Korg 168RC Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What determines the 168RC’s Word Clock Settings?
It’s very simple, you need to have one device be the Clock Master and every other device needs to be slaved to the Master device.

Who the Clock Master is will be determined by your setup, and in many cases, you may need to change who the Clock Master is depending on your studio configuration and the task you are trying to accomplish.

In general, a good startup configuration has the Korg 168RC as the Clock Master (parameter found under MISC key) and all other devices slaving to the 168RC.

Why is Word Clock so important with digital mixers?
Incorrect Word Clock settings will cause degradation of audio pops and clicks, altered playback speeds, and or timecode problems. Almost every 168RC/121IO tech support call involves incorrect Word Clock settings.

Imagine two jugglers passing chainsaws between them. Each juggler must maintain his own internal timing while also focusing on his partner’s timing as well. In this case it’s easiest if one of the jugglers is in charge of the timing while the other juggler follows his partners lead.

Digital signals are are grouped into separate packages often called Words. In our analogy, each chainsaw would represent a Word.When one digital device sends out a bit of information, the other device needs to be ready to receive it. If the data is not sync’d in time between the two units, data will be lost, resulting in digital errors in your audio. This typically sounds like clicks or pops. (If this happened to our jugglers we’d have a bloody mess!)

How do I integrate my 168RC with my 1212 I/O?
You need to connect an optical cable between the 168RC Dig-B Out and the 1212 Digital In jacks. Then similarly connect the 168RC Dig-B In and the 1212 Digital Out jacks. You will feed the computer via the B-Dig Outputs and the Dig-B Inputs can then be assigned to any of the 16 available Channels.

How many busses does my 16*8RC mixer have?
The 168RC is an 8-bus mixer with 24 Inputs and 10 busses of Digital Output, plus a Stereo Analog Output.

How do my B Outputs work?
Because the 168RC is only an 8-bus mixer, the B Outputs’ signals are exactly the same as the A Outputs. This 8-bus design is very common in today’s project studio mixers.

How do you “print” effects to track? (Multi-tracks sent to Effect, then returned to new stereo tracks. On same ADAT or second ADAT?

You need to assign the Output of the Effects to one of the Grouped Output pairs. To do this, press EFF 1 or EFF 2, page down until you get to the Effect I/O page and select one of the four available Group Pairs……….
How do I automate the 168RC board and what can I automate?
The 168RC uses MIDI Controllers to automate its parameters. Every parameter of the 168RC can be automated via MIDI. To do this you will need a MIDI Sequencer connected to the MIDI In and Outs of the 168RC. When you

Can I route the output of Effects 1 into Effects 2?
The Effects on the 168RC were designed to be used as two separate processors and do not have the ability to feed one into the other. If you really need to do this you could use an Aux Send from and return it to a different Channel Input.

Can I integrate my BRC into the system?
Yes, you can integrate the BRC with the 168RC, but be sure to connect the Word Clock Out of the BRC to the 168RC Word Clock In.

This board someimes seems a little noisy. Why?
The Korg Engineers designed the 168RC to be a “fully digital” mixer that would mixdown digitally to DAT via the S/PDIF Output. In order to keep the digital part of the unit as high-qualtiy as possible while maintaining a reasonable price-point, certain analog sections of the 168RC use more consumer grade op-amps. Thus the the Headphone and Analog Outputs will have a little more noise than your typical $10,000 digital mixer.

Note: This noise *will not* show up in your digital signal path or your digital recordings!

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