• Registered: 2022-09-14
  • Posts: 2

Topic: UFX+ / XTC MADI bidirectional optical SYNC

Hello, I'm having trouble getting bi-directional audio to my XTC (specifically, talk-back from UFX to XTC headphone output)

Clocking scheme below:

In the control-room, I have a laptop running Sequoia with a UFX + via thunderbolt.

Connected via MADI optical (duplex) to:

On stage, I have an RME OctaMic XTC with a Grace m108 feeding its AES/EBU inputs. MADI1-8 are XTC Mic1-8 / MADI9-16 is XTC AES_EBU input

My instinct is to clock the Octamic XTC off of the m108's internal clock via AES (or word).
Then clock the UFX off of the Octamic via MADI.

I've tested the above input-scenario successfully. However, I want to send talk-back from the UFX+ to the XTC (to it's headphone outputs) via a MADI as well. That's been unsuccessful thus far (octamaic doesn't seem to sync with its MADI input).

Any advice would be appreciated.

2 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2022-09-24 12:19:05)

  • ramses
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  • Registered: 2012-10-14
  • Posts: 13,231

Re: UFX+ / XTC MADI bidirectional optical SYNC

Sorry, but you confuse me with “On stage I have” … is “on stage” another subcase or the normal scenario?

Could you kindly provide a little diagram showing your setup, with devices, cabling, clock master and clock distribution? Thanks.

As a side note, an ASCII drawing can quickly be done and gives a much better overview, one example here:
https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 25#p189925

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14
  • Registered: 2022-09-14
  • Posts: 2

Re: UFX+ / XTC MADI bidirectional optical SYNC

ramses wrote:

Sorry, but you confuse me with “On stage I have” … is “on stage” another subcase or the normal scenario?

Could you kindly provide a little diagram showing your setup, with devices, cabling, clock master and clock distribution? Thanks.

As a side note, an ASCII drawing can quickly be done and gives a much better overview, one example here:
https://forum.rme-audio.de/viewtopic.ph … 25#p189925

Signal-path:
Input

(Clock Master)                       Clock Slave (AES/EBU)
Grace m108 -----AES/EBU------> Octamic XTC -----analog headphone-out---> talk-back speaker
                                                        |      |
                                                        V     ^
                                                        |      |
                                                        V     ^
                                                        |      |
                                              16 channels @24/96
                                              MADI(optical/duplex)
                                                        |      |
                                                        V     ^
                                                        |      |
                                                        V     ^
                                                        |      |
                                             Clock Slave (MADI)                    Clock Slave (thunderbolt)
                                                      UFX+ <---thunderbolt---> TotalMix(windows Laptop)

4 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2022-09-24 14:46:11)

  • ramses
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Re: UFX+ / XTC MADI bidirectional optical SYNC

Thanks for the excellent ASCII drawing.

> octamaic doesn't seem to sync with its MADI input

So, I assume XTC is configured to get clock from AES(M103) and UFX+ is configured to get clock from MADI(XTC).
On the XTC, you should see the green LED “SYNC AES” glowing.

I would check routing on the XTC. Probably easiest to configure delay compensation because this autodetects MADI ID and automatically configures routing according to the auto-detected MADI ID, you find it here in the Options:

Options -> MADI Settings -> Delay Comp. ->  Auto-CA

Routing for the headphones you need to configure manually:
Phones -> Phones 1 -> Source -> e.g., MADI 1/2
Phones -> Phones 2 -> Source -> e.g., MADI 3/4

Maybe this fixes your issue.

BR Ramses - UFX III, 12Mic, XTC, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, RayDAT, X10SRi-F, E5-1680v4, Win10Pro22H2, Cub14