Word clock?????????????????

[paul999]

I kinda know what it does. I am not exactly sure why you hook it up in some instances and how you decide which clock to use.

I have an M-audio profire 2626, API a2d and a waves maxxbcl. The a2d and maxxbcl have good convertors (or so I'm told)compared to the profire. When I mix I go out of my interface through hardware compressors eq and various other gadgets then back into my interface.

I want to use the maxxbcl to convert to analog go through the gear of my choosing and then go back through the a2d convertors. I have it all hooked up using spidf without clock cables and it seems to work fine but I am wondering what to do with this clock connection.

[jagcmos]

Edit: I updated my reply after realizing that the api only has spdif out:

If you are connecting them all via spdif, then you should have no need to use the word clock connections to sync them.
The spdif signal has a embedded clock that will be used to sync the units.

The word clock bnc connectors can be left unconnected.

Using spdif to sync and looking at the devices you are connecting...

Since the api only has spdif out, this unit will have to be the master clock device.

The profire 2626 will be a slave clock device and have to be set to sync via spdif in signal.

The waves maxxbcl has spdif in, the sync source is determined via the front panel buttons, so make sure that you have the correct setting.
Which is probably the "D" ((data ?) setting looking at the picture.

Read the manuals to be sure.

If you use word clock to sync:

Use the profire 2626 as the master clock.

Since the api and waves units don't have clock in/out you can't daisy chain the clock between all 3 units.

I suppose a bnc t-connector could be used on the clock out on the profire and passed to both the maxxbcl and api,
but this might skew the signal edges and cause sync problems.

A clock distribution amp should be used to correctly split the signal to the maxxbcl and api.

[paul999]

Thanks Jag. I think I'll continue to use SPIDF connections. This clarifies things a lot.

[brandondrury]

For years I was running duplicate clock signals (both through S/PDIF and BNC). When I figured this info out it dramatically reduced my troubleshooting issues.

Brandon