Focusrite ISA One Setup w MBox One S/PDIF Connection

[Quinn9]

Hello Everyone,

Well I took the advice of Brad Lyons and bought the ISA One and the Focusrite A/D converter. I had to buy the nine pin connector and S/PDIF RCA cable separately.

Today I hooked things up and I can see I am getting a signal into the ISA One. The VU is moving and the headphone jack is working. I am not yet getting the signal to Protools. I think I have to change my setup options including the I/O but I don't know what to do. Any suggestions?

Thank You,
Quinn

[albee1952]

Go to SETUP>I/O setup and click on the INPUT tab. Add path, then select STEREO and click the grid for the SPDIF input. Now the SPDIF should be an available input on your audio track. I assume you would select SPDIF-1 or SPDIF-L for the ISA, but I have not used one. Remember that the MIX knob will have no affect on the ISA signal so plan on setting your buffer at 64 or 128 to keep latency low(so you don't feel like you are hearing an echo when recording).

[Quinn9]

Hi Albee,
Although I think that is the right path, that did not quite get me there. I managed to unplug the other inputs (I won't need them) but still there is no S/PDIF option in the input section to choose. Any other ideas? Do I have to pick S/PDIF elsewhere in the Setup area?

Thank You,
Quinn

[albee1952]

I'm confused. I would have expected it to show on the grid so you could enable it. Did you try hitting the DEFAULT button on the input tab/page?

[Quinn9]

Hi,

I did go to the setup and to and picked a new audio path and clicked on the S/PDIF. What I don't see is the S/PDIF showing up at the input on the mixing desk so that I can choose it as the input.
Quinn

[Quinn9]

I didn't express that well. I mean, I did not find the option in my Mix window in the audio input path selector area. I thought I might see something like S/PDIF where I normally see Mic/Line 1.
Quinn

[Quinn9]

Hello All,

Well, I have found a simple answer to the problem. When I added a new path, I renamed it ISA One. But that path was not showing up in my choices on the mix window in the audio path selector area. Well since the S/PDIF RCA is a stereo cable, I made a new STEREO trac and there I found the newly formed ISA One path.

New problem, I am only getting the left side of the stereo information. I would have thought that although the mic is recording in mono that when it arrived at the trac it would somehow be directed to both channels of the stereo mix. I will have to investigate the breakout cable configuration and selection. Oh well, I am getting closer.

Yes,
Quinn

[albee1952]

You should be recording the ISA to a mono audio track.

[danssolution]

Hi everyone,

Im new to these forums. Im looking for some help. I just purchased the Focusrite ISA One preamp with the digital card to run through my mbox 2 and into Pro Tools. Im unsure on which cables to buy to connect the digital preamp to the mbox (I was advised that it was just a straight s/pdif connection).

The Mbox has analog inputs for s/pdif where the outputs on the ISA are digital. Is there a certain cable to buy? Is the signal going to lose quality or is it 'unbalanced'?

any help would be much appreciated

thanks

Dan =)

[nst7]

There's a special cable made by Focusrite which is a separate purchase and allows you to go from the 9 pin spidf jack on the back of the ISA One to either XLR AES or Spidf RCA. It's 2 different cables and you want the one that goes to spidf RCA. You should be able to order it through your dealer.

There's a picture of the 2 different cables on page 10 of the ISA One users' manual.