Still Not Entirely Happy With SYNC HD

[Kalara]

So, I am have one of the new SYNC HD (Not the SYNC I/O) and I'm not saying that's the problem, but before a few weeks ago I was running a 48 input HD3 system with a SYNC I/O 2 192's and a 96i. Flawless for almost 3 years!

Now I have a new HD3 Accel system with a SYNC HD, a single 192, an Apogee AD16X w/ HD card (I'm open to that being the issue as well) and the 96i

Set Up:

Clock:

Sync HD loop Sync out
Apogee In
Apogee Out
96i loop sync in
96i loop sync out
192 loop sync in
192 loop sync out
Sync HD loop sync in

Cards:

Apogee AD16X on first card
96i and 192 on second card in that order

I've been mixing now for 3 days with the SYNC HD unplugged and everything has been peachy. My clock ssystem is the standard loop sync, including the AD16X. I use the Apogee as my clock source and it's great.

The problem is, that I need the SYNC HD to function. Last week, I did a remote session tracking to timecode and for the first part of the session I had to make the SYNC HD the master clock...fine. Then halfway through my session I had to make the Apogee the master clock. It then continued to run smoothly for the duration..THANK GOD!

My everyday issue is that I have to continuosly bounce back and forth to get the clock to be right. When the SYNC HD is the master, all of the lights say it's good, but I get audible word clock issues on my 192. Note: My 192 is the last I/O in the loop sync chain. And yes, I know that the Apogee AD16X word clock in's and out's are not "loop sync's"
When I switch to the apogee as teh master, the SYNC HD is not happy but it runs fine.

I've spoken with Apogee and Digi and still don't have a great solution. I'm not able to pick up a Big Ben at teh moment, but perhaps I can borrow one to see if it works. I'm open to suggestions. Oh, yes my firmware has been updated on the SYNC HD.

Tanks for listening!

[MikeOlson]

My gut tells me that you really should not be running Loop Sync through the Apogee. I know you're aware that the word clock connections on the AD16x are not loop sync but that seems to me to be the obvious problem.

I would try running loop sync through only the Digidesign interfaces and using the Sync HD's additional word clock input / output to connect to the Apogee's word clock IO. That way when the Apogee is slaving it will still follow any sample rate adjustments you make to the Sync IO / Digi chain. Also, you could switch to clocking off the Apogee very easily. Apogee probably should have added loop sync IO to their HD card instead of just the data ports...

Moral of the story: don't plug loop sync into any ports that don't say 'loop sync'

Hope that helps!

[Kalara]

Thanks for the reply, unfortnately, I've tried that, still doesn't work correctly. So far the best scenario I've run into is using the loop sync. You would think that the DIGI gear would operate in it's normal loop sync mode and then the Apogee would feed the SYNC HD a word clock or recieve one, but like I said, No go. I'll just keep on it.

[James Drake]

Loop Sync is a proprietary Digi thing and should only be used with Digi hardware.
You should run your Loop Sync with all your Digi hardware as intended.

You should take WordClock out of the Sync I/O and feed it to the Apogee (the terminator switch should be IN).

I have run a PT rig with Sync I/O, one 192 and four DA16Xs, with no problems. PT was locked to video and either chasing or generating code.

If you run your system properly then the presence of the Apogee should not affect the 192. If you are getting glitches with the 192 when clocked to Loop Sync then I would suggest you have faulty hardware.

What's the difference between Sync I/O and Sync HD?

[Craig F]

Sync HD will have the ability to lock to tri-level sync so it can run frame edge accurate with a HDCAM or D5 deck

[c-tone]

Has the Sync HD even been released or announced yet? It doesn't look like it it listed on the Digi site.

I did a search and came up with this support article on the Digidesign.com site which might help you.

It looks like it is only designed to work with Pro Tools 7.4 and must be set up properly to work with older software.

Are you running 7.4? If you are then, you are way ahead of most of us!

[Craig F]

so I guess mix systems are SOL?