What is word clock?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sagar
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Sagar

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I know this is not exactly a MIDI thing, but I figured if anyone would know, it would be this group.

What the heck is word clock? I see a connector for it on the back of some of my devices, and I think it has something to do with sync-ing these devices together for playback,.

Can anyone explain exactly what this is?

Cheers.
 
It's a digital device that can lock up digital devices to eachother. It is exact to 1 million frames smaller than one second.
It's mainly used to sync servers with computers. It can be used for syncing up digital camera's and recorders. ADAT, etc.
 
There is a good, concise article on word clock toward the back of the newest issue of eqmag. The author states that most of the time it is automatic, so we don't notice it.
I too have gear with that funny jack on it and often find myself wondering what the heck it is.
 
"Word Clock" is what counts down the time remaining on every rap artist's 15 minutes of fame.
 
Well, I could also be wrong but:

Word clock is a signal that synchronizes digital audio by indicating the sampling rate of sample words over a digital interface. (a definition from the Cakewalk site--thanks cakewalk)

Basically, it keeps digital sample transfers accurate. Two digital devices will have a small amount of "drift" when transferring data. Without something to lock them together, you get clicks and pops. Word clock is what you use to lock them together (e.g., if you were transfering recordings from a digital 8 track to your computer for example). If I am incorrect, I hope one of the more sophisticated readers will enlighten us!!
 
When you say 'this is not exactly a MIDI thing,'..if your talking about old analog keyboards before midi or sync...clock or trigger refers to the signal carried in just a 1/4 or 1/8 inch jack...used to syncronize onboard arpeggios (juno-6) or sequencers (sh-101)...trigger outs are found on some older drum machines (tr-808)
 
Thanks for the explainations, everyone.

bball-- that article in EQ was pretty helpful. I think I get it now. Unless I'm using multiple digital audio devices (e.g. hard disk recording and ADAT and DA-x8, etc.) I don't think I'll need to use word clock.
 
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