Subject: RE: [linux-audio-user] Syncing 2 soundcards. [Was: Re: linux-audio-user digest, Vol 1 #564]
From: Mark Knecht (mknecht_AT_controlnet.com)
Date: Tue Jul 15 2003 - 01:31:59 EEST
>
> I vaguely remember, and I am talking years ago, a doc that explained
> how to drive two soundcards with the same crystal (from one of the cards)
> that involved only minor soldering.. A quick google did not work.. Anybody
> remember?
>
> Maarten
>
Marteen,
Hi. I'm sure you could even remove the crystals completely and drive
multiple sound cards with a signal generator. We do that with some of our
cards now and again, but only for testing. It does work. However, beyond the
base frequency issues in the crystal, you also need to watch out for jitter
to. I would get worried that wires running all over the place would not give
good signal integrity at the end of their runs which would cause distortions
of other types.
Far more simple, should Peter have the interest, would be linking
multiple cards via ADAT. (or even spdif) For instance, a single HDSP 9652
has 3 ADAT outputs. One of outputs can go to the ADAT input of a second
card. If the second card is set to use that ADAT input as a clock source,
then it will sync to the first with no problems. I do this today between 3
computers - A Linux box with an HDSP 9652, A Pro Tools box with it's own
ADAT interface, and a Windows ME box with a Hammerfall 9632. All three boxes
are synced via ADAT. It works great once you get everything set up. (Others
have suggested that ADAT is not good enough to do this. I find it works
quite well with RME cards as slaves as they have very good input PLL's.)
Anyway, I'm sure there are others out there doing similar stuff to what I'm
doing, and maybe a few that are soldering cards together also! ;-)
Cheers,
Mark
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