Assigning Master Clock to which Device?

C

Codeseven

New member
Hi guys.

Sorry, I've done a Search, theres' a ton of posts on this topic, but I still find it confusing :(

Anyhow, I'm recording guitar and vocals into Garageband. I have 4 main devices I'm using. A 2008 MacBook Pro, TC Helicon Voicelive Play GTX, Presonsus Firepod and Fender Mustang amp. My signal path is.....Guitar-> MBP via Rocksmith USB, Voice Mic->TC Helicon via XLR, TC Helicon-> MBP via USB, MBP->Firepod via firewire 400, Firepod-> Amp via 1/8" stereo cable into AUX.

There are a couple caveats to why everything is connected this way. On my laptop the headphone jack is old and loose so due to poor connection I cannot use it for audio in or out. I could connect both the Guitar and Voice Mic to the TC Helicon and run two XLR cables from it to the Firepod (in Dual Mono) but I thought it better to have only a one way path on the firewire from the MBP rather than two way to and from it. Also, on the TC Helicon, I'm using it's USB to the laptop because I can't use it's headphone out to my laptops crappy headphone jack. I want to establish the fewest connections and shortest signal path to avoid latency issues of course.

That does leave me with using different modes of signal transport with different capablilities to think about, 1/8" stereo cable, USB, XLR and Firewire 400.

I see in Audio Devices on my laptop that I can choose which device is the master clock but that's the point at which I need help from you guys.

Also.....there's the issue of Hz/bit rates. Shouldn't all devices be set at the same Hz/bit rate, if possible? My Firepod is capable of 96Hz/24 bit, TC Helicon is 24 bit, ? Hz, I believe my MBP is capable of 96Hz/24bit but the Rocksmith USB is only 44Hz/16bit.

Thanks
 
Why, again, aren't you making more use of the firepod? Seems like running your XLR outs from the Helicon and running your guitar straight through either channel 1 or 2 on that unit (Mic/Line specified) would make it a lot more streamlined and leave you a few open USB ports for something else. Then all you'd have to specify is the presonus as the master clock.
 
pikingrin said:
Why, again, aren't you making more use of the firepod? Seems like running your XLR outs from the Helicon and running your guitar straight through either channel 1 or 2 on that unit (Mic/Line specified) would make it a lot more streamlined and leave you a few open USB ports for something else. Then all you'd have to specify is the presonus as the master clock.
Click to expand...

Kinda tough to argue with that. I did have it connected that way before but still had the question of who to assign Master Clock to.
 
I'm by far not an expert, keep that in mind, but I would think that it would be best to use the interface as the master clock because that's essentially where all of the AD/DA conversion goes on. I may be way off though...hopefully someone else will chime in and shed some more light on the situation.
 
pikingrin said:
I'm by far not an expert, keep that in mind, but I would think that it would be best to use the interface as the master clock because that's essentially where all of the AD/DA conversion goes on. I may be way off though...hopefully someone else will chime in and shed some more light on the situation.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your help.

I hooked everything back to what your suggestion is. It is pretty clean looking with just the firewire cable connected to my MBP. Since it's the old Firepod and not the newer Firestudio, I can only set the Clock via the Presonus software to 'Device'. On the laptop in Audio Devices I can set the Firepod as 'Device' and set it at 44z/24bit, same as Garageband outputs. The only device lower than that is the TC Helicon which is 44hz/16bit as it goes into the Firepod.
 
If the helicon is just running in via XLR, the clock setting shouldn't matter as all it's transmitting is audio signal. Should work just fine though.
 
Ended up with a pretty clean and more 'correct' looking signal chain.

Guitar-> TC Helicon, Voice MIC-> TC Helicon, TC Helicon-> Firepod, Firepod-> MBP, MBP-> Firepod, Firepod-> Amp.
(1/4"-1/4" TS)-> (XLR)-> (1/4"-1/4" TS and XLR)-> (Firewire 400)-> (Firewire 400)-> (1/4"-1/4" TRS)

The other changes I made were going from the Firepod's Main CR Output rather than it's Headphone out, and using the Amps 1/4" 'FX Return' (Line Level Input) rather than it's 1/8" 'AUX' input (typically for Mp3 players) from the Firepod. Also, I set both the Firepod and Garageband to match at 44Hz/24bit (best that GB will output) with the Firepod as Master Clock.

All is well :)
 
Glad to hear it worked out for you! :thumbs up:

44hz/24bit is good enough resolution for home recording stuff; still beats CD quality by a smidge if my math is right.
 
pikingrin said:
Glad to hear it worked out for you! :thumbs up:

44hz/24bit is good enough resolution for home recording stuff; still beats CD quality by a smidge if my math is right.
Click to expand...

Thanks again.

Ya, 44/24 is alright, the limiting factor being Garageband (I had read on a Presonus forum that the Audio Interface and DAW had to match up in Hz/bits). I might end up going back to Reaper which I'm sure has a better output rating.
 
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