The Word about Clock Sync and I'm confused.

[Banister]

I've decided to go ahead and get a Mackie 800R to take advantage of my 002's light pipe inputs. And, I already have a Focusrite TwinTrak Pro...

So, I'm thinking about digital synchronization.

* Do I even need sync? (I haven't had problems so far with 002 and TwinTrak)
* Will I notice any sonic improvements?
* Will a master clock give me bang for my buck on a PT-LE system?
* Considering the 002 has no dedicated Word Clock input.. Will sync even work?


Is anyone here currently using wordclock to digitally sync multiple pieces of output gear to an LE system?

[StudioRhythm]

Yes, you should sync the two external units together via WC, and then sync the 002 to whichever one of the units is the master. I use a Mytek 8x192 and a LavryBlue 2-ch A/D with my 002, and in my case I have the Mytek as the master, the Lavry synced via WC to the Mytek, and the 002 set to ADAT input (from Mytek). That'll probably be the best type of setup for you as well, although I'm not familiar with either of the units you have, so you might experiment to see which one seems to work best as the master.

[Banister]

Aaaah I see.. Thanks for the reply.

No need for a stand alone Master clock, like Big Ben or MOTU digital Timepiece...

I can achieve sync by choosing one of the devices as the master. That makes sense, but what do the stand alone master clock units offer? "better" sync?

(sorry for noobishness)


Also.. In a setup like you described...

If the 002 is getting sync information from another unit, I would imaging that I would still need to make sure my session is set to match the bit rates. Example: I would not be able to create a new session in 48k 24bit and expect my outboard gear to automatically follow that setting. right?

[StudioRhythm]

Aaaah I see.. Thanks for the reply.

No need for a stand alone Master clock, like Big Ben or MOTU digital Timepiece...


I can achieve sync by choosing one of the devices as the master. That makes sense, but what do the stand alone master clock units offer? "better" sync?

(sorry for noobishness)

That's sort of a hotly debated issue. The real experts say that using a separate master clock will actually increase jitter over using an A/D that has even an OK clock built in, but some recording engineers and producers claim that using a master clock sounds better. I wouldn't worry about it for your situation, and I personally doubt that a separate master clock is a good idea in most cases, but that's all I'm going to say right now in the interest of not starting WWIII....

Also.. In a setup like you described...

If the 002 is getting sync information from another unit, I would imaging that I would still need to make sure my session is set to match the bit rates. Example: I would not be able to create a new session in 48k 24bit and expect my outboard gear to automatically follow that setting. right?

That's right (you mean sample rates, not bit rates), and it's a pain to sort things out later if you had a system clocked to 48 but the session was created at 44.1, for example.