[SimonBarSinister]

I hear ya on that…

However I would like to understand what I am doing….

I guess the bottom line question is:

Which Unit (11R or the MBOX 3) should be the Clock source? Does it matter?

Would there be a preference and why?

I did some more testing and to be honest it seems to work either way I set the clock source even though according to the MBOX 3 and 11R Manuals it shouldn’t work….

Here is the reason why I am getting confused as to which way is the right way.

The 2 different manuals (11R and MBOX 3) say two complete different and contra ways to hook up SPDIF and the clock source. I realize these are generally referring to PT 8 but that doesn’t appear to be relevant.

According to the 11R Manual you should set the clock external to the ProTools System (PG72-73) either through the USER INPUTS on the 11R itself or if it is hooked up with USB to the PRO TOOLS System, then you should use the 11R Control Panel Applet in Windows to set the Clock Source to External and Sample Rate to match the project.

Now According to the details in the MBOX 3 Manual (Bottom of Page 46 Top of 47) it says that the “EXTERNAL DEVICE” (in this case 11R) should be configured to supply the “Clock Source (if relevant to your device)” This is the complete opposite to what the other manual is saying.

Then it says to go into Pro Tools >Setup>Hardware and set the clock source to SPDIF.

It then goes on to say:

“Setting the Clock Source to S/PDIF is the only way to utilize S/PDIF input.”

“Selecting any other Clock Source (Internal, or Word Clock) disables S/PDIF input.

My confusion is that it is working for me either way in Pro Tools. Even though the manual says it won't. I can set it to Internal or SPDIF and it does work.

So my question is does this make a difference to me as to which I use?

Is there a technical reason or any kind of ramifications by setting the clock source to one or the other?

Am i missing something here as I am new to this?

Sorry I would just like to understand the technical reasons behind this….

Thanks
SBS