Introduction
When you are using multiple devices together with digital connections such as ADAT, it's vital that they all remain in sync with each other. Even being slightly out of sync can turn your beautiful recordings into a distorted mess so ensuring you have your devices set up correctly is very important. The process of syncing up your devices is known as “clocking”.
In your setup, you must choose one device to be the master clock and all other devices in the system will be slave clocks. It's important that there is only one master clock in your system. Having multiple master clocks will cause the devices to go out of sync and cause distortion on your recordings.
The Master Clock basically sends a very fast ticking signal that gets sent to the Slave Device. This ticking signal can either be sent via a dedicated connection for the Clock, such as the BNC Word Clock Input on the EVO SP8, or sent alongside your audio data on an ADAT connection.
Choosing the Master Clock Device
Typically, you would want to choose the device that is directly connected to the Computer to be the master clock. This clock can then be sent to other devices in your system using either its ADAT outputs or a BNC Wordclock Output
The main advantage of this is that any changes in sample rate on the computer will automatically be sent to the other devices in the setup and everything will remain in sync.
Otherwise, you can use the SP8 as the master clock instead. This would send the clock to another device via its ADAT outputs. This can only be done on simple setups, however (1x EVO SP8 and 1x EVO 16 for example) and when more devices are involved, it's best to make use of a BNC word clock.
One other option is to use a dedicated word clock device that acts solely to generate a word clock. While typically these are only used on much larger systems, you could use one to provide a master clock to the EVO SP8
Channel Count per connection.
At sample rates of 44.1 and 48kHz, each optical cable will carry 8 ADAT channels. When the sample rate is increased to 88.2kHz or 96kHz, this channel count drops to 4, due to how ADAT works. At these higher sample rates, two TOSlink cables per connection will be required to access all 8 channels.
EVO SP8 does not support 176.4 or 192kHz sample rates.
EVO Expanded System.
Using the One or Two EVO SP8 alongside an EVO 16 provides a powerful platform as you have up to 24 channels of Smartgain which can all be controlled from one unit.
1x EVO SP8 and 1x EVO 16
1) Connect the Optical outputs of the EVO 16 to the Optical inputs of the EVO SP8 using two TOSlink cables.
2) Connect the Optical Inputs of the EVO 16 to the Optical outputs SP8 using two further TOSlink cables.
3) Connect the Word Clock Output of the EVO 16 to the Word Clock input of the SP8.
4) In the setup menu of the EVO SP8, ensure that your clock source is set to “Word Clock” and the Word Clock Termination is turned on. Also, set the Sample rate to “Auto”
5) On the EVO 16, ensure that its clock source is set to “Internal” and the Optical format is set to “ADAT” in the EVO Mixer Application’s System Panel.
2x EVO SP8 and 1x EVO 16
1) Connect the First Optical output of the EVO 16 to the Optical input of the first EVO SP8 and the Second optical Output of the EVO 16 to the First Optical input of the second EVO SP8. This will use 2 TOSlink cables
2) Connect the Optical Inputs of the EVO 16 to the Optical Outputs of the EVO SP8’s, in the same manner, using a further 2 TOSlink cables.
3) Connect a BNC T-Bar connector to the Word Clock input of the first SP8, the part with the rotating barrel should lock onto the SP8.
4) Connect a BNC word clock cable from the Word Clock output of the EVO 16 to one side of the T-Connector.
5) Connect a second Word Clock cable from the other side of the T-Connector into the Word Clock input of the second EVO SP8.
6) On both SP8’s use the setup menu to set the clock source to “Word Clock”. On the first SP8, set the Word Clock Termination to “Off”. On the second SP8, set the Word Clock Termination to “On”. Also, set the Sample Rate to “Auto” on both units.
7) On the EVO 16, ensure that its clock source is set to “Internal” and the Optical format is set to “ADAT” in the EVO Mixer Application’s System Panel.
Using EVO SP8 with a Non-EVO Host Interface
EVO SP8 as the Master Clock
If your host interface doesn’t have a Word Clock Output, such as an Audient iD14, you can use the SP8 as the Master Clock
1) Connect a TOSlink cable from the EVO SP8’s Optical output to the Optical input of your host interface.
2) Using the setup menu of the SP8, set the clock source to “Internal”.
3) Check that your Host interface is set up to sync to the Incoming ADAT signal. On an Audient iD interface, for example, this would be done in the System Panel by setting the Clock Source to “DIGI”.
4) Finally, check that both devices are using the same sample rate so they can Correctly sync.
1x EVO SP8 as a Slave
If your Host input has a Word Clock Output then you can use this as your Master clock and the SP8 as the Slave. An example of this would be an Audient iD44 MKII.
1) Connect the Optical outputs of the Host interface to the Optical inputs of the EVO SP8 using two TOSlink cables.
2) Connect the Optical Inputs of the Host Interface to the Optical outputs SP8 using two further TOSlink cables.
3) Connect the Word Clock Output of the Host Interface to the Word Clock input of the SP8.
4) In the setup menu of the EVO SP8, ensure that your clock source is set to “Word Clock” and that the Word Clock Termination is turned on. Also, set the Sample rate to “Auto”
5) On the Host Interface, ensure that its clock source is set to “Internal” and the Optical format is set to “ADAT”.
Please note that if your host interface only has one Optical port per connection then you can use just one TOSlink cable per connection. This will limit your channel count to 4 channels at 88.2 and 96 kHz however.
2x EVO SP8 as a Slave
1) Connect the First Optical output of the Host interface to the Optical input of the first EVO SP8 and the Second optical Output of the host interface to the First Optical input of the second EVO SP8. This will use 2 TOSlink cables
2) Connect the Optical Inputs of the Host Interface to the Optical Outputs of the EVO SP8’s, in the same manner, using a further 2 TOSlink cables.
3) Connect a BNC T-Bar connector to the Word Clock input of the first SP8, the part with the rotating barrel should lock onto the SP8.
4) Connect a BNC word clock cable from the Word Clock output of the Host Interface to one side of the T-Connector.
5) Connect a second Word Clock cable from the other side of the T-Connector into the Word Clock input of the second EVO SP8.
6) On both SP8’s use the setup menu to set the clock source to “Word Clock”. On the first SP8, set the Word Clock Termination to “Off”. On the second SP8, set the Word Clock Termination to “On”. Also, set the Sample Rate to “Auto” on both units.
7) On the Host Interface, ensure that its clock source is set to “Internal”.
Please note that Host interfaces from other manufacturers may need additional setup or use different configurations for their clocking. If you are unsure how to best connect your host interface to an SP8, please contact our support team with as much information about your devices as possible.