S/pdif connection

[DavidK]

Hi kids,

my J-Station has a spdif out, my m-audio has spdif in. I like to say spdif. Try it:spdif, spdif, spdif. Fun isnt it?

Do I need some newfanglend fancy-type connector cable? It has rca jacks, I am assuming a standard rca wire will not work

Will this sound different/better than the usual analog outs? I'm frightened. Hold me

 

[metalhead28]

Yes, you need an SPDIF cable, or a digital coax cable. Easy to find at Radio Shack!!

As far as whether it beats the analog out is just a matter of what has better conversion, the modeler or the M-Audio interface?. I use the SPDIF on my V-Amp pro and I think it sounds noticably better than the analog outs.

 

[Track Rat]

Don't know if it'll sound any better than the analog way in but you'll need a video type 75 ohm cable with RCAs on the ends. The RCA cables you'd use to hook up stereo gear should be avoided at all costs.

 

[Jim Y]

OK, I think the J-station can have a different signal sent out the s/pdif if you want. That is, you can send a completely clean signal - so you could record the amp sim you hear out the analog jacks to one track and the completely clean one out the s/pdif recorded to another track - gives you a chance to "re-amp" what you played with a software effect if later on you decide you don't like the J-station amp sim or its effects.

Or, the s/pdif output could be a cleaner version of the J-station amp sim & effect because it hasn't gone through its own digital-analog converter. That's not to say it will sound better!

If it's an M-audio Delta card, then you need to open the cards control/mixer panel and on the Hardware Settings page, check External clock (s/pdif).
The important thing to realise is that your recording project MUST be at the same sample-rate as this External Clock, which for the J-station is probably 44.1Khz (I think). If you want a different rate like 96Khz, stick to using the analog jacks instead.