Mackie D8B Setup Guide - Page 4

SET IT UP, AND GO! A VISUAL GUIDE DIGITAL PRO AUDIO PLUGS AND CONNECTORS KNOW YOUR PLUGS Welcome to the wonderful world of digital connectors. Sheesh! It was so much easier when there were only a couple of kinds of analog plugs. And what's worse, two of the digital connectors (AES/EBU & S/PDIF) look like an analog jacks but emphatically aren't. Plus one of them looks like an analog connector (SMPTE) and is basically the same as the corresponding analog plug. Go figure. Even if you're a whiz at soldering, we don't recommend trying to cobble up any of the digital plug and connectors shown on this page. These cables transmit far higher frequencies than analog audio and require arcane shielding and pin polarities. If you're making digital connections to our HDR24/96, or Digital 8•Bus, we recommend biting the bullet and buying pre-made versions from your friendly Mackie dealer. Purchasing good quality cables now can prevent a lot of troubleshooting down the line. MIDI (Plug) MIDI (Jack) Used for sending or receiving MIDI Time Code (MTC) or MIDI Machine Control (MMC) between all MDS products. Typical use of this jack would be an MDR24/96 receiving MMC messages coming from the D8B, so that you can use the on-board PLAY, STOP, REW, and FF buttons as a transport. MIDI "Breakout" Connector Instead of two separate MIDI ports, Mackie uses a single 9-pin MIDI connector that carries both MIDI In and MIDI Out signals simultaneously. We conveniently include one of our adaptors with every digital recorder and mixer we sell. AES/EBU (XLR-style) For professional, balanced stereo digital I/O to/from the Digital 8•Bus' Digital I/O section. Resist the temptation to use a standard audio-grade XLR cable. AES/EBU digital audio data is transmitted a far higher frequencies and requires a special cable. Use the AES/EBU output to connect to any number of stereo mastering devices or DVD/CD/DAT recorders. ADAT™ Optical Connector Used for 8-channel digital connections via optical cable to and from our DIO•8 and OPT•8 I/O cards. RJ45 Connector Used for connecting the HDR24/96 or Digital 8•Bus to Ethernet networks or computers. The Remote cable, (used to connect HDR24/96 recorders to the Remote 24 and Remote 48) also uses a RJ45 connector. S/PDIF (RCA-type connector) For unbalanced stereo digital I/O to/from the Digital 8•Bus' Digital I/O. Resist the temptation to use a standard audio-grade RCA cable. S/PDIF digital data is transmitted at far higher frequencies and requires a special cable. Use the S/PDIF jack to connect the Digital 8•Bus to any number of stereo digital recorders, CD burners, or PCI sound cards. Word Clock (BNC connector) Used to sync the sampling clocks of all Mackie's digital products, including the HDR24/96 and Digital 8•Bus. This connector must be used in order to get digital audio from one piece of gear to another. All of our digital recorders and consoles can act as a master clock source, or as a slave to a common word clock source. SMPTE (1/4¨ TRS) Standing for Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), this is used to either send out or receive longitudinal time code (LTC) as a positional reference of your playback. This is the only - repeat only - digital connector/cable that's basically the same as its analog counterpart. However, we still recommend that you buy an extremely high quality, pre-made version for sync connections, even if you're an old hand at wiring analog audio TRS's.