External Clock Suggestions for PT HD rig? Lucid, Rosenthol???

[topdiggy2]

Hello Guys -

Thanks in advance for your help and suggestions. I am in the process of migrating to PT HD setup. I need some suggestions on how to work out the clocking configuration with the 192 i/0 and the rest of my production setups.

Here is what im working with as far as PT is concerned.

Frontend
(2) Mackie D8b Mixers (currently slaving my 2nd d8b, and all other interfaces to the master D8b internal Apogee word clock).

PT HD Rig
Hackintosh i7 w/ OSX 10.7.5
PT 8HD
HD4 system (1 x pcix core, 1 x pcix accel, 2 x pcix process cards)
(3) 192 i/o analog frames (with 2 digital cards)
(3) 888/24 units

NOTE: I haven't turn "on" the Pro Tools portion yet, missing a digilink cable. So my chain stops at mixing console for now. [/I]

WORKFLOW: Sources >>> Mixer console >>>> Pro Tool HD rig >>>> Console for monitoring mixing >>>> Master input in PTHD

My questions are:
1. I want to replace the mackie d8b word clock signal with a better external word clock that can clock everything in my setups. I think i have been having issues with more than 2-3 devices on the d8b's word clock card.

I found this Rosenthol Nanosync and Lucid Genx 96 clock. I don't know anything about them...how do they compare to each other?

Are their any others (besides the big ben, that's in the sub $400 price range) that will do a better job that the Digidesign or D8b apogee clock?

2. If i do ad a external clock to the system...as far as wiring it to the HD system, how would that look with the 3 192 interfaces and the other non-protools gear i have in the studio?


Again, thanks for your advice!

[albee1952]

The Rosendhal or the Big Ben would get my vote. The Lucid(GenX192) that I had was not a dramatic improvement to my ears. You might also just try running with the internal clock/Loop Sync setup and feed Wordclock from the main 192 to the Mackie(or tell the Mackie to clock to ADAT if you have that connection in play).

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by albee1952

You might also just try running with the internal clock/Loop Sync setup and feed Wordclock from the main 192 to the Mackie

Just bear in mind that when you connect those black 888|24 boxes, the wordclock outputs of the HD interfaces become 256x superclock instead of normal 1x wordclock.

[topdiggy2]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Just bear in mind that when you connect those black 888|24 boxes, the wordclock outputs of the HD interfaces become 256x superclock instead of normal 1x wordclock.

So that would be my next set of questions:

if i grab the external clock (leaning toward the Rosenthal), do i

Option #1

WC output >>>> 192's loop and include the 888/24 in that loop,
OR

OPTION #2

WC OUT #1 >>>>>> main 192 (ext IN); then connect rest of my 192s in the loop)

WC OUT #2 >>>>> into 888/24 #1
WC OUT #3>>>>>> into 888/24 #2
....and so forth for every other piece of gear?

[JFreak]

You don't loop sync blackies, only HD interfaces. So...

Master clock to first 192 WC in, then loop sync the rest of the HD interfaces. Test that it works and then connect blackies to the WC out of 192 boxes. You need to adjust PT hardware setup and change the expansion port to legacy, which also changes the WC output to 256x superclock that the blackies need. Then test again. Connect other possible devices after you have had your 192's and blackies running well together.

[topdiggy2]

okay thanks JFreak!!! appreciate ya~!