Here’s Max from our technical support staff with a few pertinent issues regarding the new Digidesign ADAT Bridge I/O for Pro Tools.
- The new ADAT Bridge is a stand-alone Audio interface (meaning you do not need an 888 or an 882 to run it) that provides up to 16 discrete channels of input and output for PCI based Pro Tools systems.
- Unlike the original ADAT X-face, the A-Bridge has no provisions for synchronized playback or recording of two or more devices, meaning you almost will always need an additional ADAT compatible sync source (DTP, BRC, DataSync2, etc.)
- Because the A-bridge is an actual audio interface, it can connect directly to a D24 card, Disk I/O card, or DSP farm card.
- If you choose to connect the A-bridge to the D24/Disk I/O card, you receive a total of three sync options for Pro Tools: Internal, Digital and ADAT (optical). Because the master interface determines your sync options in the Hardware setup of Pro Tools, you do not get the ADAT option when the A-bridge is connected to a DSP farm card.
- 3 feet is the maximum length for a sync (BNC) cable w/ the A-Bridge. Longer than this may cause distortion or intermittent peaks on the track.
- The A-Bridge has no means to send/receive MMC commands. As a result, sync boxes such as MOTU’s MTPAV will not work with the A-bridge configuration, due to the one-way sync path (there is no way to trigger playback/Recording in Pro Tools starting from the ADAT Transport).