Digi 003 External Word Clock

[raiderrob]

I'm hoping someone can educate me on this topic. I have an 002 and I am about to upgrade to the 003. I have read several articles/posts about people who have the 003 clocked with an Eventide FW 8000. They claim that this "tightens" up your bottom end. Now, Im no expert at this stuff, but how can a word clock affect that?

I use no external sound modules (I use virtual instruments in Reason), and I am mostly using loops and mic'd guitars. Is there any reason for me to consider using an external clock? I have always used the clock in the Digi.

I am also considering buying a mic preamp with a light pipe connection. Would it be smart to clock the digi and the preamp with an external clock or can I just let the Digi clock it?

Thanks for your help ...

Rob

[Ian Palmer]

What the heck?!?! I would agree, how can a part of a system used for synchronization affect the sound? Now, some things can affect the sound in very odd ways but this seems daft.

Anyone care to explain this one?

Rob - can you tell us where you saw these posts/articles?

Ian

[Phil Ogden]

At the price point of the 002/003, certain compromises inevitably have to be made regarding components including the internal digital clock. I think it's generally accepted that audio quality can be improved with better converters/clocking. High end word clock devices will be more stable and suffer less from digital 'jitter' which a consequential benefit to audio quality (stereo image, depth, high frequency representation etc). However, there's a price to pay for any incremental improvement.


http://www.myspace.com/philogg

[raiderrob]

Here is a URL to one such post ...

http://www.mio.co.za/forums/index.php?showtopic=11682

Scroll to the bottom post to see where I got this idea from.

Can anyone help recommend an external word clock that would be good for a project studio? I really don't have the cash to pay for the Eventide option right now. Is there a dedicated word clock that is good quality (better than the 002) but not a million bucks?

[Ziko]

It's worth bearing in mind that if you're someone who works with VIs mainly and doesn't record audio, you'll only see the benefits in terms of the DA conversion your system does as it converts your master output to analog to send to your monitors.

People who do lots of audio tracking get the extra benefit of better AD conversion as their analog signals are converted to digital on the way into Pro Tools.

Personally, I'd question the value/cost equation for a VI user.