Syncing Optical Devices - MOTU Traveler User Manual

SYNCING OPTICAL DEVICES

The word optical is our short-hand way of referring
to any device that connects to the Traveler via an
optical cable. But we make a further distinction: an
optical device is also one that doesn't care about
sample location. An example is a digital mixer.
Since a digital mixer is not a recording device, it has
no sense of sample location like an ADAT does. An
ADAT can cue to a specific sample number (e.g.
sample number 43,478, 103) — as can any device
that supports ADAT sync, but most digital mixers
simply mix and process audio digitally, with no
sense of a specific sample location. There are many
other devices that fall into this category, including
digital effects processors, synthesizers, A/D
converters, and many more.
Traveler
ADAT Optical OUT
ADAT Optical IN
Digital mixer
or other optical
device
Traveler
Clock Source setting =
Internal, or any clock source
setting except Optical. The optical
device slaves to the Traveler (via its
optical cable connection).
Figure 3-18: Three setups for synchronizing an optical device with the Traveler. You can slave the optical device to the Traveler or vice versa
with their optical connections. For more elaborate setups, you can slave both to a digital audio synchronizer like the Digital Timepiece. Don't
use any of these setups for an ADAT or other optical device that records. Instead, see "Sample-accurate ADAT sync" on page 28.
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For ADATs or other devices that support ADAT
sync, synchronize them with the Traveler as
described in the previous sections of this chapter.
For optical devices, such as digital mixers, all you
have to do is make sure that their digital audio
clock is phase-locked (in sync with) the Traveler.
There are three ways to do this:
Slave the optical device to the Traveler
■
Slave the Traveler to the optical device
■
Slave both the optical device and the Traveler to
■
a third master clock (such as a Digital Timepiece or
MIDI Timepiece AV synchronizer)
Digital mixer
or other optical
device
Traveler
MIDI Timepiece AV
set to Internal
Word Clock Out
Digital mixer
Word Clock IN
or other optical
device
bi-directional
I N S T A L L I N G T H E T R A V E L E R H A R D W A R E
With this setup, in the MOTU
FireWire Audio Console, choose
the Optical clock source setting.
The Traveler slaves to the optical
device via their optical cable
connection.
ADAT Optical OUT
ADAT Optical IN
ADAT Sync out
Mac
ADAT sync in
Computer with Traveler
optical
Traveler
Clock Source setting =
optical
Traveler
Clock Source setting =
ADAT 9-pin