Word Clock Questions

ad0lescnts

New member
1. Engineers always tell me word clock makes all the difference in the world in audio quality, and stability of pro tools. what do you guys think?

2. Can you daisy chain a digi 002 (no BNC connectors) to a big ben (one in/one out ADAT) AS WELL AS an external 8 channel ADA converter to get 16 channels clocked from the big ben? or since it is ADAT will it only clock the original 8 channels from the digi 002. I see that the new digi 003's have ADAT and BNC, and that really seems to be the only advantage to spending the extra money on the 003 instead of the 002. But if you can use an external word clock and use external converters at the same time with an 002 then that would be great.

Let me know thanks!
 
1. Engineers always tell me word clock makes all the difference in the world in audio quality, and stability of pro tools. what do you guys think?

2. Can you daisy chain a digi 002 (no BNC connectors) to a big ben (one in/one out ADAT) AS WELL AS an external 8 channel ADA converter to get 16 channels clocked from the big ben? or since it is ADAT will it only clock the original 8 channels from the digi 002. I see that the new digi 003's have ADAT and BNC, and that really seems to be the only advantage to spending the extra money on the 003 instead of the 002. But if you can use an external word clock and use external converters at the same time with an 002 then that would be great.

Let me know thanks!

1. Whilst have an uber-stable word clock will improve audio quality, we've got to keep things in proportion. as homerecorders, i think that there are loooaads of other things to consider (in terms of audio quality bottlenecks) before looking at clock stability.

2. I'm not quite sure of how you've got things pliugged in here...is this correct?:

ext 8chADC--->002<---> Big Ben

the 002 *should* be able to use world clock from the ADAT input, and your 8ch ADC should be able to sync off the 002 provided that your sending to an input as well..otherwise it should have a BNC which you could hook up from the Big Ben?


To be honest with you there's a huge problem with daisy-chaining word clock signals. when a machine is clocking externally, the incoming clock signal goes thru a PLL (Phase-locked loop) which basically acts as a flywheel to try and eliminate any jitter from the incoming signal. Let's say, hypothetically, you had the word clock signal flowing in your rig as follows:

big Ben-->002-->8ch ADC

by the time the 8ch ADC receives and "implements" the word clock, it is effectively 3rd generation clock signal having gone thru a minimum of 2 flywheel stages. Of course, the final clock that your 8chADC receives has been reconstituted by the 002's PLL. Which means, therefore, if your 002 has a shite PLL your bigben's clock signal will be completely mashed up.

If you really want to clock externally, go for a star-shaped distribution method, like this:

002<---bigben--->8ch ADC



Generally, it is always recommended to sync to the clock closest to your AD's when you're tracking....
 
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