MOTU 8Pre Question

[Berberman]

I've been running an 8pre on Logic Pro 8 via Firewire, Mac OSX 10.6.1, and just bought a Behringer ada8000 that I've connected via ADAT.

logic sees all 8 mic input from the MOTU 8pre as well as all the 8 inputs from the Behringer. I am getting a signal on the behringer so I know my mic cable is fine, but I am not getting anything from it on Logic. I wonder if I have the ADAT connected properly to the 8pre.

- What is the difference between running an ADAT Cable from the Behringer's OUT, to the MOTU 1-8 IN, or 5-8 IN? Neither have given me a signal on Logic by the way but I'd like to know the difference. ( see http://www.sweetwater.com/store/closeup/8pre--rear.jpg )

- Where can I get my hand on a User Manual for the 8pre? (I lost mine when I moved) Motu.com does not seem to have it...

Thanks for your help.

 

[Lo-Fi Mike]

hmm

I've been running an 8pre on Logic Pro 8 via Firewire, Mac OSX 10.6.1, and just bought a Behringer ada8000 that I've connected via ADAT.

logic sees all 8 mic input from the MOTU 8pre as well as all the 8 inputs from the Behringer. I am getting a signal on the behringer so I know my mic cable is fine, but I am not getting anything from it on Logic. I wonder if I have the ADAT connected properly to the 8pre.

- What is the difference between running an ADAT Cable from the Behringer's OUT, to the MOTU 1-8 IN, or 5-8 IN? Neither have given me a signal on Logic by the way but I'd like to know the difference. ( see http://www.sweetwater.com/store/closeup/8pre--rear.jpg )

- Where can I get my hand on a User Manual for the 8pre? (I lost mine when I moved) Motu.com does not seem to have it...

Thanks for your help.

it might be somewhere in the control panel interface, I'll check tomorrow..

-mike-

 

[dgatwood]

Make sure you have the ADAT turned on and that you have the 8Pre set to slave its clock to the Behringer's output via ADAT (external sync).

AFAIK, you need to always run the signal to the first ADAT input unless you're in 88 kHz or faster sampling rate (e.g. S/MUX mode), in which case you'd hook up two connections, one for the first four channels, one for the other four.

 

[mattr]

You only mention one ADAT cable... how are you clocking the ADA8000 to the 8pre?

 

[Berberman]

Make sure you have the ADAT turned on and that you have the 8Pre set to slave its clock to the Behringer's output via ADAT (external sync). AFAIK, you need to always run the signal to the first ADAT input unless you're in 88 kHz or faster sampling rate (e.g. S/MUX mode), in which case you'd hook up two connections, one for the first four channels, one for the other four.

I wish I had the manual to know what you are talking about.
-Is there a way to turn on the ADAT? I just pluged it in and LOGIC does see all 8 additional channels.
-How do I slave the 8 pre's clock to the Behringer?
-When you say you need to always run the signal to the first ADAT input, you mean the upper on?

I only have one ADAT cable going from the Behringer's OUT to the 8 pre's IN. Should I have another cable?

 

[mattr]

Probably best to slave the Behringer to the 8pre.

(...though having said that, I seem to recall discussions once somewhere on 'teh interwebs, probably Gearslutz, that ADA8000 had a fairly good clock in it. The next I heard of that howevew was that the converters in the Behri were actually quite good and sounded great when synced to a decent clock - quite contradictory to the first discussion! Probably neither of the discussions were true, but still; the ADA8000 is great for what you pay for it...)


Anyway, the easiest way to sync the two is to run another ADAT cable from the output of the 8pre into the input of the ADA8000. This lets the Behringer sync to the clock signal included in the ADAT output of the 8pre. It also gives you another 8 balanced XLR outputs from your computer as a little benefit on the side The sync switch on the back of the ADA8000 needs to be set to Slave - ADAT. The sync locked light on the front of the Behringer unit should be lit if everything is set up correctly and on.

The first ADAT i/o on the 8pre does refer to the upper set.

The second (lower) set is used when connecting compatible equipment in s/mux mode, which allows 4 channels of 96khz audio to be transferred on one ADAT cable (hence the need for two connectors for 8 channels).

 

[dgatwood]

I wish I had the manual to know what you are talking about.
-Is there a way to turn on the ADAT? I just pluged it in and LOGIC does see all 8 additional channels.
-How do I slave the 8 pre's clock to the Behringer?

There's a pop-up menu in the control panel that sets whether ADAT is enabled and sets the sync mode for ADAT.

-When you say you need to always run the signal to the first ADAT input, you mean the upper on?

The one that you described as 1-4, I think.

I only have one ADAT cable going from the Behringer's OUT to the 8 pre's IN. Should I have another cable?

Not unless the Behringer has the ability to slave to another signal via ADAT.

 

[dgatwood]

Anyway, the easiest way to sync the two is to run another ADAT cable from the output of the 8pre into the input of the ADA8000. This lets the Behringer sync to the clock signal included in the ADAT output of the 8pre. It also gives you another 8 balanced XLR outputs from your computer as a little benefit on the side The sync switch on the back of the ADA8000 needs to be set to Slave - ADAT. The sync locked light on the front of the Behringer unit should be lit if everything is set up correctly and on.

Cool. I didn't know it had an ADAT input for synchronization. In that case, yeah, definitely slave the Behri to the 8Pre. It's almost guaranteed that the 8Pre has a cleaner clock.

 

[Berberman]

OK, so I'll have one ADAT cable going from the Behri OUT to the 8pre IN, and another ADAT cable going from the 8pre OUT to the Behri IN. Is that correct? I'll have to purchase another cable from amazon..

 

[mattr]

OK, so I'll have one ADAT cable going from the Behri OUT to the 8pre IN, and another ADAT cable going from the 8pre OUT to the Behri IN. Is that correct? I'll have to purchase another cable from amazon..

Meh, forget Amazon - you can probably get a decent cable from ebay for little over a dollar. Just try to avoid the really cheap, thin and rigid/brittle ones... you can usually tell which are going to be ok or not just by looking at the listing and images. I got four 1m toslink cables from ebay for a total of £6 inc P&P. They're really good thick but flexible ones (much better than one I got from a shop once!) and they work fine...

 

[jimmy77611]

I hooked an ADAT Tape machine up to my 8pre for 8 extra inputs only using one cable from the ADAT Tape machine out to the ADAT in on the 8PRE. According to the 8pre manual, you have to slave your 8 pre to the Behringer's (or whatever you're using). Should work fine from there. Did for me with the ADAt machine.

 

[Berberman]

I hooked an ADAT Tape machine up to my 8pre for 8 extra inputs only using one cable from the ADAT Tape machine out to the ADAT in on the 8PRE. According to the 8pre manual, you have to slave your 8 pre to the Behringer's (or whatever you're using). Should work fine from there. Did for me with the ADAt machine.

humm...so it could work only having one ADAT cable, setting the 8pre as the slave.

What I need to get my hand on is a user manual!

 

[dgatwood]

humm...so it could work only having one ADAT cable, setting the 8pre as the slave.

Yes. The discussion about a second cable was because we think it would probably sound better if you used the MOTU's clock to drive the Behringer. As I said, it should be sufficient to go into the MOTU control panel, enable ADAT, and enable syncing from ADAT.

 

[Berberman]

I just called MOTU who are actually 10mns away from where I live here in Cambridge MA, they do not have the manual in .pdf version, so they want me to pay $20 + shipping for sending it to me by mail

 

[Berberman]

Cool! got it to work together!

Just used one cable, with ADAT OUT from Behri set as Master, and ADAT IN the MOTU 8pre.

For some reason the first mic input channel on the Behri is not Channel number 9, but Channel no 11! So it goes 1-8 on the 8pre and 11 to 19 on the Behri.

 

[dgatwood]

Cool! got it to work together!

Just used one cable, with ADAT OUT from Behri set as Master, and ADAT IN the MOTU 8pre.

For some reason the first mic input channel on the Behri is not Channel number 9, but Channel no 11! So it goes 1-8 on the 8pre and 11 to 19 on the Behri.

Channels 1-8 are the built-in hardware, 9-10 are probably a stereo mix bus, and 11-19 are the ADAT inputs, yes. Ah, here it is:

http://www.motu.com/techsupport/tec...s-of-my-audio-inputs-and-outputs-only-numbers

Most audio apps should show those channels as ADAT1-ADAT8 or similar, IIRC, but not all of them support that....