Extending the BFC cable

[captainamerica]

Y-my-R ...walk me thru what you would like me to do...sorry not sure:

" either of you have an Apogee Clock card installed in your console, and have the ability to test of audio is clean if running the D8B to external clock, Captain America and RJH_Music?

[Y-my-R]

Thanks so much, Captain America, for offering to try this out for me. Sorry for responding so late - life got in the way

The pre-requirement to verify what I’m seeing is this:
- An Apogee Clock card
- A secondary audio device with a BNC word clock output (not the D8B)
- A 75 Ohm BNC word clock cable (…and depending on the device above, maybe also a Terminator for that end)
- A “digital” card in one of the Tape or ALT I/O slots
- A “longer than stock” BFC cable (the one I’m trying is 50 feet long)

What you would do to test this, is to:

1. Set the device with the BNC word clock output as the Clock Master (at either 44.1 or 48 kHz)
2. Connect a 75 Ohm BNC cable from the BNC word clock output of that device, to the BNC Word Clock input on the Apogee Clock card in the D8B
3. Boot the D8B and set it to sync to external clock.
4. Play some audio on an external device (that syncs to the same clock… if the clock master device is also a playback device, then from there), and route it to one of the digital inputs on either the Tape I/O or ALT I/O card
5. Listen to the audio for dropouts or distortion, and/or monitor if the clock might be lost, sometimes (i.e. question mark in the right upper corner of the D8B’s built-in display).

When I tried to use it this way, there weren’t any error messages or anything, but the audio was quite obviously not clean… first frequent pops & clicks, then it drifted further and further into severe distortion for me, and up to a complete clock loss.

Thanks very much again for offering to test this - and in case you don’t have all the hardware/cables to try, I completely understand, of course. Still: Thanks very much!!

[captainamerica]

ok...just getting to this, let me see what I can on the studio next week

[RJH_MUSIC]

Sorry seeing this so late. I have both d8bs set to internal clock, no issues. I do recall many years ago someone told me that the d8b likes to be the master. Any other set up reaps havoc, I always boot d8bs first and then turn on audio interface and lastly my computers

[RJH_MUSIC]

And yes Apogee card. Never got anything stable unless d8b was set to internal. But if you are going to clock the d8b to external source make sure you kilohertz settings match. 44.1 was always the sweet spot for me.

[Bruce Graham]

My setup is not as described, but I have recently had a few "pops and clicks" while recording. d8b was the master. Decided to try an external Wordclock Generator, (Art SYNCGen), and slave 1 d8b and 2 HDR's. So far all is good!
A small point, but important I beleive, is that the Apogee clock card input is not terminated so needs to be. I used a BNC "T" at the d8b.

My test will continue.
Cheers
Bruce

[Y-my-R]

Thanks RJH_MUSIC and Bruce!

Other than when I'm using the 50 foot BFC cable, I have no problem with clocking the D8B to an external sync source, and that's how I ALWAYS use my D8B. So, that isn't a problem over here.

As mentioned somewhere in the thread above, I had similar issues with the D8B being picky about the clock coming in, when I still used a different D8B console as my main console, so I think there must be some component difference.

The console and power supply combination I'm using now, instantly locks to external clock, and responds quickly to clock changes. So, I'm not seeing the types of issues you're seeing (anymore).

I do see situations, occasionally, where I see the meters not looking right after startup, and have to try again... and some of that appears to be clock related. But for the most part, locking to external clock has been rock-solid with my D8B, as long as a standard length BFC cable is used. No matter if at 44.1 or 48 kHz.

I'm using a Lucid GENx192 external clock.

And for the record:
Apogee clock cards ARE internally terminated. If you add a T-connecter and another terminator on the D8B end, you're technically double-terminating.
There is a description of a modification to the Apogee clock card in the database, that explains how to add a switch to turn termination on and off. I have a card that has that mod, but that's not what is in the console I'm actively using. There, I'm using an internally terminated Apogee Clock card.

Also, FWIW, the Lucid External clock has LEDs on the back next to the BNC connectors, that indicate if the connection is properly terminated on the other end. And for the D8B and the Apogee Clock card, it shows it as correctly terminated, and I am NOT using a T-piece and separate terminator on that end (I do have one, and experimented with that sort of stuff years ago, when I didn't have a clear understanding of what's terminated where... but had that part working stable for a long time by now).

[Bruce Graham]

HU Y-My-R

I stand corrected again! It is terminiated as you stated! I must remove the external Termination added! I was reading wrong info!

Cheers
Bruce