ADAT crackles from Scope PCI to XITE on dual Scope DAW

[t_tangent]

I have finally recently managed to update my Scope DAW after I figured my best option to get around the lack of physical space in the studio room was to have the Scope PCI cards and XITE running from the same PC. So far it seems to be working well although there are a couple of things that need sorting out, but no crashes or blue screens so far.

But the reason I am posting is that I have been experiencing crackling on the ADAT port A from Scope PCI to XITE. I have read through some of the related threads on the forum and tried cleaning the ADAT connections with compressed air. Also used a seperate set of ADAT cables but that didnt help, and I even swapped the Scope Pro Plus Plate card (which has the ADAT ports used for connecting to XITE) for another Scope Pro Plus Plate card from another system, but exactly the same thing happens, crackling on ADAT port A from Scope PCI to XITE. ADAT Port B doesnt have a problem and works crackle free. I have Scope PCI version 5.1 set to Master, samplerate is set at 48K via ADAT to Scope XITE v5.1 which is set as Slave. I need to keep Scope PCI as Master because I also sync via the other digital connections on that to various equipment, whereas the XITE doesnt have quite enough connections for the other gear.

Anyway after trying all sorts of things I finally decided to try setting Scope PCI as Slave and change Scope XITE to Master and then change them back again, and when I do that the crackling disappears for as long as I have the session going. If I reboot the PC or even restart Scope then I have to change the sync settings back and forth again in order to get rid of the crackling on ADAT A Scope PCI to Scope XITE.

I just wanted to mention this in case it's a known issue or some kind of bug, as it sounds unlikely to be a hardware fault or bad cable if it happened on 2 seperate Scope cards and using different cables..unless the problem is on the XITE-1, but since changing the sync setting from Master to Slave and back again fixes the crackling, it seems to me to be some kind of strange Scope software issue, as if a driver or system file is hogging a process but changing the sync setting refreshes it.

If anyone else has had similar crackling issues then this workaround might be of use. But if anyone knows a proper fix for this please let me know, or if not maybe GaryB can add it to the list of potential bugs.

Thanks for reading

[djmicron]

have you already applied the wordclock xite fix?

ftp://ftp.sonic-core.net/software/scope5

[garyb]

that's not really a wordclock "fix", it just allows you to choose between wordclock master and slave on the XITE. this is not related to ADAT.

there's no endemic ADAT issue that i know of.

[djmicron]

i'm using it, because i encountered something similar when for the first time, i connected the xite to scope pci over adat, then i applied that fix and the problem disappeared.
If it's not needed, ok, i've been influenced

[t_tangent]

have you already applied the wordclock xite fix?

ftp://ftp.sonic-core.net/software/scope5

Thanks for the quick reply. I had actually forgotten all about that file.

However I just tried installing it overwriting PulsarConfig.pep for use as XITE slave
and it worked the first time I tried it without having to do the master slave swap back and forth, so I thought at first that it had sorted it.

But sadly the second time I just tried it the same thing happened as before and crackling on the ADAT A port (by the way forgot to mention earlier it seems to only be on the right channel or channel 2 4 6 or 8.

The weird thing though is that earlier Scope XITE was running as Master without any crackling, and the problem seems to be when running it as Slave. which is what they say the original PulsarConfig.pep file is set for anyway. I guess I will have to look into this some more and will try both those PulsarConfig.pep files.

Thanks for the help though and I will report back when I try some more things


Edit: Just saw garyb had posted saying this was not really a fix for this problem. Oh well, I will have to try some more things and see why it only seems to work when I swap Scope PCI from Master to slave and back again.

Interestingly, from what I can see so far this has to be done in a certain sequence as well or it doesnt work. What does seem to work is as follows

1. Open Scope PCI v5.1
2. Open Scope XITE v5.1
3. Make neccessary ADAT connections from Scope PCI to Scope XITE and vice versa
4. Change Scope PCI SampleRate Settings from Master to Slave
5. Change Scope XITE SampleRate Settings from Slave to Master (Once this is done, the crackles disappear anyway, but I need Scope PCI as Master)
6. (IMPORTANT) Change Scope XITE back to Slave and then
7. Finally Change Scope PCI back to Master again.

Also I have to have Sync Source set to ADAT Port B as well on both PCI and XITE or the crackles dont stop.

=================================


Edit 2

Just noticed my workaround doesnt work all the time. Maybe just easier to set Scope XITE to Master when I have both that and Scope PCI running. Will try that and report back tomorrow.

djmicron and garyb, thanks for the help though so far

[djmicron]

have you tried using just one adat port at the same time, to see where the problem starts?

[t_tangent]

Well sort of yes. It does look like it could be Adat in port A on the XITE. I will have a closer look tomorrow and try again with the compressed air just in case there is some dust or something actually in the Adat connection on the XITE. Will also try connecting those ports to some other gear to see if it has similar issue. Thanks for the idea. I thought I had cleaed those but maybe not enough, so will try again. Cheers and I appreciate the help

[garyb]

dust can get stick behind the little doors on the toslink connectors...

[dante]

Compressed air cleaning fixed this issue for me (dual XITE / PCI daw).

I had to do it twice I think plus the cable ends.

http://forums.planetz.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=31066

...and cap any unused ports on the PCI

[hubird]

...and cap any unused ports on the PCI

right

[t_tangent]

Sorry for delayed response to the suggestions but thanks chaps, I will try using the compressed air again for a bit longer to make sure all dust is gone. Maybe didn't do it enough first go. Will let you know if that sorts it.

[dante]

Here's what I need to do from time to time (mainly after bootup) :

1. Change sample rate on Master (XITE) from 48 to 44
2. Wait
3. Answer 'Allow different sample rates' to popup from Cubase
4. Wait.
5. Change sample rate on Master (XITE) from 44 to 48
6. Wait

voila...no more crackles !!!

reset-adat-sample-rate

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