ADAT & S/PDIF Question

[Headlow]

Good evening folks. I have, I believe, a very stupid question to ask. Please bear with me while I attempt to explain myself. Its ADAT related, and ADAT is something I know absolutely nothing about.

Now, using the ADAT 'out' of my ZED, would it be at all possible for that to feed the S/PDIF 'in' of my Fast Track Ultra 8R?

The reason I ask is that I would like to mix with the ZED, set the Main LR outputs as inputs to an AUX track in Pro Tools (on which I could insert my mix buss plugins), then, finally have that feed the outputs on the Fast Track, thus linking the Master fader on the Zed to a master fader of sorts in Pro Tools.

I had hooked up a similar rig using a Mac Aggregate device, but this proved highly unstable, especially with large sessions.

As I already stated I have no knowledge in this area, but I have heard/read that ADAT and S/PDIF are somewhat closely related.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give,

Justin

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Headlow

Good evening folks. I have, I believe, a very stupid question to ask. Please bear with me while I attempt to explain myself. Its ADAT related, and ADAT is something I know absolutely nothing about.

Now, using the ADAT 'out' of my ZED, would it be at all possible for that to feed the S/PDIF 'in' of my Fast Track Ultra 8R?

The reason I ask is that I would like to mix with the ZED, set the Main LR outputs as inputs to an AUX track in Pro Tools (on which I could insert my mix buss plugins), then, finally have that feed the outputs on the Fast Track, thus linking the Master fader on the Zed to a master fader of sorts in Pro Tools.

I had hooked up a similar rig using a Mac Aggregate device, but this proved highly unstable, especially with large sessions.

As I already stated I have no knowledge in this area, but I have heard/read that ADAT and S/PDIF are somewhat closely related.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give,

Justin

ADAT and S/PDIF are different incompatible protocols, you cannot have an ADAT output talk to S/PDIF input and visa versa.

ADAT and S/PDIF just happen to run on the same TOSLINK fiber optic connection. But the implemented needs to decide which of the two, or both protocols to support. And the FastTrack 88R does not even have a TOSLINK physical connection, it does have coaxial S/PDIF only (hidden on the rear panel adapter cable), so the underlying connector required by ADAT is not even there.

What exact model ZED do you have? If its got a FireWire then use that as the Interface. Why would you want to also use a Fast Track Ultra 8R? If you need to have the 8R connected because you are running a low-end version of Pro Tools then it may be time to upgrade, or use another DAW.

Aggregate IO is very often unstable, and that is really not just with Pro Tools, a lot depends on the interface driver. Avid only claims to support it for adding built in-output to an interface, not for aggregating multiple interface devices, but some vendors (e.g. Motu) have done a good job working to make sure their devices can aggregate with each other.

I am not sure when you say mixing do you only mean mixing or also tracking. I don't really know the ZED range, but the bigger FireWire ones have a lot of FireWire inputs and outputs. if you are only mixing in the ZED the DAW tracks can go into and out of the ZED (including the mixdown/output track) via that Firewire Interface. You likely really don't want to treat these consoles as analog and go though multiple unneeded DA/AD processing just to use a fader. And personally I'd rather mix in the box than go out to many of these digital outboard/live mixers. Its either mouse or a control surface (which might be an iPad) for me.

I think some of the ZED will output fader MIDI, but they are not motorized faders/full HUI control surfaces so I would not ever try using them as a surface.

Hope that helps.

Darryl

[Darryl Ramm]

I just looked at your profile and you have a ZED R16, so thats 18x18 Firewire interface. So 16 mono tracks from Pro Tools to the R16 and a stereo master, and 16 tracks + 2 main/mixdown outputs back to the DAW. So why not just use the R16 as your interface and drive it over Firewire?

Again I would be looking for a HUI control surface if all you want is the ability to move faders, but if you want to use the R16, using FireWire in and out is the way to go.

Darryl

[Headlow]

Many thanks for that

The reason I was looking to do this is that when mixing all the audio is routed to the ZEDs Master channels which feed my monitors. If you try and route this back into PT for mix buss processing a feedback loop is created.

So I was attempting to send the ZEDs mix buss to an AUX in PT to do processing on, then send that to the monitors via the Fast Track.

I'm sorry I can't really find the words to properly explain what I mean

The only real solution is to get an ADAT equipped interface, which will have to wait I'm afraid.

[Headlow]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

I just looked at your profile and you have a ZED R16, so thats 18x18 Firewire interface. So 16 mono tracks from Pro Tools to the R16 and a stereo master, and 16 tracks + 2 main/mixdown outputs back to the DAW. So why not just use the R16 as your interface and drive it over Firewire?

Again I would be looking for a HUI control surface if all you want is the ability to move faders, but if you want to use the R16, using FireWire in and out is the way to go.

Darryl

I do my mixing OTB on the ZED. The 16 mono channels are sent to the 17/18 stereo pair. This then feeds the studio monitors. To print the mix a stereo audio track has to be created with the inputs set as 17/18.
You can't monitor anything applied to the mix buss without creating a feedback loop.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Headlow

Many thanks for that

The reason I was looking to do this is that when mixing all the audio is routed to the ZEDs Master channels which feed my monitors. If you try and route this back into PT for mix buss processing a feedback loop is created.

So I was attempting to send the ZEDs mix buss to an AUX in PT to do processing on, then send that to the monitors via the Fast Track.

I'm sorry I can't really find the words to properly explain what I mean

The only real solution is to get an ADAT equipped interface, which will have to wait I'm afraid.

You are just doing something wrong. These mixers are designed to do work with a DAW so this *must* be possible. All the tracks exist already right? So you are not bringing the individual tracks back into Pro Tools, just the stereo mixdown onto a new stereo track. I don't want to get into the details of what you are doing, but worse case just turn off "DIG MASTER TO L-R" and monitor the R16's mixdown directly (there is not much point to loop that back trough Pro Tools in the first place, just don't try to run mastering plugins etc. in Pro Tools in real time).

Darryl