ADAT confusion

[powerkor]

the facts:

I have a fostex vm88 with an adat lightpipe capiability. I have a hercules fortisimmo II sound card which has an optical-in connection which i use to hook up the fostex to. I currently then use adobe audition to record my tracks.

the problem:

I want to be able to record seperate tracks (up to 8). I'm a bit confused about this whole thing. I was told I need an ADAT interface for my computer. So, first, I assume it is a new sound card that has the capiability to split the light into seperate tracks. My next thought was, could it be just a program on the computer that can take the data coming in through the lightpipe and split them. This second idea, would be most idealistic, because it would surely save me some cash.

im confused about:

I don't understand why if the fortisimo II card can accept the lightpipe connection but why it can't split the data up. or why couldn't a program seperate the tracks... it sounds fesible, but probablly not how it works.

If I do have to get a new sound card with 8-track adat capibility, what brand/model do you recommend and what price should I try to stay under or come close to.

what I need:

I need someone to help me understand how the ADAT and lightpipe works or atleast the concept of it, so I can understand how the data is processed.

Please help

[Track Rat]

Here's where you're getting confused. The input of your soundcard is TOSLINK not ADAT. They share the same optical cable but that's all. TOSLINK is the optical form of S/PDIF which is stereo (dual mono or stereo) digital where ADAT is 8 discrete channels. You can either buy an ADAT compatible card or send your tracks into your recording software in the computer two tracks at a time and then drag them all into sync. It's a bitch doing it that way but it can be done.

[Cyrokk]

And if you do decide to send your tracks through the TOSLINK input, sync'ing each one individually, then I would recommend sending one of the tracks (preferably a click track or hi-hat track) through TOSLINK repeatedly with each of the other tracks in order to sync up with as little a hassle as possible.

For example: send the hi-hat to track 1, then the snare to track 2. Then send the hi-hat AGAIN to track 3 and then another track, say the kick to track 4.

You should have four tracks in the pc now, two of them hi-hat tracks with identical wave forms. Group the second hi-hat and snare (if not automatically grouped by the software) and match the two hi-hats up, and then delete the second hi-hat. Repeat this process for each of the other tracks.

Yeah, it's a pain because you are only sending one track at a time that you end up keeping, but at least you'll line up everything correctly with minimal guess work.

I have an ADAT lightpipe and an ADAT compatible card and I still have to do this because of latency problems.

[powerkor]

how much does a good adat compatible card cost and what are you're computer specs... will a good computer with lots of ram, fast processor still have this lag problem?

[Cyrokk]

Well, I have a RME Digi9636, which has two lightpipes and cost around $400. I suspect there are cards out there that are less, but I don't know what they are.

My system is:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP-1900+ [1.6 GHZ QuantiSpeed] 266 FSB CPU
2 hard drives: 60GB 7200 RPM ATA 100
Memory: 512 MB PC266 PC2100 DDR
Motherboard: ASUS A7N266

Latency is the only problem I have with my pc. Most recording software has an option called "Hardware Monitoring (zero latency)", or something like that. I have that option turned on and its still a problem which could be attributable to the recording buffers I have set in my system. So latency could be caused by not enough processing power, buffers, or something wrong in the software itself.

If you get an ADAT compatible card and send eight tracks through it, all eight tracks will sync together and you won't have this problem. It will only rear it's ugly head if you add other tracks to the same recording.

[powerkor]

ok, so if i get a adat card that can handle 8 tracks at once, i'll be fine?

[Cyrokk]

Yep, you should be ok.

[powerkor]

Is there any site or company which offers 8 track adat cards relatively cheap?