PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

Hi all!

I plan on expanding my Luna setup, mainly for multitrack recording. I plan to buy Scope ADAT I/O expansion board and three or four 8-channel AD/DA converters. I want to be able to send 16 channels to my mixer and recieve at least 8 channels back to comp.

What is bugging me is this. Do I have to buy sync plate board also to send wordclock from computer to every converter?

What would happen if I don't have my converters connected to each other with sync (BNC) cable? Would that affect the sound? I know I would definitely need sync plate if I was to work with ADATs, to keep tapes iny sync, but I don't plan to record on tapes. My concern is if I would benefit from having wordclock sent to every converter. Would that improve overall sound? Would I have clicks'n'pops if I don't have syncplate board?

Cheers!


Shot

Yes I believe you do need one. Without a common clock you will experience jitter-problems.

jitter isn't 'clicks and pops'
simplyfied it's a phase distortion of the signal because the clock pulse points to the wrong part of the wave.
it's inevitable by nature because the pulses have a more than infinetely small duration - and it has been reported that (almost) completely jitter free signals do not even sound good

wouldn't a A16ultra at ZLInk do exactly what you want ?

otherwise we're talking about a 10% improvement of the sound costing 90% of the investment...

cheers, Tom

no, you don't have to buy a sync plate. just make sure that you have only one master and that everything else is set to slave.

Thanks for all the answers!

Now my next quiestion is - I don't have to buy sync plate, but if I buy the sync plate would my sound change (for better, hopefully)?? Wordclock... maybe... what do you think... (if you have any experience...)

yes, if you get a good wordclock generator(i use a nanoclocks) the sync plate is great. if you don't have the syncplate, you'll still get great sound. a really good wordclock generator is another level.