HD 3 Accel on Sony DMX-R100

[vuckovic]

Just bought a HD3 Accel system with three 192's yesterday, an been trying to get it to work for the past 20 hours...

The computer is a G5 dual 1.8/1GB RAM witth OS 10.3.3 in it. I'm trying to connecet the 192s to a Sony DMX-r100 via AES/EBU (I have three expansion cards inside Sony). W@hat's happening is that, whichever configuration I try, I end up with only first two channels in each bank working. The other channels simply do not play through the Sony, although the peak meters on the 192s are blinking. I've tried to connect the 192 via an ADAT bank, but that also isn't working. Analog banks are working flawlessly. I've tried to word clock slave the Sony, as well as to make it the word clock master, in both situations the problem remains. I've also tried to connect an Alesis HDR via ADAT to the 192, in order to record to Pro Tools. This also isn't working. All routing combinations in I/O peripheral menu aren't working, except analog ones.

Any ideas?

[DigiTechSupt]

Not exactly sure what you mean when you say each bank? Each bank of digital I/O on the 192's or each bank if digital I/O on the Sony?

My first guess is that the appropriate I/O needs to be setup in the I/O setup (or hardware setup) window of Pro Tools, then the tracks in the Pro Tools session need to be configured for the correct inputs/outputs.

Verify correct cabling and connections.

Assuming all that is correct, you could verify all input and outputs are working properly by patching the outputs of one 192 digital card into another 192 digital card. Then do the same on the Sony, this should tell which, Pro Tools or the Sony, is having the problem.

Hope this helps,

Jon Connolly
Digidesign Product Specialist

[vuckovic]

All three 192s are connected to the DMX-r100. The thing is that only channels 1&2 on each AES/EBU card are playing. The other thing is that 1&2 channels on the first AES/EBU interface are OK, on the second the sound is coming out of 1&2 as well as from 3&4 (simultaneously, although it is not set up in software. For example, when I route a stereo track to 1&2 AES/EBU outs on the second 192(which sould play on Sony on channels 9&10), it comes out also on channels 11&12 (Sony), and the funniest thing, when I route to 1&2 on the third 192 all I get i digital noise... I assume that this is some kind of a word clock problem, but I can't find a mistake in my connections. Sync loop cables are connecte from "out" on the first 192 to the "in" on the second, the out from the second 192 going to the "in" of the third, and "out from the third going to the in of the first 192. As far as I know, this should be OK, is it?

I tried to slave the 192's to the Sony, as well as opposite. In both cases iI left the sync lock cables connected as above. I'm almost completely certain that this is not a software problem, because I tried almost every combination in I/O setup dialog (very cleanly laid out, bravo Digidesign).

One thing that crosses my mine is the cables. As far as I could see, there isn't anything specific about your D-SUB to AES/EBU cables? I'm using a standard multicore which I was using with Mackie HDR 24, on which everything is working fine. Could you check the information on wiring for that cable, and is Mackie using the same wiring as Digidesign?

[mpr3]

You need to ensure that your D-Subs use the Tascam pin layout, and not the Yamaha one.

I use the same configuration: HD3 Accel into 24 channels of the DMX-R100 (3 AES cards). Assuming that you have used the DMX before and can confirm that the AES inputs are routed to any of the 48 virtual channels and working, I think it is safe to rule the DMX out as the problem.

Since the metering on the 192 follows the assigned outputs, you can confirm that the individual channels are routed correctly in Pro Tools, as the meters should all reflect somewhat unique activity when used with many different sounding audio files. If this is true then, yes, you can rule out your PT I/O config and to some extent you can rule out the functionality of the 192s as being culprit. At this point, I would bet your cabling is wrong.

I highly suggest Zaolla D-Sub cabling.

[vuckovic]

OK, this makes sense, but, one thing that comes to my mind is that I tried the same cables on te analog outs, and it worked!? As far as I can see from the wiring diagram inside the 192 manual, the wiring for the analog and AES/EBU D-SUB is the same? These cables work on Mackie, and from what I saw at the Mogami site, Digidesign uses the same cables as Mackie...

Call me stupid, but...

Oh, and everything passes the DigiCheck test.

Out of ideas.

[mpr3]

The wiring for the AES D-Sub is not the same as the analog D-Sub. The analog cables have either all 8 female XLRs (for the input bank) or all 8 male XLRs (for the output bank), while the AES D-Sub has 4 female and 4 male XLRs, allowing 8 channels of both input and output on a single DSUB connection. If you connected an analog DSUB to the AES DSUB port and then ran all 8 male XLRs into 2 of the DMX's AES expansion cards, this may be the reason why your signal aren't showing up at the DMX. Remember, an analog DSUB carries 8 channels in one direction, while the digital DSUB carries 8 channels in both directions.

[vuckovic]

I'm aware of that, the cable I'm using is D-SUB to 4 female&4 male XLR. If you check out the wiring diagram inside the 192 manual, you'll see that the wiring is the same for both analog and AES/EBU multicore, except for the connectors at the end of it.

I managed to get the ADAT banks working, after a looong night, around 11 A.M.

Today I'll try to measure the pins on the multicore, to see if they match the Digidesign diagram. Hope it works.

Thanks 4 the help

[Drew Mazurek]

don't mean to be insulting but you've check Hardware Setup and it's all set up right?

[vuckovic]

Yes. I be;ieve it's the cables

[Mark Edmondson]

When we upgraded one of our rooms to a 16-AES-channel 192, we were not able to get AES ins or outs 9-16 to work correctly, although the meters on the front of the box display as if it's outputting correctly. We have the same Mac as you. We have been trying to fix this for a while and can't find anything that works; we've re-installed OS X and ProTools, upgraded RAM, and have replaced the 192 and the Digilink cable. Still no luck. Today we're going to try a complete swap out of another 192 with new AES cards, I'll let you know how that goes.