Word Clock DA88, Apogee FC8, and TDAT16
*DA-88, Apogee and TDAT16 are trademarked by their respective manufacturers.
Word clock is an issue that perplexes many initial users. The need for a single stable clock source is required to ensure that every digital device in your connections is running at the same sample rate. Not everyone can afford to purchase a dedicated Clock source for the studio such as a SynClock 6400 by Spectral Synthesis. The dreaded "intermittent" problem can leave you more than just sleepless in the studio (for days and nights).
This is the case of one TDAT16 and DA88 user who was totally perplexed by the intermittent occurence of clicks in the audio signal. When this type of problem manifests itself as a playback problem, correcting word clock anomalies usually eliminates it. However, when the clicks are recorded with the program material (and visible in the waveform display) the diagnosis becomes much more difficult.
This combination of Tascam DA-88, Apogee FC8 (TDIF to ADAT Optical converter) and TDAT 16 with Sync Backplate was functioning very well. There were the odd wordclock clicks and crackles during playback that seemed to disappear with a little fiddling and fussing of Word Clock cables and software settings. When it was discovered that recording with this setup produced intermittent clicks in the recording, the gloves came off and every thing was disconnected and then methodically re-connected. After much trial and error, this solution produced consistent results.
When recording from the DA-88 into tripleDAT via the Apogee, tripleDAT had to provide the Master Word Clock. The word clock cable connection makes a complete loop; TDAT out the optical to the FC8, the FC8 out the TDIF cable to the DA88, and the DA88 out to the TDAT16 IN. The Word Clock from the FC8's BNC out, was previously connected to the DA88 Clock in. With this senario, the FC8 BNC Word Clock is not connected.
To reiterate:
TDAT16 optical to FC8 (Apogee gets word clock from the Light pipes)
Word Clock travels out of Apogee to DA88 via the TDIF
DA88 Set to "WORD"
The Word clock out from the DA88 to TDAT16 BNC IN
To record from the TDAT16 to the DA88:
Set the tripleDAT to Internal
Set the DA88 to Word
To record from the DA88 to the TDAT16:
Set tripleDAT to External
Set the DA88 to Master
Make the device that you are recording to, the master. This works well I am told. If there is anyone out there that has a different experience with this please let me know and I will ask that this
user try it.
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