Using ProTools with a sound card other than Digidesign boxes...

[Alper Yilmaz]

Hi,

I have ProTools 8.0.3 on my Mac and I have two sound cards: (i) MBox 2 Pro; and (ii) RME Fireface 800. The preamps and the converters on the RME are much better than the MBox, so using S/PDIF I would like to bypass the preamps on the MBox and use RME as my main sound card (the MBox will function just a hard lock for ProTools). So, regarding the setup, I have a few questions:

1. How am I supposed to connect the two sound cards? Am I supposed to connect S/PDIF Out of the RME to S/PDIF In of the MBox?

2. Also, I would like to use RME as the Word Clock at the moment. Am I supposed to connect Word Clock Out of the RME to Word Clock In of the MBox?

3. After completing the connections, do I need to define anything in ProTools?

4. For monitoring, which of the sound cards can I use? I prefer to use the RME, but is this possible?

These questions might be very primitive ones for all the recording gurus out there, but I think I should start understanding these things at some point!

Thanks in advance. Best,

Alper

 

[Charling]

Hi,

I have ProTools 8.0.3 on my Mac and I have two sound cards: (i) MBox 2 Pro; and (ii) RME Fireface 800. The preamps and the converters on the RME are much better than the MBox, so using S/PDIF I would like to bypass the preamps on the MBox and use RME as my main sound card (the MBox will function just a hard lock for ProTools). So, regarding the setup, I have a few questions:

1. How am I supposed to connect the two sound cards? Am I supposed to connect S/PDIF Out of the RME to S/PDIF In of the MBox?

Yup, digital connections can be though of as pretty much the same as analog connections apart from the 'format' they are in. You just have to remember that digital audio will have to hit a converter before it can be heard/processed by an amp etc and analog needs to be converted to digital before being used in any way by a computer or digital audio device.

2. Also, I would like to use RME as the Word Clock at the moment. Am I supposed to connect Word Clock Out of the RME to Word Clock In of the MBox?

Yes, the clock 'source', the RME, sends the clock signal out of the device and into the device you want to run off of its clock.

3. After completing the connections, do I need to define anything in ProTools?

Yeah, though I'm not certain if it will be in pro tools or on the M-Audio controll panel. In an all digidesign system like an mbox you would go into pro tools>devices>hardware (or maybe hardware>devices, one of the menu bar options on the right anyway!) and set clock source to external:wordclock. This may be all you need to do, but as M-Audio is kind of third party anyway you MAY have to go to the m-audio panel and set it to clock source + external wordclock of similar.

4. For monitoring, which of the sound cards can I use? I prefer to use the RME, but is this possible?

yes, this is possible but brings up a particular point. I'm not sure if the RME is a standalone device, ie if it can pass audio between its in's and outs WITHOUT a computer present. I have an Meric Halo ULN-2 which CAN do this. You set it up so that the 'spdif in' to the ULN is sent to the ULN's main outs (which your speakers/amp are connected to) , and its analog in's come out of the spdif output. You save that as a snapshot and can then just run the metric Halo without it being controlled by a computer.

However, thats a pretty cool feature of the ULN and I'm not sure if the RME does the same. you may find that to pass ANY audio to and from the RME you need it to be plugged into a computer with the control panel up and routing audio the way you need it to be routed.

Essentially, if the RME is being controlled by a computer you can DEFINATELY use it in all the ways you describe, but you may even have to have a DAW open to route the audio if you can't do it in the RME control panel.

Lastly, Spdif is a 2 channel interface, so you will only be able to give an recieve 2 channels at any one time (per connector, half a phono cable is a single spdif connection and carries 2 channels of digital audio) . This may work out fine for what you need but if you have an ADAT OUT on the RME and an IN on the m-audio box it may make sense to use that rather than sdif, as it can deal with 8 audio channels at the same time, and clock as well if you want to keep the cables down.

You may then have to use the spdif OUT on the M-audio as well to send your monitor channels abck to the RME and to your speakers.

Worth trying to get it working though, if you can happily work out a setup like this then you should have no trouble understanding most problems in the world of interfaces, digital audio and clocking!

 

[Alper Yilmaz]

Thanks Charling!

Cheers,

A.