Couple of MADI questions

[khollister]

I have my MADI expansion card coming tomorrow and will be connecting to a RME UFX III. 2 questions I have not been able to find answers to:

1) The RME has 2 frame options, 96K and 48K. From other discussions here I assume I need to select 96K framing (although I am running at 48K for now). However the H9000 MADI options are 64 or Auto/64. Is the Auto/64 96K framing or something else? What should I select?

2) The manual says the H9000 cannot be daisy chained after another MADI device. Does this mean it can be daisy chained if it is first in the downstream chain (so it can pick off the first 32 channels)? I hesitate to use coax because I am currently running WC over coax to the H9000 (ADAT) and an Apollo X8 (ADAT only as an external FX box, not an aggregate audio device) since relying on ADAT for clocking in the current scenario was spotty.

[bsfreq]

Hi,

Congrats. MADI will add a lot of flexibility to your H9000.

 

1) From RME: “The 96k frame setting affects outgoing MADI signals at sample rates 88.2 kHz and 96 kHz. At other sample rates, the setting is not relevant and does not affect the outgoing signal.”

I’ve selected 96K frame (and madi format 64 (32) ch.), and running mostly at 48kHz. Works beautifully.

 

2) I didn’t even remember this daisy chaining limitation, but because the H9000 MADI expansion is limited to 32 channels and the UFX+ / III supports 64 channels, I’m using the split mode on my UFX+. This allows me to connect 32 channels to and from the H9000 using coaxial, and I have still have the other 32 channels available on my UFX+ to freely route and connect other devices via MADI optical. If your H9000 and UFX are not too far away, I’d suggest trying that out. I’m clocking my H9000 via the MADI coaxial without any problems, so there’s really no need to use the word clock, unless there’s something in your setup that I’m missing. (Just make sure to have one master clock and others slaved to that, but I’m sure you already know this.)

 

 

[khollister]

So is the H9000 MADi config set to “Auto/64” or “64”? I’m assuming Auto/64 is what Eventide calls the 96K framing because it adapts to single or double speed.

While waiting for the MADI card to ship, I had both the H9000 and Apollo X8 connected via ADAT and initially tried the RME as master and clocking the H9000 and Apollo over ADAT as slaves. Initially it synced fine but eventually I noticed the sync status lights on the RME were flickering and the UFX config app showed both devices bouncing between Link and Sync. Went to WC using a T on the H9000 and termination on in the Apollo and it’s been fine ever since. I can try letting the slaves clock from the MADI & ADAT but I’m concerned about what happens if/when I add more devices – hence the curiosity about daisy chaining.

Since I do very little analog recording (I’m primarily a composer using VI’s – my only analog inputs are a modular system, a Moog Matriarch and a single Townsend Sphere mic), I’m not sure what else I would be adding unless I break down and get a Bricasti. That’s analog/AES only, so the whole MADI/word clock thing doesn’t apply anyway.

 

[bsfreq]

khollister wrote:

So is the H9000 MADi config set to “Auto/64” or “64”?

I’ve just set it to “64 ch”. I assume “Auto/64” would work just as well.

 

I’ve only ever encountered clocking problems with wrongly set up clocking. I know that ADAT doesn’t carry the info about wether or not the signal is S/MUXed or not. So switching between 44,1/48kHz and multiplexed/ higher sample rates might offset your clocked devices. (in ADAT, 96kHz is achieved by combining two 48kHz channels, so the incoming signal is still 48kHz etc.) I don’t know about the Apollo, but you may have to manually enable the S/MUX mode for the incoming signal?

[gavvyt]

Hiya,
Not in front of the H9000 or in the studio at the moment.  However I’m assuming the auto/64 setting is to choose between 56 channel and 64 channel mode of the MADI.

I’d say most of the time you’ll see 64 channel mode streams.

Some devices run natively in 56 channel mode and use the last 8 channels for pre-amp control data. Other use case is one can run in 56 channel mode and be able to Vari-Speed further up and down than in 64 channel mode.
At 96kHz all these numbers half.

hope this helps.  All corrections and suggestions to the above accepted!!

[khollister]

Actually there are 4 possible settings on the H9K – Auto/56, Auto/64, 56 & 64. I guess I can experiment tomorrow when the expansion card arrives unless someone from Eventide responds tomorrow with a definitive answer.

I assumed the Auto settings were the 96K framing modes that switch between single and double speed. That would mean the 56/64 settings would be fixed single speed (44/48) since the H9K doesn’t support SMUX/legacy mode per Eventide. However if bsfreq is using 64 and switching to 96k, then I have no clue what these settings represent.

[khollister]

Well this sucks – installed the card and the H9000 doesn’t recognize it 🙁

[tbskoglund]

Sorry for the issues you are having. We’ll get this resolved via your support ticket ASAP.

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