• Registered: 2019-09-02
  • Posts: 11

Topic: UFXII to 500 series ADAT chassis and back into DAW 4 retracking

Hi everyone, I am a newbie when it comes to using outboard gear but I have heard that using ADAT is an excellent way to expand the capabilities of my UFXII interface. (of which I have little competency on the flexibility of the unit) I purchased a couple stereo modules (Wes Audio Dione and Prometheus) to rely less on plugins. I have an analog connection that is working from the outboard chassis unit ( Heritage Audio OST 8 adat) with the optical coming from the output of the Heritage into the adat input 1 of the UFXII. But I can't seem to wrap my head around what ADAT is and how it's routed as an input source into my DAW for recording purposes and there isn't tutorials that I've found that go into depth about the topic of hybrid mixing. I have no formal background in audio engineering, but I am interested in learning more.   

Also how important is having wordclock set up? I often here about the term jitter, and wonder if not having the interface and the OST 8 adat clock linked will have a degrading effect in the audio or in live monitoring. Thanks in advance for your assistance/ advice.

  • Registered: 2016-06-14
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Re: UFXII to 500 series ADAT chassis and back into DAW 4 retracking

Hi
What ADAT technically is and initially was made for you can find on Wikipedia or such...
Because the ADAT ports on your UFX II are there in every case, with or without something is connected to, in TotalMix as well as in your DAW these channels are always appearing. I don't know, which channel numbers the ADAT inputs have with the UFX II, I think they come after the twelve analog and the two AES inputs, so 15-22 for the first, 23-30 for the second ADAT port. Maybe it's different between Win and Mac and also it's related to what DAW you have. Anyway if you find and select the right input channels in your DAW for one or several tracks, then you can record what is coming in over ADAT. It's the same as with the analog inputs, there is only an additional piece of gear in the chain and the AD conversion happens there and not in the UFX II.
Clocking is very important to avoid dropouts, crackles and pops. One of the units has to be clock master, the other is slaved to it. That can be over ADAT itself (the clock takes the same way than the audio signal only, so always from output to input) or over word clock cables.

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  • Registered: 2019-09-02
  • Posts: 11

Re: UFXII to 500 series ADAT chassis and back into DAW 4 retracking

This is correct as far as I can see regarding my interface and is the same for windows, but I can't figure out step by step how to synchronize the master clock of the interface to the ost adat. Audio appears to be coming earlier than the audio is even being played in the DAW, and it records as such. In most cases the audio would be recorded or played with delay. This issue stems from not having a properly synched clock? When resampling in DAW it doesn't record / playback early.

  • Registered: 2016-06-14
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Re: UFXII to 500 series ADAT chassis and back into DAW 4 retracking

Maybe it would be much more simple to connect the output from the Heritage lunchbox to the UFX over analog cables (d-sub to 6.35mm plugs). Or aren’t there enough free analog inputs left?
If you want to use the ADAT connection (so AD conversion happens in Heritage) and UFX should be master, a word clock cable is needed. This has to go from UFX wc out to Heritage input. Using the white button on the front of the unit, you should select EXT. then. You can find all this information in the manual of the Heritage too.

FF 400 - Babyface pro - Digiface USB - ADI-2 (original)
Mac mini M1 - Macbook pro - iPad Air2
  • Registered: 2019-09-02
  • Posts: 11

Re: UFXII to 500 series ADAT chassis and back into DAW 4 retracking

I have everything I need to connect the OST ADAT unit to the RME including the word clock cable and have it hooked up clock out RME clock in Heritage. Now I don't know what is the problem because the audio will not even come through my interface. It mentions it's important for there to be a master clock, but they don't give instructions on how to achieve this... unless it's automatic which is not really clear... I would attach an image of the MADIface settings but I can't figure out how.

  • Registered: 2019-09-02
  • Posts: 11

Re: UFXII to 500 series ADAT chassis and back into DAW 4 retracking

Audio is sent out of channel 3/4 and there is audio being processed by the modules, but no signal returning ADAT in total mix

7 Reply by oli77sch (edited by oli77sch 2023-04-27 21:06:19)

  • Registered: 2016-06-14
  • Posts: 960

Re: UFXII to 500 series ADAT chassis and back into DAW 4 retracking

gatticakid wrote:

Audio is sent out of channel 3/4 and there is audio being processed by the modules, but no signal returning ADAT in total mix

Only to avoid misunderstandings: you also have the optical cable correctly connected from OST output to RME input?
And on the OST: to send the signals from the module output to the ADAT out, the particular channel switch has to be set to 'out'. Sorry to ask that, but do you have the manual for the OST? It’s all described in there!

FF 400 - Babyface pro - Digiface USB - ADI-2 (original)
Mac mini M1 - Macbook pro - iPad Air2
  • Registered: 2019-09-02
  • Posts: 11

Re: UFXII to 500 series ADAT chassis and back into DAW 4 retracking

Yes I have optical out of adat channel 2 of the Heritage ADAT going into RME's ADAT 1 channel input . There is the white switch on the front for sample rate frequency switched to 'ext'  This is the way it's suggested to set up in the manual.

9 Reply by oli77sch (edited by oli77sch 2023-04-27 21:45:41)

  • Registered: 2016-06-14
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Re: UFXII to 500 series ADAT chassis and back into DAW 4 retracking

Yes the white switch is for the word clock, but the small switches (which are available for all the eight channels) have to be on „out“ - at least the ones you have in use for your modules. They are there to select the source for the ADAT output.

FF 400 - Babyface pro - Digiface USB - ADI-2 (original)
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  • Registered: 2016-06-14
  • Posts: 960

Re: UFXII to 500 series ADAT chassis and back into DAW 4 retracking

https://abload.de/img/77822f94-0dc6-484e-av4c0j.jpeg

FF 400 - Babyface pro - Digiface USB - ADI-2 (original)
Mac mini M1 - Macbook pro - iPad Air2
  • Registered: 2019-09-02
  • Posts: 11

Re: UFXII to 500 series ADAT chassis and back into DAW 4 retracking

I figured this out. Because I had the adat 2 out of the heritage going into the adat input of the RME there was an issue with sending audio out in the "ext" mode. It's working now. But have you had issues before with audio being sent to be processed early? I'm sending a bus through the heritage to be processed, and the audio is being recorded early into the DAW... like before it even is timed in the arrangement. (using ableton live 11) Is this a RME issue or do you suspect more of a DAW related issue?

  • Registered: 2019-09-02
  • Posts: 11

Re: UFXII to 500 series ADAT chassis and back into DAW 4 retracking

Thanks for the replies, oli77sch

13 Reply by MC

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Re: UFXII to 500 series ADAT chassis and back into DAW 4 retracking

Latency information in the driver refers to (Edit: the interface's) analog I/O. As digital is a bit quicker tracks are always aligned with an offset. Edit: using any external FX will also change the delay in that I/O path.

You have to compensate for that manually in the DAW.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

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  • Registered: 2016-06-14
  • Posts: 960

Re: UFXII to 500 series ADAT chassis and back into DAW 4 retracking

It’s related to Ableton which seems to do a wrong - so too much - latency correction. I don’t use this software, so can’t give further help.

MC wrote:

Latency information in the driver refers to the analog I/O, As digital is a bit quicker tracks are always aligned with an offset. You have to compensate for that manually in the DAW.

I don’t understand this. In the actual scenario we have here, the signal goes analog out for processing but is already converted back to digital in the external unit and comes back over ADAT. But anyway it is converted DA - AD once.

FF 400 - Babyface pro - Digiface USB - ADI-2 (original)
Mac mini M1 - Macbook pro - iPad Air2