Why does this work?

[Butch Bos]

I just realized what I have been doing for a long time now should not work
I am using a USB sound card (EGO Systems) on my remote for playback and sending the SPIDIF coaxial to the spidif in on the host
How is it synced ??
The host raydat is the master and I have no connection to the EGO in only the out
I can even change the sample rate on the playback 44.1 or 48 and it still works

confused Butch

[AntonZ]

That got me thinking. I need to do CD playback next week. I have thought about hooking up SPDIF from a CD player into my sound card. But decided to use two analog inputs instead for fear of clock issues. I may give it a try anyway after your post.

[mycorn]

unsynced digital does pass audio
[obviously]

unsync one of your pres if you dont believe it

it might go hours and not make a tick

it might motorboat in less than 10 seconds
and send half your paper components
to re-cone heaven


if it was me i'd either send analogue to the host
or [not likely] let your spdif clock the system

ymmv

[Yogi]

spdif IN takes it's clock from the sending source. Usually it is the only source in when it's receiving data so syncing to a word clock or to other sources is not a problem. Most cards (raydat included) do not sync the spdif input to other things UNLESS the sender can also receive (which most CD players cannot do). Think of spdif as being on it's own digital island and unless there is a bridge that allows traffic both ways it will always sync to it's incoming signal (for only the spdif circuit).

[RBIngraham]

Some sound cards will resample the SPDIF input and lock it to the master clock. I don't know enough about the RayDAT to know if it will do that or not. But it wouldn't surprise me.

Either that... or you were just getting lucky. Typically when doing something like that where clocks are not locked, you still will get audio just fine. It's just that you'll get ticks in the audio, or odd out of phase sounding issues.

Usually you only get the full burst of white noise when you bring up some device that has no clock at all. Like a preamp set to external clock with no external clock present.

[AntonZ]

OK, I'm going to try setting up foobar with remote plugin. I need to start and stop CD (or WAV/MP3) playback, most probably sitting some distance away from the rig. I will be bringing a laptop and SAC remote. Might as well add foobar with web control then. That sounds safer to me than the CD SPDIF that may or may not lock or resample properly at seemingly random moments. Thanks for the helpful comments. Apologies to confused Butch for derailing your thread with my additional question.

[Donnie Frank]

That got me thinking. I need to do CD playback next week. I have thought about hooking up SPDIF from a CD player into my sound card. But decided to use two analog inputs instead for fear of clock issues. I may give it a try anyway after your post.

I have 2 channels permanently assigned for "media:" 23 and 24. This way you're covered when someone shows up with an iPod or wants to plug their laptop (PowerPoint presentation) into the mains, etc. In addition, I have a brick-wall limit set up on this channel for rogue .mp3 files recorded too hot, which I *always* get from the likes of iPhones, etc. Also (I haven't done this yet), from now on I will also have ducking set up so all I have to do is activate Rvs Gate and assign the Key channel (the lead singer/wireless mic) and it's good to go. This is perfect for weddings or other stuff because it allows me to walk away from the console and not have to worry that the music is going to get too loud (Compression) or that the music is going to cover the drunk groom's random announcements.

I will have to check out Foobar. I'm intrigued at the idea of controlling a CD player remotely. Off the top of my head, I believe my rack-mount Tascam has an IR interface with a remote. I acquired the thing as payment for a webpage I built...brand new. It sat for a year and I used it for one show like 2 years ago. Great piece of antiquated gear.

[dbarrow]

I have 2 channels permanently assigned for "media:" 23 and 24. This way you're covered when someone shows up with an iPod or wants to plug their laptop (PowerPoint presentation) into the mains, etc. In addition, I have a brick-wall limit set up on this channel for rogue .mp3 files recorded too hot, which I *always* get from the likes of iPhones, etc. Also (I haven't done this yet), from now on I will also have ducking set up so all I have to do is activate Rvs Gate and assign the Key channel (the lead singer/wireless mic) and it's good to go. This is perfect for weddings or other stuff because it allows me to walk away from the console and not have to worry that the music is going to get too loud (Compression) or that the music is going to cover the drunk groom's random announcements.

I will have to check out Foobar. I'm intrigued at the idea of controlling a CD player remotely. Off the top of my head, I believe my rack-mount Tascam has an IR interface with a remote. I acquired the thing as payment for a webpage I built...brand new. It sat for a year and I used it for one show like 2 years ago. Great piece of antiquated gear.

I do all of the above: I have a stereo pair reserved for iPod or whatever and I run Foobar with the output assigned to S/PDIF and connected back to the S/PDIF input which shows up on a SAC fader. I have foo_httpcontrol as the remote for Foobar and a resampling plugin for Foobar that converts the program material to 48khz. I have a big collection of mp3 and FLAC files on the host in a "tunez" directory. I works flawlessly. I also have the solo output going to an IEM transmitter for soloing from anywhere in the room. Also, a wireless mic serves as a talkback and an MC mic.

[Butch Bos]

The Raydat must sync the spidif in on its own because I have been using it this way for a long time with no audible ticks pops of any kind even with different clock timing and running down 150 foot of cat 5 stranded cable.

Butch

[Luke Taylor]

I'm taking SPDIF in from a CD deck to my Raydats which are the clocks, and definitely had to clock at 44.1 rather than 48 in order to avoid a bunch of nastiness.