No digital signal from eleven rack
 

Hey all,

I was hoping someone on this forum could help me with an issue that I am having with my eleven rack. To start here are my system specs:

Windows 10 Home
Focusrite Clarett 8 Pre- main interface, Control driver 2.1.4
Eleven Rack- Driver 1.1.11 Firmware 2.0.1

I am routing the eleven rack to the clarett via spdif. The eleven rack is set to external clock s/pdif. Rig input- guitar. Digital output- split in/out.

I have the I/O for the Audio interface set up in pro tools for the eleven rack L and R. I have two mono audio tracks created in pro tools with the inputs selected as eleven rack L and R. I do have the Eleven Rack symbol showing up next to the input selection. I have to both record enable and input monitor the tracks but get nothing from the eleven rack. I would appreciate any help! Thanks.

Re: No digital signal from eleven rack
 

First thing to ascertain is your connections.

Are you using 75 Ohm coaxial cable for s/pdif connections?
2 cables...
1. out clarett to In 11R
2. out 11R to In Clarett

Looks like you have 11R I/O setup as Analogue where they should be s/pdif.....providing you've set Clarett as Playback Engine in Pro Tools.

Open Pro Tools go to Setup>I/O setup.
Click Input Tab. Are s/pdif inputs assigned in the matrix?
Click Output Tab. Are s/pdif outputs assigned in the matrix?

If you only see 'Analogue' and 'None'...click none and choose s/pdif to assign (in Input & Output Tabs).

Re: No digital signal from eleven rack
 

I am using 75 Ohm Coaxial cables and have them routed in that manner. The Clarett is set as the playback engine (Focusrite ASIO). The s/pdif inputs are assigned correctly (They are input 9-10). On the output tab however, output 9-10 is listed as analog. I am not seeing a way to configure this.

http://i.imgur.com/UGzbWUU.png

Re: No digital signal from eleven rack
 

Do the track input meters move at all on your 11R tracks when you play the guitar?

If they do, then it sounds like the input is routed correct, but the output of your Clarett isn't.

If the meters aren't moving, then something is still wrong with your input routing.

Re: No digital signal from eleven rack
 

I am getting no movement of the input meters. I have the eleven rack clock set to s/pdif with the clock speed matching the clarett. The digital output is set to split in/out. Here is a screen shot of the inputs of pro tools. Can you see anywhere I have missed something?

http://i.imgur.com/ky6iv6q.png

Re: No digital signal from eleven rack
 

Click "Default" on all of the I/O tabs, and then reassign the inputs and outputs and try it again. Any luck?

Re: No digital signal from eleven rack
 

No luck.

Re: No digital signal from eleven rack
 

I have this working on my system. I have a Macbook Pro connected to a Focusrite Clarett 8PreX. Windows will have a few different procedures. This procedure assumes you want to record the "Rig Output."

You might consider cabling things for analog and getting that to work properly before using SPDIF. Below is how I got it to work. I will add that because the Focusrite interface setup is outside of the Pro Tools application windows, it is more difficult. You might want to create a custom "Focusrite Control" instead of using their presets.

1) Run 75 ohm coaxial cables in both directions between the 11R and the 8PreX. Connect a USB cable between your computer and the 11R. This will not pass audio, but will allow you to control the 11R with the standalone editor.

2) Plug your guitar and headphones into the 11R and make sure that it is working. Do not plug your headphones into the 8Pre yet.

3) Press the "edit/back" button on the 11R and scroll down to "digital output." Change this to read: "mirror analog." If you use "Split I/O" it will not record the rig output in stereo. With another cable, you can simultaneously record a dry signal into an analog input for later re-amping.

4) On a Mac, there is a utility called "AudioMIDI setup." This allows you to make some basic setup to your audio devices. You can check your "control panel" under Windows for similar features. You would look under "audio devices" within device manager or inside the Eleven Rack window (in control panel). You might not have to change anything unless you cannot see the 11R or 8Pre.

5) Open Focusrite Control. Click on the device tab. Set your sample rate to 96kHz or lower (max of 11R). Use 44.1 kHz for this test. Set clock source to SPDIF. The 11R will be the master clock. Set SPDIF source to RCA and set meter source to SPDIF.

6) Stay in Focusrite Control, but change to the "Mixing and Routing" tab. There is a secondary pop-up window that lets you load an 8Pre "preset." Pull/scroll down on the "elevator" until you see "Analogue and Digital" and select it. You will see the "SPDIF" channels appear in the Focusrite Control panel. If you flip back to the "Device Settings" window, you will notice the "meter source" has changed to analog.

7) Start Pro Tools. I am using 12.4 HD and I get a feature called "Dashboard" that lets me load templates, specify sample rate and bit depth, pick a location to store the file, and configure I/O setting. If you have this, it makes it much easier. Select "Jazz" template, 44.1 kHz, 32 bit float and, for "I/O": "Stereo Mix." The Focusrite only does 24 bit, while the 11R can do 32 bit float. That is why I suggest 32 bit float. Create the session windows.

8) The fifth track down says "Audio" -- rename this to GTR Left. Rename the sixth track down to GTR R. Go to the mix window. Assign GTR L input to "Interface SPDIF 1." Assign GTR R input to "Interface SPDIF 2." Leave both outputs set to "Out 1-2."

9) Plug your headphones into the 8Pre or turn your monitors down. Click on the "I" (input monitoring buttons). Your guitar should be plugged into the 11R. Play your guitar. You should see the meters moving in Focusrite Control, the front of the interface box, and in the Pro Tools mix window.

10) Record arm both tracks. Record arm the transport. Press the green triangle in the transport to record. Stop when you are done (press space bar, etc.)

11) Click on the track record buttons in the mix or edit window to take them out of record ready.

12) Rewind and play back.

Based on your screen shots, it looks like you might not have set up Focusrite Control with the 11R as SPDIF master clock. Also, the 11R "setup window" (reached with a press of the "edit/back" button in the 11R...followed by scrolling) that sets rig digital output to "mirror analog" is not something most people ever worry about.

I set up a different configuration with a Mac Pro tower HD3 setup hooked up to the 11R running a PT 10HD system with a 96 interface, but still using SPDIF (with the USB cable connected to control the 11R from inside Pro Tools: no thunderbolt connection on the MP tower). In PT10 HD, the 11R editor window runs inside Pro Tools and has an additional popup (under USER OPTIONS) that lets you embed the 11R rig settings into the track: the stand-alone 11R editor does not have that feature, instead, in order to embed rig settings in PT11 or PT12, it is handled in the "I/O Setup" in Pro Tools itself (under the "input" tab within I/O setup in the lower right corner). Also, I had the master clock set to the 96 and Sync I/O with loop-sync (had to let the 96 be the master clock in this setup: I changed the 11R clock in AudioMIDI to slave to the 96). Also had to re-assign some of the analog I/O in the 96 to SPDIF, but did get the rigs to cycle sequentially through the 11R presets with a re-amp from within Pro Tools (by playing back a dry track). I set the "rig input" to digital I/O for that.

I thought the built-in re-amping feature of the 11R was more simplified to set up (using the 11R as the playback engine).

Re: No digital signal from eleven rack
 

You must use the Focusrite Control utility to configure the output, might need to do this for re-amping. You can rename the I/O in Pro Tools to visualize your routing.

Re: No digital signal from eleven rack
 

Thanks for the response panamajack. I have been pretty busy this past week but I plan on trying this out this weekend.