2 Digi002 and 2 Systems Synced Together - SOLVED

[Julian Fletcher]

This post is in answer to those out there who have 2 Digi 002's and are wondering how to make them work together... especially if you have no other I/O's to work with... We've been searching how to do this for months and never found any complete explanations in a single post.

First thing: the only way is to run each from its own separate computer system. So, you need two computers both running some version of Pro Tools.

I imagine this setup should also work for Digidesign's Digi001's and 003's, rack versions, console versions, etc.

We have one definite solution... [thx to the help of others on this forum]

This involves running the 2 DAW systems independently of each other without using any MTC and MMC to sync Transport controls, so therefor, no MIDI cables. The only connection between the 2 computers is a single light-pipe cable to send ADAT audio and a clock source.

System A
- PTLE
- Digi002R
- clock: ADAT
- tracks 1-8 [mic/line inputs 1-8]
- tracks 9-16 [receive from "System B" Digi - ADAT inputs 1-8]
- all Transport functions normal for all tracks 1-16
- obviously record-enable all tracks [1-16]

System B
- PTLE
- Digi002R
- clock: internal
- tracks 1-8 [send to "out's" ADAT 1-8]
- record-enable the tracks - don't need any actual record/transport functions. So, don't need to press record.

* Light-pipe cable connected between two Digi's [System B out to System A in]. This setup will function without this cable but light-pipe will cause horrible pops and cracks on tracks if not clocked properly with settings mentioned above. Also not likely to be in perfect time.

System B is essentially functioning only as an external I/O that System A only recognizes as such. So, Pro Tools on System A has no idea [doesn't care] that another Digi002 is being used. [This is where people get hung up- because Pro Tools will only talk to one Digi at a time]. That's why we use a second computer- it only is there to run the second Digi, and to create 8 ADAT audio signals to send over to the first Digi.

Conceptual Notes
- System B doesn't need to track anything, though it can track if you want [but would be redundant].
- System B is only being used as an external I/O to send audio signals to System A
- System B's computer isn't doing anything except enabling its Digi to be used. The computer isn't processing any audio. It just needs to have PT running to route the signal paths. Again, no tracks are recorded on System B.
- System A tracks 1-8 from its own Digi
- System A simultaneously tracks 9-16 from second system
- System B keeps the clock [set to internal]
- System A [clock set to ADAT] syncs with System B's clock
- In effect, since we are not syncing Transport functions, there is no slave and no master here. We are only syncing System A to System B's clock which is piggybacked on top of the ADAT signal from System B to A. So, it's all done in that one cable and clocks set properly under Hardware Setup.


Outtake
- one PTLE system was v7.4 running on MacOSX 10.4.11
- other PTLE system was v8.x running Win XP home
- Therefor, this setup has nothing to do with system configurations and/or platforms
- All PTLE cares about is that it's receiving 8 ADAT audio channels and a clock to sync to.
- this setup was better than attempting to sync Transport functions and have the two systems record independently only with a common clock [reason: no transfer of files required]
- of course this could be further expanded using the S/PDIF in [good for 2 more channels] and the MIDI input [good for 8 more MIDI channels I think...?]

Thanks to everyone who helped us get this far!!!
: ]

We attempted to sync Transport controls between our two systems but failed miserably. We finally realized this was a much better approach.

Feel free to contact me if you have questions about this exact setup. I don't know how to solve the Transport syncing. And at this point, even if we got it to work, it would be far inferior.