003 S/PDIF not working

[amdini]

I just got a new high-end converter to use with my Digi 003. I have the word clock OUT on my converter running to the 003's word clock IN. My converter's word clock is set to Internal and the 003's to External. My converter shows a "Locked" LED and the green "W Clk" LED on my 003 is illuminated. All this seems to indicate that the word clock routing is setup correctly and that both devices are communicating with each other successfully. In Pro Tools within the "Hardware" dialog, I have set the clock to "External WK" and left everything else as-is.

The problem seems to be with S/PDIF. I have the proper cable running from the converter S/PDIF OUT to the 003's S/PDIF IN. I have created an audio track in Pro Tools and set its input to S/PDIF IN-Left. My converter and outboard pre-amp show level activity when I sing into my microphone, but the signal never makes it into Pro Tools and the track shows no level activity.

Am I missing something here? I have read that there may be some issues with Pro Tools 8 LE and S/PDIF, but none of the threads I read dealt directly with the issue I'm having.

One other thing: I performed a loopback test and it failed.

Could there be something uniquely wrong with my 003, or is this a known issue? Is the issue likely hardware or software related (or both)?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I spent a ton of money on this new converter and I desperately need to get it working asap.

Thanks.

[albee1952]

Time for some experimantation. Start simple. I Pro Toolls hardware setup, select RCA=SPDIF and select clock source as SPDIF. Patch the SPDIF output from the external converter to the SPDIF input of the 003. (Clocking with wordclock is not required, so the idea is to simplify). Now, what happens? What kind of track are you using? What is the external converter and mic preamp? Is the sound actually getting into the converter. You can't give too much detail.

[amdini]

My external converter is a Burl B2 Bomber A/D (no D/A, I'm intentionally using the 003's D/A for now).
My preamp is an Avalon Vt737sp.

Both of these devices show healthy signal level and are properly connected.

I removed the Word Clock connection and patched the SPDIF as you mentioned. There was no option in the Hardware menu for "RCA=SPDIF", and when I set the clock source to SPDIF, it defaults the optical format to ADAT. If I then try setting both the clock source and optical format to SPDIF, it automatically defauts the clock source to Internal.

The Burl is set to external @ 44.1, but without the word clock cable patched in, the "Locked" LED is no longer illuminated on the Burl--not sure if this matters.

I'm simply trying to record mono audio through the SPDIF input on my 003. The session contains only one mono audio track with the input set to S/PDIF Left and the output set to Analog 1-2.

Another thing I noticed is that the SPDIF OUT jack on the 003 is blinking a green LED. What does this mean? Do I have to terminate this output jack?

[amdini]

Good news: I explored my Pro Tools I/O settings a bit more and found out that my SPDIF was routed to 17-18 instead of 9-10, which is apparently where it needs to be set in order for the 003 to send and receive the SPDIF signal. I switched things around so that my SPDIF routed properly into Pro Tools and now I have sound!!

Not sure why the settings were incorrect to begin with, but very glad I was able to resolve the issue.

I hope this helps anyone else having a similar problem.

[adlai]

Wow! has the burl been out for 5 years at least and I am just finding it?

Please, can you tell me this is connected to the digi 003r? How many tracks can you record simultaneously? Is it just spdif connection between the two units?

[albee1952]

Remember to make SURE the sample rate of the Burl(now the master) matches the sample rate of the session! Many of us that are new to clocking externally have been bitten by that little mistake

[SKI]

Originally Posted by adlai

Wow! has the burl been out for 5 years at least and I am just finding it?

Please, can you tell me this is connected to the digi 003r? How many tracks can you record simultaneously? Is it just spdif connection between the two units?

Well there's a lot of stuff in that price range so if you are willing to spend that amount of money look around first.
That's more expensive than the current price of the API A2D let along the $1599 we could get them from when API originally released them.

Not to knock the Bomber, just pointing out that there are lots of good options out there.