I’ve searched and searched to no avail. So here’s my setup.
I’ve got two sound modules, a Roland XV-5080 and a Yamaha Motif Rack XS, both of which provide digital outputs (via spdif). The Roland uses an optical cable and the Yamaha uses a coax cable. Both of them are connected via these outputs to my Echo Audiofire 8 Interface which has both optical and coax digital inputs available. I’ve got the Audiofire set to 44.1 / 24 bit. The Audiofire sees the digital output of either module (on Digital In1 and Digital In2) and I can listen to the modules (one at a time) via headphones connected to the interface. All is good up to this point and it sounds great!
I want to record this digital stereo signal via Cubase 64-bit to a single stereo Audio track. I’ve got the project set to 44.1 / 24 bit. Inside VST Connections all of the Audiofire’s 8 analog and 8 digital inputs show up. I’ve created a single Stereo input bus and assigned left and right channels to the Audiofire Digital In 1 and Digital In 2. I created a single stereo audio track and assigned it to this single Stereo In.
Unfortunately I get nothing. There’s no audio movement on the track’s level indicator nor in the mixer for this Stereo In. Obviously hitting record records nothing. Cubase doesn’t seem to see the digital audio stream for some reason.
I checked the manual and there doesn’t seem to be any indication that digital audio requires additional setup steps, beyond getting the VST connections right, but maybe I missed something somewhere.
Anyway - I’m sorta out of ideas.
Any thoughts on how I can get Cubase seeing this digital audio?
I’m surprised you can get them both on the Echo mixer. I was almost positive that Echo’s product line/control panel was either/OR. Mine(Gina 3G), has “digital mode”…coax SPDIF, optical SPDIF, ADAT…allowing you to pick one.
I was almost positive when I looked at the AF series, it was going to be the same. But, admittedly, I was needing it to be simultaneous ADAT and SPDIF, rather than two varieties of SPDIF at once.
There is nothing to configure differently in cubase for digital inputs. They’re all I use. I mean, you have to creat cubase inputs and assign the physical in the vst connections window like you wild with any…and keep in mind, that does get saved with the project, so once it’s set up like you need, save it as a preset so that when you call up an old project, you can quickly set it to current state.
No…I can only use either the coax or the optical at any one time. I have to make the switch in the Audiofire mixer panel. No big deal because I only record from one at a time.
My issue is that even with the VST connections correctly configured to use the digital in 1 & 2 from the audiofire I get no response from Cubase.
Ok…I verified that both the Yamaha and XV-5080 were outputting at 24 bit. The Audiofire is also outputting at 24 bit.
I made sure that the Audiofire was set to look for the clock on SPDIF.
Within Cubase I verified my VST Connections again as being set to Digital In 1 and 2 for left and right channels. Still nothing.
However, I went into project settings again and switched the project from 48 to 44.1 just to see what would happen. Still nothing. I switched it back to 48 kHz heard a little click and the level monitor on the track jumped a little. Still no sound. Clicked the monitor button on the track and bingo…nice digital sound. So now I’m getting sound.
This was for the XV-5080. So I went into the Audiofire mixer panel. Switched to the coax digital to see if I could now get sound from the Yamaha Motif.
Went back to Cubase…no sound. Switched from 48 to 44.1 then back again…bingo…sound.
So it appears that everytime there is a change in the digital input coming from the Audiofire you’ve got to somehow reset the project sync to 48 kHz by moving away from it, then back again. Until I do that I don’t get sound.
Unfortunately - if you’ve got more than one digital input, recording from one then another, the need to reset risks messing up the timing of the audio you’ve already recorded.
Is there a way to reset the audio system without changing from 48 to 44.1 then back in the the project setup dialog?
Any ideas are appreciated.
BTW…thanks Split…you got me thinking differently about this and that’s what let to me actually getting digital sound.
Lucky you…if I switch my Echo from ADAT to SPDIF, I have to restart Cubase to pick up the new mode. What sample rate are the Modules? Youre effectively switching clock sources on the fly…setting the echo to SPDIF in as clock source…and then changing to a different unit/clock. Doesn’t surprise me that Cubase gets wonky. you’re switching it’s clock on it…mid project?
Why not just hook one up analog? It’s the only way you ever heard the sounds before…right? Certainly the way the sound designers heard them…do a test on which sounds better analog…