This week’s synchronization question (I promise I’ll try to limit these to one per week, but we get SO many sync questions it’s hard).
“I have a PT Mix+ system connected to two 02R mixers via ADAT bridges. The whole mess has its clock driven from an Aardvark master clock unit. I have superclock from the Aardvark to the Digi interfaces and word clock to the mixers. The problem is when I want to bring in an AES/EBU source like a DAT or something the mixer makes me switch the input and clock source to the DAT input for the DAT to work, which means I am no longer clocking to the Aardvark. It looks like I have two clock sources. I want to keep my mixer locked to the high quality clock in the Aardvark, but can’t figure out how.”
Wow, killer system! And you are SO close here. Many people remain confused about clocking issues in all digital studios.
Rule Number 1: there must be one master clock for all digital equipment in order for it to all work together simultaneously.
In order for your 02R to be able to receive your DAT signal from the AES input one of two things have to happen.
– Method 1) The 02R must use the clock coming in with the AES signal as its master timing reference. This means you would have to switch input and clocking reference to this input. It will work fine with the DAT, but while in that mode will not be able to receive signals from Pro Tools because that is clocked to another reference.
– Method 2) The DAT must use the same clock reference as the 02R (in this case the Aardvark). In this scenario all is good because you now have everything clocked to one master source (see rule number 1), which means all of the sources can be monitored at the mixer simultaneously.
The bottom line is there can be only one clock running the overall digital timing show. Hopefully your DAT has the ability to remain clocked to an outside digital source, even while playing tapes. If not, you are going to have to go with method #1 above anytime you want to bring a DAT into the mixer digitally.