Is my UA 2192 working?

[audioman]

Hey fellas quick question sometimes I have trouble listening to what difference the UA 2192 makes on my music.. I think I have it set wrong in protools..

My set up is Pacifica>UA2192>Protools..this is using the spdif option.. Now here is the question I think I have it setup wrong.. In protools I have Hardware setup as the following... CLOCK is on SPDIF(to clock off the 2192)..... Sample Rate 48k now the confusing part is the Optical Format.. its always been set as ADAT but there is an option to switch it to spdif.. but when switched to it the clock changes to internal automatically.. so is it not using the 2192 to convert the sound and is it using the converters on my 003?

[payne104]

if you are leaving the 2192 in digital, then of course the 2192 is converting it. Leave the clock at spidif and the optical at adat and you should be good to go... or get a bnc cable between your 003 and the 2192 is actually the best way

[audioman]

that makes sense.. so I guess i was paranoid.. why would it even give u an option to choose spdif under the optical format? what is it there for? it only makes things more confusing..

[robertshaw]

clock should be set to "internal" on the front of the unit

[Enlightened Hand]

Originally Posted by audioman

Hey fellas quick question sometimes I have trouble listening to what difference the UA 2192 makes on my music.. I think I have it set wrong in protools..

My set up is Pacifica>UA2192>Protools..this is using the spdif option.. Now here is the question I think I have it setup wrong.. In protools I have Hardware setup as the following... CLOCK is on SPDIF(to clock off the 2192)..... Sample Rate 48k now the confusing part is the Optical Format.. its always been set as ADAT but there is an option to switch it to spdif.. but when switched to it the clock changes to internal automatically.. so is it not using the 2192 to convert the sound and is it using the converters on my 003?

The only time you should be concerned with external clocking when using the 2192 is when you're converting with multiple converters simultaneously and need one clock of the bunch to be the master clock (assuming you don't intend to have the 2192's internal clock be the master) distributed throughout the system.

If you're only tracking through the 2192 itself or if it is intended to be the master clock in a multiple converter setup then it (the 2192) should be set to internal clock. If you're going to be deriving your clock signal externally then it's best to do it over the word clock inputs and set the front panel clock source selection knob to word 1 or 2 (depending on which input you're using). Of course the 2192 offers you options to derive it's clock signal via ADAT, AES and S/PDIF as well and if you're using other gear that only sends it's word clock signal through one of those sources you will still be able to slave the 2192 to that gear by selecting any of them from the front panel.

I would not slave the 2192 to the 003's clock because I suspect the clocking in the 2192 is superior and when determining the master clock it's ideal to go with the superior clock for the master. I would also not clock via S/PDIF and I would instead always use the dedicated word clock i/o.

Also, remember clock signal is not conversion, though it does affect the quality of conversion. If you have your 2192 properly connected and in use it's converting, but depending on how you have your clocking set up and selected it might be deriving it's clock signal from an external device, via any of it's possible formats for clock delivery (BNC, ADAT, S/PDIF or AES) which is what I'm talking about in the above paragraphs.

[audioman]

got u.. so the the way I have it setup is on the 2192 I have it set to internal... and inside of protools I have the clock setup as spdif so that is clocking off the UA.. Then I leave the optical format preference in adat right? by default it stays on adat..

[Enlightened Hand]

Originally Posted by audioman

got u.. so the the way I have it setup is on the 2192 I have it set to internal... and inside of protools I have the clock setup as spdif so that is clocking off the UA.. Then I leave the optical format preference in adat right? by default it stays on adat..

The 003 clock source drop down menu should be set to "word clock" so that it may be slaved to the 2192 (via BNC word clock i/o) and it should be connected to the 2192's word clock output via BNC cable that is then plugged into the 003's BNC word clock input. ADAT and S/PDIF have nothing to do with where you're getting your clock signal when you're using the BNC word clock i/o.

However,

If you are not deriving your word clock signal via BNC (and I don't recommend doing it other than BNC, but obviously you're free to do as you please) then if you are using the 2192's S/PDIF digital output you would set the 003's clock source drop menu to "S/PDIF", and the 003 will be set to externally sync to the clock of the 2192 via the S/PDIF connection. Also the 2192 will pass your converted digital signals to the 003 along that same pathway.

[audioman]

so your telling there else a difference in quality if I clock off the UA 2192 through spidf than using a BNC??

[Enlightened Hand]

Yes. S/PDIF is a potentially inferior way to clock from compared to word clock if you are sending digital audio signal down the same S/PDIF path as the clock signal simultaneously because the receiving converter must extract the clock signal from the digital audio signal. With Word Clock the pathway is dedicated to the clock signal.

[audioman]

awesome!! never knew that.. Ok so once Im going spdif I set the clock on the UA to internal and send to the DIGI 003 then out of DIGI 003 into the UA.. In hardware settings in protools what would I set the CLOCK to? theres no BNC option.. and also on optical format which option would I use? thanks guys

[audioman]

need help with this guys any input is greatly appreciated

[Enlightened Hand]

Originally Posted by audioman

awesome!! never knew that.. Ok so once Im going spdif I set the clock on the UA to internal and send to the DIGI 003 then out of DIGI 003 into the UA.. In hardware settings in protools what would I set the CLOCK to? theres no BNC option.. and also on optical format which option would I use? thanks guys

The 2192 is a converter. The 003 is an interface (that also happens to have converters). The 003 is connected to your computer. You are setting the 2192 for internal clocking because you are using the 2192 for it's conversion and using it as the master clock for the 003's converters to slave to should you happen to need to use those converters simultaneously with the 2192. That means (in this case) after you connect the 2192's S/PDIF output to the 003's S/PDIF input and you select internal clock on the front of the 2192, you then select your desired sample rate from the front of the 2192 and finally turn the digital output knob to "ADC". Then in Pro Tools in order to configure the 003 to slave to the 2192's clock you need to:

Originally Posted by Enlightened Hand

set the 003's clock source drop menu to "S/PDIF", and the 003 will be set to externally sync to the clock of the 2192 via the S/PDIF connection. Also the 2192 will pass your converted digital signals to the 003 along that same pathway...

The rest is simply configuring your audio i/o pathways as you would normally with the 003 and Pro Tools.

[audioman]

sounds great bud only thing if i didnt want both clock and conversion going via spdif, how would I use the BNC option so the clock is not going through the spdif cable... reason for this is I heard the quality is going to alot better... Dont know if this is true though..

[Enlightened Hand]

Then you connect the 2192 and the 003 to each other via word clock i/o with a BNC word clock cable. And then you also connect the digital output from the 2192 to the digital input of the 003 (in this case it could still be the S/PDIF input).

I'm pretty sure you can figure anything else about this matter out. All of this information is in the instruction manuals for both devices and if for some reason you don't have them you can download each as PDF.

[audioman]

thanks bud for the input.. after connecting the BNC word clock cable to the two..In protools Hardware settings would I still leave the CLOCK in spidf, theres no option in protools to sync it BNC.. thanks again

[shobud]

directly from the manual:

Pro Tools LE as Word Clock Slave

In order to slave Pro Tools to an external Word
clock source, you must configure Word clock as
the Pro Tools Clock source, as follows:
To configure Pro Tools LE with 003 or 003 Rack as
a Word clock slave:

1 Make sure all Word clock and audio connections
are correct as described earlier in this section.

2 Make sure the external Word clock source is
powered on, and configured to output 1x Word
clock. (Be sure to verify any required termination;
see the manufacturer’s documentation if
you need more information on the particular requirements
for your device.)

3 Launch Pro Tools.

4 Choose Hardware > Setup.

5 Click the Clock Source pop-up menu and
choose Word Clock.

6 Click the Sample Rate pop-up menu and
match the sample rate of the external Word
clock source.

7 Click OK.

It really does pay to read the manual...