Connecting And Integrating External Devices - DigiDesign Pro Tools Reference Manual

Connecting and Integrating
External Devices
Pro Tools can create dedicated connections to
external analog or digital devices. The number
and type of connections depends on what kind
of system you have.
To connect an external device to a Pro Tools
system:
Connect an unused output (or pair of outputs
1
for a stereo device) of your Pro Tools system to
an input of the external signal processor.
Connect the output of the external signal pro-
2
cessor to an unused input (or pair of inputs for a
stereo device) of your Pro Tools system.
Define what physical ports are routed to
3
Pro Tools input and output ports, as appropri-
ate, in either the Hardware Setup dialog or
I/O Setup dialog.
Define output, input, or insert paths as appro-
4
priate in the I/O Setup dialog.
If you plan to use a device as an insert, be sure to
connect the device to matching inputs and out-
puts on your system. For example, to use out-
puts 7–8, the insert has to use inputs 7–8 also.
For additional information on connecting
external devices, refer to your Pro Tools Get-
ting Started Guide .
Connecting Effects Units Digitally
If you want to use the digital inputs and outputs
on your Pro Tools system as effects sends and re-
turns to a digital effects device, Pro Tools should
be the clock master in most cases. Set your digi-
tal effects device to accept an external digital
clock so that it synchronizes to Pro Tools.
To set up a digital send to an external device from
a Pro Tools|HD system:
Do one of the following:
1
• On a 192 I/O, 192 Digital I/O, 96 I/O,
96i I/O, or 888|24 I/O, choose Setup >
Hardware, choose the peripheral, format,
and clock format, and set the channel pair
to Digital.
• On an 882|20 I/O or 1622 I/O, choose
Setup > Hardware, choose the peripheral,
and set Channel 1–2 input to Digital.
Choose Internal from the Clock Source pop-
2
up menu.
Click OK.
3
To set up a digital send to an external device from
a Digi 002 or Digi 002 Rack system:
Choose Setup > Playback Engine and choose
1
the peripheral.
Do one of the following:
2
• If the external device is connected to the
S/PDIF RCA jacks, deselect S/PDIF Mirror-
ing. (When S/PDIF Mirroring is on, digital
output at the S/PDIF RCA jacks exactly mir-
rors the output of analog Channels 1–2.)
• If the external device is connected to the
Optical ports, choose a format (most likely
S/PDIF for an effects device) from the Opti-
cal Format pop-up menu.
Choose Internal from the Clock Source pop-
3
up menu.
Click OK.
4
Optionally, configure the I/O Setup dialog
5
with new path names for effects routing.
If you set the Optical Format to S/PDIF,
Pro Tools will watch the Optical port for
any audio input, and ignore any audio in-
put on the S/PDIF RCA jacks.
Chapter 26: Plug-in and Hardware Inserts 579