• Registered: 2020-06-05
  • Posts: 1

Topic: Madi Desync - Ferrofish A16 mkII and RME HDSPe MADI FX card

Hey everyone. I've been back and forth with customer service for both companies for months now.
I just want to get the forums opinion before i ship out my equipment for diagnostics and repairs.
I've tested all configurations, card as slave, converter as slave, bnc clock, madi clock, everything. I've boughten new BNC and MADI cables, all give me the same results.
Upon startup the a16 will take a minute to report signal, and then takes awhile to confirm lock status with the HDSPe card. At that point it becomes random when it will be locked or not, it can be completely stable or not at random.
I've tried to find other equipment to test with but the lockdown has made this exceptionally hard, i cant even find another computer to test my setup in atm.
What i have done though is connected madi1 port to madi2 port of hte HDSPe, as a loopback to test its signal. The entire time i saw no desyncs, and it was instantly locking at all clock speeds with eachother as the source.
This leads me to think it is infact the a16 causing the issue. I just want to know what the forum thinks and if they have any last minute trouble shooting ideas before i ship things out. Thank you

  • Registered: 2016-04-16
  • Posts: 58

Re: Madi Desync - Ferrofish A16 mkII and RME HDSPe MADI FX card

Hi,

I have the same issue with one of my A16 and am about to ship it for repair to Ferrofish.
Do you ever got your issue fixed?

Thanks!

3 Reply by ramses (edited by ramses 2026-06-07 09:57:38)

  • ramses
  • ramses
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  • Registered: 2012-10-14
  • Posts: 15,768

Re: Madi Desync - Ferrofish A16 mkII and RME HDSPe MADI FX card

That’s very frustrating, and I’m sorry to hear you’re having these difficulties.

Without specific information about the current test scenario, the concrete settings on both devices, and screenshots showing the selected settings and sync status, remote troubleshooting is not feasible.

Please post a screenshot of the Driver Settings window as well as the A16 control interface. For instructions on how to post screenshots on the RME forum, see my blog post: https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/Ent … rum-EN-DE/

The recommended setup is: HDSPe MADI FX as clock master (Internal), A16 as clock slave. The application sets the sample rate via the driver, and the slaves derive the clock from the master.

Regarding the first post: I would have carried out the loopback test on the HDSPe MADI FX between MADI1 OUT and MADI1 IN, not between MADI1 OUT and MADI2 IN, as you are connecting the device via MADI1.
You could have course also try HDSPe MADI FX - MADI port 2.
The loopback test could also have been performed on the A16 using its own clock via MADI OUT/IN.

Did you also try different MADI or word clock cables?
What MADI cables are you using — OM2, OM3, OM4?
Or possibly single mode cable (yellow, which is incompatible with multimode MADI ports)?
Word clock cable must be 75 ohms, connecting WC OUT to WC IN.

Regarding clock synchronization: people often refer to 'lock', but what you actually need is 'sync' !!!
Only then are the devices truly clock-synchronized.
'Lock' merely indicates that a clock signal has been detected at the input, nothing more.

If MADI clock synchronization should not work for whatever reason, you could also test synchronization via Word Clock
to isolate whether the issue is with the MADI clock specifically.

Regarding the RME setup with RME HDSPe MADI FX.
Which OS are you using?
Are you using the latest firmware and driver?

What does Ferrofish support say about this?
Has the firmware version of the A16 been checked and updated if necessary?
If no configuration error can be identified, a hardware defect of the Ferrofish A16 is the most probable cause.

Regarding clock synchronization, you can also take a look at my blog article; maybe it contains some information that might fill a gap: https://www.tonstudio-forum.de/blog/ent … ios-en-de/

BR Ramses - HDSPe MADI FX, M-1620 Pro D, 12Mic, UFX III, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, Nuendo 15, Win10 IoT Ent
  • Registered: 2016-04-16
  • Posts: 58

Re: Madi Desync - Ferrofish A16 mkII and RME HDSPe MADI FX card

Hi Ramses,

thanks for the detailed reply - I'll give some more context:

I use 4 Ferrofish devices which are daisy chained to a Madi FX.
Suddenly the last A16mk2 in the chain started to fail to lock to the Madi FX.
The interesting thing is, that after some minutes on powering up (something between 5 & 10) the unit locks just fine and synchronization works again.
I changed cables and even connected the particular unit directly to the Madi FX but the issue remains, that initially no lock happens and after some time everything works.
The Ferrofish support believes that this is due to a hardware defect and that seems to be the most plausible explanation. When I saw this post earlier today, I was hoping if OP could maybe confirm that assessment smile

  • ramses
  • ramses
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Re: Madi Desync - Ferrofish A16 mkII and RME HDSPe MADI FX card

I also think, like Ferrofish support, that a HW defect of the 4th Ferrofish is much likely.
Otherwise, everything else seems to work well.
To be sure, that this is understood well: again, "locking" to a device (status "lock") is not sufficient.
You need "sync" status, only then the clocks in the setup are synchronized to the master.

BR Ramses - HDSPe MADI FX, M-1620 Pro D, 12Mic, UFX III, ADI-2 Pro FS R BE, Nuendo 15, Win10 IoT Ent