flying tracks via litepipe

  • Thread starter Thread starter bevins
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bevins

New member
I have a Fostex D-90,
I've been recording with the eight tracks, then output audio and recording on my sblive. I want to try digital transfer. I baought a litepipe to spdif converter and got the cables. Basically can someone go over how to transfer the tracks digitally to my sblive?

Thanks in advance

Bob Bevins
bevins@videotron.ca
 
I could be wrong but I was under the impression that a Lightpipe to S/PDIF transfer was going to result in only 2-channel digital output. S/PDIF is a 2-channel digital protocol.

Bruce Valeriani
Blue Bear Sound
 
Hi Bruce,

SPDIF is a two channel protocol. I only have two channels on my sblive. I will have to transfer 4 times to get all eight tracks on my sblive. After reading lots of posts here, I figured I would get a better sound if I went the digital route. I wouldn't have to make an extra pass on the D/A A/D converters. Especially the ones on the sblive.

Bob
 
S/PDIF vs. Light Pipe

S/PDIF is two ch. Also, the connectors on the
Fostex are propbably RCA Optical cable and the sound card is
probably Cox with a Minature plug. There maybe compatability problems.
There are some very inexpensive cards out there now that are ADAT Light pipe (8 track/channell). This allows complete trans. easily.


Hope this helps.


Musically

Terry
 
spdif vs litepipe

I allready have the box ( CO2{midiman}) and cables that converts litepipe to rca coax spdif. The sblive has rca spdif connectors. I just need to know how to do the transfer. In n-tracks I don't see where it says anything about spdif.
How do you setup n-tracks to transfer the digital data?
I realize I will only have the capability to transfer two tracks at a time.
Bob
 
I don't know n tracks but I would think:
Set N tracks to record mode....set
synce as computer slave....
Go into record mode....you'll probably get some message saying waiting for sync....
start Fostex and computer should start....
The Sync will probably have to be MIDI or SMPTE I don't think there's a Word Clock Connector on the Fostex....
the S/PDIF may supply it's own sync

Terry
 
Dumb question here: is litepipe the same as the optical connection used on, say, my cd player? In other words, is the same type cable used?

Brian

[Edited by Brian Ferrell on 02-20-2001 at 14:51]
 
TC- What are the cards?

TC-
You mention some cheaper cards with ADAT optical in. Can you post some of them, and any specific knowledge you have of them. I want to make sure I can get one to import from a VF16 before I buy the VF.
Thanks,
Jeff
 
Re ADAT I/O Cards

The Dakota by Frontier Designs
The RME Hammerfall Card
I also believe the Ego Sys Cards have optinal ADAT
The Soundscape Mixtreme also has an ADAT Opt.

Terry Cano
 
Also, Mixtreme made a "2000 Power PakBundle" version of mixtreme that includes a lot of software www.novamusic.com has a power Pak version that includes an ouboard analog to Digital box(aio-3 or somthing) that comes with the bundle. A lot of people use analog around here so this may be a good option.
Chuck
 
We ordered the Mixtreme with the ADAT option. I also have a digital mixer with ADAT out if needed.
We didn't get the power pack....didn't seem much in the software.
I'm looking forward to the card. It's becoming a standard.

Terry
 
I use the RME Hammerfall to fly 16 tracks simultaneously from my Fostex D1624 to my DAW and vice-versa. I do low-level sync to word clock, but have tried syncing to the extracted clock from the ADAT optical stream instead once or twice, just to see if it works. It does- the Hammerfall must have a *righteous* PLL design, because it locks right up, and stays locked. This might be worth thinking about if the VF16 doesn't have word clock capabilities: otherwise, getting glitch-free sample sync might be a problem.

I use Cubase 5, and have it set up for MTC for high-level sync and machine control. It's very nice to punch go in Cubase, and have the 1624 sync up to the MIDI stuff in Cubase properly, first time and every time... I'm relatively new to this DAW stuff, but using timecode sync is opening up a lot of unexpected possibilites for me. Anyway, the Hammerfall certainly has performed *extremely* well for me in my short experience. It ain't cheap by any means, but it works well- and leaves some room for future growth.

The one thing that it does not have is any A/D-D-A capability. So, for monitoring out of Cubase (and for MIDI I/O), I also have an Audiophile 2496. I set it up with its SPDIF I/O patched externally to the Hammerfall's SPDIF ports, and use its patchbay software to just run its analog I to the SPDIF O and vice-versa: basically just using it as a converter box and MIDI interface, and not as a sound card per se. Works for me...

Maybe one of these days I'll get good enough at Cubase to figure out how to use both soundcards simultaneously, since my first efforts didn't get the job done... (;-) Haven't had the time to invest in that just yet, though: I wanted to track, not type!

And for Brian, and anybody else who wonders: The ADAT optical cable is identical to the consumer TOSLINK optical stuff. Thank gawd... The same optical cable can be used in any of the current ADAT/SPDIF/Dolby AC3/whatever applications. However, just because the cable fits doesn't mean that you'll get full utility: plugging an 8-channel ADAT output into a 2-channel SPDIF input will certainly not get you 8 channels, as was mentioned above. And I understand that running an ADAT stream into a Dolby AC3 port will get you 5.1 channels of glorious, fullscale white noise... I haven't confirmed that one for myself, though. (;-)

The TOSLINK optical cable is the 1/4" guitar cable of the future, looks like.
 
Ok, thanks Skippy. I recently purchased a Hoontech C-Port with optical I/O on the daughterboard. $416.00 including shipping from Korea to Pennsylvania. Not bad for 10/10 I/O and 24bit /96khz recording, outboard AD/DA converters and phantom power on two XLR inputs. They even threw in an optical cable at no extra cost! Now, like you, all I have to do is find the time to figure out how to use it. ;-)
Brian
 
Skippy,
Congratulations on choosing RME. I've even seem some Pulsar defectors going for RME over at the CreamWare site. And welcome to Computer magic or sometimes Computer mystery. Did you go to the RME-audio.com site and look at their optimizing tips. While you're there, check out the ADI-8DS converter. It does ADAT and TDIF at 96K. Rather than using a bunch of dsp units like Pulsar, RME designs on the inevitable super power of future PCs to process anything.
I did have a little scare with my D824 when it stopped recording. I realized that when "Record protect" is on it won't record. I'm working on a new song: "I'm not quite as stupid as I used to be, but there ain't many people more stupid than me... Graduated 64 out of 65, the girl behind me was barely alive.." If I was any smarter, I could finish it and record it.
Chuck
 
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