ADAT Optical 8 CH Out - 8 CH In... ends up 'stereo' In..?

[Steve Fogal]

New thread for simplification on just this....

Ok, scenario again... 2 computers (master/slave), each with an Aardvark Aark 24 card. The Aark 24 cards each have an ADAT Optical/lightpipe In/Out. Optical Out from slave, Optical In to master.

Though when I use the slave Aark 24's 'test tone' within it's control panel/mixer for each of the 8 channels out, and I can see within the master Aark 24's control panel/mixer, each of the corresponding 8 channels mixers light up individually . So the optical cable I have must be working ok, and the slaves Aark 24 must be sending out 8 digital channels, and the master must be recieving 8 channels...or is capable with the test tones anyway.

Issue; when I'm playing/testing up to 4 VSTi's within the slave computer, I only see a stereo out within the slave Aark 24 panel. At which, within the master Aark 24's panel, all 8 recieving channels light up, but all 8 channels have all instruments in them. I'm trying to have a stereo pair out for each VSTi send. Spent around 2 hrs fiddling so far with no luck separating. Though the test tones work as individual ins/outs, the VSTi's get sent out of the slave Aark 24's control panel from it's master stereo mixer out only. Having trouble getting each VSTi assigned to it's own stereo pair, using channels 1 thru 8 within the Aark 24's control panel/mixer.

[thinkingcap]

New thread for simplification on just this....

Ok, scenario again... 2 computers (master/slave), each with an Aardvark Aark 24 card. The Aark 24 cards each have an ADAT Optical/lightpipe In/Out. Optical Out from slave, Optical In to master.

Though when I use the slave Aark 24's 'test tone' within it's control panel/mixer for each of the 8 channels out, and I can see within the master Aark 24's control panel/mixer, each of the corresponding 8 channels mixers light up individually . So the optical cable I have must be working ok, and the slaves Aark 24 must be sending out 8 digital channels, and the master must be recieving 8 channels...or is capable with the test tones anyway.

Issue; when I'm playing/testing up to 4 VSTi's within the slave computer, I only see a stereo out within the slave Aark 24 panel. At which, within the master Aark 24's panel, all 8 recieving channels light up, but all 8 channels have all instruments in them. I'm trying to have a stereo pair out for each VSTi send. Spent around 2 hrs fiddling so far with no luck separating. Though the test tones work as individual ins/outs, the VSTi's get sent out of the slave Aark 24's control panel from it's master stereo mixer out only. Having trouble getting each VSTi assigned to it's own stereo pair, using channels 1 thru 8 within the Aark 24's control panel/mixer.

Neverending story...
On the slave Cubase VST connections, create 4 stereo outputs, connect them to 4 Stereo ADAT pairs. Send esch VSTi to the desired output. In your slave card´s mixer make sure every playback output foes to the corresponding Hardware ADAT cgannel(s). Just as simple as with discrete analogue outputs.

[Steve Fogal]

Never ending...yeah I had it working fine with just the s/pdif out of the slave, then I had to f'muck it all up with my decision to try and use adat optical :doh:

PS, I lied when I said I spent 2 hours, more like 4 messing around. I knew I had to be close, being my Aark 24's test tones were confirming sending & recieving all 8 channels as individual mono I/O's.

This is way beyond any routing I've done and got to a point where I barely knew my own name after jugling back & forth between 2 computers, 3 video monitors, 4 Aardvark cards & their control panels etc, etc.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction ... though while I was reading, I was somewhat confused, it actually makes sence. I was at a total loss by midnight when I shut er' all down I'lk try all that!

[Steve Fogal]

Sunday evening, Jan 20th ...this has been my 1st chance to check & put the above to the test...

Got it! Well, just the above anyway. I had pretty much done what you described, except one crucial step ... the step in my path where I didn't send the VSTi to the correct output to the slaves Aark 24 control panel.
Now when I plug my headphones into Aark 24 card in the master corresponding inputs (with a stereo 'Y' splitter as before on the face of the card to split it's L/R's into the phones) ..on each pair the headphones are plugged into, 1&2, 3&4, 5&6, 7&8, I can now hear each of the 4 VST's from this master Aark 24 with those corresponding stereo 1-8 pairs.

NOW, what I've been trying to figure out, is how I'm going to be able to monitor what's coming into the master machines Aark 24 ADAT inputs, from the masters Q10 card, where I always monitor from with either headphones, or my nearfield monitors.
Again, each computer has 2 Aardvark cards installed...each have a Q10 & an Aark 24 card in them. When I was using the s/pdif I somehow had it routed that I could monitor everything from my master machine's Q10. This has gotten complicated & convoluted fast

Thing is, I'm not even 'sure' I really need 8 discrete channels back from my slave VSTi machine...somehow I thought I may, so I went ahead on this. With the s/pdif back from slave's VSTi's into master, I saw it as a stereo sub-mix that I could control all VSTi's perameters, including their volume levels anyway. But I guess I was thinking that, from the slave's 4 stereo adat pairs out, I could record their audio all 4 at once into the master's audio tracks. Honestly I can't keep in straight...or maybe it's just because I've not done a real song project and I've yet to learn how I need it to work...but I have to know the basics 1st. I've learned a LOT ...also, in just THIS thread alone!

Ok..now severak more hours of figuring how to monitor my masters Aark 24 (4) discrete stereo pairs from it's Q10!