Word clock - how much will it affect the sound quality?

[dr_axel]

I own an MBox 2 Pro, and I am in the finishing stage of mixing and mastering an album that will be released on my own independent label. I was wondering how much a word clock would affect the sound quality of Pro Tools. I have read earlier that people have said mixes sound "brighter" and "clearer", and I would greatly appreciate advice from people who have gone from not using word clock to using one.

Would it be a good investment in terms of making the final product better? Or is it for those extra 5% in sonic quality that will not matter much in a low budget independent release? Which word clock should I buy, if there is a big improvement in sonic quality?

I don't know if this will matter, but the music is mostly electronic, i.e. lots of sequencing and samples (in Reason), with some vocal and guitar tracks.

[Park Seward]

Humm. How much better will a track sound if a better clock is used... It will sound better.

Not to be cute but you are asking a question that can't be answered. Will you look better with a new shirt. Yes, but how much???

To get the most improvement, you need to record with the better clock, not just playback. I'd sugest the average listener will not hear the difference. And if someone writes in, "I would have bought the album but I could sense some clock smear", please let me know.

[dr_axel]

Hehe, I'm guessing most users won't be able to tell the difference then. I was just looking for some opinion on what you (and others) mean by "sounding better", i.e. is there some specific measure or indication of better sound quality? I understand the point of tracking with the word clock though. As 90% of the tracks are software synths, I was thinking maybe the word clock would improve their "performance". Although I don't think anyone will write me and say "Man, your programmed loops are just so damn tight!"

[jnash]

I own an MBox 2 Pro, and I am in the finishing stage of mixing and mastering an album that will be released on my own independent label. I was wondering how much a word clock would affect the sound quality of Pro Tools. I have read earlier that people have said mixes sound "brighter" and "clearer", and I would greatly appreciate advice from people who have gone from not using word clock to using one.

Would it be a good investment in terms of making the final product better? Or is it for those extra 5% in sonic quality that will not matter much in a low budget independent release? Which word clock should I buy, if there is a big improvement in sonic quality?

I don't know if this will matter, but the music is mostly electronic, i.e. lots of sequencing and samples (in Reason), with some vocal and guitar tracks.

There's a decent chance that a word clock will NOT improve things at all--might even make your mbox sound worse. The primary value of word clock is in synchronizing multiple digital devices--if all you do is add an external word clock to the mbox, it might improve the sound, but there's no guarantee.

Best bet for improving your tones is to get better converters--you'll get a much more noticeable improvement by running through external converters than by trying to sync your existing converters to an external clock.

Then again, if your tracking is already done, and the only changes you're making are within ProTools (mixing, plugs, virtual instruments), then better converters will improve what you're monitoring, but they won't affect files you bounce AT ALL.

As someone else suggested, the primary benefit of better converters will be in tracking through them.

James
[email protected]

[Park Seward]

The primary value of word clock is in synchronizing multiple digital devices--if all you do is add an external word clock to the mbox, it might improve the sound, but there's no guarantee.
James
[email protected]

The clock determint when the sample is taken. Clocks that are excellent have a tight spec to say "Give me the next sample-NOW". If the clock is not tight, you will hear more smear in the sound since the samples are not taken at exact intervals.

Yes, you can sync other devices with the clock but the purpose is to "trigger" the sample "snapshot".

I thought this was interesting:

The Apogee Ultra-Low-Jitter Clock
is designed to minimize jitter - a major cause of quality loss in digital conversion systems - and was originally designed as part of Apogee´s converter development program. Several generations later, this powerful clocking tool allows a digital audio system to lock toa wide range of sources and remove jitter from the incoming clock, thereby "cleaning up" the audio and audibly improving quality. Licensees include Digidesign.

Who knows. You could be using an Apogee clock and didn't know it!

I was looking for the jitter spec and could not find it on their web site. Also, the Presonus web site does not list a jitter spec on their Digimax FS but claim "to virtually remove all audio band jitter". Some numbers, please!

[EGS]

These guys really know clocks, and do good work. You might want to check it out.

[Park Seward]

Yea. They don't list any specs either.