Digi D8 and the ADAT Connector

[sleevet]

Hey, so after much hassle and trouble I FINALLY bought a new hard drive to get a working Pro Tools 7.4 working. Now it finally will load. Worth the price tag, this one time...

Anyway, I just bought a Presonus Digimax D8 interface to get 8 more mic pres on my Digi002. However, I'm having trouble figuring out how to get the digi002 to recognize the fact that I have a device attatched to my ADAT. I took one end from the Optical OUT on the Digi002 and put the other end into the only ADAT channel the digimax had. Does anyone know how to get this to function? Installed software? Do you have to set it up on Pro Tools in the IO section? (Something I've tried, but with little success). How does one get the Digi to recognize that it now has new hardware attached to the ADAT? Please let me know if anyone has any answers. Thanks!

[albee1952]

The ADAT port on the D8 is an output. Run your lightpipe from the D8 to the ADAT input of the 002. Open Pro Tools and go to the Hardware menu and select Sync to Optical. Next, go to the I/O setup page and enable the inputs by adding paths and routing them to the ADAT inputs by using 9 thru 16. Make sure the D8 is set to the same sample rate as your session(44.1K or 48K). That should get you going.

[Ziko]

You're using the wrong optical port on your 002. You need to run a cable from the optical out on your D8 and plug it into the optical in on your 002.

Think about the signal path and it should make sense, eg: singer sings into mic, mic is plugged into mic-pre on D8, mic-pre signal goes into AD converter inside D8 and is converted to digital signal, digital signal goes out the optical out on the D8 and into the optical in on the 002, Pro Tools receives and digital signal and your session records it (assuming you have a track record enabled etc etc)

Once you've connected the cable, fire up PT, go into tools, inputs/outputs (not sure on exact wording) and you should see the extra 8 input channels available to be attached to PT inputs.

As you're now using two digital units, you'll need to make them clock from the same source. If you decide the D8 has a better clock (prob does), then the best solution is to run a BNC lead from the clock out on the D8 (assuming it has one) and run it to the clock in on the 002. Then in Pro Tools, go into tools, hardware and change the clock source from "internal" to "word clock in" (I'm not if it's listed as that but follow your nose).
If you can't do that, you might be able to set the clock source as ADAT in, the clocking info will then share the same optical lead as the digital audo itself. It's not as ideal, there's more chance of jitter.

Hope that helps.