luna 2 and Pulsar 2) has a SPDIF in so I was thinking of using the digital audio out of KORE and into Scope - is this possible?

I've never used a digital out before - not sure how they work or even what sort of cable to use tbh.

firubbi · Post by **firubbi** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 4:38 am

Yes you can use 2ch spdif(slave). so you may mix everything in your 2nd pc than pass through spdif cable to your 1st pc( pulsar2).
check settings for clock:
master=Luna2
slave=pulsar2

thanks

lagoausente · Post by **lagoausente** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 4:58 am

I think there is also a network way to do it. I have asked it on Cubase forum, waiting for reply.

Kymeia · Post by **Kymeia** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 5:05 am

Yes you could use network approaches such as FX Teleport and Plasq Wormhole but then there's latency to contend with - personally I' d prefer just to feed the audio from my plugins PC diretly to my audio/mixing PC - seems like a simpler and more immediate approach if it will work.

lagoausente · Post by **lagoausente** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 5:11 am

digital conectino is as simpy as conect the Spdif output of your pc, to the spdif in on you luna, and put the Luna as Slave. Once it receives signal, the sample rate frequency will appear on the window.
Just must add a SPDIF module in the project window, and that´s all.

lagoausente · Post by **lagoausente** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 5:17 am

Can be used with wireless FX teleport?
I`m thinking about using the desktop as the UAD pluings rack, optionally to make mix, of process wavs from the laptop. Would be wonderfull if can use the wifi of the laptop to do this.
Latency woul be not the problem since UAD has latency itself.

Kymeia · Post by **Kymeia** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 8:42 am

I went to buy a cable - apparently there are 2 different types - optical and coaxial - which one do I need?

ali · Post by **ali** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 9:39 am

Optical SPDIF: this is when you use the ADAT I/O as optical spdif.

coaxial cables: when you use the Luna SPDIF in/out or Scope SPDIF in/ out.

I hope this is what you mean.

sharc · Post by **sharc** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 10:02 am

You need a coaxial S/PDIF cable to go from Kore to your Luna. You mention that you have a pulsar2. If this is in the same DAW as your Luna card you would be as well connecting to that...Luna S/PDIF connector is a stereo minijack which confuses things slightly with cabling. Whereas your Pulsar features S/PDIF i/o in the form of coaxial phono type connectors. So with the Pulsar you would simply need a standard coaxial S/PDIF cable going from the Kore (OUT) to your Pulsar (IN). Set Kore as Sync Master and Pulsar as Sync Slave. If you want to use the Luna S/PDIF your going to need a stereo minijack Y adaptor (stereo minijack > 2x phono) to get a coaxial S/PDIF connection.

Kymeia · Post by **Kymeia** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 12:39 pm

Thanks - looks like I'll have to use the Luna though - my Pulsar is the Plus version. Unless there's a connector to convert SPDIF to AES/EBU?

Kymeia · Post by **Kymeia** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 12:47 pm

Why a Y? Surely it would be better to have a stereo minijack to stereo Coaxial type adapter as I have a stereo cable and the Kore out is a single stereo one - not two mono? I've found a selection here with pictures that might help me - is there something here I should I go for?

http://www.audiogear.com/Audio-Adapters-Miniplug.html

Thanks again.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 1:12 pm

you should choose #6 (up from the very bottom) Stereo Mini Plug (3.5mm) Y'd to Left and Right RCA Jacks ,,Right Angle
the right angle will take the tension (cable weight) from the plug, never seen those before - it's the best solution

you can NOT use a regular stereo cable !
you will need 2 individual, digital audio certified, 75 Ohm cables - but you can try you stereo (it doesn't harm) as an exercise. You will experience at least a faint crackling noise, at least if the cable is longer than 2m.
2nd best choice are the yellow plugged RCA video cables from the hifi store

cheers, Tom

sharc · Post by **sharc** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 1:44 pm

you should choose #6 (up from the very bottom) Stereo Mini Plug (3.5mm) Y'd to Left and Right RCA Jacks ,,Right Angle
the right angle will take the tension (cable weight) from the plug, never seen those before - it's the best solution

Agreed, this is best solution for Luna S/PDIF. I've not seen these before either. Might buy a couple and finally reduce cable congestion (a little) round the back.

sharc · Post by **sharc** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 1:55 pm

...All this time I've been using one like #10 from the top. Add a couple of heavy S/PDIF cables to that thing and you've got a brick weight hanging off the back of your Luna.

I still wish they could have fitted standard (Coaxial) S/PDIF sockets on the Luna tho.

Kymeia · Post by **Kymeia** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 2:00 pm

astroman wrote:you should choose #6 (up from the very bottom) Stereo Mini Plug (3.5mm) Y'd to Left and Right RCA Jacks ,,Right Angle
the right angle will take the tension (cable weight) from the plug, never seen those before - it's the best solution
you can NOT use a regular stereo cable !
you will need 2 individual, digital audio certified, 75 Ohm cables - but you can try you stereo (it doesn't harm) as an exercise. You will experience at least a faint crackling noise, at least if the cable is longer than 2m.
2nd best choice are the yellow plugged RCA video cables from the hifi store

cheers, Tom

Thanks - have to see if I can find something like that here in UK (Maplins maybe). Then I'll need the two 75 ohm cables and some sort of converter to join them to one stereo plug for the KORE out.

Bit surprised about the crackling - I thought digital would mean a cleaner signal?

sharc · Post by **sharc** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 2:04 pm

Crackling shouldn't be there. Check your master & slave settings.

sharc · Post by **sharc** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 2:26 pm

If your sync settings (master/slave) are correct and you're using the proper SP/DIF cables other likely causes are:

1: poor quality Y-adapter

2: Scope doesn't like syncing to your NI Kore. I've had this problem before with the Noah using ADAT (1 wordclock in & 1 ADAT out. What's that all about

). 1x SyncPlate later and it works great (fortunately Noah syncs to external clock sources better than Scope). Anyway back to the Kore of the problem...if you have no option other than to use Kore as sync master and you can't get that to work for you, you could always try connecting Kore through another S/PDIF device (digital mixer/sample rate convertor/DAT machine....whatever) to improve sync.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 3:10 pm

Kymeia wrote:...Bit surprised about the crackling - I thought digital would mean a cleaner signal?

not when you send it through an audio cable (or any non-matching)

it's really worth a try to A/B a correct cable with a few wrong ones, you'll be amazed how wide the spectrum of changes is - and it trains your ears to (some) digital artifacts.
It's not always as spectacular as clear crackling (rather low loudness, tho), often just blurred or like a muddy distortion - I remember a particular one with exactly the background noise you get from a vinyl record after it has become wet and dried again...

cheers, Tom

Kymeia · Post by **Kymeia** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 9:14 am

Something's not right. Got the cables all connected now - chose HQ ones. Got KORE setup to route audio to it's digital out and have put a SPDIF source into my project. In the samplerate settings window when I click on the Sleve button next to the samplerate window the window starts flashing at 96khz. I have clicked the SPDIF button in that window too but not getting any sound. I've tried different samplerates but nothing.

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Sun Oct 29, 2006 2:00 pm

stupid question - did you try the other plug of the adaptor as well (one is in, the other out - the stereo pair is transmitted on a single line) ?
the samplerate is set at the sending side only (Kore), the slave adjusts it self automatically.

cheers, tom