MOTU 828mkII User Manual

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™

MOTU 828mkII

User’s Guide for Macintosh

1280 Massachusetts Avenue

Cambridge, MA 02138

Business voice: (617) 576-2760

Business fax: (617) 576-3609

Te chnical support: (617) 576-3066

Te ch support fax: (617) 354-3068

Te c h supp o r t e m ai l : techsupport@motu.com

Web s ite: www.motu.com

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SAFETY PRECAUTIONS AND ELECTRICAL REQUIREMENTS

WARNING: TO REDUCE THE RISK OF FIRE OR ELECTRICAL SHOCK, DO NOT EXPOSE THIS APPLIANCE TO RAIN OR OTHER MOISTURE.

CAUTION: TO REDUCE THE RISK OF ELECTRICAL SHOCK, DO NOT REMOVE COVER. NO USER-SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE. REFER SERVICING TO QUALIFIED SERVICE PERSONNEL.

WARNING: DO NOT PERMIT FINGERS TO TOUCH THE TERMINALS OF PLUGS WHEN INSTALLING OR REMOVING THE PLUG TO OR FROM THE OUTLET.

WARNING: IF NOT PROPERLY GROUNDED THE MOTU 828mkII COULD CAUSE AN ELECTRICAL SHOCK.

The MOTU 828mkII is equipped with a three-conductor cord and grounding type plug which has a grounding prong, approved by Underwriters' Laboratories and the Canadian Standards Association. This plug requires a mating three-conductor grounded type outlet as shown in Figure A below.

If the outlet you are planning to use for the MOTU 828mkII is of the two prong type, DO NOT REMOVE OR ALTER THE GROUNDING PRONG IN ANY MANNER. Use an adapter as shown below and always connect the grounding lug to a known ground. It is recommended that you have a qualiﬁed electrician replace the TWO prong outlet with a properly grounded THREE prong outlet. An adapter as illustrated below in Figure B is available for connecting plugs to two-prong receptacles.

Figure A Figure B

Grounding lug

Screw

3-prong plug

Grounding prong

Properly grounded 3-prong outlet

3-prong plug

Adapter

Make sure this is connected to a known ground.

Two -p rong receptacle

WARNING: THE GREEN GROUNDING LUG EXTENDING FROM THE ADAPTER MUST BE CONNECTED TO A PERMANENT GROUND SUCH AS TO A PROPERLY GROUNDED OUTLET BOX. NOT ALL OUTLET BOXES ARE PROPERLY GROUNDED.

If you are not sure that your outlet box is properly grounded, have it checked by a qualiﬁed electrician. NOTE: The adapter illustrated is for use only if you already have a properly grounded two-prong receptacle. Adapter is not allowed in Canada by the Canadian Electrical Code. Use only three wire extension cords which have three-prong grounding type plugs and three-prong receptacles which will accept the MOTU 828mkII plug.

IMPORTANT SAFEGUARDS

1. Read instructions - All the safety and operating instructions should be read before operating the MOTU 828mkII.

2. Retain instructions - The safety instructions and owner's manual should be retained for future reference.

3. Heed Warnings - All warnings on the MOTU 828mkII and in the owner's manual should be adhered to.

4. Follow Instructions - All operating and use instructions should be followed.

5. Cleaning - Unplug the MOTU 828mkII from the computer before cleaning and use a damp cloth. Do not use liquid or aerosol cleaners.

6. Overloading - Do not overload wall outlets and extension cords as this can result in a risk of ﬁre or electrical shock.

7. Power Sources - This MOTU 828mkII should be operated only from the type of power source indicated on the marking label. If you are not sure of the type of power supply to your location, consult your local power company.

8. Power-Cord Protection - Power-supply cords should be routed so that they are not likely to be walked on or pinched by items placed upon or against them. Pay particular attention to cords and plugs, convenience receptacles, and the point where they exit from the MOTU 828mkII.

9. Lightning - For added protection for the MOTU 828mkII during a lightning storm, unplug it from the wall outlet. This will prevent damage to the MOTU 828mkII due to lightning and power line surges.

10. Servicing - Do not attempt to service this MOTU 828mkII yourself as opening or removing covers will expose you to dangerous voltage and other hazards. Refer all ser vicing to qualiﬁed service personnel.

11. Damage Requiring Service - Unplug the MOTU 828mkII from the computer and refer servicing to qualiﬁed service personnel under the following conditions.

a. When the power supply cord or plug is damaged. b. If liquid has been spilled or objects have fallen into the MOTU 828mkII. c. If the MOTU 828mkII has been exposed to rain or water. d. If the MOTU 828mkII does not operate normally by following the operating instructions in the owner's manual. e. If the MOTU 828mkII has been dropped or the cabinet has been damaged. f. When the MOTU 828mkII exhibits a distinct change in performance, this indicates a need for ser vice.

12. Replacement Parts - When replacement parts are required, be sure the service technician has used replacement parts speciﬁed by the manufacturer or have the same characteristics as the original part. Unauthorized substitutions may result in ﬁre, electric shock or other hazards.

13. Safety Check - Upon completion of any service or repairs to this MOTU 828mkII, ask the service technician to perform safety checks to determine that the product is in safe operating conditions.

ENVIRONMENT

Operating Temperature: 10°C to 40°C (50°F to 104°)

AVOID THE HAZARDS OF ELECTRICAL SHOCK AND FIRE

Do not handle the power cord with wet hands. Do not pull on the power cord when disconnecting it from an AC wall outlet. Grasp it by the plug.

INPUT

Line Voltage: 100 - 120 volts AC, RMS (US and Japan) or 220 - 250 volts AC, RMS (Europe). Frequency: 47 - 63 Hz single phase. Power: 7 watts maximum.

CAUTION: DANGER OF EXPLOSION IF BATTERY IS REPLACED. REPLACE ONLY WITH THE SAME OR EQUIVALENT TYPE RECOMMENDED BYMANUFACTURER. DISPOSE OF USED BATTERY ACCORDING TO MANUFACTURER’S INSTRUCTIONS.

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Contents

Quick Reference: 828mkII Front Panel

Quick Reference: 828mkII Rear Panel

Quick Reference: MOTU FireWire Audio

Console

About the 828mkII

Packing List and Macintosh System Requirements

Installing the 828mkII Hardware

Installing the 828mkII Macintosh Software

MOTU FireWire Audio Console (Mac OS X)

MOTU FireWire Control Panel (Mac OS 9)

828mkII Front Panel Operation

Digital Performer

AudioDesk

Other Mac OS X Audio Software

Cubase, Nuendo and OS 9 ASIO Software

Reducing Monitoring Latency

CueMix Console

MOTU SMPTE Console

103

Troubleshooting

107

Index

109

III

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About the Mark of the Unicorn License Agreement and Limited Warranty on Software

TO PERSONS WHO PURCHASE OR USE THIS PRODUCT: carefully read all the terms and conditions of the “click-wrap” license agreement presented to you when you install the software. Using the software or this documentation indicates your acceptance of the terms and conditions of that license agreement.

Mark of the Unicorn, Inc. (“MOTU”) owns both this program and its documentation. Both the program and the documentation are protected under applicable copyright, trademark, and trade-secret laws. Your right to use the program and the documentation are limited to the terms and conditions described in the license agreement.

Reminder of the terms of your license

This summary is not your license agreement, just a reminder of its terms. The actual license can be read and printed by running the installation program for the software. That license agreement is a contract, and clicking “Accept” binds you and MOTU to all its terms and conditions. In the event anything contained in this summary is incomplete or in conﬂict with the actual click-wrap license agreement, the terms of the click-wrap agreement prevail.

YOU MAY: (a) use the enclosed program on a single computer; (b) physically transfer the program from one computer to another provided that the program is used on only one computer at a time and that you remove any copies of the program from the computer from which the program is being transferred; (c) make copies of the program solely for backup purposes. You must reproduce and include the copyright notice on a label on any backup copy.

YOU MAY NOT: (a) distribute copies of the program or the documentation to others; (b) rent, lease or grant sublicenses or other rights to the program; (c) provide use of the program in a computer service business, network, time-sharing, multiple CPU or multiple user arrangement without the prior written consent of MOTU; (d) translate, adapt, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise alter the program or related documentation without the prior written consent of MOTU.

MOTU warrants to the original licensee that the disk(s) on which the program is recorded be free from defects in materials and workmanship under normal use for a period of ninety (90) days from the date of purchase as evidenced by a copy of your receipt. If failure of the disk has resulted from accident, abuse or misapplication of the product, then MOTU shall have no responsibility to replace the disk(s) under this Limited Warranty.

THIS LIMITED WARRANTY AND RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT IS IN LIEU OF, AND YOU HEREBY WAIVE, ANY AND ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, BOTH EXPRESS AND IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE LIABILITY OF MOTU PURSUANT TO THIS LIMITED WARRANTY SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE REPLACEMENT OF THE DEFECTIVE DISK(S), AND IN NO EVENT SHALL MOTU OR ITS SUPPLIERS, LICENSORS, OR AFFILIATES BE LIABLE FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF USE, LOSS OF PROFITS, LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE, OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY THIRD PA R TIES EVEN IF MOTU HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THIS WARRANTY GIVES YOU SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS WHICH MAY VARY FROM STATE TO STATE. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

Update Policy

In order to be eligible to obtain updates of the program, you must complete and return the attached Mark of the Unicorn Purchaser Registration Card to MOTU.

Copyright © 2003 by Mark of the Unicorn, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any human or computer language, in any form or by any means whatsoever, without express written permission of Mark of the Unicorn, Inc., 1280 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02138, U.S.A.

Limited Warranty on Hardware

Mark of the Unicorn, Inc. and S&S Research (“MOTU/S&S”) warrant this equipment against defects in materials and workmanship for a period of NINETY (90) DAYS from the date of original retail purchase. This warranty applies only to hardware products; MOTU software is licensed and warranted pursuant to separate written statements.

If you discover a defect, ﬁrst write or call Mark of the Unicorn at (617) 576-2760 to obtain a Return Merchandise Authorization Number. No ser vice will be perfor med on any product returned without prior authorization. MOTU will, at its option, repair or replace the product at no charge to you, provided you return it during the warranty period, with transportation charges prepaid, to Mark of the Unicorn, Inc., 1280 Massachusetts Avenue, MA 02138. You must use the product’s original packing material for in shipment, and insure the shipment for the value of the product. Please include your name, address, telephone number, a description of the problem, and the original, dated bill of sale with the returned unit and print the Return Merchandise Authorization Number on the outside of the box below the shipping address.

This warranty does not apply if the equipment has been damaged by accident, abuse, misuse, or misapplication; has been modiﬁed without the written permission of MOTU, or if the product serial number has been removed or defaced.

ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ARE LIMITED IN DURATION TO NINETY (90) DAYS FROM THE DATE OF THE ORIGINAL RETAIL PURCHASE OF THIS PRODUCT.

THE WARRANTY AND REMEDIES SET FORTH ABOVE ARE EXCLUSIVE AND IN LIEU OF ALL OTHERS, ORAL OR WRITTEN, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. No MOTU/S&S dealer, agent, or employee is authorized to make any modiﬁcation, extension, or addition to this warranty.

MOTU/S&S ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM ANY BREACH OF WARRANTY, OR UNDER ANY LEGAL THEORY, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, DOWNTIME, GOODWILL, DAMAGE OR REPLACEMENT OF EQUIPMENT AND PROPERTY AND COST OF RECOVERING REPROGRAMMING, OR REPRODUCING ANY PROGRAM OR DATA STORED IN OR USED WITH MOTU/S&S PRODUCTS.

Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of implied warranties or liability for incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you. This warranty gives you speciﬁc legal rights, and you may have other rights which vary from state to state.

MOTU, AudioDesk, MOTU, Mark of the Unicorn and the unicorn silhouette logo are trademarks of Mark of the Unicorn, Inc.

This equipment has been type tested and found to comply with the limits for a class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instruction manual, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause interference to radio or television equipment reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by any combination of the following measures:

• Relocate or reorient the receiving antenna

• Increase the separation between the equipment and the receiver

• Plug the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected

If necessary, you can consult a dealer or experienced radio/television technician for additional assistance.

PLEASE NOTE: only equipment certiﬁed to comply with Class B (computer input/output devices, terminals, printers, etc.) should be attached to this equipment, and it must have shielded interface cables in order to comply with the Class B FCC limits on RF emissions.

WARNING: changes or modiﬁcations to this unit not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance could void the user's authority to operate the equipment.

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These lights indicate the global sample rate at

which the 828mkII is operating. Use the MOTU

5-segment metering for the main outs.

Push and then turn the front-panel

volume knob for volume control.

This pair of 5-segment

meters are for the two

mic/instrument inputs

on the front panel.

4-segment

metering for

SPDIF input.

This bank of input

metering is for

FireWire Aud io Console to set the sample rate or to

choose an external clock source, from which the

sample rate will be derived. When no clock signal is

currently present, one of these LEDs ﬂashes rapidly.

the 8 analog TRS

input jacks on the

rear panel.

For example, if you’ve set the 828mkII to slave to an

external clock, such as ADAT, but there is no clock

signal currently being detected, it ﬂashes.

FireWire is a “plug-and-play”

protocol. That means that you

can turn off the 828mkII and

turn it back on without

restar ting your computer.

These round LEDs indicate

signal presence on the 8 rear-

panel TRS analog and SPDIF

outputs. Their threshold is

around -42 dB. They do not

indicate clipping in any way;

ADAT

bank

signal

present

LEDs.

When the 828mkII is resolving to SMPTE time code,

the LOCK light glows green when lockup has been

achieved. The TACH light blinks once per second

when the 828mkII is successfully reading address

(time code) information.

MIDI

activity

LEDs.

use your host audio software

level meters to calibrate

output levels.

Quick Reference: 828mkII Front Panel

These two trim knobs provide approximately 42dB of gain for the lo-Z XLR mic input and 17dB for the hi-Z TRS guitar/instru-

ment input. Bo th inputs have preamps, so you can plug just about anything into them: a microphone, a guitar, a synth — but

don’t plug in a +4 signal here (due to the preamps): use a rear-panel TRS input instead. Use the trim knob and the “MIC” input

level meters over in the metering section to calibrate the input signal level. The meters cover both the TRS and XLR input.

This section controls the 828mkII’s built-in CueMix DSP monitor

mixer. There are four independent mix busses: each mixes all

inputs (or any subset you wish) to a stereo output of your choice.

To e di t a m ix, choose it by pressing the MIX BUS knob. Each mix

has parameters (volume, pan, etc.) for each input: choose the

parameter you wish to edit with the PARAM knob. The LCD shows

each 828mkII input (rear-panel analog TRS, front-panel mic/

instrument inputs, ADAT and SPDIF), along with the current mix

parameter setting for each input. To change a setting, scroll to it

with the CURSOR knob and change it with the VALUE knob.

Controls the

headphone

volume or main

out volume.

Push to toggle

between them.

The LCD

provides

feedback.

These Neutrik™ combo (XLR/TRS) jacks

accept either a mic cable or a cable with a

quarter-inch plug. Both the low-impedance

XLR jack and the high-impedance TRS jack are

equipped with a preamp (so don’t connect a

+4 line level XLR cable!). 48V phantom

power can be supplied via the front-panel

switch. Use the rear panel sends to route

these inputs to your favorite outboard gear.

Use any rear-panel input as a return.

The multi-purpose backlit LCD shows

system settings or CueMix DSP

settings, depending on which knobs

you turn. The labels above and below

the LCD refer to all of the 828mkII’s

Use the SETUP and SELECT knobs to

change system settings like the

828mkII sample rate and clock

source. The SETUP knob chooses the

setting; the SELECT knob modiﬁes

These switches provide

phantom power for their

respec tive microphone

input. Left is off ; right is

on (right on!)

inputs (both analog and digital).

the current system setting displayed

in the LCD. Some settings require that

you push SELECT instead of turning it.

This is a standard quarter-inch stereo headphone

jack. From the factory, its output matches the

main outs on the rear panel. But it can be

programmed to mirror any other output pair

(digital or analog). It can even be programmed to

serve as its own independent output. Use the

volume knob above to control its level.

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These two quarter-inch balanced

TRS send outputs supply the pre

ampliﬁed input signal from the

mic/guitar/instrument inputs on

The 828mkII’s eight analog outputs are

gold-plated, balanced +4dB TRS (tip/

ring/sleeve) quarter-inch connectors

that can also accept an unbalanced

the front panel. Use them to insert

your favorite co mpressor, EQ,

reverb or other outboard effect.

Use any TRS input as a return.

These two balanced, quarter-inch jacks

serve as the 828mkII’s main outputs. You

can connect them to a set of powered

studio monitors and then control the

volume from the front panel volume

knob. (Push the knob ﬁrst to switch to

main out volume control.)

To h ear disk tracks in your audio software

on these main outs, assign the disk tracks

(and master fader) to these main outs.

You can also use CueMix DSP to monitor

live 828mkII inputs here as well.

plug. They are equipped with 24-bit,

128x oversampling converters.

These 8 analog inputs are gold-plated,

balanced TRS (tip/ring/sleeve) quarter-

inch connectors that can also accept an

unbalanced plug. The front panel LCD

lets you adjust them for either +4dB or

-10dB input signals. They have 24-bit,

64x oversampling converters. These

inputs (1 through 8) do not have micro-

phone preamps, so they are best used for

synthesizers, drum machines, effects

processors, and other instruments with

line level signals.

Quick Reference: 828mkII Rear Panel

Connect a standard foot switch

here for hands-free punch-in and

punch-out during recording. For

details about how to set this up,

These are quarter-

inch analog SMPTE

input and output

jacks. Use them to

These jacks provide

stereo, 24-bit S/PDIF

digital input and

output at all supported

see “Enable Pedal” on page 45.

resolve the 828mkII

directly to time code,

and transmit time

code to other devices.

sample rates.

Connect the 828mkII to

the computer here using

the standard 1394

Connect the 828mkII to the computer

here using the standard 1394 FireWire

cable provided with your 828mkII. Use

These optical digital I/O connectors can be

connected either to an ADAT-compatible

“lightpipe” device (such as a digital mixer)

FireWire cable provided

with your 828mkII. Use

the second FireWire port

the second FireWire port to daisy-chain

up to four MOTU FireWire audio inter-

faces to a single FireWire bus. You can

or to a S/PDIF optical (“TOSLink”) compati-

ble device, such as an effects processor or

DAT machine. Be sure to set the format in

to daisy-chain up to four

MOTU FireWire audio

interfaces to a single

also connect other FireWire devices. For

details, see “Connecting multiple MOTU

FireWire interfaces” on page 32.

the MOTU FireWire Audio Console software.

(see “Optical input/output” on page 44) for

details.) ADAT optical supplies eight

FireWire bu s. Yo u c an also

connect other FireWire

channels of 24-bit digital I/O (4 channels at

96kHz). TOSLink is stereo.

devices. For details, see

“Connecting multiple

MOTU FireWire inter-

faces” on page 32

One special note: you can choose indepen-

dent formats for the optical IN and OUT. For

example, you could choose ADAT for the

optical IN (for, say, eight channels of input

from your digital mixer) and S/PDIF for the

optical OUT (for, say, your DAT machine).

These are standard word clock jacks. Use them for a

variety of applications, such as for digital transfers with

devices that cannot slave to the clock supplied by their

digital I/O connection with the 828mkII.

If you are using the 828mkII with an ADAT, use this standard ADAT SYNC INPUT to connect the 828mkII to the end of your ADAT sync chain. For example, if you have three

ADATs, chain the ADATs in the usual fashion (SYNC OUT to SYNC IN, etc.), and then connect the last ADAT’s SYNC OUT to this SYNC IN. This connection allows you to make

sample-accurate audio transfers between AudioDesk (or other sample-accurate software) and the ADATs. If you have a MOTU MIDI Timepiece AV or Digital Timepiece,

make it the master of the ADAT SYNC chain so that you can control everything from AudioDesk (or your other MIDI Machine Control compatible software).

When the 828mkII is operating at a high sample rate (88.2

or 96 kHz), you can switch the word clock output rate (via

software) to halve the 828mk2’s system word rate.

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Quick Reference:

CHAPTER

MOTU FireWire Audio Console

Determines the clock source for your 828mkII. If you’re just using the analog ins and outs, set this to ‘Internal’. The other settings are for digital transfers via S/PDIF or external synchronization via the ADAT SYNC in port.

This menu lets you choose what you will hear from the headphone jack. To mirror the main outs, choose Main Outs. O r y ou can mirror any other output pair. To hear the phones as their own independent output, choose Phones.

If you are running under Mac OS 9, and any of these settings are grayed out (not available), see “If 828mkII settings are grayed out” on page 51.

Click the tabs to access general MOTU FireWire interface settings or settings speciﬁc to the 828mkII (or other connected interface.)

Choose the global sample rate for the system here.

Choose the desired optical format you’d like to use for the optical input and output. Note that they don’t have to be the same.

If you are running an 828mkII interface at a high sample rate (96 or 88.2), this option appears in the interface tab. It lets you choose a word clock output rate that either matches the global sample rate (e.g. 96kHz) or halves the global rate (e.g. 48kHz instead of 96kHz).

Click the General tab to access these settings.

Check this option if you would like the MOTU FireWire Audio Console icon to appear in the application dock as soon as a MOTU FireWire interface is detected (switched on, plugged in, etc.)

In the standard Mac OS X fashion, the console appears in the dock when you launch it. If the Launch con sole automatically option is checked (as shown above), the icon appears as soon as you switch on your 828mkII interface. If you click and hold on the dock icon (instead of clicking it) or control-click, a menu of hardware settings appears as shown to the right. You can view and conﬁgure any hardware settings from this menu, without opening the console window.

If you are using the 828mkII with Mac OS 9, see chapter 6, “MOTU FireWire Control Panel (Mac OS 9)” (page 47).

If you have a foot switch connected to the 828mkII, these settings let you map the foot switch to any computer keyboard key for both the up and down position. For details about how to set this up, see “Enable Pedal” on page 45.

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Page 9

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CHAPTER

About the 828mkII

OVERVIEW

The 828mkII is a computer-based hard disk recording system for Mac OS and Windows that offers 20 inputs and 22 outputs at any standard sample rate up to 96kHz. All inputs and outputs can be accessed simultaneously. The 828mkII consists of a standard 19-inch, single-space, rackmountable I/O unit that connects directly to a computer via a standard IEEE 1394 FireWire™ cable. The 828mkII offers the following:

■

Eight 24-bit analog TRS inputs

■

Te n 24-bit analog TRS outputs

■

Two combo XLR/TRS mic/guitar inputs with preamps, rear-panel quarter-inch sends and 48V phantom power

■

Eight-channel ADAT optical digital I/O

■

S/PDIF (optical and RCA)

■

ADAT sync in

■

Word c l ock I/O

portable “studio in a box” when used with a Macintosh or Windows computer. The 828mkII system includes AudioDesk™, full-featured audio workstation software for Mac OS that supports both 16-bit and 24-bit recording. Also included is an ASIO driver for multi-channel operation with any Macintosh audio software that supports ASIO drivers.

THE 828MKII I/O REAR PANEL

The 828mkII rear panel has the following connectors:

■

Te n gold- p lated , ba lanced +4dB quarter-inch (TRS) analog outputs (with 24-bit 96kHz converters)

■

Two gold-plated, balanced +4dB quarter-inch (TRS) analog sends (for the front-panel mic/guitar inputs)

■

Eight gold-plated, balanced +4 dB quarter-inch (TRS) analog inputs (with 24-bit 96kHz converters)

■

MIDI I/O

■

On-board SMPTE synchronization with

dedicated SMPTE I/O jacks

■

Foot switch for hands-free punch-in/out

■

Headphone jack

■

Main volume knob (for headphone + main outs)

■

CueMix™ DSP no-latency mixing & monitoring

■

Front-panel programming

Stand-alone mixing

■

With a variety of I/O formats, mic preamps, nolatency monitoring of live input and synchronization capabilities, the 828mkII is a complete,

■

One set of ADAT optical ‘light pipe’ connectors (8 channels of ADAT optical I/O at 44.1/48kHz or 4 channels at 88.2/96kHz), individually switchable to optical S/PDIF (‘TOSLink’)

■

RCA S/PDIF in/out

■

MIDI IN and MIDI OUT

■

Gold-plated balanced TRS quarter-inch analog in/out dedicated for SMPTE time code

■

One 9-pin ADAT SYNC IN connector

■

Word c l ock in / ou t

Foot pedal jack

■

Tw o 1394 FireWire jacks

■

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20 inputs and 22 outputs

All 828mkII inputs and outputs can be used simultaneously, for a total of 20 inputs and 22 outputs:

Connection Input Output

Analog 24-bit 96kHz on +4/-10 bal/unbal TRS 8 8

Mic preamps 24-bit 96kHz on XLR/TRS combo 2 -

Main outputs 24-bit 96kHz on bal/unbal TRS - stereo

Headphone output - stereo

ADAT optical digital (at 44.1 or 48kHz) 8 8

SPDIF 24-bit 96kHz digital stereo stereo

Total 20 22

All inputs and outputs are discrete. In other words, using a mic input does not “steal” an input from the TRS analog I/O bank. The same is true for the headphone outs and the main outs.

The ADAT optical ports provide 4 channels of I/O at 88.2 or 96kHz. They can also be independently conﬁgured as stereo TOSLink SPDIF at any supported sample rate.

The headphone outputs can operate as an independent output pair, or they can mirror any other 828mkII output pair, such as the main outs.

Analog

All 10 analog inputs are equipped with 24-bit 96kHz, 64x oversampling A/D converters. All 10 analog outputs have 24-bit 128x oversampling D/A converters. All audio is carried to the computer in a 24-bit data stream. All 10 analog outputs and the 8 rear-panel quarter-inch inputs are on balanced TRS +4dB quarter-inch jacks. All of these jacks can also accept unbalanced plugs.

All quarter-inch analog inputs can be individually switched between a +4 and -10dB reference level. An additional 6dB of software boost can be applied via the CueMix Console software application or via the front panel LCD display.

Mic sends

Before A/D conversion, the pre-ampliﬁed signal from each front-panel mic/guitar input is routed to one of the two rear-panel quarter-inch analog sends, so that you can insert a favorite outboard EQ, compressor, amp or effects processor to the mic/guitar input signal before it is converted to digital form. The resulting output from the outboard gear can be fed back into the 828mkII via one of the eight TRS analog inputs on the rear panel, for routing to the computer and/or inclusion in the 828mkII’s built-in monitor mixes.

Main Outs

The main outs are equipped with 24-bit 128x oversampling D/A converters and serve as independent outputs for the computer or for the 828mkII’s on-board CueMix DSP mixes.

Optical

The 828mkII optical jacks support two digital audio formats: ADAT and S/PDIF. The ADAT optical format provides eight channels of 24-bit digital audio at either 44.1 or 48 kHz, and four channels at 88.2 or 96kHz. The optical S/PDIF format (often referred to as

TOSLink

), supplies

stereo S/PDIF input or output.

S/PDIF

The 828mkII rear panel provides S/PDIF input and output in two different formats: RCA “coax” and opti cal “ TOSL ink”. The RCA jacks are dedicated to the S/PDIF format. The TOSLink jacks can be used either for either TOSLink or ADAT optical. The optical input /output jacks can operate independently. For example, the optical input can be set to TOSLink while the optical output is set to ADAT.

MIDI I/O

The 828mkII’s standard MIDI IN and MIDI OUT jacks supply 16 channels of MIDI I/O to and from the computer via the 828mkII’s FireWire connection. Timing accuracy can be sampleaccurate with host software that supports it.

ABOUT THE 828MKII

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On-board SMPTE synchronization

The 828mkII can resolve directly to SMPTE time code via the quarter-inch SMPTE input, without a separate synchronizer. A SMPTE out jack is also provided for time code generation. The 828mkII provides a DSP-driven phase-lock engine with sophisticated ﬁltering that provides fast lockup times and sub-frame accuracy.

The included MOTU SMPTE Console™ software provides a complete set of tools to generate SMPTE for striping, regenerating or slaving other devices to the computer. Like CueMix DSP, the synchronization features are cross-platform and compatible with all audio sequencer software that supports the ASIO2 sample-accurate sync protocol.

ADAT sync: sample-accurate synchronization

The 828mkII’s standard 9-pin ADAT SYNC IN connector provides sample-accurate synchronization with all Alesis ADAT tape decks connected to the system—or any device that supports the ADAT sync format. For example, if you digitally transfer a single track of material from an ADAT via light pipe into audio workstation software on the computer, and then transfer the track back to the ADAT, it will be recorded exactly at its original location, down to the sample.

Word clock

The 828mkII provides standard word clock that can slave to any supported sample rate. In addition, word clock can resolve to and generate “high” and “low” sample rates. For example, if the 828mkII global sample rate is set to 96 kHz, the word clock input can resolve to a “low” rate of 48 kHz. Similarly, when the 828mkII is operating at 96 kHz, the MOTU FireWire Audio Console lets you choose a word clock output rate of 48 kHz (“System clock ÷ 2”).

Punch in/out

The quarter-inch Punch in/out jack accepts a standard foot switch. When you push the foot switch, the 828mkII triggers a programmable keystroke on the computer keyboard. For example, with MOTU’s Digital Performer audio sequencer software, the foot switch triggers the 3 key on the numeric keypad, which toggles recording in Digital Performer. Therefore, pressing the foot switch is the same as pressing the 3 key. The 828mkII Control Panel software lets you program any keystroke you wish.

1394 FireWire

The two 1394 FireWire jacks accept a standard IEEE 1394 FireWire cable to connect the 828mkII to a FireWire-equipped Macintosh or Windows computer. The second jack can be used to daisy chain multiple interfaces — up to four MOTU FireWire interfaces — on a single FireWire bus. It can also be used to connect other FireWire devices without the need for a FireWire hub.

THE 828MKII FRONT PANEL

Mic inputs with 48V phantom power

Two front-panel Neu trik™ combo (XLR/TRS) jacks with preamps and phantom power let you to connect a microphone, guitar or any quarter-inch input with front-panel convenience. The XLR jack serves as a low-impedance mic input, and the TRS jack serves as a high-impedance guitar/instrument input. Dedicated front-panel trim knobs allow you to adjust each input independently. D ef eatable 48V phantom power is supplied by a front panel switch.

As explained in “Mic sends” on page 10, the pre ampliﬁed signal can be routed to external outboard gear before being routed back into the 828mkII.

ABOUT THE 828MKII

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Headphone output and main volume control

The 828mkII front panel includes a quarter-inch stereo headphone output jack and volume knob. The volume knob also controls the rear-panel main outs. Push the knob to toggle between them. The LCD display provides feedback.

CueMix™ DSP no-latency on-board mixing

The CueMix DSP section of the front-panel provides access to the 828mkII’s on-board mixing features, as well as global system settings, Together, these features provide complete stand-alone operation, without a computer. The 828mkII can mix all inputs to any output pair, and up to four such mixes can be independently programmed and simultaneously operated.

Backlit LCD display

Any 828mkII setting can be accessed directly from the front panel using the six rotary encoders and the 2x16 backlit LCD display. CueMix DSP settings such as input gain, panning, +4/-10 input level, 6dB boost, stereo pair grouping, mix output assignment and others are quickly accessed, clearly marked and easy to adjust. Sixteen presets can be created, saved, recalled and duplicated.

Metering section

The front panel of the 828mkII displays several banks of input and output metering. The round analog output, SPDIF output and ADAT optical LEDs display the presence of an output signal. The threshold for these lights is approximately -42 dB. The four- and ﬁve-segment input meters provide dedicated multi-segment metering for their respective inputs, as do the ﬁve-segment main out meters.

Clock

The

lights indicate the global sample rate (as chosen in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console software). The LOCK and TACH LEDs provide feedback for the 828mkII’s on-board SMPTE synchronization features.

16-BIT AND 24-BIT RECORDING

The 828mkII system handles all data with a 24-bit signal path, regardless of the I/O format. You can record and play back 16-bit or 24-bit audio ﬁles at any supported sample rate via any of the 828mkII’s analog or digital inputs and outputs. 24-bit audio ﬁles can be recorded with any compatible host application that supports 24-bit recording.

AUDIODESK

AudioDesk is a full-featured, 24-bit audio workstation software package included with the 828mkII system (for Macintosh only). AudioDesk provides multi-channel waveform editing, automated virtual mixing, graphic editing of ramp automation, real-time effects plug-ins with 32-bit ﬂoating point processing, crossfades, support for many third-party audio plug-ins, background processing of ﬁle-based operations, sampleaccurate editing and placement of audio, and more.

DIGITAL PERFORMER

The 828mkII system is fully integrated with MOTU’s award-winning Digital Performer audio sequencer software package.

OTHER HOST AUDIO SOFTWARE

The 828mkII system includes a standard Mac OS X CoreAudio driver for multichannel I/O with any audio application that supports CoreAudio.

The 828mkII also includes a Mac OS 9 Macintosh ASIO driver for multi-channel compatibility with any Mac OS 9 audio application that supports ASIO drivers.

A COMPUTER-BASED SYSTEM

Regardless of what software you use with the 828mkII, the host computer determines the number of tracks the software can record and play simultaneously, as well as the amount of real-time effects processing you can apply to your mix. A faster computer with more RAM and faster hard drives will allow more simultaneous tracks and

ABOUT THE 828MKII

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real-time effects than a slower computer with less RAM and slower hard drives. Today’s fastest computers can typically play as many as 72 tracks or more. Standard third-party SCSI acceleration products can also help you achieve higher track counts.

ABOUT THE 828MKII

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ABOUT THE 828MKII

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CHAPTER

Packing List and Macintosh System Requirements

PACKING LIST

The 828mkII ships with the items listed below. If any of these items are not present in your 828mkII box when you ﬁrst open it, please immediately contact your dealer or MOTU.

■

One 828mkII I/O rack unit

■

One 1394 “FireWire” cable

■

Power cord

■

One 828mkII Mac/Windows manual

■

One AudioDesk Manual

■

One cross-platform CD-ROM

■

Product registration card

MACINTOSH SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

The 828mkII system requires the following Macintosh system:

PLEASE REGISTER TODAY!

Please send in the registration card included with your 828mkII system. As a registered user, you will be eligible to receive on-line technical support email and announcements about product enhancements as soon as they become available. Only registered users receive these special update notices, so please, complete and mail this registration card!

There is also an AudioDesk software registration card found at the beginning of your AudioDesk manual. Please be sure to ﬁll out and return this card as well, so that you will be eligible to receive on-line technical support email and announcements about AudioDesk software enhancements as soon as they become available.

Thank you for taking the time to register your new MOTU products!

■

A G3/300Mhz Power Macintosh or faster

equipped with at least one FireWire port

■

At least 64 Mb (megabytes) of RAM (128 Mb or

more is recommended)

■

Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X (version 10.2 or later)

■

For Mac OS 9 users only: FireWire Enabler and

FireWire Support system extensions 2.4 or later

■

A large hard drive (preferably at least 20 Gb)

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PACKING LIST AND MACINTOSH SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

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CHAPTER

Installing the 828mkII Hardware

OVERVIEW

Here’s an overview for installing the 828mkII:

Connect the 828mkII interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Connect the 828mkII to the computer.

Connect audio inputs and outputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Make optical and analog connections as desired.

Connect MIDI gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Connect a controller, synth or control surface.

Connect a foot switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Connect a footswitch to trigger any keystroke.

A typical 828mkII setup (no mixer). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

An example setup for computer-based mixing/FX.

Using the 828mkII with a mixer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

An example setup for a mixer-based studio.

CONNECT THE 828MKII INTERFACE

Plug one end of the 828mkII FireWire cable (included) into the FireWire socket on the computer as shown below in Figure 3-1.

Plug the other end of the FireWire cable into the 828mkII I/O as shown below in Figure 3-1.

Making sync connections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

If you need to resolve the 828mkII with other devices, make the necessary sync connections.

Do you need a synchronizer? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Sample-accurate sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Sample-accurate ADAT sync . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Sample-accurate ADAT sync with no synchronizer . . 26

Syncing to SMPTE time code. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Syncing to video and/or SMPTE time code using a

synchronizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Syncing optical devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Syncing S/PDIF devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Syncing word clock devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Syncing large systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Connecting multiple MOTU FireWire interfaces . . . . . 32

Figure 3-1: Connecting the 828mkII to the computer.

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CONNECT AUDIO INPUTS AND OUTPUTS

The 828mkII audio interface has the following audio input and output connectors:

8 balanced, +4 dB quarter-inch analog outputs

■

8 balanced +4 dB quarter-inch analog inputs

■

2 Neutrik™ XLR/quarter-inch analog inputs

■

2 quarter-inch analog sends for the front-panel

mic/guitar inputs

■

2 balanced, +4 dB quarter-inch TRS main outs

■

1 pair of RCA S/PDIF in and out

■ 1 pair of optical in/out switchable between

ADAT (“Lightpipe”) or optical S/PDIF (TOSLink)

Here are a few things you should keep in mind as you are making these connections to other devices.

Quarter-inch analog

The quarter-inch analog inputs and outputs (1-8), as well as the main outs, are balanced TRS connectors that can also accept an unbalanced plug. The outputs are all referenced to +4dBu. The inputs can be manually set to either +4 or -10dBu. Use the front panel controls to adjust the reference level (+4/-10) as needed for each input (or input pair) as follows:

2 Turn the CURSOR knob until the desired input ﬂashes.

3 Turn (or press) the VALUE knob to toggle the input between a +4 or -10dB reference level setting.

Front-panel mic/guitar/instrument inputs

Connect a microphone, guitar or other similar instrument to the front-panel inputs. If your microphone requires phantom power, move the 48V phantom power switch on the front panel to the right (enabled). Use the trim knobs on the front panel to adjust the input level as needed for each input. Use the two input level meters on the front panel (labeled MIC) to calibrate the level. These meters register for both the XLR and TRS input.

☛ Do not connect a +4 (line level) XLR cable to

the front-panel inputs (because of the preamps). Use a rear-panel quarter-inch input instead.

1 Turn the PARAM knob until you see the “4/10” setting displayed in the LCD, as shown below.

If turning the PARAM knob doesn’t do anything, press the SETUP knob once, and then turn it.

Figur e 3-2: Setting the reference level for the eight TRS analog inputs.

Mic/guitar/instrument sends

Each front-panel XLR/TRS input has a corresponding send on the rear panel. The send provides the pre ampliﬁed and calibrated input signal, which you can then route to any other device, such as compressor, guitar amp, outboard EQ, reverb unit, etc. Use any 828mkII input (analog or digital) as a return back into the 828mkII. From there, you will be able to route the signal anywhere in the system, such as to the computer and/or to any CueMix DSP mix bus.

Optical

Reminder: optical goes OUT to IN and IN to OUT, like MIDI.

INSTALLING THE 828MKII HARDWARE

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The optical jacks can be connected to either an ADAT “lightpipe” device or an optical S/PDIF “TOSLink” device. Just make the connections as needed and then you’ll set the format later in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console. Input and output are independent. For example, you could connect ADAT optical input from your digital mixer and connect TOSLink optical output to your DAT deck.

Main outs

The main outputs serve as independent outputs. The main out volume is controlled by the volume knob on the front panel. Push the knob to toggle between phone and main out volume control. In a standard studio conﬁguration, the main outs are intended for a pair of studio monitors, but they can also be used as additional outputs for any purpose.

CONNECT MIDI GEAR

828mkII MIDI input and output is supported under Mac OS X only. Connect your MIDI device’s MIDI IN jack to the 828mkII’s MIDI OUT jack (Connection A below). Conversely, connect the MIDI device’s MIDI OUT jack to the 8238mkII’s MIDI IN jack (Connection B).

shown in Figure 3-3. Similarly, devices that never send data, such as a sound module, only need Connection A. Make both connections for any device that needs to both send and receive MIDI data.

Connecting additional gear with MIDI THRUs

If you need to connect several pieces of MIDI gear, run a MIDI cable from the MIDI THRU of a device already connected to the 828mkII to the MIDI IN on the additional device as shown below in Figure 3-4. The two devices then share the 828mkII’s MIDI OUT port. This means that they share the same set of 16 MIDI channels, too, so try to do this with devices that receive on only one MIDI channel (such as effects modules) so their receive channels don’t conﬂict with one another.

828mkII

rear panel

MIDI

OUT

MIDI

MIDI Device

828mkII

rear panel

MIDI

OUT

Connection A

MIDI Device

Figure 3-3: Connecting a MIDI device to the 828mkII.

MIDI

cables

MIDI INMIDI

OUT

MIDI

Connection B

One-way MIDI connections

MIDI devices that do not receive MIDI data, such as a dedicated keyboard controller, guitar controller, or drum pad, only need Connection B

INSTALLING THE 828MKII HARDWARE

MIDI

THRU

Additional device

Figur e 3-4: Connecting additional devices with MIDI THRU ports.

MIDI

cable

MIDI IN

CONNECT A FOOT SWITCH

If you would like to use a foot switch with your 828mkII, connect it to the PUNCH IN/OUT jack. See “Quick Reference: MOTU FireWire Audio Console” on page 7 for information about how to program the foot switch to trigger any computer keystroke you wish.

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A TYPICAL 828MKII SETUP (NO MIXER)

Here is a typical 828mkII studio setup. This rig can be operated without an external mixer. All mixing and processing can be done in the computer with audio software. During recording, you can use the 828mkII’s CueMix™ DSP no-latency monitoring to listen to what you are recording via the main

guitar (with or without a modeling amp)

828mkII

front panel

Mac

FireWire

outs, headphone outs, or any other output pair. You can control monitoring either from the front panel or from the included CueMix Console software. The two front-panel guitar/mic inputs can be routed to outboard effects processor, such as a compressor, EQ or reverb, via the rear panel sends.

mic

foot

switch

sends to

FX unit

(in rack

below)

headphones

Compre ssor, reverb or

other outboard gear

other outputs (stage

monitors, surround

monitors, etc.)

828mkII

back panel

ADAT optical

ADAT

S/PDIF

DAT deck

MIDI IN/OUT

synthesizer

Figure 3-5: A typical 828mkII studio setup.

quarter-inch

analog outs

monitors

quarter-inch analog outs

synths, samplers, effects units, etc.

INSTALLING THE 828MKII HARDWARE

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USING THE 828MKII WITH A MIXER

While there are many ways to use the 828mkII with an external mixer, typically the 828mkII serves as a mult i-cha nnel “pipeli ne” between the mixer and the computer. If your mixer is analog, connect the analog section of the 828mkII to your mixer. If your mixer is digital, and it has ADAT optical I/O, you can connect them optically as shown below in Figure 3-6. The 828mkII’s available analog and

Mac

FireWire

SPDIF inputs and outputs can serve as an extension to the mixer I/O, but then you will probably ﬁnd yourself mixing in two places: the mixer and the computer. A word of advice: if you would like to use the 828mkII with an external mixer, use the mixer for mixing. Trying to mix large multitrack projects in two places can become very cumbersome very quickly.

8-channel digital I/O

ADAT optical

digital mixer

Figure 3-6: Using the 828mkII with a digital mixer.

INSTALLING THE 828MKII HARDWARE

synths, samplers, etc.

synthesizers

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MAKING SYNC CONNECTIONS

If you connect devices digitally to the 828mkII, or if you need to synchronize the 828mkII with an outside time reference such as SMPTE time code, you must pay careful attention to the synchronization connections and clock source issues discussed in the next few sections.

Do you need to synchronize the 828mkII?

If you will be using only the 828mkII’s analog inputs and outputs (and none of its digital I/O), and you have no plans to synchronize your 828mkII system to SMPTE time code, you don’t need to make any sync connections. You can skip this section and proceed to chapter 4, “Installing the 828mkII Macintosh Software” (page 35). After you install the 828mkII software, you’ll open the MOTU FireWire Audio Console and set the Clock Source setting to Internal as shown below. For details, see chapter 5, “MOTU FireWire Audio Console (Mac OS X)” (page 41) or chapter 6, “MOTU FireWire Control Panel (Mac OS 9)” (page 47).

Synchronization is critical for clean digital I/O

Synchronization is critical in any audio system, but it is especially important when you are transferring audio between digital audio devices. Yo ur su ccess in using the 828mkII’s digital I/O features depends almost entirely on proper synchronization. The following sections guide you through several recommended scenarios.

Be sure to choose a digital audio clock master

When you transfer digital audio between two devices, their audio clocks must be in phase with one another — or phase-locked. Otherwise, you’ll hear clicks, pops, and distortion in the audio — or perhaps no audio at all.

Not phase-locked Phase-locked

Device A

Device B

Figur e 3-8: When transferring audio, two devices must have phaselocked audio clocks to prevent clicks, pops or other artifacts.

There are two ways to achieve phase lock: slave one device to the other, or slave both devices to a third master clock. If you have three or more digital audio devices, you need to slave them all to a single master audio clock.

Figure 3-7: You can run the 828mkII under its own internal clock when it has no digital audio connections and you are not synchronizing the 828mkII system to an external time reference such as SMPTE.

Situations that require synchronization

There are three general cases in which you will need to resolve the 828mkII with other devices:

■ Synchronizing the 828mkII with other digital

audio devices so that their digital audio clocks are phase-locked (as shown in Figure 3-8)

■ Slaving the 828mkII system to SMPTE time code

from a video deck, analog multi-track, etc.

■ Both of the above

Master

Slave

Figure 3-9: To keep the 828mkII phased-locked with other digital audio devices connected to it, choose a clock master.

Master

Slave Slave

Also remember that audio phase lock can be achieved independently of time code (location). For example, one device can be the time code master while another is the audio clock master. But only one device can be the audio clock master. If you set things up with this rule in mind, you’ll have trouble-free audio transfers with the 828mkII.

INSTALLING THE 828MKII HARDWARE

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DO YOU NEED A SYNCHRONIZER?

Whether or not you’ll need a synchronizer depends on your gear and what you will be doing with your 828mkII system. The following pages give you speciﬁc information about common sync scenarios. At least one of them will likely apply to you. Here are some general considerations to help you ﬁgure out if you need (or want) a synchronizer for you 828mkII system.

Yo u don’t need a synchronizer if...

As explained earlier, the 828mkII’s digital audio clock must be phase-locked (synchronized) with other connected digital audio devices to achieve clean digital transfers between them. Can this be accomplished without an additional digital audio synchronizer? It depends on the nature of the other devices, and what you want to do with them. You don’t need a synchronizer if the device has a way of locking itself directly to the 828mkII’s clock (via ADAT lightpipe, S/PDIF or word clock), AND if the device carries no sense of location in time. A digital mixer is a good example: it can slave to its ADAT lightpipe connection from the 828mkII, and it has no sense of time; it just passes audio through for mixing.

A stand-alone digital recorder, on the other hand, does have a sense of location in time, either via SMPTE time code or via its own sample address. For example, if you want to ﬂy tracks back and forth between your computer and an Alesis hard disk recorder while maintaining the audio’s position in time, the ADAT Sync port on the 828mkII lets you do so without a separate synchronizer — and with sample-accurate precision, as long as you’re using AudioDesk, Digital Performer, or other sample-accurate software. Just connect the 828mkII directly to the Alesis recorder (or other ADAT Sync-compatible device) as discussed in “Sample-accurate ADAT sync with no synchronizer” on page 26. But if you also want transport control over the entire rig

(including the hard disk recorder) from your audio software, you’ll need a MIDI Machine Controlcompatible synchronizer such as MOTU’s MIDI Timepiece AV, as discussed in “Sample-accurate sync” on page 24. If you are simply using a standalone recorder as a way to capture live tracks that you then transfer in one pass into the computer, no synchronizer is required because the tracks will remain in perfect phase lock with each other as you transfer them together. You can simply slave the stand-alone recorder to the optical output from the 828mkII as explained in “Syncing optical devices” on page 29.

Transport control from your computer

If you have stand -alone digital recorders connected to the 828mkII, and they support ADAT Sync, your audio software — if it supports MIDI Machine Control (MMC) — allows you to control the transports of everything from your computer. Most advanced audio programs support MMC. To do this, you’ll also need an MMC-compatible ADAT synchronizer such as a MOTU MIDI Timepiece AV or Digital Timepiece. Synchronizers like these allow you to play, stop, rewind and locate all of your tape decks using the transport controls in the audio software. If your audio software supports sample-accurate sync (like Digital Performer and AudioDesk), you can do so with sample-accurate precision. The following pages show you how to achieve MMC control, where possible.

Continuous sync to SMPTE / MTC

The 828mkII can synchronize directly to SMPTE time code. If your audio software supports sampleaccurate sync (like Digital Performer and AudioDesk), it can also resolve to time code via the 828mkII. If your software does not support sample-accurate sync, you need a dedicated synchronizer, as illustrated on the following pages.

INSTALLING THE 828MKII HARDWARE

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SAMPLE-ACCURATE SYNC

Yo ur 828mkII system provides you with the most advanced, accurate synchronization possible with Alesis modular digital tape decks and hard disk recorders — or any device that supports sampleaccurate ADAT sync. Figure 3-10 below shows a few best-case scenarios. Below is a brief explanation of the beneﬁts you achieve with these setups.

Sample accurate locating

With sample accurate locating, when you transfer audio between AudioDesk (or any other sampleaccurate host software) and a sample-accurate recorder, the audio will not drift in time — even by as little as one sample. This is the tightest possible synchronization between digital audio devices. The timing in your audio will not be affected in any way by the process of transferring it between the 828mkII and the recorder.

Is your audio software sample-accurate?

Sample-accurate locating is only possible with software that supports this feature, such as AudioDesk or Digital Performer. For third-party software, sample-accurate performance (if it’s supported) is achieved through the 828mkII’s ASIO Version 2 driver (Mac OS 9 only).

Transport control from your computer

If you have a MIDI Timepiece AV, Digital Timepiece or any ADAT synchronizer that also supports MIDI Machine Control (MMC), you can play, stop, rew ind and locate all of your ADATs using the transport controls in the audio software running on your computer. This includes cueing features like markers, position bars, playback wipers, time rulers, etc.

Figur e 3-11: AudioDesk and Digital Per former support sampleaccurate transfers with ADAT Sync compatible digital tape decks and modular hard disk recorders.

Sync format Software Synchronizer

ADAT AudioDesk, Cubase or

Figure 3-10: These recommended combinations of hardware and software offer the tightest sync possible between the 828mkII and digital audio recorders in the form of sample-accurate locating between the software and the tape decks. Sample accurate locating is possible even without a MIDI Timepiece AV or Digital Timepiece, although you give up transport control from the computer.

Digital Performer

Sample accurate locating

MIDI Timepiece AV or Digital Timepiece

BRC (or any MMC capable ADAT synchronizer)

None Yes No No

Yes Yes Yes

INSTALLING THE 828MKII HARDWARE

Transport control from computer

Continuous sync to SMPTE / MTC

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SAMPLE-ACCURATE ADAT SYNC

The 828mkII can achieve sample-accurate sync with ADATs, Alesis hard disk recorders or any ADAT Sync-compatible devices. Sample-accurate software is required, such as AudioDesk, Digital Performer, or Mac OS 9 ASIO 2.0-compatible software that also supports sample-accurate sync. Connect the 828mkII to the end of the ADAT Sync chain and make the software settings shown below in Figure 3-12. If you will be using the stand-alone recorder for its analog inputs and outputs only (you won’t be doing any recording with it), treat it as an ‘optical’ device. See “Syncing optical devices” on page 29.

In AudioDesk or Digital Performer:

1. Choose Receive Sync the Setup menu (Basics menu under OS 9).

2. Choose the Sample-accurate option shown to the left.

3. Make sure that Slave to External Sync is checked in the Studio menu (Basics menu under OS 9).

Macintosh computer running AudioDesk, Digital Perf ormer or other sample-accurate software.

FireWire

If you have a MOTU synchronizer, set its sync mode to Internal.

ADATs

FireWire

USB or serial cable (bi-directional MIDI

connection) bearing MMC transport

commands from AudioDesk or

Digital Performer to the

MIDI Timepiece AV (or other synchronizer)

Digital Timepiece, MIDI Timepiece AV,

Alesis BRC or any other MMC-compatible

ADAT synchronizer

ADAT

Sync Out

ADAT

sync cables

Sync In

Sync Out

Sync In

Sync Out

Sync In

Sync Out

Sync In

etc.

Use this setup if you have:

ADATs, Alesis hard disk recorders or any ADAT SYNC

✓

compatible device(s).

✓A MOTU Digital Timepiece, MIDI Timepiece AV or other

ADAT synchronizer.

✓Host software that supports sample-accurate sync.

This setup provides:

Sample-accurate locating between all ADAT SYNC-compati-

✓

ble devices, the 828mkII and your software (AudioDesk, Digital Performer or other sample-accurate software).

✓With a Digital Timepiece, this setup provides sample-accurate

locating across all devices: ADAT, Tascam and the 828mkII.

✓Transport control of everything from the computer, OR

continuous sync to SMPTE time code and other sync sources (the other source is the transport master in this case).

To set the 828mkII hardware clock source for sampleaccurate sync:

1. In AudioDesk or Digital Per former, choose MOTU Audio System>Con ﬁgure Hardware Driver from the Setup menu (or the Basics menu under OS 9), or run the MOTU FireWire Audio Console.

2. Choose ADAT 9-pin from the Clock Source menu as shown to above.

3. Make sure the Sample Rate setting matches the recorder and synchronizer.

For sample-accurate sync settings in Cubase, see “Sample-accurate sync to ADAT ” on page 5.

In AudioDesk or Digital Perf ormer, turn on MIDI Machine Control by pressing this button. This brings on line all the recorders connected to the DTP or MTP AV.

AudioDesk automatically scans the DTP or MTP AV for connected recorders, and they appear here.

Figur e 3-12: Connections for sample-accurate ADAT sync.

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SAMPLE-ACCURATE ADAT SYNC WITH NO SYNCHRONIZER

Even if you don’t have an ADAT synchronizer, you can achieve sample-accurate sync between ADATsync compatible devices, an 828mkII, and any sample-accurate software (such as AudioDesk or Digital Performer). Just connect the 828mkII to the end of the ADAT sync chain as shown below. You don’t get transport control from your computer, nor can you slave the system to SMPTE time code. Instead, you have to play, stop, rewind and cue the system from the transports on your recorder. If you’re using the recorder as an additional source of analog inputs and outputs only (not for recording), see “Syncing optical devices” on page 29.

In AudioDesk or Digital Performer:

1. Choose Receive Sync the Setup menu (Basics menu under OS 9).

2. Choose the Sample-accurate option shown to the left.

3. Make sure that Slave to External Sync is checked in the Studio menu (Basics menu under OS 9).

Use this setup if you have:

ADATs, Alesis hard disk recorders or any ADAT SYNC

✓

compatible device(s).

✗ No ADAT synchronizer.

✓ Host software that supports sample-accurate sync.

This setup provides:

Sample-accurate locating between all ADAT SYNC-compati-

✓

ble devices, the 828mkII and your software (AudioDesk, Digital Performer or other sample-accurate software).

✗ No transport control of everything from the computer.

✗ No sync to SMPTE time code or other sync sources.

Macintosh computer running AudioDesk or Digital Performer

With no synchronizer, the ADAT

that is the master of the ADAT

sync chain becomes transport

master over everything, including

your audio software.

FireWire

ADATs

Sync Out

Sync In

Sync Out

Sync In

Sync Out

FireWire

Sync In

Figur e 3-13: Sample-accurate sync between AudioDesk or Digital Performer and one or more ADAT-sync compatible devices — without an ADAT synchronizer.

ADAT

sync cables

etc.

To set the 828mkII hardware clock source for sample-accurate sync:

1. In AudioDesk or Digital Per former, choose MOTU Audio System>Conﬁgure Hardware Driver from the Setup menu (or the Basics menu under OS 9), or run the MOTU FireWire Audio Console.

2. Choose ADAT 9-pin from the Clock Source menu as shown to above.

3. Make sure the Sample Rate setting matches the recorder and synchronizer.

In AudioDesk or Digital Performer:

1. Make sure that Slave to External Sync is checked in the Studio menu (Basics menu under OS 9).

2. Click the play or record button. The software will then wait for you to start your record er.

3. Press the Play button on the front panel of your recorder to initiate playback or recording.

For sample-accurate sync settings in Cubase VST, see “Sample-accurate sync to ADAT ” on page 5.

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SYNCING TO SMPTE TIME CODE

The 828mkII system can resolve directly to SMPTE time code. It can also generate time code and word clock, under its own clock or while slaving to time code. Therefore, the 828mkII can act both as an audio interface and digital audio synchronizer, to which you can slave other digital audio devices. Yo u can use the 828mkII to slave your audio software to SMPTE as well, as long as your software supports sample-accurate sync, which is the means by which the software follows the 828mkII. The accuracy may not be sample-accurate, but in most cases it will be very close.

In AudioDesk or Digital Performer:

1. Choose Receive Sync the Setup menu (Basics menu under OS 9).

2. Choose the Sample-accurate option shown to the left.

3. Make sure that Slave to External Sync is checked in the Studio menu (Basics menu under OS 9).

Use this setup if you have:

✓ A SMPTE time code source, such as a multitrack tape deck.

An 828mkII by itself, OR with another slaved device (such as a

✓

digital mixer).

✓ Host software that supports sample-accurate sync.

This setup provides:

No sample-accurate locating.

✗

✓ Continuous sync to SMPTE time code.

✓ Sub-frame timing accuracy.

✓ Transport control from the SMPTE time code source.

For sample-accurate sync settings in Cubase, see “Sample-accurate sync with Cubase or Nuendo” on page 96.

SMPTE time code source

When lockup is achieved, the LOCK

light illuminates and the TACH light audio cable bearing LTC (Longitudinal Time Code)

SMPTE IN

quarter-inch jack

SMPTE

Word

out

Out

audio

cable

Other digital audio device

slaved to the 828mkII

Figure 3-14: Connections for synchronizing the 828mkII directly to SMPTE time code.

video cable

FireWire ca ble

Macintosh computer running

AudioDesk, Digital Performer or other

sample-accurate software.

blinks once per second.

828mkII interface

Choose SMPTE as the clock source in AudioDesk, Digital Perf ormer, or the MOTU FireWire Audio Console. This setting can also be made in the MOTU SMPTE Console (shown below).

Launch the MOTU SMPTE Console to specify the time code frame rate and amount of freewheel. Also, conﬁrm that the Clock Source/Address is SMPTE/SMPTE. For details about the other settings, see chapter 13, “MOTU SMPTE Console” (page 103).

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SYNCING TO VIDEO AND/OR SMPTE TIME CODE USING A SYNCHRONIZER

If your host audio software does not support the 828mkII’s on-board SMPTE sync features (because your software does not support sampleaccurate sync), you need a universal synchronizer, such as a MOTU MIDI Timepiece AV or Digital Timepiece. These dedicated sync boxes can read video and SMPTE time code and then convert it into word clock and MIDI Time Code (MTC). The word clock goes to the 828mkII to resolve the audio hardware, and MIDI Time Code is fed to your host audio software, which locks to it, as shown below in Figure 3-15.

Use this setup if you have:

✓ Video and/or a SMPTE time code source.

✓ A Digital Timepiece, MIDI Timepiece AV or other universal

synchronizer.

✓ Host software that does not support sample-accurate sync

(although you can use this setup even if it does).

This setup provides:

No sample-accurate locating.

✗

✓ Continuous sync to SMPTE time code.

✓ Sub-frame timing accuracy.

✓ Transport control from the SMPTE time code source.

Video deck or other source for video and/or SMPTE time code

Audio cable bearing LTC (Longitudinal Time Code)

MOTU MIDI Timepiece AV or Digital Timepiece slaving to video and/or SMPTE time code

word clock MIDI Time Code

828mkII

Choose Word Cl ock In as the clock source in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console application. If you have multiple interfaces connected, be sure to choose the Word Clock In option that corresponds to the interface receiving the clock signal.

Figur e 3-15: If your host audio software does not support sample-accurate sync and the 828mkII’s built-in SMPTE sync features, use a universal synchronizer such as the MOTU MIDI Timepiece AV or Digital Timepiece.

(Via MIDI interface )

Set up your audio software to slave to MIDI Time Code.

Macintosh computer running any audio software

INSTALLING THE 828MKII HARDWARE

Page 29

Mac

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SYNCING OPTICAL DEVICES

The word optical is our short-hand way of referring to any device that connects to the 828mkII via an optical cable. But we make a further distinction: an optical device is also one that doesn’t care about sample location. An example is a digital mixer. Since a digital mixer is not a recording device, it has no sense of sample location like an ADAT does. An ADAT can cue to a speciﬁc sample number (e.g. sample number 43,478, 103) — as can any device that supports ADAT sync, but most digital mixers simply mix and process audio digitally, with no sense of a speciﬁc sample location. There are many other devices that fall into this category, including digital effects processors, synthesizers, A/D converters, and many more.

828mkII

ADAT Optical OUT

ADAT Optical IN

Digital mixer

or other optical

device

828mkII

For ADATs or other devices that support ADAT sync, synchronize them with the 828mkII as described in the previous sections of this chapter.

For optical devices, such as digital mixers, all you have to do is make sure that their digital audio clock is phase-locked (in sync with) the 828mkII. There are three ways to do this:

■ Slave the optical device to the 828mkII

■ Slave the 828mkII to the optical device

■ Slave both the optical device and the 828mkII to

a third master clock (such as a Digital Timepiece or MIDI Timepiece AV synchronizer)

Digital mixer

or other optical

device

ADAT Optical OUT

ADAT Optical IN

With this setup, in the MOTU FireWire Aud io Console, choose the Optical clock source setting. The 828mkII slaves to the optical device via their optical cable connection.

828mkII

Clock Source setting =

optical

828mkII

Clock Source setting =

Internal, or any clock source

setting except Optical. Th e o ptical

device slaves to the 828mkII (via

its optical cable connection).

Figure 3-16: Three setups for synchronizing an optical device with the 828mkII. You can slave the optical device to the 828mkII or vice versa with their optical connections. For more elaborate setups, you can slave both to a digital audio synchronizer like the Digital Timepiece. Don’t use any of these setups for an ADAT or other optical device that records. Instead, see “Sample-accurate ADAT sync” on page 25.

INSTALLING THE 828MKII HARDWARE

MIDI Timepiece AV

set to Internal

Digital mixer

or other optical

device

Word Clock Out

Word Clock IN

bi-directional

optical

ADAT Sync out

ADAT sync in

828mkII

Clock Source setting =

ADAT 9-pin

Computer with 828mkII

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SYNCING S/PDIF DEVICES

DAT decks and other S/PDIF devices will sync to the 828mkII in one of two ways:

■ Via the S/PDIF connection itself

■ Via word clock

S/PDIF devices with no word clock

If your DAT deck or other S/PDIF device has no word clock sync connectors, just connect it to the 828mkII via the S/PDIF connectors. When the device records S/PDIF audio (from the 828mkII), it will simply synchronize to the clock provided by the audio input.

828mkII

S/PDIF

Internal (when transferring from the

828mkII to the S/PDIF device)

On the other hand, when you transfer audio from the S/PDIF device into the 828mkII, you’ll have to slave the 828mkII to its S/PDIF input. If you have other digital audio devices connected to the 828mkII, and they are not slaved directly to the 828mkII itself, you may hear clicks and pops resulting from their unsynchronized audio clock. If so, just turn them off during the transfer.

S/PDIF devices with word clock

If your S/PDIF device has a Word Clock input, slave the S/PDIF device to the 828mkII via their word clock connection. You can then freely transfer audio between the 828mkII and the S/PDIF device.

828mkII

Clock Source setting =

the S/PDIF device to the 828mkII)

828mkII

Clock Source setting =

S/PDIF (when transferring from

S/PDIF

DAT deck

or other S/PDIF device

828mkII

DAT deck

or other SPDIF device

With this setup, in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console window, choose Internal, or any other clock source setting except SPDIF. The DAT deck (or other SPDIF device) slaves to the 828mkII via word clock for SPDIF transfers in both directions.

Figur e 3-17: Two setups for synchronizing an S/PDIF device with the 828mkII. In the top diagram, sync is achieved via the S/PDIF connection itself. In this case, you have to choose S/PDIF as the 828mkII’s clock source when recording from the S/PDIF device. If you don’t want to have to worry about switching the Clock Source setting depending on the direction of the S/PDIF transfer, you can slave the S/PDIF device to word clock from the 828mkII or vice versa (not shown). The Word Clock connection maintains sync, regardless of the direction of the transfer.

828mkII

Clock Source setting = Internal

Word Clock Out

Word Clock In

SPDIF

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SYNCING WORD CLOCK DEVICES

The 828mkII word clock connectors allow you to synchronize it with a wide variety of other word clock-equipped devices.

For standard word clock sync, you need to choose an audio clock master (as explained in “Be sure to choose a digital audio clock master” on page 22). In the simplest case, you have two devices and one is the word clock master and the other is the slave as shown below in Figure 3-18 and Figure 3-19.

Master

Word clock OUT

Word clock IN

Slave

Figure 3-18: Slaving another digital audio device to the 828mkII via word clock. For the 828mkII clock source, choose any source besides word clock, as it is not advisable to chain word clock.

MOTU Digital Timepiece universal synchronizer

Audio

clock

Master

Slave

Figure 3-19: Slaving the 828mkII to word clock. For the 828mkII clock source, choose ‘Word Clock In’.

Word clock OUT

Word clock IN

Don’t chain word clock

If you have three or more digital audio devices that you need to synchronize, avoid chaining their word clock connections (OUT to IN, OUT to IN, etc.), as this causes problems. Instead, use a dedicated synchronizer like the Digital Timepiece or a word clock distribution device of some kind.

828mkII

Other device

828mkII

rate. For example, the 828mkII could be running at 96 kHz while slaving to a 48 kHz word clock signal from a MOTU Digital Timepiece. Similarly, the 828mkII could run at 88.2 kHz and slave to

44.1 kHz word clock. Conversely, the 828mkII could run at 48 kHz and slave to a 96 kHz word clock signal. In all of these cases, the front panel clock LEDs ﬂash both sample rates to indicate that the 828mkII is slaving to word clock at either twice or half its own clock rate. But if the 828mkII is running at 96 kHz, it cannot slave to word clock running at 44.1 kHz.

Remember, the word clock signal must be one of the following:

■ the same as the 828mkII clock

■ twice the 828mkII clock

■ half of the 828mkII clock

SYNCING LARGE SYSTEMS

If you are connecting the 828mkII to a lot of other digital audio gear, get a Digital Timepiece. It can synchronize a wide variety of devices, and it offers sample accurate synchronization for devices that support it, such as ADATs. You will also be able to control everything from the transport controls of your audio software. If you have even more devices than a single Digital Timepiece can support, consider a word clock distribution device, such as the Aardvark Aard Sync™ video-to-word clock converter. Products like this offer multiple word clock outputs and an extremely low-jitter clock.

Slaving to 2x and 1/2x word clock

All MOTU FireWire audio interfaces that support 96 kHz operation (including the 828mkII and 896) have the ability to slave to a word clock signal running at either twice or half their current clock

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CONNECTING MULTIPLE MOTU FIREWIRE INTERFACES

Yo u c an da i s y-chain up to four MOTU FireWire interfaces on a single FireWire bus, with the restrictions described in the following sections. Most computers have only one built-in FireWire bus (even if it supplies multiple FireWire sockets). Connect them as follows:

Mac

FireWire

Multiple interfaces in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console

The MOTU FireWire Audio Console displays the settings for one interface at a time. To view the settings for an interface, click its tab as shown below in Figure 3-21.

Mac OS X

Mac OS 9

FireWire

Figur e 3-20: Connecting multiple 828mkII’s (or other MOTU FireWire audio interfaces) to a computer. NOTE: the word clock connections shown above are only necessary under Mac OS X. They are not required under Mac OS 9.

Word Clock Out

Word Clock In

Word Clock Out

Word Clock In

Word Clock Out

Word Clock In

For two

interfaces,

slave one to

the other.

You can probably

get away with

daisy-chaining

three interfaces, although a word

clock distribu-

tion device is

recommended.

This is risky. A

word clock distri-

bution device is

highly recom-

mended.

Figur e 3-21: To view the settings for an interface, click its tab. Under Mac OS 9, choose it from the Interface menu as shown.

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Using multiple interfaces under Mac OS 9

All connected MOTU FireWire interfaces get their clock from whatever you choose from the Clock Source menu in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console. When you connect multiple MOTU FireWire interfaces, all of their respective sync sources are displayed in the menu as shown below in Figure 3-22.

Figur e 3-22: In Mac OS 9, all MOTU FireWire audio interfaces get their clock from a single master sync source on any connected 828mkII (or other MOTU FireWire interface). After you choose a source from this menu, the entire system, including all connected 828mkIIs, synchronizes to it.

with respect to one another. For exampl e, the audio tracks playing back through the 828mkII might drift out of sync with the audio tracks playing back through your 2408mk3 PCI interface. Synchronizing them to each other externally ensures that they remain as tightly and continuously phase-locked as if they were operating as one uniﬁed interface.

To resolve two 828mkII FireWire interfaces with each other, choose one as the word clock master and then slave the second interface to the ﬁrst, as shown in Figure 3-20 on page 32. For three interfaces, you can probably get away with daisychaining them via their word clock connectors, but this may not always produce the most reliable results. For three or more devices, a word clock distribution device is highly recommended. In this case, the distribution box is the master, and all FireWire interfaces slave directly to it (instead of to each other).

Under Mac OS 9, Each FireWire interface in the system gets its clock from the Audio Wire cable connection (unless it is the master clock itself). There is no need to make word clock connections between multiple FireWire interfaces.

Using multiple interfaces under Mac OS X

Mac OS X provides a more advanced, ﬂexible driver model that allows multiple CoreAudio drivers to be active at one time, accessed by multiple applications simultaneously. For example, under Mac OS X, you can run both FireWire and PCI audio interfaces at the same time, accessing all of their inputs and outputs from your host audio application — or even multiple applications — simultaneously.

A by-product of this more ﬂexible model is that multiple devices must be externally synchronized to one another in order to remain resolved to each another. Without external synchronization, the audio streams going to each interface might drift

Connecting an 828

Yo u can add an original MOTU 828 to the end of a FireWire daisy chain (because the 828 has only one FireWire port), or you can mix and match multiple 828’s with other MOTU FireWire interfaces using a standard FireWire hub. Up to four interf aces can be combined on one FireWire bus.

Operating multiple FireWire interfaces at high sample rates

Four MOTU FireWire interfaces can operate at

44.1 or 48kHz on a single FireWire bus. At the high samples rates (88.2 or 96kHz), you can operate no more than two FireWire interfaces on a single FireWire bus.

Adding additional interfaces with a second FireWire bus

Third-party FireWire bus expansion products in the form of a cardbus (“PC card”) adaptor or PCI card allow you to add a second FireWire bus to your computer. In may be possible to add

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additional MOTU FireWire interfaces connected to such a third-party product, depending on the performance of the product and the performance of your host computer.

Managing the IDs of multiple interfaces (Mac OS 9 only)

Multiple 828mkII interfaces are identiﬁed by number (#1, #2, #3, etc.) Interfaces are ID’d (given a number) by the order in which they are ﬁrst powered up after being connected. This information is stored in the MOTU FireWire Audio preferences ﬁle. Once ID’d, they retain the same number regardless of the order in which they are

powered up. You can disable an interface at any time with the Disable interface option shown in Figure 3-21 on page 32. Doing so frees up the FireWire bandwidth required by the interface without turning it off. Switching off an interface accomplishes the same thing. To get the MOTU FireWire Audio Control Panel Console to forget about an interface entirely, you’ll see a Forget button in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console. Just click the Forget button and the MOTU FireWire Audio Console will no longer consider the interface to be present but off line (turned off).

INSTALLING THE 828MKII HARDWARE

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CHAPTER

4 Installing the 828mkII Macintosh

Software

OVERVIEW

Software installation for Mac OS X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Software installation for Mac OS 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

CueMix Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

MOTU SMPTE Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

AudioDesk workstation software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION FOR MAC OS X

Install the 828mkII software as follows:

1 Insert the MOTU FireWire Installer disc and launch the installer.

2 Follow the directions that the installer gives you.

What does the OS X installer do?

The installer checks the computer to make sure it satisﬁes the minimum system requirements for your MOTU interface. If so, the installer proceeds with the OS X installation. Drivers are installed, along with the MOTU FireWire Audio Console, FireWire CueMix Console, and several other applications, summarized in the following table:

The 828mkII CoreAudio driver

CoreAudio is a term that refers to the software technology built into Mac OS X that provides all of its standardized audio features. More speciﬁcally, we use CoreAudio to refer to Mac OS X’s standard audio driver model. A CoreAudio driver allows the 828mkII to establish audio input and output with any Mac OS X CoreAudio-compatible software.

Once the 828mkII’s CoreAudio driver has been successfully installed (by the installer), and you have chosen it for use in your host audio software, the 828mkII will appear as a choice for audio inputs and outputs in your software.

All MOTU audio hardware, including our PCI systems and other FireWire interfaces, ship with CoreAudio drivers that allow them to operate successfully with virtually all Mac OS X audio software.

Software component Location Purpose For more information

MOTU FireWire CoreAudio driver

MOTU FireWire CoreMIDI driver /Library/Audio/

MOTU FireWire Audio Console Applications folder Provides access to all of the settings in

MOTU SMPTE Console Applications folder Provides access to the 828mkII system’s

AudioDesk Workstation Software Applications folder Provides complete multi-track recording,

AudioDesk Demo Project Anywhere you want Provides a multi-track mix that you can open,

FireWire CueMix Console Applications folder Gives you complete control over the

/System/Library/ Extensions

MIDI Drivers

Provides 828mkII multi-channel audio input and output with all Mac OS X audio software

Provides 828mkII MIDI input and output for all Mac OS X MIDI software

the828mkII and other MOTU FireWire interfaces. Required for 828mkII operation.

SMPTE time code sync features.

mixing and processing. Optional.

play, and mix in AudioDesk. Optional.

828mkII’s CueMix DSP feature, which provides no-latency monitoring and mixing of live inputs through your 828mkII system.

“The 828mkII CoreAudio driver” on page 35

“CoreMIDI and Audio MIDI Setup” on page 36

chapter 5, “MOTU FireWire Audio Console (Mac OS X)” (page 41)

chapter 14, “MOTU SMPTE Console” (page 103)

AudioDesk User Guide

chapter 13, “CueMix Console” (page 97)

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CoreMIDI and Audio MIDI Setup

CoreMIDI is the “under-the-hood” portion of Mac OS X that handles MIDI services for MIDI hardware and software. CoreMIDI provides many universal MIDI system management features, including MIDI communication between your 828mkII FireWire interface and all CoreMIDI compatible software.

Audio MIDI Setup is a utility included with Mac OS X that allows you to conﬁgure your 828mkII interface for use with all CoreMIDI compatible applications. Audio MIDI Setup provides:

■ A “virtual” studio on your Mac that graphically

represents your MIDI hardware setup and that is shared by all CoreMIDI-compatible programs

■ A simple, intuitive list of your MIDI devices

whenever you need it in any CoreMIDI-compatible program

Figure 4-1: The 828mkII interface as it appears in the MIDI tab of Audio MIDI Setup.

Connecting MIDI devices to the 828mkII

Once your 828mkII interface appears in Audio MIDI Setup, you are ready to add devices, indicate how they are connected, and identify properties they may have for particular purposes. This information is shared with all CoreMIDI compatible applications.

To a d d a de v ice i n Audio MIDI Setup:

1 Click Add Device.

Launching Audio MIDI Setup

1 Make sure your 828mkII interface is connected and turned on.

2 Launch the Audio MIDI Setup utility.

This can usually be found in /Applications/ Utilities. If it has been moved, just search for Audi o MIDI Setup.

3 Conﬁrm that the MIDI interface is present in the MIDI Devices tab of Audio MIDI Setup.

If the interfaces does not appear, or if it is grayed out, check your cable connections and click Rescan MIDI.

Figur e 4-2: Adding a MIDI device.

2 Drag on its input and output arrows to draw connections to the 828mkII that match its physical connection.

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Figur e 4-3: Connecting devices to the 828mkII. In this example, a controller keyboard is connected to the 828mkII’s MIDI IN, and a sound module is connected to the 828mkII MIDI OUT.

3 Double-click the device to make settings, such as input and output channels, that further describe the device.

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION FOR MAC OS 9

Install the 828mkII software as follows:

1 Insert the MOTU FireWire Installer disc and launch the installer.

2 Follow the directions that the installer gives you.

What does the OS 9 installer do?

The 828mkII ships with the following Mac OS 9 software components:

Software component Location Purpose

MOTU FireWire Audio Driver

MOTU FireWire Enabler

MOTU Folder

Extensions Folder

Allow the 828mkII to establish communication with the computer.

Contains the MOTU hard disk recording engine. Required for 828mkII operation with AudioDesk and Digital Performer.

Figur e 4-4: Device settings.

4 Repeat the above steps for each MIDI device connected to the interface.

5 When you are ﬁnished, quit Audio MIDI Setup.

Yo u r c on ﬁg ur at io n is automatically saved as the default conﬁguration, and it is shared with all CoreMIDI-compatible software.

MOTU FireWire Audio Control Panel

MOTU FireWire Control Strip

AudioDesk Workstation Software

ASIO MOTU FireWire Audio Driver

AudioDesk Demo Project

Apple menu (Control Panels Folder)

Control Strip (Control Strip Modules Folder)

Top level of the startup disk

In the ASIO Drivers folder of your audio software—other than AudioDesk or Digital Performer

Anywhere you want

Provides access to all of the settings in the 828mkII hardware.

Provides complete multi-track recording, mixing and processing. Optional.

Allows ASIO-compliant audio software to do multi-channel input and output with the 828mkII. Only required if you are using Cubase or another ASIO-compatible program.

Provides a multi-track mix that you can open, play, and mix in AudioDesk. Optional.

☛ 828mkII MIDI input and output is supported

under Mac OS X only.

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MOTU FireWire Audio Control Panel

The MOTU FireWire Audio Console is placed by the installer in your Mac’s Apple menu (under Control Panels). It gives you access to all of the settings in the 828mkII hardware, such as the sample rate. For complete details, see chapter 6, “MOTU FireWire Control Panel (Mac OS 9)” (page 47).

Figur e 4-6: The MOTU FireWire Control Strip module gives you access to all of the settings in the MOTU FireWire hardware, just like the MOTU FireWire Audio Console.

ASIO MOTU FireWire Audio driver

ASIO stands for Audio Streaming Input and Output. The ASIO MOTU FireWire Audio driver allows 828mkII to provide multi-channel input and output for Steinberg’s Cubase VST software, or any other audio application that supports ASIO drivers.

Figure 4-5: The MOTU FireWire Audio Console gives you access to all of the settings in the 828mkII hardware.

MOTU FireWire Control strip module

The MOTU FireWire Control Strip module is placed by the installer in your Mac’s Control Strip. Just like the MOTU FireWire Audio Console, it gives you access to all of the settings in the 828mkII hardware. For complete details, see chapter 6, “MOTU FireWire Control Panel (Mac OS 9)” (page 47).

The ASIO MOTU FireWire Audio driver is only required if you are using Cubase VST (or another audio program that relies on the ASIO driver to support multi-channel I/O with the 828mkII).

☛ Digital Performer and AudioDesk support

ASIO, but they also access the 828mkII directly through the MOTU Audio System, so it is not necessary to use the ASIO driver with these MOTU applications.

The ASIO MOTU FireWire Audio driver should be placed in the ASIO folder of Cubase VST or other ASIO-compliant software that you are running as the software “front end” for the 828mkII.

For details about using Cubase VST with the 828mkII, see chapter 8, “The MOTU 828 and Other Audio SoftwareASIO-compatible Audio Software” (page 1).

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Figur e 4-7: The ASIO MOTU FireWire Audio driver.

See the AudioDesk manual included with your 828mkII system for details.

CUEMIX CONSOLE

This program provides a mixing console that gives you control over the 828mkII’s no-latency CueMix DSP features. For details, see chapter 13, “CueMix Console” (page 97).

MOTU SMPTE CONSOLE

The MOTU SMPTE Console software provides a complete set of tools to resolve the 828mkII to SMPTE time code, and to generate SMPTE for striping, regenerating or slaving other devices to the computer. For details, see chapter 14, “MOTU SMPTE Console” (page 103).

AUDIODESK WORKSTATION SOFTWARE

The MOTU FireWire installer places AudioDesk on the top level of your Macintosh’s startup volume.

AudioDesk is an advanced workstation software package for the 828mkII that lets you record, edit, mix, process, bounce and master multi-track digital audio recording projects. Advanced features include real-time 32-bit effects processing, sampleaccurate synchronization with ADATs, 24-bit recording, and much more.

Figur e 4-8: AudioDesk for Mac OS 9.

Figur e 4-9: AudioDesk for Mac OS X.

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INSTALLING THE 828MKII MACINTOSH SOFTWARE

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CHAPTER

5 MOTU FireWire Audio Console

(Mac OS X)

OVERVIEW

Accessing the 828mkII settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

828mkII Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Sample Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Clock Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Optical input/output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Phones. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Enable Pedal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Launch console when hardware becomes available . 45

ACCESSING THE 828MKII SETTINGS

There are several ways to access the MOTU FireWire Audio Console settings:

■ From the dock, press on the MOTU FireWire

Audio Console icon, or control-click it to open the menu immediately

■ From within AudioDesk™ or Digital

Performer™, choose Setup menu>MOTU Audio System options>Conﬁgure Hardware Driver

■ From within Cubase VST, go to the Audio menu,

choose System and then click the ASIO Control Panel button. In Cubase SX, open the Devices Setup window, click the VST Multitrack device and click the Control Panel button.

■ From within other ASIO-compatible programs,

refer to their documentation.

■ From the front panel LCD (see chapter 7,

“828mkII Front Panel Operation” (page 53)).

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828MKII SETTINGS

Sample Rate

Choose the desired Sample Rate for recording and playback. The 828mkII can operate at 44.1 (the standard rate for compact disc audio), 48, 88.2 or 96KHz. Make absolutely sure that all of the devices connected digitally to the 828mkII match the 828mkII’s sample rate. Also make sure that your Digital Timepiece, MIDI Timepiece AV or other digital audio synchronizer matches it as well.

☛ Mismatched sample rates cause distortion and

crackling. If you hear this sort of thing, check the sample rate settings in your hardware and here in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console.

Clock Source

The Clock Source determines the digital audio clock that the 828mkII will use as its time base. For a complete explanation of synchronization issues,

see “Making sync connections” on page 22. The following sections brieﬂy discuss each clock source setting.

Internal

Use the Internal setting when you want the 828mkII to operate under its own digital audio clock. For example, you may be in a situation where all you are doing is playing tracks off hard disk in your digital audio software on the computer. In a situation like this, you most often don’t need to reference an external clock of any kind.

Another example is transferring a mix to DAT. You can operate the 828mkII system on its internal clock, and then slave the DAT deck to the 828mkII via the S/PDIF connection (usually DAT decks slave to their S/DIF input when you choose the S/PDIF input as their record source) or via the 828mkII’s word clock output (if your DAT deck has a word clock input).

Figure 5-1: The MOTU FireWire Audio Console gives you access to all of the settings in the 828mkII hardware.

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If you would like help determining if this is the proper clock setting for your situation, see “Do you need a synchronizer?” on page 23.

With ADAT devices, however, you usually want an external digital audio synchronizer, such as the MIDI Timepiece AV or Digital Timepiece, to be the digital clock master. In this case, you would set the 828mkII clock source setting to ADAT 9-pin, as described below.

S/PDIF

The S/PDIF clock source setting refers to the S/PDIF RCA input jack on the 828mkII. This setting allows the 828mkII to slave to another S/PDIF device.

Use this setting whenever you are recording input from a DAT deck or other S/PDIF device into the 828mkII. It is not necessary in the opposite direction (when you are transferring from the 828mkII to the DAT machine).

Use this setting when you are using the 828mkII with one or more ADAT-sync compatible recorders. Make sure the 828mkII is connected to the end of the ADAT sync chain.

Yo u s ho u l d also use this setting if you have a MIDI Timepiece AV, which allows you to drive your entire system from the transport controls of AudioDesk, Digital Performer or other computer software.

Yo u c o ul d also use ADAT sync to continuously resolve the 828mkII to SMPTE time code, video, and word clock via a synchronizer like the MOTU MIDI Timepiece AV. Word clock can accomplish the same thing.

For further details, see “Sample-accurate ADAT sync” on page 25, “Sample-accurate ADAT sync with no synchronizer” on page 26 and “Syncing to video and/or SMPTE time code using a synchronizer” on page 28.

For further details about this setting, see “Syncing S/PDIF devices” on page 30.

Word Cloc k In

The Wor d C lock In setting refers to the Word Clock In BNC connector on the 828mkII rear panel. Choosing this setting allows the 828mkII to slave to an external word clock source, such as the word clock output from a digital mixer or another 828mkII.

ADAT 9-pin

The ADAT 9-pin clock source setting refers to the ADAT digital audio synchronization format. It allows the 828mkII to slave to an ADAT — or ADAT sync chain — via its ADAT sync 9-pin connector. ADAT sync also carries precise, sample location information, which allows AudioDesk and Digital Performer to transfer audio to and from ADAT-sync compatible recorders without drifting by as much as one sample.

ADAT optical

The ADAT optical clock source setting refers to the clock provided by the 828mkII’s optical input, when it is connected to an ADAT optical device. This setting can be used to slave the 828mkII directly to the optical input connection. Most of the time, you can set up a better operating scenario that uses one of the other synchronization options. However, there may be occasions when you have an ADAT optical compatible device that has no way of synchronizing digitally to the 828mkII or an external synchronizer such as the Digital Timepiece. In this case, the ADAT Optical clock source setting lets you slave the 828mkII to the device itself via its digital input to the 828mkII.

If the ADAT Optical setting does not appear in the menu, it means that the 828mkII’s optical input is currently either turned off or set to the TOSLink

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format. In either case, choose the ADAT optical format from the Optical input menu (Figure 5-1 on page 42).

This setting is also useful if you just need to make a simple, click-free digital transfer between the 828mkII and another device — where a time code reference and shared transport control are not needed — without having to set up an elaborate synchronization scenario.

For further details about this setting, see “Syncing optical devices” on page 29.

TOSLink

The TOSLink clock source setting refers to the clock provided an optical S/PDIF device connected to the 828mkII’s optical input. This setting can be used to slave the 828mkII directly to the optical input connection. Most of the time, you can set up a better operating scenario that uses one of the other synchronization options. However, there may be occasions when you have an TOSLinkcompatible device that has no way of synchronizing digitally to the 828mkII or an external synchronizer such as the Digital Timepiece. In this case, the TOSLink clock source setting lets you slave the 828mkII to the other device via the 828mkII’s optical input.

If the TOSLink setting does not appear in the menu, it means that the 828mkII’s optical input is currently either turned off or set to the ADAT optical format. In either case, choose the TOSLink format from the Optical input menu (Figure 5-1 on page 42).

For further details about this setting, see “Syncing optical devices” on page 29.

SMPTE

Choose this setting to resolve the 828mkII directly to SMPTE time code (LTC) being received via the 828mkII’s quarter-inch SMPTE input jack. For details, see “Syncing to SMPTE time code” on page 27 and chapter 14, “MOTU SMPTE Console” (page 103).

Optical input/output

The Optical input and Optical output settings let you choose between ADAT optical (‘lightpipe’) and S/PDIF optical (‘TOSLink’) as the format for the 828mkII’s optical input and output. Choose the format that matches the device connected. If you are not using the optical connections, it is recommended that you turn them off (as provided in the menus) to reduce bandwidth and processing overhead. Note that you can operate the input and output independently. For example, you could use the ADAT optical format on the input (with a digital mixer, for example) and optical S/PDIF on the output (with a DAT deck, for example).

When the optical output is set to TOSLink, the signal is split to both the RCA and optical output jacks. However, when the optical input is set to TOSLink, the RCA SDIF jack is disabled.

Phones

The Phones setting lets you choose what you will hear from the headphone jack. Choose Main Outs if you’d like the headphone output to match the main outs. Choose Phones if you would like the headphones to serve as their own independent output, which you can access as an independent output destination in your host audio software and as an output destination for the four on-board CueMix DSP mix busses.

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Word Out

The Word Out menu appears when the 828mkII is operating at a high sample rate (88.2 or 96kHz). This menu lets you set the word clock output either to match the current sample rate (System Clock) or to halve the current sample rate (System Clock ÷ 2). In the latter case, the word clock output would be reduced to either 44.1 or 48 kHz.

Enable Pedal

Check the Enable Pedal option if a foot switch is connected to the 828mkII and you would like to trigger recording punch in/out (or other software functions) with it. Use the Set buttons to determine what keystroke is triggered by the pedal-up and pedal-down positions. You can assign the pedal to any two keystrokes you wish. (You are not restricted to punch in/out.)

Launch console when hardware becomes available

Check this option if you would like the MOTU FireWire Audio Console icon to appear in the application dock as soon as a MOTU FireWire interface is detected (switched on, plugged in, etc.)

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MOTU FIREWIRE AUDIO CONSOLE (MAC OS X)

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CHAPTER

6 MOTU FireWire Control Panel

(Mac OS 9)

OVERVIEW

The MOTU FireWire Control Panel provides access to all 828mkII settings. These settings can also be accessed from the MOTU FireWire Control Strip module or from the Conﬁgure Hardware Driver command in AudioDesk or Digital Perfor mer (Basics menu).

Accessing the 828mkII settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

828mkII Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Sample Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Clock Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Samples Per Buffer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Optical input/output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Phones. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Enable Sound Manager driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Enable Pedal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

If 828mkII settings are grayed out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

ACCESSING THE 828MKII SETTINGS

There are several ways to access the MOTU FireWire Control Panel settings:

■ From the Apple menu, choose the MOTU

FireWire Control Panel

■ From the MacOS control strip, click on the

MOTU FireWire Control Strip Module

■ From within AudioDesk™ or Digital

Performer™, choose Basics menu>MOTU Audio System options>Conﬁgure Hardware Driver

■ From within Cubase (Version 5 or higher), click

the ASIO Control Panel button in the System Setup dialog as shown in Figure 8-3 on page 3.

■ From within other ASIO-compatible programs,

refer to their documentation.

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It doesn’t matter which way you access the 828mkII settings. They are the same in all three places.

828MKII SETTINGS

Figure 6-1: The MOTU FireWire Control Panel gives you access to all of the settings in the 828mkII hardware.

Sample Rate

☛ Mismatched sample rates cause distortion and

crackling. If you hear this sort of thing, check the sample rate settings in your hardware and here in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console.

Clock Source

The Clock Source determines the digital audio clock that the 828mkII will use as its time base. For a complete explanation of synchronization issues,

see “Making sync connections” on page 22. The following sections brieﬂy discuss each clock source setting.

Internal

If you would like help determining if this is the proper clock setting for your situation, see “Do you need a synchronizer?” on page 23.

S/PDIF

The S/PDIF clock source setting refers to the S/PDIF RCA input jack on the 828mkII. This setting allows the 828mkII to slave to another S/PDIF device.

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For further details about this setting, see “Syncing S/PDIF devices” on page 30.

Word Cloc k In

ADAT 9-pin

Use this setting when you are using the 828mkII with one or more ADATs. Make sure the 828mkII is connected to the end of the ADAT sync chain.

Yo u s ho u l d also use this setting if you have a MIDI Timepiece AV, which allows you to drive your entire system from the transport controls of AudioDesk, Digital Performer or other software.

This setting can be used to slave the 828mkII directly to the optical input connection. Most of the time, you can set up a better operating scenario that uses one of the other synchronization options. However, there may be occasions when you have an ADAT optical compatible device that has no way of synchronizing digitally to the 828mkII or an external synchronizer such as the Digital Timepiece. In this case, the ADAT Optical clock source setting lets you slave the 828mkII to the device itself via its digital input to the 828mkII.

If the ADAT Optical setting does not appear in the menu, it means that the 828mkII’s optical input is currently either turned off or set to the TOSLink format. In either case, choose the ADAT optical format from the Optical input menu (Figure 6-1 on page 48).

For further details about this setting, see “Syncing optical devices” on page 29.

ADAT optical

The ADAT optical clock source setting refers to the clock provided by the 828mkII’s optical input, when it is connected to an ADAT optical device.

MOTU FIREWIRE CONTROL PANEL (MAC OS 9)

TOSLink

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For further details about this setting, see “Syncing optical devices” on page 29.

SMPTE

Samples Per Buffer

The Samples Per Buffer setting lets you reduce the delay you hear when patching live audio through your audio software. For example, you might have a live microphone input that you would like to run through a reverb plug-in that you are running in your host audio software. Whe n doing so, you may hear or feel some “sponginess” (delay) between the source and the processed signal. If so, don’t worry. This effect only affects what you hear: it is not present in what is actually recorded.

which routes the signal directly to your speakers via hardware. For details, see chapter 12, “CueMix Console” (page 97).

Adjusting the Samples Per Buffer setting impacts the following things:

■ The strain on your computer’s CPU

■ The delay you hear when routing a live signal

through your host audio software plug-ins

■ How responsive the transport controls are in

your software

This setting presents you with a trade-off between the processing power of your computer and the delay of live audio as it is being processed by plug-ins. If you reduce the Samples Per Buffer, you reduce patch thru latency, but signiﬁcantly increase the overall processing load on your computer, leaving less CPU bandwidth for things like realtime effects processing. On the other hand, if you increase the Samples Per Buffer, you reduce the load on your computer, freeing up bandwidth for effects, mixing and other real-time operations. But don’t set the Samples Per Buffer too low, or it may cause distortion in your audio.

If you don’t process live inputs with software plug-ins, leave this setting at its default value of 1024 samples. If you do, try settings of 256 samples or less, if your computer seems to be able to handle them. If your host audio software has a processor meter, check it. If it starts getting maxed out, or if the computer seems sluggish, raise the Samples Per Buffer until performance returns to normal.

Yo u c an us e Samples Per Buffer setting to reduce this monitoring delay—and even make it completely inaudible.

☛ If you don’t need to process an incoming live

signal with software plug-ins, you can monitor the signal with no delay at all using CueMix Console,

If you are at a point in your recording project where you are not currently working with live, patchedthru material (e.g. you’re not recording vocals), or if you have a way of externally monitoring input, choose a higher Samples Per Buffer setting. Depending on your computer’s CPU speed, you might ﬁnd that settings in the middle work best.

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The Samples Per Buffer setting also impacts how quickly your audio software will respond when you begin playback, although not by amounts that are very noticeable. Lowering the Samples Per Buffer will make your software respond faster; raising the Samples Per Buffer w ill ma ke it a little bit slower, but barely enough to notice.

Monitoring live inputs without plug-in effects

As mentioned earlier, CueMix Console allows you to monitor dry, unprocessed live inputs with no delay at all. For complete details, see chapter 11, “Reducing Monitoring Latency” (page 91).

Optical input/output

When the optical output is set to TOSLink, the signal is split to both the RCA and optical output jacks. However, when the optical input is set to TOSLink, the RCA SDIF jack is disabled.

Phones

Word Out

Enable Sound Manager driver

Check the Enable Sound Manager option if you would like to route Sound Manager audio to and from the 828mkII. For example, you could listen to an audio CD playing in the CD drive of your Macintosh through headphones connected to the 828mkII. As another example, you could route audio from a pair of 828mkII inputs into a thirdparty Sound Manager-compatible audio application. Use the menus provided to choose the desired 828mkII inputs and outputs you would like to route to/from Sound Manager. For further details, see chapter 9, “Sound Manager” (page 1).

☛ This option is disabled when the 828mkII is

set to a high sample rate (88.2 or 96kHz).

Enable Pedal

Check the Enable Pedal option if a foot switch is connected to the 828mkII and you would like to trigger recording punch in/out (or other software functions) with it. Use the Set buttons to determine what keystroke is trigger by the pedal-up and pedal-down positions. You can assign the pedal to any two keystrokes you wish. (You are not restricted to punch in/out.)

IF 828MKII SETTINGS ARE GRAYED OUT

If the MOTU FireWire driver is currently in use by an audio program (or Sound Manager), some of its settings cannot be changed and are therefore grayed out in the MOTU FireWire Control Panel menus. (Settings that cannot be changed are ones on which audio applications continuously depend for smooth, error free operation.) If you ﬁnd that a

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MOTU FireWire Control Panel setting that you wish to change is grayed out, simply quit all 828mkII-compatible audio programs (which may include Sound Manager-compatible programs, too, if you are using the 828mkII with Sound Manager). Once you have quite all applications, all MOTU FireWire Control Panel settings will be available (not grayed out).

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CHAPTER

7 828mkII Front Panel Operation

OVERVIEW

The 828mkII is the ﬁrst FireWire audio interface to offer complete front-panel programming via six rotar y encoders and a 2x16 backlit LCD display. All 828mkII settings can be accessed via these frontpanel controls.

Push-button rotary encoders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Multi-function LCD display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

VOLUME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

SETUP / SELECT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

MIX BUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

PARA M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

CURSOR / VALUE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Stand-alone operation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

PUSH-BUTTON ROTARY ENCODERS

All of the knobs shown in Figure 7-1 are pushbutton digital rotary encoders. In many cases, you can either push the knob or turn it to make a setting or toggle the LCD display (depending on the encoder and setting).

MULTI-FUNCTION LCD DISPLAY

The LCD provides access to the many 828mkII settings, as well as visual feedback of the current parameter being modiﬁed.

The LCD operates in two different modes: setup mode and mixer mode. Push the SETUP knob to toggle between the two modes.

Figure 7-1: The 828mkII front panel controls.

Choose the mix parameter

to edit here with the

PAR AM k nob .

Choose the mix you

are editing by

pushing the MIX BUS

knob. Turn the knob

to change the mix

volume.

The top row shows settings

for the 10 analog inputs.

The bottom row shows settings

for the 10 digital inputs.

Use the CURSOR knob

to scroll to a channel

and use VALUE to

change its setting.

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Setup mode

In setup mode, the LCD displays basic settings, such as clock source, optical I/O format (ADAT versus TOSLink), and so on. These settings are covered in detail later in “SETUP / SELECT” on page 54.

Figure 7-2: In setup mode, the LCD displays a setup parameter in the top row of the LCD and the current setting in the bottom row.

Mixer mode

In mixer mode, the LCD displays the settings for the current 828mkII mix being shown in the display, as demonstrated in Figure 7-1 on page 53.

Parameter “zooming”

For many settings, the LCD temporarily “zooms in” to display a long-throw meter and alphanumeric display to give you precise, real-time feedback as you adjust the setting. For example, if you change the headphone volume, the LCD will display a level meter and gain reduction reading that updates as you turn the volume knob. After a brief time-out, the display returns to its previous state before you turned the volume knob. The time-out period can be adjusted, as explained later in “Fader View Time”.

Figur e 7-3: For many settings, the LCD “zooms in” on the setting as you adjust it.

VOLUME

The VOLUME knob lets you control the volume of both the headphone jack and the rear-panel main outs. Press the knob to toggle between the headphones and the main outs. As explained in the previous section, the LCD provides detailed feedback as you turn the knob. To view the current setting without changing it, just push the knob (without turning it).

SETUP / SELECT

Press the SELECT knob to toggle between mixer mode and setup mode. In mixer mode, the SETUP and SELECT knob do nothing. In setup mode, turn SETUP to choose a setting and SELECT to change it. In some cases, SELECT chooses one of the 828mkII’s four mixes, and the VALUE knob changes the setting. The setup settings are brieﬂy explained below.

Clock source

This sets the global clock source for the 828mkII and is the same as the Clock Source setting in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console as explained in “Clock Source” on page 42. If the 828mkII is currently connected to a computer, this setting cannot be changed from the front-panel LCD. It must be changed in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console instead. Or, you can disconnect the 828mkII from the computer to change the Clock Source from the front panel.

Fader V iew Time

The Fader View Time option lets you control the length of time that an adjusted parameter remains displayed in the LCD before the LCD returns to its previous state. For example, when you turn the MIX BUS knob to adjust the volume of the current mix, you’ll see a long-throw horizontal fader in the LCD, along with a numeric display of the current gain reduction. After you stop turning the knob, this fader remains displayed in the LCD for a moment before the LCD returns to its previous

828MKII FRONT PANEL OPERATION

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state. The Fader View Time option lets you control how long the adjusted parameter remains on the LCD after the knob stops turning.

Optical In / Optical Out

These two settings determine the format for the 828mkII’s optical input and output. They are the same as the optical setting in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console as explained in “Optical input/ output” on page 44. If the 828mkII is currently connected to a computer, these settings cannot be changed from the front-panel LCD. They must be changed in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console instead. Or, you can disconnect the 828mkII from the computer to change them from the front panel.

Bus output

The Bus Output setting lets you choose the 828mkII output pair for each of the four CueMix DSP mix busses. Turn the SELECT knob to choose a bus. Turn the VALUE knob to choose an output. Push the VALUE knob to select the output. The output stops ﬂashing to conﬁrm that it has been selected.

Yo u c an then paste the settings to another mix as explained below. The word Done appears brieﬂy to conﬁrm that the mix settings have been successfully copied.

Paste Bus Mix

After you copy mix settings (explained above), Paste Bus Mix lets you paste the copied mix settings to another mix. Turn the SELECT knob to choose a mix. Push SELECT to paste. The word Done appears brieﬂy to conﬁrm the paste. The following mix parameter are included in the paste operation: Gain, Pan, Solo, Mute, +4/-10, +6dB boost, and stereo pairing. The following mix parameters are not pasted: Bus output, Bus mute and Bus gain.

Save/Name Preset

The Save/Name Preset setting lets you name and save up to sixteen separate 828mkII presets. A preset holds all of the current CueMix DSP mix settings for all four mix busses. Setup parameters are not included. The name can have up to 12 characters. Here is a summary of how to name and save a preset:

Bus mute

The Bus Mute setting mutes and unmutes the bus output. Turn the SELECT knob to choose a bus. Push the SELECT knob to mute or unmute the bus.

Phones Assign

The Phones Assign setting lets you choose what you hear on the headphone output. This is the same as the Phones setting in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console as explained in “Phones” on page 44.

Init Current Mix

The Init Current Mix setting lets you reset the current mix (or all four mixes). All inputs get reset to unity gain (0 dB), pan c enter, etc.

Copy Bus Mix

Copy Bus Mix lets you copy all of t he set tings fo r th e currently displayed mix. Turn the SELECT knob to choose a mix. Push the SELECT knob to copy it.

828MKII FRONT PANEL OPERATION

To do this: Do this:

To change the currently flashing character

To jump to capital letters, lower case letters, numbers or symbols

To scroll to a different character Turn the CURSOR knob.

To save the preset Push SELECT. If you are asked

Turn the VALUE knob

Push the VALUE knob repeatedly

to replace existing preset, push SELECT again to replace it, or turn it to select a different preset.

Load preset

After you’ve saved one or more presets, Load Preset lets you recall them. Turn the SELECT knob to choose a preset. Push SELECT to load it. The word Loaded appears brieﬂy to conﬁrm the operation.

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All Notes Off

The All Notes Off setting sends a MIDI All Notes Off message, as well as a MIDI note-off message for every note on every MIDI channel. This stops any stuck notes that are currently playing. Push SELECT to initiate the All Notes Off operation. The MIDI OUT LED will glow to conﬁrm that the noteoff data is being sent.

Factory Defaults

The Factory Defaults setting restores the 828mkII factory settings. Before you can attempt this operation, the 828mkII must ﬁrst be disconnected from the computer. If the interface is still connected, the LCD will alert you with the message “Must detach FW”. Once you have done so, push SELECT to initiate the operation, and then when the LCD asks “Are you sure?”, push VALUE to execute it.

MIX BUS

The 828mkII on-board CueMix DSP mixer provides four stereo mix busses, named MIX1, MIX2, MIX3 and MIX4, respectively. Each mix bus (also referred to as a “mix”) independently mixes all inputs (or any subset of your choosing) down to one 828mkII output pair of your choosing. For example, you could assign MIX1 to the main outs, MIX2 to analog outputs 1-2 and MIX3 to the headphone outs. You can then independently assign any input to any mix. An input can even be included in two or more mixes simultaneously at different input levels.

When the LCD display is in mixer mode, push the MIX BUS knob repeatedly to cycle through the four mixes. The current mix is indicated in the LCD above the MIX BUS label (as shown in Figure 7-1 on page 53). Turn the MIX BUS knob to change the output level for the mix.

PA RA M

When the LCD display is in mixer mode, the PAR A M k n o b c yc le s t hrough the mix parameters listed below. Use the CURSOR knob to scroll to a particular channel (until it ﬂashes) and use the VA LU E k n o b t o ch ange its setting:

Mix parameter Range Comments

Gain OFF,

Pan -64 to +64

Solo “s” or

Mute “m” or

4/10 down (+4)

+6db “+” or

-84 to 0 dB

Zero = pan center

blank

or up (-10)

blank

Each channel displays a small fader. Push the VALUE knob to toggle between OFF and unity gain (0dB).

Push the VALUE knob to jump to pan center. Stereo pairs (explained below) are panned hard left/right by default.

Push the VALUE knob to toggle between soloed (S) and not soloed (blank), or turn the knob to toggle.

Push the VALUE knob to toggle between muted (m) and unmuted (blank), or turn the knob to toggle.

This setting applies universally across ALL mix busses for analog inputs 1-8. Push the VALUE knob to toggle between a +4dB reference level (down) and a -10dB reference level (up). Or turn the knob to toggle.

This setting applies universally across ALL mix busses for analog inputs 1-8. Push the VALUE knob to toggle between a +6dB software boost (+) and no boost (blank). Or turn the knob to toggle.

Figur e 7-4: In mixer mode, the LCD displays the mix settings for the mix bus currently being displayed in the LCD.

Pair “[ ]” or

blank

828MKII FRONT PANEL OPERATION

This setting applies universally across ALL mixes. Push the VALUE knob to toggle a stereo input pair between separate mono inputs (blank) or a stereo pair (“[ ]”). Or turn the knob to toggle. When a pair of inputs are linked, all of their mix settings become linked (gain, solo, etc.) except for pan. When the pair is first created, pan is set to hard left and hard right, but the channels can then be further modified independently. When a pair is unlinked, the channels are set to pan-center.

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Mix parameters that apply across all mixes

The last three mix settings (input reference level, +6dB software boost, and stereo pairing) apply across all mixes because they have to do with the nature of the input itself. For example, if you have an input that requires a -10dB reference level, then you’ll want the reference level to apply to all mixes.

Working with stereo pairs

When you group a pair of inputs as a stereo pair, all of their mix settings become linked, and whenever you scroll to either channel, both channels will ﬂash to indicate that they will operate as a linked stereo pair. Note that when a pair is ﬁrst created, pan is set to hard left and hard right, but the channels can then be further modiﬁed independently. When a pair is unlinked, the channels are set to pan-center.

CURSOR / VALUE

When the LCD display is in mixer mode, the CURSOR knob scrolls left and right over the 20 inputs displayed in the LCD. The current input ﬂashes. As a shortcut, you can push the CURSOR knob to toggle between the top row (analog inputs) and bottom row (digital inputs). The VALUE knob changes the current mix parameter for the currently ﬂashing input. In some cases, such as Gain and Pan, the LCD will “zoom” to the enlarged horizontal fader while you adjust it with the VALUE knob. After you stop adjusting, the LCD will return to the mixer display.

STAND-ALONE OPERATION

All settings, including all mix settings and global settings, are saved in the 828mkII’s memory, and they remain in effect even when the 828mkII is not connected to a computer. This allows you to use the 828mkII as a stand-alone 8-bus mixer. You can make adjustments to any setting at any time from the front panel.

828MKII FRONT PANEL OPERATION

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828MKII FRONT PANEL OPERATION

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CHAPTER

8 Digital Performer

OVERVIEW

This chapter provides a brief overview of Digital Performer’s basic I/O and synchronization operation with the 828mkII hardware. This chapter covers both DP3 with Mac OS 9 and DP4 with Mac OS X.

Setting up your system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

The 828mkII settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Be sure you have enough voices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

24-bit operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Fine-tuning I/O timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

MIDI Machine Control (MMC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

MIDI I/O via the 828mkII MIDI ports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Processing live inputs with plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Using a foot switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Exchanging projects with AudioDesk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Sound Manager and Digital Performer (OS 9 only) . . 64

SETTING UP YOUR SYSTEM

As described in chapter 4, “Installing the 828mkII Macintosh Software” (page 35), the Digital Performer and MOTU 828mkII software installers will properly install and update everything for you.

If you are using a MIDI Timepiece AV or Digital Timepiece for synchronization, be sure they are present in Audio MIDI setup (or FreeMIDI Setup under Mac OS 9).

THE 828MKII SETTINGS

828mkII settings in Mac OS 9

In Mac OS 9, the 828mkII settings can be accessed by choosing MOTU Audio System options>Conﬁgure Hardware Driver from the Basics menu. This is where you choose the 828mkII as your audio input output device. Once you’ve done so, you should see the 828mkII settings as shown below in Figure 8-1.

Figure 8-1: The 828mkII settings.

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828mkII settings in Mac OS X

In Mac OS X, choose the 828mkII as your audio input output device by choosing MOTU Audio System options>Conﬁgure Hardware Driver from the Setup menu. This window shows some of the 828mkII settings, such as sample rate and clock source, but to access all of the 828mkII settings, open the MOTU FireWire Audio Console, as shown in Figure 5-1 on page 42.

For complete details about the 828mkII settings, see chapter 5, “MOTU FireWire Audio Console (Mac OS X)” (page 41) or chapter 6, “MOTU FireWire Control Panel (Mac OS 9)” (page 47). The following sections provide a brief explanation of each 828mkII setting for use with Digital Perfor mer.

Sample rate

Choose the desired overall sample rate for the 828mkII system and Digital Performer. Newly recorded audio in Digital Performer will have this sample rate. Imported audio or soundbites in existing ﬁles that do not match this sample rate w ill be displayed in the Soundbites window with a red ‘X’ on its move handle to indicate that it cannot be played.

Clock Source

This setting is very important because it determines which audio clock the 828mkII will follow.

Figur e 8-2: Under Mac OS X, choose Setup menu> Conﬁgure Audio System> Conﬁgure Hardware Driver to open the dialog shown above and access the 828mkII CoreAudio driver. To access the rest of the 828mkII settings, open the MOTU FireWire Audio Console.

If you do not have any digital audio connections to your 828mkII (you are using the analog inputs and outputs only), and you will not be slaving Digital Performer to external SMPTE time code, choose Internal.

If you are slaving the 828mkII to the ADAT sync Input connector, choose ADAT 9-pin.

If you are slaving the 828mkII and Digital Performer to SMPTE time code via the 828mkII itself, choose SMPTE and follow the directions in “Syncing to SMPTE time code” on page 27.

If you have digital audio devices connected to the 828mkII, or if you are not sure about the clock source of your setup, be sure to read “Making sync connections” on page 22 and “Clock Source” on page 42.

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Buffer Size (OS X) / Samples Per Buffer (OS 9)

The Buffer Size setting (Samples Per Buffer under Mac OS 9) can be used to reduce the delay — or monitoring latency — t hat you hea r when live audio is patched through your 828mkII hardware and Digital Performer. For example, you might have MIDI instruments, samplers, microphones, and so on connected to the analog inputs of the 828mkII. If so, you will often be mixing their live input with audio material recorded in Digital Performer. See chapter 12, “Reducing Monitoring Latency” (page 89) for complete details.

Optical input and output

To make a 828mkII optical input or output available in Digital Performer, choose the appropriate format (ADAT optical or TOSLink) from the optical input and/or output menu. If you won’t be using the optical connectors, turn them off.

Phones

This 828mkII setting lets you choose what you’ll hear from the headphone jack. For example, if you choose Main Outs, the headphones will duplicate the main outs. Or you can choose any other output pair. If you choose Phones, this setting makes the headphone jack serve as its own independent output pair. As a result, you’ll see Phones 1-2 as an additional audio destination in Digital Performer’s audio output menus.

BE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH VOICES

Go to the Setup menu (Basics menu under Mac OS

9) and choose MOTU Audio System Options>Conﬁgure Studio Size. Then check to make sure you have enough mono and stereo audio voices to cover the 20 channels of input and 22 channels of output provided by your 828mkII — although the number of channels may depend on how your 828mkII is conﬁgured:

■ 12 channels for analog I/O (including the

headphone out)

■ 2 channels for RCA S/PDIF

■ Zero, 2 or 8 channels for optical, depending on

whether you have optical turned off, or set to S/PDIF or ADAT optical

For example, if you are using analog only, you only need 12 channels. If you are using analog and RCA S/PDIF, you need 14 channels.

As another example, if you are using analog, RCA S/PDIF and ADAT optical, you need 22 channels (the maximum number of simultaneous output channels provided by the 828mkII).

WORKING WITH 828MKII INPUTS AND OUTPUTS

Once you’ve enabled the MOTU FireWire Audio driver as explained earlier in “The 828mkII settings” on page 59, 828mkII audio inputs and outputs will appear in Digital Performer’s audio input and output menus. If you don’t see the optical inputs and/or outputs, check the MOTU FireWire Audio Console to make sure they are turned on and set to the format you require. If you don’t plan to use the optical input or output, turn it off to conserve computer bandwidth.

Phones 1-2

If you’ve chosen to treat the 828mkII headphones as an independent output, you’ll see Phones 1-2 in Digital Performer’s output menus. Audio tracks assigned to this output pair will be heard on the headphone jack only. For further explanation, see “Phones” on page 44.

Mix1 1-2

In Digital Performer’s audio input menus, you’ll see an 828mkII input called Mix1 1-2. This input source delivers the output of CueMix DSP “MIX1” (the ﬁrst mix bus of the four on-board no-latency monitor mixes in the 828mkII) back to your computer. This input serves, for example, as a convenient way for you to record the 828mkII’s MIX1 monitor mix back into Digital Performer

DIGITAL PERFORMER

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(for reference and archiving purposes). Further, if you are sending audio from Digital Performer to the same output pair as MIX1, you can choose to either include or exclude the audio from the computer in the stream being sent back to Digital Performer. For details on how to do this, see “Mix1 Return Includes Computer” on page 100.

☛ Wa rning: the Mix1 1-2 input can cause

feedback loops! DO NOT assign this input to a track that shares the same 828mkII output pair as MIX1.

24-BIT OPERATION

Yo ur 828mkII hardware fully supports Digital Perfor mer’s 24-bit recording capabilities, including both analog and digital 24-bit recording. If you would like to record and play back 24-bit audio ﬁles, go to the Setup menu (Basics menu under OS

9), choose MOTU Audio System options>Conﬁgure Sample Format, and choose 24-bit recording as the sample format. This setting is saved with the Digital Performer project.

FINE-TUNING I/O TIMING

The 828mkII has the ability to be sample accurate. This means that when you transfer audio between Digital Performer and an ADAT (or other ADATsync compatible recorder), for example, you can record the audio back and forth as many times as you want between them and it will remain exactly at its original sample location (unless you move it in Digital Performer, of course).

Occasionally, you may encounter a situation in which you observe a slight offset of one sample — or maybe a few — caused by inherent latencies in the devices you are using with the 828mkII. Usual ly, these offsets will be consistent, and you can compensate for them in Digital Performer. To do so, choose MOTU Audio System Options>Fine- tune Audio I/O Timing from the Setup menu (Basics menu under Mac OS 9) as shown in Figure 8-3.

Figur e 8-3: Fine-tuning the timing of audio playback and recording.

SYNCHRONIZATION

Digital Performer can run under its own transport control or slave to an external sync source, such as SMPTE time code or ADAT sync (sample address).

Running DP under its own transport control

If you do not need to synchronize Digital Performer with time code or another recording device, such as a tape deck, just leave the Slave to External Sync command in the Studio menu (Basics menu under OS 9) unchecked.

However, even though Digital Performer is not slaving to external sync, you st ill need to be concerned with the synchronization of the 828mkII’s digital audio clock with other devices connected to it digitally (if any). For example, if you have a digital mixer connected to the 828mkII via an ADAT optical lightpipe cable, you need to make sure that their audio clocks are phase-locked. For details, see “Syncing optical devices” on page 29 and “Making sync connections” on page 22. If you don’t have any digital audio devices connected to the 828mkII, digital audio phase-lock does not apply to you.

Resolving DP and the 828mkII to SMPTE time code

If you need to slave Digital Performer and the 828mkII to SMPTE time code, you can do so with or without a dedicated synchronizer.

DIGITAL PERFORMER

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Resolving directly to time code (with no synchronizer)

To resolve your Digital Performer/828mkII system directly to SMPTE time code with no additional synchronization devices, use the setup shown in “Syncing to SMPTE time code” on page 54.

Choose Receive Sync from the Setup menu (Basics menu under Mac OS 9) and choose the Sample

accurate option. Then make sure that the Slave to External Sync command in the Studio menu

(Basics menu under Mac OS 9) is checked. Make sure the Clock Source setting in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console window is set to SMPTE. Also, make sure that you’ve connected an LTC input signal the 828mkII SMPTE input.

Resolving to video and/or time code with a dedicated synchronizer

To resolve your Digital Performer/828mkII system to video and/or SMPTE time code using an additional synchronization device, use the setup shown in “Syncing to video and/or SMPTE time code using a synchronizer” on page 60.

Choose Receive Sync from the Setup menu (Basics menu under Mac OS 9) and choose the MTC (MIDI Time Code) option. Then make sure that the Slave to External Sync command in the Studio menu (Basics menu under Mac OS 9) is checked. To e ns ure t hat your audio tracks don’t drift out of sync with your MIDI tracks — or time code, use a hardware synchronizer like the MIDI Timepiece AV or Digital Timepiece to resolve the 828mkII hardware as well, as shown in Figure 5-30 on page 62. A digital audio synchronizer is required for drift-free SMPTE/MIDI time code sync. Make sure the Clock Source setting in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console window has the appropriate setting for locking the 828mkII to the synchronizer. For example, in Figure 5-30 on page 62, word clock is being used to resolve the 828mkII, so the Clock Source setting is Word Clock In.

☛ If you have an ADAT sync compatible device,

don’t use SMPTE time code. Instead, use sampleaccurate sync as described in the next section.

Sample-accurate sync to ADAT and Tascam

To gether, Digital Performer and the 828mkII provide you with sample-accurate transfers with ADATs, Alesis recorders and any other devices that support standard ADAT sample address (ADAT Sync).

Similarly, with the help of a MOTU Digital Timepiece, Digital Performer and a 828mkII can perform sample-accurate transfers with Tascam digital recorders.

A sample-accurate transfer is one in which the original location of the audio is preserved in the transfer, down to the sample.

For details on how to set up sample-accurate sync, see “Sample-accurate sync” on page 24. Be sure to choose the Sample Accurate Sync option in Digital Perfor mer’s Receive Sync dialog, and make sure t hat the Slave to External Sync command is checked, too.

To c o n t rol t h e transports of everything together from Digital Performer, see the next section.

MIDI MACHINE CONTROL (MMC)

If you have ADATs a nd a MMC -compatible ADAT synchronizer like the MIDI Timepiece AV or Digital Timepiece, you can control everything from your computer screen with Digital Performer’s transport controls and cueing features (like Markers, the playback wiper, etc.)

Similarly, if you have Tascam recorders and a MOTU Digital Timepiece (or other MMCcompatible Tascam synchronizer), can control all of your Tascam decks (in ABS time) in a similar fashion from Digital Performer.

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See the MIDI Machine Control chapter in your MIDI Timepiece AV or Digital Timepiece manual for details on how to set this up.

MIDI I/O VIA THE 828MKII MIDI PORTS

Once you’ve followed the procedure for enabling the 828mkII’s MIDI features as explained in “Software installation for Mac OS X” on page 35, the 828mkII MIDI ports will appear as a input source and output destination in Digital Performer’s MIDI I/O menus. The 828mkII MIDI ports are not supported under Mac OS 9.

PROCESSING LIVE INPUTS WITH PLUG-INS

If you patch a live input (such as MIDI synthesizer) through a plug-in effect in Digital Performer, you might hear a slight delay. There are several ways to reduce this delay. For detai ls , see chapter 11, “Reducing Monitoring Latency” (page 91).

USING A FOOT SWITCH

Use a foot switch connected to the 828mkII to trigger recording punch-in and punch-out, or any other feature in Digital Performer that is assigned to a computer keystroke. By default, the foot switch triggers the 3 key on the computer keypad (which toggles Digital Performer’s record button.) To trigger a different set of keystrokes with the foot switch, visit the MOTU FireWire Audio Console. (See “Enable Pedal” on page 45.)

EXCHANGING PROJECTS WITH AUDIODESK

Digital Performer (Version 2.6 or later) can exchange ﬁles with AudioDesk 1.0. For example, you can transfer a ﬁle from Digital Performer to AudioDesk, and back again. Just use Save As in Digital Performer’s File menu and choose the Aud ioD esk ﬁle format. To open AudioDesk ﬁles in Digital Performer, just use the Open command. (No conversion is required beforehand in Aud ioD esk.)

If you have an earlier version of Digital Performer (2.5 or earlier), you can open your Digital Performer ﬁles in AudioDesk (with the Open command in the File menu), but Digital Performer

2.5 or earlier cannot open AudioDesk ﬁles.

SOUND MANAGER AND DIGITAL PERFORMER (OS 9 ONLY)

Digital Performer includes a Mac OS 9 MOTU Audio System plug-in called AudioTap that allows you to route any Sound Manager audio into Digital Performer’s mixing environment. From there, you can route it to your 828mkII interface via any of Digital Performer’s extensive audio routing features. For details, consult your Digital Performer documentation.

DIGITAL PERFORMER

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CHAPTER

9 AudioDesk

OVERVIEW

This chapter provides a brief overview of AudioDesk’s basic I/O and synchronization operation with the 828 hardware. For complete information about all of AudioDesk’s powerful workstation features, see the AudioDesk manual included with your MOTU 828 system. This chapter covers both DP3 with Mac OS 9 and DP4 with Mac OS X.

Setting up your system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

The 828mkII settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Be sure you have enough voices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

24-bit operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Fine-tuning I/O timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

MIDI Machine Control (MMC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

MIDI I/O via the 828mkII MIDI ports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Processing live inputs through plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Using a foot switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Exchanging projects with Digital performer . . . . . . . . . 70

AudioDesk and MIDI sequencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

SETTING UP YOUR SYSTEM

As described in chapter 4, “Installing the 828mkII Macintosh Software” (page 35), the MOTU FireWire Audio software installer will properly install everything for you, including AudioDesk.

If you will be using AudioDesk’s MIDI Machine Control (MMC) or MIDI Time Code sync features, and you are using Mac OS 9, FreeMIDI must be installed. (You can install FreeMIDI from the MOTU FireWire installer CD.) Under Mac OS X, the CoreMIDI driver is automatically installed for you as part of the “Easy Install” package.

If you are using a MIDI Timepiece AV or Digital Timepiece for synchronization, be sure they are present in Audio MIDI setup (or FreeMIDI Setup under Mac OS 9).

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THE 828MKII SETTINGS

828mkII settings in Mac OS 9

828mkII settings in Mac OS X

Figure 9-1: The 828mkII settings.

Figur e 9-2: Under Mac OS X, choose Setup menu> Conﬁgure Audio System> Conﬁgure Hardware Driver to open the dialog shown above and access the 828mkII CoreAudio driver. To access the rest of the 828mkII settings, open the MOTU FireWire Audio Console.

AUDIODESK

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Sample rate

Choose the desired overall sample rate for the 828mkII system and AudioDesk. Newly recorded audio in AudioDesk will have this sample rate. Imported audio or soundbites in existing ﬁles that do not match this sample rate will be displayed in the Soundbites window with a red ‘X’ on its move handle to indicate that it cannot be played.

Clock Source

This setting is very important because it determines which audio clock the 828mkII will follow.

If you do not have any digital audio connections to your 828mkII (you are using the analog inputs and outputs only), and you will not be slaving AudioDesk to external SMPTE time code, choose Internal.

is patched through your 828mkII hardware and AudioDesk. For example, you might have MIDI instruments, samplers, microphones, and so on connected to the analog inputs of the 828mkII. If so, you will often be mixing their live input with audio material recorded in AudioDesk. See chapter 12, “Reducing Monitoring Latency” (page 89) for complete details.

Optical input and output

To make a 828mkII optical input or output available in AudioDesk, choose the appropriate format (ADAT optical or TOSLink) from the optical input and/or output menu. If you won’t be using the optical connectors, turn them off.

Phones

If you are slaving the 828mkII to the ADAT sync Input connector, choose ADAT 9-pin.

If you are slaving the 828mkII and AudioDesk to SMPTE time code via the 828mkII itself, choose SMPTE and follow the directions in “Syncing to SMPTE time code” on page 27.

If you have digital audio devices connected to the MOTU 828, or if you are not sure about the clock source of your setup, be sure to read “Making sync connections” on page 22 and “Clock Source” on page 42.

Buffer Size (OS X) / Samples Per Buffer (OS 9)

The Buffer Size setting (Samples Per Buffer under Mac OS 9) can be used to reduce the delay — or monitoring latency — t hat you hea r when live audio

AUDIODESK

BE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH VOICES

Go to the Setup menu (Basics menu under Mac OS

■ 12 channels for analog I/O (including the

headphone out)

■ 2 channels for RCA S/PDIF

■ Zero, 2 or 8 channels for optical, depending on

whether you have optical turned off, or set to S/PDIF or ADAT optical

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For example, if you are using analog only, you only need 12 channels. If you are using analog and RCA S/PDIF, you need 14 channels.

As another example, if you are using analog, RCA S/PDIF and ADAT optical, you need 22 channels (the maximum number of simultaneous output channels provided by the 828mkII).

WORKING WITH 828MKII INPUTS AND OUTPUTS

Once you’ve enabled the MOTU FireWire Audio driver as explained earlier in “The 828mkII settings” on page 66, 828mkII audio inputs and outputs w ill appear in AudioDesk’s audio input and output menus. If you don’t see the optical inputs and/or outputs, check the MOTU FireWire Audio Console to make sure they are turned on and set to the format you require. If you don’t plan to use the optical input or output, turn it off to conserve computer bandwidth.

Phones 1-2

If you’ve chosen to treat the 828mkII headphones as an independent output, you’ll see Phones 1-2 in AudioDesk’s output menus. Audio tracks assigned to this output pair will be heard on the headphone jack only. For further explanation, see “Phones” on page 67.

the stream being sent back to AudioDesk. For details on how to do this, see “Mix1 Return Includes Computer” on page 100.

☛ Wa rning: the Mix1 1-2 input can cause

feedback loops! DO NOT assign this input to a track that shares the same 828mkII output pair as MIX1.

24-BIT OPERATION

Yo ur 828mkII hardware fully supports Aud ioD esk’s 24-bit recording capabilities, including both analog and digital 24-bit recording. If you would like to record and play back 24-bit audio ﬁles, go to the Setup menu (Basics menu under OS 9), choose MOTU Audio System options>Conﬁgure Sample Format, and choose 24-bit recording as the sample format. This setting is saved with the AudioDesk project.

FINE-TUNING I/O TIMING

The 828mkII has the ability to be sample accurate. This means that when you transfer audio between AudioDesk and an ADAT (or other ADAT-sync compatible recorder), for example, you can record the audio back and forth as many times as you want between them and it will remain exactly at its original sample location (unless you move it in AudioDesk, of course).

Mix1 1-2

In AudioDesk’s audio input menus, you’ll see an 828mkII input called Mix1 1-2. This input source delivers the output of CueMix DSP “MIX1” (the ﬁrst mix bus of the four on-board no-latency monitor mixes in the 828mkII) back to your computer. This input serves, for example, as a convenient way for you to record the 828mkII’s MIX1 monitor mix back into AudioDesk (for reference and archiving purposes). Further, if you are sending audio from AudioDesk to the same output pair as MIX1, you can choose to either include or exclude the audio from the computer in

Occasionally, you may encounter a situation in which you observe a slight offset of one sample — or maybe a few — caused by inherent latencies in the devices you are using with the 828mkII. Usual ly, these offsets will be consistent, and you can compensate for them in AudioDesk. To do so, choose MOTU Audio System Options>Fine-tune Audio I/O Timing from the Setup menu (Basics menu under Mac OS 9) as shown in Figure 9-3.

AUDIODESK

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Figur e 9-3: Fine-tuning the timing of audio playback and recording.

SYNCHRONIZATION

AudioDesk can run under its own transport control or slave to an external sync source, such as SMPTE time code or ADAT sync (sample address).

Running AudioDesk under its own transport control

If you do not need to synchronize AudioDesk with time code or another recording device, such as a tape deck, just leave the Slave to External Sync command in the Studio menu (Basics menu under OS 9) unchecked.

However, even though AudioDesk is not slaving to external sync, you still need to be concerned with the synchronization of the 828mkII’s digital audio clock with other devices connected to it digitally (if any). For example, if you have a digital mixer connected to the 828mkII via an ADAT optical lightpipe cable, you need to make sure that their audio clocks are phase-locked. For details, see “Syncing optical devices” on page 29 and “Making sync connections” on page 22. If you don’t have any digital audio devices connected to the 828mkII, digital audio phase-lock does not apply to you.

Resolving AudioDesk and the 828mkII to SMPTE time code

If you need to slave AudioDesk and the 828mkII to SMPTE time code, you can do so with or without a dedicated synchronizer.

Resolving directly to time code (with no synchronizer)

To resolve your AudioDesk/828mkII system directly to SMPTE time code with no additional synchronization devices, use the setup shown in “Syncing to SMPTE time code” on page 54.

Choose Receive Sync from the Setup menu (Basics menu under Mac OS 9) and choose the Sample

accurate option. Then make sure that the Slave to External Sync command in the Studio menu

Resolving to video and/or time code with a dedicated synchronizer

To resolve your AudioDesk/828mkII system to video and/or SMPTE time code using an additional synchronization device, use the setup shown in “Syncing to video and/or SMPTE time code using a synchronizer” on page 60.

AUDIODESK

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☛ If you have an ADAT sync compatible device,

don’t use SMPTE time code. Instead, use sampleaccurate sync as described in the next section.

Sample-accurate sync to ADAT and Tascam

To gether, AudioDesk and the 828mkII provide you with sample-accurate transfers with ADATs, Alesis recorders and any other devices that support standard ADAT sample address (ADAT Sync).

Similarly, with the help of a MOTU Digital Timepiece, AudioDesk and a 828mkII can perform sample-accurate transfers with Tascam digital recorders.

A sample-accurate transfer is one in which the original location of the audio is preserved in the transfer, down to the sample.

For details on how to set up sample-accurate sync, see “Sample-accurate sync” on page 24. Be sure to choose the Sample Accurate Sync option in Aud ioD esk’s Receive Sync dialog, and make sure that the Slave to External Sync command is checked, too.

To c o n t rol t h e transports of everything together from AudioDesk, see the next section.

MIDI MACHINE CONTROL (MMC)

If you have ADATs a nd a MMC -compatible ADAT synchronizer like the MIDI Timepiece AV or Digital Timepiece, you can control everything from your computer screen with AudioDesk’s transport controls and cueing features (like Markers, the playback wiper, etc.)

See the MIDI Machine Control chapter in your MIDI Timepiece AV or Digital Timepiece manual for details on how to set this up.

MIDI I/O VIA THE 828MKII MIDI PORTS

Once you’ve followed the procedure for enabling the 828mkII’s MIDI features as explained in “Software installation for Mac OS X” on page 35, the 828mkII MIDI ports will appear as a input source and output destination in AudioDesk’s MIDI I/O menus. The 828mkII MIDI ports are not supported under Mac OS 9.

PROCESSING LIVE INPUTS THROUGH PLUG-INS

If you patch a live input (such as MIDI synthesizer) through a plug-in effect in AudioDesk, you might hear a slight delay. There are several ways to reduce this delay. For details, see chapter 11, “Reducing Monitoring Latency” (page 91).

USING A FOOT SWITCH

Use a foot switch connected to the 828mkII to trigger recording punch-in and punch-out, or any other feature in AudioDesk that is assigned to a computer keystroke. By default, the foot switch triggers the 3 key on the computer keypad (which toggles AudioDesk’s record button.) To trigger a different set of keystrokes with the foot switch, visit the MOTU FireWire Audio Console. (See “Enable Pedal” on page 45.)

EXCHANGING PROJECTS WITH DIGITAL PERFORMER

Aud ioD esk 1.0 can exchange ﬁles with Digital Performer (Version 2.6 or later). For example, you can transfer a ﬁle from Digital Performer to AudioDesk, and back again. Just use Save As in Digital Performer’s File menu and choose the Aud ioD esk ﬁle format. To open AudioDesk ﬁles in Digital Performer, just use the Open command. (No conversion is required beforehand in Aud ioD esk.)

AUDIODESK

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If you have an earlier version of Digital Performer (2.5 or earlier), you can open your Digital Performer ﬁles in AudioDesk (with the Open command in the File menu), but Digital Performer

2.5 or earlier cannot open AudioDesk ﬁles.

AUDIODESK AND MIDI SEQUENCING

AudioDesk can play audio as a background application, allowing you to run a sequencer at the same time in the foreground. However, there is no way to continuously synchronize — or resolve — a sequencer with AudioDesk, so the two programs will eventually drift out of sync, even if you manage to start them at the same time. If you’d like to do integrated MIDI sequencing, your best bet is Digital Performer, which offers pretty much all of the same features as AudioDesk, along with powerful, state-of-the-art MIDI sequencing. Talk to your authorized MOTU dealer for details about upgrading from AudioDesk to Digital Performer.

AUDIODESK

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AUDIODESK

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CHAPTER

10 Other Mac OS X Audio Software

OVERVIEW

The 828mkII provides multichannel audio and MIDI input and output for all Mac OS X audio applications. This chapter covers third-party audio applications. For information about running Digital Performer or AudioDesk under Mac OS X, refer to chapter 8, “Digital Performer” (page 59) or chapter 9, “AudioDesk” (page 65).

Installing the 828mkII Mac OS X drivers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Preparing MIDI input and output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Run the MOTU FireWire Audio Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Choosing the MOTU FireWire CoreAudio driver . . . . . 74

Audio Input and output names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Number of channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Processing live inputs with plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Using a foot switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

PREPARING MIDI INPUT AND OUTPUT

If you will be using the 828mkII’s MIDI input and output ports, be sure to follow the procedure in “Preparing MIDI input and output” on page 73.

RUN THE MOTU FIREWIRE AUDIO CONSOLE

Before you run your host audio software, launch the MOTU FireWire Audio Console to conﬁgure your 828mkII hardware. The MOTU FireWire Audio Console lets you conﬁgure your audio interface, and it lets you enable the desired inputs and outputs. Only enabled inputs and outputs will be available to your software, so this is an important step. For complete details see chapter 5, “MOTU FireWire Audio Console (Mac OS X)” (page 41).

INSTALLING THE 828MKII MAC OS X DRIVERS

To install the 828mkII’s Mac OS X audio and MIDI drivers, just run the installer on the MOTU FireWire Audio installer CD as detailed in chapter 4, “Installing the 828mkII Macintosh Software” (page 35).

Figur e 10-1: The MOTU FireWire Audio Console.

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For complete details about the 828mkII settings, see chapter 6, “MOTU FireWire Control Panel (Mac OS 9)” (page 47). The following sections provide a brief explanation of each 828mkII setting for use with Cubase.

Sample rate

Choose the desired overall sample rate for the 828mkII system and your host audio software. Newly recorded audio will have this sample rate.

Clock Source

This setting is very important because it determines which audio clock the 828mkII will follow.

If you do not have any digital audio connections to your 828mkII (you are using the analog inputs and outputs only), and you will not be slaving your host software to external SMPTE time code, choose Internal.

If you are slaving the 828mkII to the ADAT sync Input connector, choose ADAT 9-pin.

headphone jack serve as its own independent output pair. As a result, you’ll see Phones 1-2 as an additional audio destination in your host audio software’s audio output menus.

CHOOSING THE MOTU FIREWIRE COREAUDIO DRIVER

Once you’ve made the preparations described so far in this chapter, you’re ready to run your audio software and enable the MOTU 828mkII CoreAudio driver. Check the audio system or audio hardware conﬁguration window in your software. There will be a menu there that lets you choose among various drivers that may be in your system. Choose the MOTU 828mkII from this menu.

Cubase SX and Nuendo

Go to the Devices menu and choose Device Setup. Choose the 828mkII CoreAudio driver from the “A S IO Dr ive r” m e nu a s s hown below. Activate the inputs and outputs within Cubase or Nuendo as usual. For information about the Audio Buffer Size setting, see “Adjusting buffer settings under Mac OS X” on page 91.

Optical input and output

To make a 828mkII optical input or output available in your host software, choose the appropriate format (ADAT optical or TOSLink) from the optical input and/or output menu. If you won’t be using the optical connectors, turn them off.

Phones

Figure 10-2: Enabling the 828mkII audio driver in Cubase SX.

OTHER MAC OS X AUDIO SOFTWARE

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Logic Audio

In Logic audio, go to the Preferences window, choose Audio Driver from the menu, and expand the CoreAudio item as shown below. For information about the I/O Buffer Size setting, see “Ad ju s t i n g bu ffe r settings under Mac OS X” on page 91.

AUDIO INPUT AND OUTPUT NAMES

The 828mkII CoreAudio driver supplies text string labels for its inputs and outputs to clearly identify each one, but some applications do not display these labels. For example, in Cubase SX, the 828mkII outputs are numbered like this:

Figure 10-3: Enabling the 828mkII in Logic Audio.

Other audio software

For other audio applications, the procedure is similar to that shown above for Cubase and Logic. Consult your owner’s manual for further information.

Figur e 10-4: Some applications number the 828mkII inputs and outputs, but don’t display which outputs they refer to.

OTHER MAC OS X AUDIO SOFTWARE

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Most programs will likely address this issue in future updates. In the meantime, here is how you can identify each input and output. Inputs are always listed in the same order as follows:

Input Channels

Mic-Guitar 2 1-2 -

Analog 8 3-10 -

SPDIF 2 11-12 -

Mix1 2 13-14 See “The ‘Mix1’

ADAT 8 @ 44.1/48kHz

4 @ 88.2/96kHz

List position Comment

input pair” below.

15-22 15-18

If the optical bank is set to TOSLink or None, then no ADAT inputs are displayed.

Outputs are similarly listed in the same order as follows:

Output Channels

Main outs 2 1-2 -

Analog 8 3-10 -

SPDIF 2 11-12 -

Phones 2 13-14 If the phones are

ADAT 8 @ 44.1/48kHz

4 @ 88.2/96kHz

List position Comment

assigned to mirror another output pair (such as the main outs), they won’t be listed separately.

15-22 15-18

If the phones are mirroring, then subtract

2. If the optical bank is set to TOSLink or None, then no ADAT outputs are displayed.

As an example, Analog inputs 7-8 will always be listed as inputs 9-10. As another example, ADAT output channels 1-2 will be listed as channels 15-16, unless the phones are mirroring the main outs (or another output), in which case ADAT outputs 1-2 would be listed as channels 13-14.

The ‘Mix1’ input pair

The Mix1 input pair delivers the output of CueMix DSP “MIX1” (the ﬁrst mix bus of the four on-board no-latency monitor mixes in the 828mkII) back to your computer. This input serves, for example, as a convenient way for you to record the 828mkII’s MIX1 monitor mix back into your host audio software (for reference and archiving purposes). Further, if you are sending audio from your host audio software to the same output pair as MIX1, you can choose to either include or exclude the audio from the computer in the stream being sent back to the computer. For details on how to do this, see “Mix1 Return Includes Computer” on page 100.

☛ Wa rning: the Mix1 1-2 input can cause

feedback loops! DO NOT assign this input to a track that shares the same 828mkII output pair as MIX1.

NUMBER OF CHANNELS

If your host audio software requires that you specify the number of audio voices or channels you will be using, be sure to choose enough channels to cover the 20 inputs and 22 outputs provided by your 828mkII — although the number of channels may depend on how your 828mkII is conﬁgured:

■ 12 channels for analog I/O (including the

headphone out)

■ 2 channels for RCA S/PDIF

■ Zero, 2 or 8 channels for optical, depending on

whether you have optical turned off, or set to S/PDIF or ADAT optical

For example, if you are using analog only, you only need 12 channels. If you are using analog and RCA S/PDIF, you need 14 channels.

OTHER MAC OS X AUDIO SOFTWARE

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As another example, if you are using analog, RCA S/PDIF and ADAT optical, you need 22 channels (the maximum number of simultaneous output channels provided by the 828mkII).

PROCESSING LIVE INPUTS WITH PLUG-INS

If you patch a live input (such as MIDI synthesizer) through a plug-in effect in your host software, you might hear a slight delay. There are several ways to reduce this delay. For detai ls , see chapter 12, “Reducing Monitoring Latency” (page 89).

USING A FOOT SWITCH

Use a foot switch connected to the 828mkII to trigger recording punch-in and punch-out, or any other feature in your host audio software that is assigned to a computer keystroke. By default, the foot switch triggers the 3 key on the computer

keypad. To trigger a different set of keystrokes with the foot switch, visit the MOTU FireWire Audio Console. (See “Enable Pedal” on page 45.)

SYNCHRONIZATION

As of Version 10.2.6, Mac OS X does not allow third-party applications to take advantage of the 828mkII’s sample-accurate sync features or onboard SMPTE sync features. Refer to www.motu.com for further developments. However, if most applications that support external sync will be able to supports the 828mkII’s word clock sync capabilities. Consult chapter 3, “Installing the 828mkII Hardware” (page 17) and use the synchronization diagrams in that chapter to synchronize your software and the 828mkII to the other components of your system.

OTHER MAC OS X AUDIO SOFTWARE

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OTHER MAC OS X AUDIO SOFTWARE

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CHAPTER

11 Cubase, Nuendo and OS 9 ASIO

Software

OVERVIEW

This chapter explains how to use the 828mkII with Mac OS 9 ASIO-compatible audio software such as Cubase and Nuendo. For Mac OS X operation of Cubase, Nuendo, and all other third-party OS X audio software, see chapter 10, “Other Mac OS X Audio Software” (page 73).

The 828mkII includes an Mac OS 9 ASIO driver that provides multi-channel I/O and sampleaccurate synchronization with Steinberg’s Cubase family of digital audio sequencers, including Cubase VST and Nuendo.

ASIO support is required for 3rd party OS 9 software 79

Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Run the MOTU FireWire Audio Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Choosing the MOTU FireWire ASIO driver. . . . . . . . . . . . 81

The ASIO Control Panel button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Number of channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

ASIO Direct monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Other System dialog settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Activating 828mkII inputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Assigning inputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Assigning outputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Changing 828mkII settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Processing live inputs with plug-ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

MIDI Machine Control (MMC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Using a foot switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

24-bit operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Monitoring system performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

ASIO SUPPORT IS REQUIRED FOR 3RD PARTY OS 9 SOFTWARE

ASIO is an acronym for Audio Streaming Input and Output. The ASIO MOTU FireWire Audio driver

allows the 828mkII to provide multi-channel audio input and output for any audio application that supports ASIO drivers.

☛ For multi-channel operation with third-party

Mac OS 9 audio software, the 828mkII requires ASIO compatibility. If you r host audio program does not support ASIO, contact the developer.

Sample-accurate sync

The MOTU FireWire Audio ASIO driver supports sample-accurate sync (via the 828mkII’s ADAT sync feature) for applications that support it.

Attention: Digital Performer users

Digital Performer supports ASIO, but it also accesses the 828mkII directly through the MOTU Aud io System , so it is not necessary to use the ASIO driver with Digital Performer.

Attention: Cubase VST users

Cubase VST Version 5 is used for the examples in this chapter. However, there is no signiﬁcant difference between the Version 5 examples shown and what you see in Version 4. The basic procedures are the same.

Attention: Mac OS 9 Nuendo users

The examples in this chapter show screen shots of Nuendo for Windows, but they are very similar to the Mac OS 9 version.

Attention: Other software users

The 828mkII ASIO driver also provides multichannel I/O with any ASIO-compatible audio software. Cubase is used for the examples in this

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chapter. However, the basic procedures are the same and can be easily applied to any ASIOcompatible software. Just follow the general descriptions at the beginning of each main section in this chapter. Consult your software documentation for details about each topic, if necessary.

PREPARATION

Before you run Cubase with your 828mkII, launch AudioDesk and play back the demo project to make sure that the 828mkII hardware software drivers are set up properly. The AudioDesk demo project is located on the 828mkII Installer CD. Drag it to your hard drive before opening it in AudioDesk, as your CD drive will be too slow to play the audio.

To m ake sure that everything is ready for Cubase, install Cubase ﬁrst (if you haven’t already done so), and then see these chapters before proceeding:

RUN THE MOTU FIREWIRE AUDIO CONSOLE

Before you run Cubase, launch the MOTU FireWire Audio Console to conﬁgure your 828mkII hardware. The MOTU FireWire Audio Console lets you conﬁgure your audio interface, and it lets you enable the desired inputs and outputs. Only enabled inputs and outputs will be available to Cubase, so this is an important step. For complete details regarding the MOTU FireWire Audio Console, see chapter 6, “MOTU FireWire Control Panel (Mac OS 9)” (page 47).

■ chapter 3, “Installing the 828mkII Hardware”

(page 17).

■ chapter 4, “Installing the 828mkII Macintosh

Software” (page 35)

■ chapter 9, “AudioDesk” (page 65)

Figure 11-1: The 828mkII installer puts the MOTU FireWire ASIO driver in the Cubase ASIO Drivers folder.

Figur e 11-2: The MOTU FireWire Audio Control Panel gives you access to all of the settings in the 828mkII hardware, including the clock source, sample rate and optical I/O enable/disable.

Sample rate

Choose the desired overall sample rate for the 828mkII system and Cubase. Newly recorded audio in Cubase will have this sample rate.

CUBASE, NUENDO AND OS 9 ASIO SOFTWARE

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Clock Source

This setting is very important because it determines which audio clock the 828mkII will follow.

If you do not have any digital audio connections to your 828mkII (you are using the analog inputs and outputs only), and you will not be slaving Cubase to external SMPTE time code, choose Internal.

If you are slaving the 828mkII to the ADAT sync Input connector, choose ADAT 9-pin.

If you are slaving the 828mkII and Cubase to SMPTE time code via the 828mkII itself, choose SMPTE and follow the directions in “Syncing to SMPTE time code” on page 27.

☛ If you are using an ASIO host application

other than Cubase or Nuendo, it must support the ASIO 2.0 sample-accurate positioning protocol in order to support the 828mkII’s direct SMPTE sync (and sample-accurate sync) feature.

Optical input and output

To make a 828mkII optical input or output available in Cubase, choose the appropriate format (ADAT optical or TOSLink) from the optical input and/or output menu. If you won’t be using the optical connectors, turn them off.

Phones

CHOOSING THE MOTU FIREWIRE ASIO DRIVER

Once you’ve made the preparations described so far in this chapter, you’re ready to run your audio software and enable the MOTU FireWire ASIO driver. Check the audio system or audio hardware conﬁguration window in your software. There will be a menu there that lets you choose among various ASIO drivers that may be in your system. Choose the MOTU FireWire ASIO driver from this menu.

Samples Per Buffer

The Samples Per Buffer setting can be used to reduce the delay — or monitoring latency — that you hear when live audio is patched through your 828mkII hardware and Cubase. For example, you might have MIDI instruments, samplers, microphones, and so on connected to the analog inputs of the 828mkII. If so, you will often be mixing their live input with audio material recorded in Cubase. See chapter 12, “Reducing Monitoring Latency” (page 89) for complete details.

CUBASE, NUENDO AND OS 9 ASIO SOFTWARE

Cubase VST

To activate the 828mkII driver in Cubase VST, choose Audio Setup>System from the Options menu, and then choose MOTU FireWire from the ASIO device menu. Make the other settings in the dialog as need for your system and synchronization scenario.

Nuendo

To activate the 828mkII driver in Nuendo, go to the Device Setup window, click VST Multitrack and choose MOTU FireWire ASIO from the ASIO

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Driver menu as shown below. Make the other settings in the dialog as need for your system and synchronization scenario.

Cubase VST

Nuendo

■ Te mp or ar ily sw i tc h t o a different ASIO Device in

the System dialog, and then run the MOTU FireWire Audio Console from the Finder

In either case, any changes you make to the MOTU FireWire Audio Console window will be reﬂected in Cubase when you reactivate the MOTU FireWire ASIO driver in Cubase.

NUMBER OF CHANNELS

In Cubase, be sure to choose enough channels in the System dialog (as shown above in Figure 11-3) to cover the 20 channels of input and 22 channels of output provided by your 828mkII — although the number of channels may depend on how your 828mkII is conﬁgured:

■ 12 channels for analog I/O (including the

headphone out)

■ 2 channels for RCA S/PDIF

■ Zero, 2 or 8 channels for optical, depending on

whether you have optical turned off, or set to S/ PDIF or ADAT optical

Figure 11-3: Activating the 828mkII FireWire ASIO driver in Nuendo and Cubase.

THE ASIO CONTROL PANEL BUTTON

The Mac version of Cubase VST does not allow the MOTU FireWire Audio Console to run at the same time as Cubase. Therefore, the ASIO Control Panel button in the System dialog as shown in Figure 11-3 will not launch the MOTU FireWire Audio Console. In the meantime, you can access the MOTU FireWire Audio Console in one of two ways:

■ Quit Cubase, and then run the MOTU FireWire

Audio Console from the Finder, OR

For example, if you are using analog only, you only need 12 channels. If you are using analog and RCA S/PDIF, you need 14 channels.

As another example, if you are using analog, RCA S/PDIF and ADAT optical, you need 22 channels (the maximum number of simultaneous output channels provided by the 828mkII).

In Cubase, set the number of channels in the System dialog (as shown above in Figure 11-3).

ASIO DIRECT MONITORING

The ASIO Direct Monitoring option (Figure 11-3) allows you to monitor inputs directly in the 828mkII hardware with no drain on your computer and near zero latency. When you enable this option, Cubase uses the 828mkII’s CueMix DSP monitoring features whenever you use Cubase’s

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monitoring features. For further information, see “Controlling CueMix DSP from within Cubase or Nuendo” on page 95.

OTHER SYSTEM DIALOG SETTINGS

Consult your Cubase or Nuendo documentation for details about the rest of the settings in this dialog.

ACTIVATING 828MKII INPUTS

Once you’ve chosen the MOTU FireWire ASIO driver in the Audio System dialog as explained earlier in “Choosing the MOTU FireWire ASIO driver” on page 81, choose VST Inputs from the Panels menu (or the Devices menu in Cubase SX) to see the 828mkII inputs. To activate them, click the Active light next to each input. If you don’t see the optical inputs and/or outputs, check the MOTU FireWire Audio Console to make sure they are turned on and set to the format you require. If you don’t plan to use the optical input or output, turn it off to conserve computer bandwidth.

Figure 11-4: Activating 828mkII inputs in Cubase VST.

The “Mix1 1-2” input

In Cubase’s VST Inputs window, you’ll see an 828mkII input called Mix1 1-2. This input source delivers the output of CueMix DSP “MIX1” (the ﬁrst mix bus of the four on-board no-latency monitor mixes in the 828mkII) back to your computer. This input serves, for example, as a convenient way for you to record the 828mkII’s MIX1 monitor mix back into Cubase (for reference and archiving purposes). Further, if you are sending audio from Cubase to the same output pair as MIX1, you can choose to either include or exclude the audio from the computer in the stream being sent back to Cubase. For details on how to do this, see “Mix1 Return Includes Computer” on page 100.

☛ Wa rning: the Mix1 1-2 input can cause

feedback loops! DO NOT assign this input to a track that shares the same 828mkII output pair as MIX1.

Figure 11-5: Activating 828mkII inputs in Nuendo.

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ASSIGNING INPUTS

Once you’ve activated the 828mkII inputs as shown in the previous section, you can then assign them to Cubase or Nuendo audio channels in the channel mixers in the usual fashion.

Figure 11-6: To assign an 828mkII input to a Cubase VST audio channel: command-click the input button at the top of the channel strip. For Nuendo or Cubase, consult your documentation.

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ASSIGNING OUTPUTS

Once you’ve chosen the MOTU FireWire ASIO driver in the Audio System dialog as explained

assignments for the master fader and busses, as shown below in Figure 11-7.In Nuendo, they

appear in the VST Outputs window. earlier in “Choosing the MOTU FireWire ASIO driver” on page 81, 828mkII outputs will be available in Cubase or Nuendo as output destinations. In Cubase VST, t he se outputs app ea r in the VST Master Mixer window as output

In Cubase VST, use the output buttons at the bottom of each channel strip, including the master fader, to assign 828mkII outputs to busses. You can then assign channels in the VST Master Mixer window to each bus as desired.

The “Phones 1-2” output

If you’ve chosen to treat the 828mkII headphones

as an independent output, you’ll see Phones 1-2 as

an 828mkII output destination. Audio tracks

In Nuendo, access the 828mkII outputs via the busses in the VST Outputs window.

Figur e 11-7: Work ing with 828mkII outputs in Nuendo or Cubase.

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assigned to this output pair will be heard on the headphone jack only. For further explanation, see “Phones” on page 81.

CHANGING 828MKII SETTINGS

To change the 828mkII settings at any time, run the MOTU FireWire Audio Console. See “The ASIO Control Panel button” on page 82 for details. In Nuendo, go to the Device Setup window and click the ASIO Control Panel button, as shown in Figure 11-3 on page 82.

PROCESSING LIVE INPUTS WITH PLUG-INS

If you patch a live input (such as MIDI synthesizer) through a VST plug-in effect in Cubase, you might hear a slight delay. There are several ways to reduce this delay. For details, see chapter 12, “Reducing Monitoring Latency” (page 89).

SYNCHRONIZATION

Cubase or Nuendo can run under its own transport control or slave to SMPTE time code. It can also perform sample-accurate digital audio transfers with Alesis digital recorders and Ta scam f am ily digital recorders.

As you read through the following sections to decide what form of synchronization you might need with other devices in your studio, be sure to consult chapter 3, “Installing the 828mkII Hardware” (page 17) for the proper hardware connections. Use the synchronization diagrams in that chapter to be clear about how you will be synchronizing Cubase to the other components of your system.

Running Cubase or Nuendo under its own transport control

If you do not need to synchronize Cubase or Nuendo with time code or another recording device, such as a tape deck, just leave its SMPTE time code synchronization features disabled.

However, even though Cubase or Nuendo is not

slaving to SMPTE time code, you still need to be

concerned with the synchronization of the

828mkII’s digital audio clock with other devices

connected to it digitally (if any). For example, if

you have a digital mixer connected to an 828mkII

interface via an ADAT optical lightpipe cable, you

need to make sure that their audio clocks are

phase-locked. For details, see “Syncing optical

devices” on page 29 and “Making sync

connections” on page 22. If you don’t have any

digital audio devices connected, digital audio

phase-lock does not apply to you.

Resolving Cubase or Nuendo and the 828mkII

to SMPTE time code

If you need to slave Cubase or Nuendo and the

828mkII to SMPTE time code, you can do so with

or without a dedicated synchronizer.

Resolving directly to time code (with no

synchronizer)

To resolve your 828mkII directly to SMPTE time

code with no additional synchronization devices,

use the setup shown in “Syncing to SMPTE time

code” on page 27.

First, set up Cubase or Nuendo for sample-accurate

sync as explained in “Sample-accurate sync to

ADAT or Tascam” on page 87. Make sure the Clock

Source setting in the MOTU FireWire Audio

Console window is set to SMPTE. Also, make sure

that you’ve connected an LTC input signal the

828mkII SMPTE input.

Resolving to video and/or time code with a

dedicated synchronizer

To resolve your 828mkII to video and/or SMPTE

time code using an additional synchronization

device, use the setup shown in “Syncing to video

and/or SMPTE time code using a synchronizer” on

page 28.

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Follow the instructions in your Cubase or Nuendo manual for slaving them to MIDI Time Code (MTC). To ensure that your audio tracks don’t drift out of sync with your MIDI tracks — or time code, use a hardware synchronizer like the MIDI Timepiece AV or Digital Timepiece to resolve the 828mkII hardware as well, as explained in “Syncing to video and/or SMPTE time code using a synchronizer” on page 28. A digital audio synchronizer is required for drift-free SMPTE/ MIDI time code sync. Make sure the Clock Source setting in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console window has the appropriate setting for locking the 828mkII to the synchronizer. For example, in Figure 3-15 on page 28, word clock is being used to resolve an 828mkII interface, so the Clock Source setting is Word Clock In.

☛ If you have an ADAT sync or a Tascam sync

compatible device, don’t use SMPTE time code. Instead, use sample-accurate sync as described in the next section.

☛ Before you begin, in Cubase’s MIDI System

Setup window, set OMS compatibility to No OMS.

Cubase does not appear to be able to achieve

sample-accurate sync when running under OMS.

1 Choose ADAT 9-pin as the Audio Clock Source

setting. In Cubase VST, this setting is in the Audio

System Setup window (Audio menu). In Nuendo,

this setting is in th e De vice S etup w indow (Option s

menu).

2 Go to Cubase or Nuendo’s Synchronization

window, as shown below:

Cubase VST

Sample-accurate sync to ADAT or Tascam

Cubase and Nuendo, along with the 828mkII and its ASIO 2 driver, provide you with sampleaccurate transfers with ADATs, Alesis recorders and any other devices that support standard ADAT sample address (ADAT Sync).

Similarly, with the help of a MOTU Digital Timepiece universal A/V synchronizer, Cubase (or Nuendo) and an 828mkII can perform sampleaccurate transfers with Tascam digital recorders.

A sample-accurate transfer is one in which the original location of the audio is preserved in the transfer, down to the sample.

For details on how to connect your hardware for sample-accurate sync, see “Sample-accurate sync” on page 24. Then, set up Cubase as follows:

Nuendo

Figure 11-8: Setting up sample-accurate sync via ASIO 2.

3 If you are not using an MMC-compatible

synchronizer (such as a MOTU MIDI

Timepiece AV, Digital Timepiece or Alesis BRC),

choose the settings shown above in Figure 11-8

that applies to you. In this scenario, transport

control is handled by the ADAT (or other sample-

accurate sync source).

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4 If you are using an MMC-compatible synchronizer (such as a MOTU MIDI Timepiece AV, Digital Timepiece or Alesis BRC), set Cubase VST’s Sync Source Timecode Base to

ASIO 2.0 MMC or enable Nuendo’s MIDI Machine Control option. In addition, choose the appropriate

MIDI port for the MMC synchronizer from VST’s

Output menu or Nuendo’s MIDI machine Control MIDI Output menu. If you’re using a MIDI

Timepiece AV, you can choose any of its MIDI ports in this menu. Doing so makes Cubase or Nuendo send the MMC control messages to the MTP AV (or other MMC device). In this scenario, transport control is handled by Cubase or Nuendo itself.

5 In Cubase VST’s Controls window, enable SYNC. In Nuendo, enable (check) the Sync Online command in the Transport menu.

See “Sample-accurate sync to ADAT or Tascam” on

page 87 for details on how to set this up.

USING A FOOT SWITCH

Use a foot switch connected to the 828mkII to

trigger recording punch-in and punch-out, or any

other feature in your host audio software that is

assigned to a computer keystroke. By default, the

foot switch triggers the 3 key on the computer

keypad. To trigger a different set of keystrokes with

the foot switch, visit the MOTU FireWire Audio

Console. (See “Enable Pedal” on page 45.)

24-BIT OPERATION

Yo ur 828mkII hardware fully supports Cubase and

Nuendo’s 24-bit recording capabilities. Simply

enable 24-bit operation as instructed in your

Cubase or Nuendo manual. The 828mkII always

supplies a 24-bit data stream, and when you enable

24-bit operation in Cubase or Nuendo, it simply

uses all 24-bits supplied by the 828mkII hardware.

Figur e 11-9: Enabling the SYNC button.

6 Begin playback from the sample-accurate sync source (ADAT, DA-88, etc.) Transport control is handled by the sample-accurate sync source.

MIDI MACHINE CONTROL (MMC)

If you have ADATs (or other ADAT Synccompatible recorders) and a MMC-compatible ADAT synchronizer like the MIDI Timepiece AV and Digital Timepiece, you can control everything from your computer screen with Cubase’s transport controls and cueing features (like the playback wiper, etc.)

Similarly, if you have Tascam digital recorders and a MOTU Digital Timepiece (or other MMCcompatible Tascam synchronizer), you can control all of your Tascam tape decks (in ABS time) in a similar fashion from Cubase.

MONITORING SYSTEM PERFORMANCE

Because it has so many inputs and outputs, the

828mkII may push the limits of your computer’s

processing power. Keep the VST Performance

window open to kee p tabs on t he load on your CPU

and disk buffers. If the meters get too high, you can

reduce the load by reducing the number of inputs

and outputs you are working with. Use the MOTU

FireWire Audio Console to uncheck input check

boxes and set output source menus to None.

Cubase VST

Nuendo

Figur e 11-10: Keep the Audio Performance window open to keep tabs

on your computer’s processing power and hard disk performance.

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CHAPTER

12 Reducing Monitoring Latency

OVERVIEW

Monitoring latency is that slight delay you hear when you run an input signal through your host audio software. For example, you might hear it when you drive a live mic input signal through a reverb plug-in running in your audio sequencer.

This delay is caused by the amount of time it takes for audio to make the entire round trip through your computer, from when it ﬁrst enters an 828mkII input, passes through the 828mkII hardware into the computer, through your host audio software, and then back out to an 828mkII output.

If you don’t need to process a live input with plug-ins, the easiest way to avoid monitoring latency is to use the 828mkII’s CueMix DSP feature to patch the input directly to your monitor outs via the 828mkII audio hardware. This is just like bussing inputs to outputs in a digital mixer. For details, see “CueMix DSP hardware monitoring” on page 93.

Monitoring live input. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Adjusting the audio I/O buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Adjusting buffer settings under Mac OS X. . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Adjusting the buffer setting under Mac OS 9 . . . . . . . . . 92

Lower latency versus higher CPU overhead . . . . . . . . . . 92

Transport responsiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Effects processing and automated mixing . . . . . . . . . . . 93

CueMix DSP hardware monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Two methods for controlling CueMix DSP . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Using CueMix Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Controlling CueMix DSP from your audio software . . 94

If you do need to process a live input with plug-ins, or if you are playing virtual instruments live through your 828mkII audio hardware, you can signiﬁcantly reduce latency — and even make it completely inaudible, regardless of what host audio application software you use. This chapter explains how.

It is impor tant to note th at monitori ng delay has no effect on when audio data is recorded to disk or played back from disk. Actual recording and playback is extremely precise.

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MONITORING LIVE INPUT

There are two ways to monitor live audio input with an 828mkII: 1) through the computer or 2) via CueMix™ DSP hardware monitoring. Figure 12-1 on page 90 shows method 1, which allows you to add effects processing such as reverb and guitar amp effects via plug-ins in your audio software. See the next section, “Adjusting the audio I/O buffer” for details about how to reduce — and possibly eliminate — the audible monitoring delay that the computer introduces.

Figure 12-2 shows how to use CueMix™ DSP hardware-based monitoring, which lets you hear what you are recording with no monitoring delay and no computer-based effects processing. (You can add effects later, after you’ve recorded the live

input as a disk track.) See “CueMix DSP hardware

monitoring” later in this chapter for details on how

to use CueMix DSP with your audio software, or

with the included CueMix Console software.

If the material you are recording is suitable, there is

a third way to monitor live input: use both methods

(Figure 12-1 and Figure 12-2) at the same time. For

example, you could route vocals to both the

computer (for a bit of reverb) and mix that

processed signal on the main outs with dry vocals

from CueMix DSP.

ADJUSTING THE AUDIO I/O BUFFER

A buffer is a small amount of computer memory

used to hold data. For audio interfaces like the

828mkII, buffers are used for the process of

1. Live input (from mic, guitar, etc.) enters the MOTU interface.

3. Mic signal is ‘patc hed thru’ back to the audio interface

2. Mic signal goes immediately to the computer (dry, with no effects processing).

Mac

Figure 12-1: There are two ways to monitor live audio inputs with an 828mkII: 1) through the computer or 2) via CueMix™ DSP hardware monitoring. This diagram shows method 1 (through the computer). When using this method, use your host software’s buffer setting (or, under Mac OS 9, the 828mkII’s ‘Samples Per Buffer’ setting in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console) to reduce the slight delay you hear when monitoring the live input, but don’t lower it too much, or your computer might get sluggish.

with reverb or other plug-in effects, if any.

4. Mic signal (with plug-in processing, if any) is routed to the main outs (or other outputs that you’ve speciﬁed in the software).

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transferring audio data in and out of the computer. The size of the buffers determines how much delay you hear when monitoring live inputs through your audio software: larger buffers produce more delay; smaller buffers produce less.

Adjusting buffer settings under Mac OS X

Under Mac OS X, audio I/O buffer size is handled by the host audio application (not the 828mkII CoreAudio driver). Most audio software applications provide an adjustable audio buffer setting that lets you control the amount of delay you’ll hear when monitoring live inputs or processing them with software plug-ins. Below are a few examples.

1. Live input (from mic, guitar, etc.) enters the MOTU interface.

2. CueMix™ DSP immediately patches the live mic signal directly to the main outs (or other output), completely bypassing the computer (dry, with no effects processing).

Figur e 12-3: In Digital Pe rformer and AudioDesk, choose Setup

menu> Conﬁgure Audio System> Conﬁgure Hardware Driver to open

the dialog shown above and access the Buffer Size setting. Refer to

your Digital Performer or AudioDesk manual for information about

the Host Buffer Multiplier setting.

3. Mic signal is mixed with the main outs, and you can control the volume (relative to the rest of the mix) with the mic’s fader in CueMix Console.

Figur e 12-2: This diagram shows the signal ﬂow when using CueMix™ DSP no-latency monitoring. Notice that this method does not allow you to process the live input with plug-ins in your audio software while it is being monitored. You can, however, add effects later — after recording the live input as a disk track. CueMix™ DSP lets you hear what you are recording with no delay and no computer-based effects.

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Figur e 12-4: In Cubase SX or Nuendo, choose Devices menu> Device Setup and click VST Multitrack to access the window above and the Audio Buffer Size setting.

Figur e 12-5: In Logic Audio, go to the Audio Driver preferences to access the I/O buffer Size option shown above.

Adjusting the buffer setting under Mac OS 9

Under Mac OS 9, audio I/O buffer size adjustment is made in the MOTU FireWire Audio Console, as shown in Figure 12-6 via the Samples Per Buffer setting.

Figur e 12-6: Lowering the ‘Samples Per Buffer’ setting in the MOTU

FireWi re Audio Console Window reduces patch thru latency. But

doing so increases the processing load on your computer, so keep an

eye on the Performance Monitor window in AudioDesk (or similar

feature in your host audio software).

Lower latency versus higher CPU overhead

The buffer setting has a large impact on the

following things:

■ Patch thru latency

■ The load on your computer’s CPU

■ Possible distortion at the smallest settings

■ How responsive the transport controls are in

AudioDesk, Digital Performer or other audio

software

The buffer setting presents you with a trade-off

between the processing power of your computer

and the delay of live audio as it is being patched

through your software. If you reduce the size, you

reduce patch thru latency, but signiﬁcantly increase

the overall processing load on your computer,

leaving less CPU bandwidth for things like real-

time effects processing. On the other hand, if you

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increase the buffer size, you reduce the load on your computer, freeing up bandwidth for effects, mixing and other real-time operations.

Figur e 12-7: When adjusting the buffer size to reduce monitoring latency, watch the ‘processor’ meter in Digital Performer or AudioDesk’s Performance Monitor. If you hear distortion, or if the Perfo rmance meter is peaking, try raising the buffer size.

If you are at a point in your recording project where you are not currently working with live, patchedthru material (e.g. you’re not recording vocals), or if you have a way of externally processing inputs, choose a higher buffer size. Depending on your computer’s CPU speed, you might ﬁnd that settings in the middle work best (256 to 1024).

Transport responsiveness

Buffer size also impacts how quickly your audio software will respond when you begin playback, although not by amounts that are very noticeable. Lowering the buffer size will make your software respond faster; raising the buffer size will make it a little bit slower, but barely enough to notice.

■ First, it completely eliminates the patch thru

delay (reducing it to a small number of samples —

about the same amount as one of today’s digital

mixers).

■ Secondly, CueMix DSP imposes no strain on the

computer.

The trade-off, however, is that CueMix DSP

bypasses your host audio software. Instead, live

audio inputs are patched directly through to

outputs in the 828mkII itself and are mixed with

disk tracks playing back from your audio software.

This means that you cannot apply plug-ins, mix

automation, or other real-time effects that your

audio software provides. But for inputs that don’t

need these types of features, CueMix DSP is the

way to go.

On the other hand, if you really need to use the

mixing and processing provided by your audio

software, you should not use CueMix DSP. Instead,

reduce latency with the buffer setting (as explained

earlier in this chapter).

TWO METHODS FOR CONTROLLING

CUEMIX DSP

There are two ways to control CueMix DSP:

Effects processing and automated mixing

Reducing latency with the buffer size setting has another beneﬁt: it lets you route live inputs through the real-time effects processing and mix automation of your audio software.

CUEMIX DSP HARDWARE MONITORING

The 828mkII has a more direct method of patching audio through the system. This method is called CueMix DSP. When enabled, CueMix activates hardware patch-thru in the 828mkII itself. CueMix DSP has two important beneﬁts:

REDUCING MONITORING LATENCY

■ With CueMix Console

■ From within your host audio software (if it

supports direct hardware monitoring)

Yo u c an ev e n u se b o th methods simultaneously.

Using CueMix Console

If your host audio software does not support direct

hardware monitoring, you run CueMix Console

side-by-side with your audio software and manage

your monitor mix in CueMix Console.

CueMix Console allows you to create up to four

separate 828mkII monitor mixes, or any other

desired routing conﬁgurations. These routings are

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independent of your host audio software. For complete details, see chapter 13, “CueMix Console” (page 97).

Controlling CueMix DSP from your audio software

Some audio applications allow you to control CueMix DSP monitoring from within the application (without the need to use CueMix Console). In most cases, this support consists of patching an 828mkII input directly to an output when you record-arm a track. Exactly how this is handled depends on the application.

The following applications are among those that support direct control over CueMix DSP:

■ Digital Performer (Mac OS 9 and X)

■ AudioDesk (Mac OS 9 and X)

■ ASIO-compatible audio software (Mac OS 9)

2 Choose the Direct hardware playthrough option,

as shown below in Figure 12-8.

3 From the Studio menu (Windows menu under

OS 9), choose Audio Monitor, and enable Audio

Patch Thru (the button with the headphone icon

on it).

CueMix DSP routings that are made via host applications are made “under the hood”, which means that you won’t see th em in CueMix Console. However, CueMix DSP connections made inside your host audio software dovetail with any other mixes you’ve set up in CueMix Console. For example, if your host application routes audio to an output pair that is already being used in CueMix Console for an entirely separate mix bus, both audio streams will simply be merged to the output.

Follow the directions below in the section that applies to you.

Controlling CueMix DSP from within AudioDesk or Digital Performer

To t urn on CueMix DSP in AudioDesk and Digital Perfor mer:

1 From the Setup menu (Basics menu under OS 9), choose MOTU Audio System options>Input Monitoring Mode.

Figur e 12-8: Enabling CueMix DSP in AudioDesk or Digital Performer.

Once enabled, CueMix DSP monitoring is tied

with Digital Performer or AudioDesk’s Audio Patch

Thru feature: when you record-enable a track, the

track’s input is routed directly to its output (via

CueMix DSP in the 828mkII hardware). For

example, if you record-enable a track called guitar

in your DP or AudioDesk project, and its audio

input assignment is Analog in 2, and its audio

output assignment is optical channels 7-8, CueMix

DSP no-latency hardware monitoring will

automatically be set up from analog in 2 to optical

outputs 7-8.

☛ Note to 828 users who have upgraded to an

828mkII: notice that the Auto Cuemix Update

check box has been removed as a result of the

828mkII’s more ﬂexible and powerful CueMix DSP

features. Auto CueMix Update is no longer needed

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because you enjoy the beneﬁts of CueMix DSP patch thru, plus separate, independent mixing under CueMix Console, thanks to the much more powerful CueMix DSP engine.

Using CueMix with Sound Manager (Mac OS 9 only)

To e nabl e Cue Mix DSP for a host application that is using the MOTU FireWire Sound Manager driver:

1 Open the Sound Control Panel, click the Input tab, and check the Play sound through output device option. Alternately, you can use the CueMix Console (described in chapter 13, “CueMix Console” (page 97)) to manually patch a live input to an output.

2 To cont r ol t he overall level of the CueMix input, Use the CueMix Console.

page 82). In Cubase SX or Nuendo, enable the

Direct Monitoring check box in the Device Setup

VST Multitrack tab (Figure 12-4 on page 92).

Other ASIO 2.0-compatible host software

If your ASIO-compatible host audio software

supports ASIO’s direct monitoring feature, consult

your software documentation to learn how to

enable this feature. Once enabled, it should work

similarly as described for Cubase (as explained in

the previous section).

Controlling CueMix DSP from within Cubase or Nuendo

To t ur n on CueMix in Cubase VST, enable the ASIO Direct Monitor check box in the Monitoring section

of the Audio System Setup window (Figure 11-3 on

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REDUCING MONITORING LATENCY

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CHAPTER

13 CueMix Console

OVERVIEW

CueMix Console provides access to the ﬂexible on-board mixing features of the 828mkII. CueMix lets you route any combination of inputs to any stereo output pair. These mixes can be set up entirely independently of your host audio software. CueMix allows you to set up four completely independent mix conﬁgurations with the 828mkII. Yo u c an al so sa v e a nd load mix conﬁgurations.

CueMix Console can be used independently of host audio software, or together with it. CueMix mixing dovetails with the direct monitoring (hardware patch thru) features of your host audio software, allowing you to seemlessly mix in both environments.

Advantages of CueMix monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

CueMix Console installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Cuemix Console basic operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Working with a mix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Shortcuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Copying & pasting (duplicating) entire mixes . . . . . . . . 99

Message center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Reference level and +6dB boost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Mix1 Return Includes Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100

Show meter in dock icon (Mac OS X only) . . . . . . . . . . .100

Phones menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100

Saving and loading presets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Saving and loading presets to/from disk . . . . . . . . . . . .100

CueMix Console examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101

Message center

+6dB boost

Reference level

Input name

Input scroll bar

Input mute/solo

Input pan

Input volume

Mix tabs

Input section

Figure 13-1: CueMix Console is a virtual mixer that gives you control over the 828mkII’s on-board mixing features.

Solo indicator

Master mute (enable/disable)

Mix output

Master fader

Output level

Grow box

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ADVANTAGES OF CUEMIX MONITORING

CueMix Console provides several major advantages over monitoring live inputs through your host audio software:

■ CueMix has no buffer latency. Thanks to the

828mkII’s DSP chip, CueMix provides the same throughput performance as a digital mixer.

■ CueMix imposes absolutely no processor drain

on the computer’s CPU.

■ CueMix routing can be maintained

independently of individual software applications or projects.

■ CueMix routing can operate without the

computer, allowing the 828mkII to operate as a portable, stand-alone mixer.

CueMix Console does not provide effects processing. For information about using your audio software’s native plug-ins together with CueMix, see chapter 12, “Reducing Monitoring Latency” (page 89).

CUEMIX CONSOLE INSTALLATION

CueMix Console is installed with the rest of your 828mkII software.

CUEMIX CONSOLE BASIC OPERATION

The CueMix console is simple to operate, once you understand these basic concepts.

Four mixes

CueMix provides four separate mixes: Mix1, Mix2, Mix3 and Mix4. Each mix can have any number of inputs mixed down to any 828mkII output pair that you choose. For example, Mix1 could go to the headphones, Mix2 could go to the main outs, Mix3 could go to a piece of outboard gear connected to analog outputs 7-8, etc.

Many inputs to one output pair

It might be useful to think of each mix as some

number of inputs all mixed down to a stereo output

pair. CueMix Console lets you choose which inputs

to include in the mix, and it lets you specify the

level and pan for each input being fed into the mix.

Viewing one mix at a time

CueMix Console displays one mix at a time. To

select which mix you are viewing, click its tab at the

bottom of the window, as shown in Figure 13-1.

The mix name appears in the tab. Double-click the

name to change it.

Each mix is completely independent

Each mix has its own settings. Settings in one mix

will not affect another. For example, if an input is

used in one mix, it will still be available in other

mixes. In addition, inputs can have a different

volume, pan, mute and solo setting in each mix.

Some channel settings apply across all mixes

The settings at the top of the CueMix Console

window (above the channel section) apply to all

mixes. These settings include the +4/-10dB

reference level and the +6dB software boost.

Widening the CueMix Console window

To v iew m o re input faders at once, drag the grow

box (Figure 13-1) to the right.

WORKING WITH A MIX

Each mix has the following components:

■ A stereo output with master fader

■ Name

■ Master mute (to enable/disable the entire mix)

■ Any number of mono or stereo inputs

■ Pan, volume, mute and solo for each input

These elements are visually grouped together in the

lightly shaded area in the lower half of the CueMix

Console window.

CUEMIX CONSOLE

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Viewing a mix

To v iew a mix, click its tab at the bottom of the window, as shown in Figure 13-1. The mix name appears in the tab.

Naming a mix

Double-click the mix name in the tab.

Master mute

The master mute button (Figure 13-1) temporarily disables (silences) the mix.

Master fader

The master fader (Figure 13-1) controls the overall level of the mix (its volume on its stereo output). Use the individual input faders to the left to control individual input levels.

Output level meters

The OUT level meters show you the output for the mix’s physical output, which may include audio from your host audio software. The clip indicators clear themselves after a few seconds.

To a d ju st t he volu me or panning for a stereo input

pair, hold down the command key while dragging

the fader or knob for either the left or right input.

SHORTCUTS

Hold down the following modiﬁer keys as

shortcuts:

Shortcut Result

Shift key Applies your action to all inputs in the mix.

Command key Applies your action to the stereo input pair

Option key Applies your action to all busses

Double-click Returns the control to its default value (pan

center, unity gain, etc.)

COPYING & PASTING (DUPLICATING)

ENTIRE MIXES

To c o p y and p aste the settings from one mix to

another:

1 Select the source mix (Figure 13-1) and choose

Copy from the ﬁle menu (or press command-C).

Input section

The channel strips to the left of the master fader represent each input in your 828mkII. Use the input scroll bar to view additional inputs.

Input mute/solo

To a d d an i n put to a mix, or remove it, click its MUTE button. To solo it, use its SOLO button. To toggle these buttons for a stereo pair, hold down the command key while clicking either channel. The Solo indicator LED (Figure 13-1) lights up when any input is soloed (including inputs that may currently be scrolled off-screen).

Input volume and pan

Use the input fader and pan knob (Figure 13-1) to adjust these settings for the input in the mix. Again, all settings within the gray-shaded channel strip area belong to the mix currently being viewed. Note that an input can have different settings in different mixes.

2 Choose the destination mix and choose Paste

from the ﬁle menu (or press command-V).

MESSAGE CENTER

The Message Center displays ﬂy-over help for items

in the CueMix Console window. It also displays

messages regarding the overall operation of the

828mkII.

REFERENCE LEVEL AND +6DB BOOST

The reference level and +6dB boost settings at the

very top of the CueMix Console window

(Figure 13-1) affect each input globally, across all

mixes and for audio being routed to the computer.

For example, if you add 6dB of boost, your host

software will receive the boost for that input as well.

Boost

This setting (Figure 13-1) adds 6 dB of gain to the

input signal. This setting is applied globally for the

input.

CUEMIX CONSOLE

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+4/-10 reference level

Click the reference button to toggle between these two standard reference levels. This setting is applied globally for the input.

MIX1 RETURN INCLUDES COMPUTER

The Mix1 return includes computer item in the CueMix Console File menu refers to the Mix1 bus that the 828mkII driver provides as an input to host audio software. This input source delivers the output of CueMix DSP “MIX1” (the ﬁrst mix bus of the four on-board no-latency monitor mixes in the 828mkII) back to your computer. This input serves, for example, as a convenient way for you to record the 828mkII’s MIX1 monitor mix back into your host audio software (for reference and archiving purposes).

When the Mix1 return includes computer menu item is checked, any audio being sent from your audio software on the computer to the same output as Mix1 will be included in the Mix1 return bus. When it is uchecked, computer output is excluded.

This menu item is essentially a pre/post switch for the computer audio insert to the stream of audio going to Mix1’s 828mkII output pair (and also back to the computer).

SHOW METER IN DOCK ICON (MAC OS X ONLY)

This CueMix Console File menu item, when checked, causes the CueMix Console dock icon to display a small level meter that mirrors the main output meter for the current mix being displayed in CueMix Console.

the headphone output to mirror the output of the

current mix being viewed in CueMix Console. For

example, if you are currently viewing Mix3 (the

Mix3 tab is active), the headphones will mirror the

Mix3 output (whatever it is assigned to).

SAVING AND LOADING PRESETS

As explained earlier in “Save/Name Preset” on

page 55, the 828mkII can store up to 16 presets in

its on-board memory. A preset includes of all

CueMix DSP settings for all for mix busses, but it

excludes global settings like clock source and

sample rate.

The Load Preset and Save Preset commands in the

CueMix Console ﬁle menu let you name, save and

load presets in the 828mkII.

SAVING AND LOADING PRESETS TO/FROM

DISK

The Save and Load commands in the CueMix

Console File menu allow you to save 828mkII

presets to and from your hard drive. This allows

you to save an unlimited number of 828mkII

presets on disk. (Use the Load Preset and Save

Preset commands to get presets from — and save

them to — the 828mkII itself.) Click the Save

button to save the current conﬁguration; click the

Load button to open an existing conﬁguration that

you have previously saved on disk.

PHONES MENU

The Phones menu allows you to choose what you will hear on the headphone output, just like the Phones setting the MOTU FireWire Audio Console. However, this menu provides one extra option that is exclusive to CueMix Console: Follow Active Mix. This menu item, when checked, causes

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CUEMIX CONSOLE

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Frequently Asked Questions

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