internal SPDIF cable

Velkov · Apr 16, 2004, 08:08 PM

Hi there,

What makes a cable suitable to connect between one card's SPDIF out and another cards SPDIF in?

Can I hook up any two wires? Does the ground wire have to be a shield to the signal wire?

Thanks.

**dj_stick** · Apr 16, 2004, 08:30 PM

no, if you have a look at the cd audio cables, the cd spdif cabel taht often comes with a Live! is the same, but it has 2 wires instead of 3 or 4, but shielding is always a good precaution

Velkov · Apr 16, 2004, 08:36 PM

So if I take a normal CD audio cable, cut the connectors so that there is only ground and left (or right), that will be an adequate shielded SPDIF cable. (the right channel wire will still be in there, but I won'te be connecting it anywhere)

**dj_stick** · Apr 16, 2004, 08:38 PM

that should work, or if it is possible, don't cut it and if the right audio wire can connect to a ground pin so the cable can still be used for its original application later on

Velkov · Apr 16, 2004, 10:05 PM

You worry too much about the future

I have 5 of these cables, it will make me happy to modify them...

**dj_stick** · Apr 16, 2004, 10:07 PM

i'm speaking from an economical point, but if you can connect the spare wire(s) to ground you will get extra shielding

Velkov · Apr 17, 2004, 07:55 AM

Does anybody have a mapping of which pins in the AUD_EXT connector correspond to which ins/outs in the prologue/epilogue?

**dj_stick** · Apr 17, 2004, 08:03 AM

hwinfo.hlp on the creative cd and in the kx helpfile ,under appendix a:technical reference -> hardware reference

**dj_stick** · Apr 17, 2004, 08:04 AM

other documents in the appendix there sohuld help clarify what you want aswell… been a while since i read them

Velkov · Apr 17, 2004, 08:49 AM

Ok, I'm pretty stuck. Basically I can't get any signal from the one card to the other, no matter what combination of inputs/outputs I try. Right now I have the AC97 line-in connected straight to the SPDIF out. And the SPDIF out of that card runs through a cable into the digital CD-in of the other card. There is no signal on any of the digital inputs of the second card though. Any hints?

**dj_stick** · Apr 17, 2004, 08:58 AM

ok firstly in the I/O page make sure all sliders are maxed, no matter what they are for both cards, and then see how things work

Velkov · Apr 17, 2004, 09:06 AM

No luck. I turned everything up and unmuted everything. The Peak meter on the AC97 of the first card is showing activity, the one on the CD SPDIF input on the second card isn't.

**dj_stick** · Apr 17, 2004, 09:17 AM

sorry i can't be of much help… i only have a single card system but there are others on this forum that have done to double-card thing, one thing you should check is that the cable is plugged in the right way round… something as simple as that may cause a lot of problems

Velkov · Apr 17, 2004, 09:23 AM

Oh, you've been very helpful. I'm learning. It's good. Thanks.

**dj_stick** · Apr 17, 2004, 09:44 AM

try www.electricstart.de there may be some info there you could use to help you

Doug W · Apr 17, 2004, 08:49 PM

Stick with it, you will have it working soon.

I'm using 2 cards right now, both CT4830s.

The SPDIF cable is connected at the CT4830 Send Card,
to Pins 17 (white conductor-SPDIF out), Pin 18 (black conductor-Gnd).

The SPDIF cable terminates in the CD-SPDIF connector
of the CT4830 Host card (black cable to the left).

There are 2 important things that you should check to get your cards working together:

1. Check to see that your SPDIF setup is recognized by the system. Do the following:

Right Click on KX Mixer

Settings->SPDIF/I2S Status...

The HOST Card (CT4830) shows the following:

SPDIF Inputs: [R-Rate Locked; S-Stream Locked; V-Valid Audio]
spdif A: 2109204 Freq: 47997; [R] [S]
spdif B: unused
spdif C: unused or same as B
SPDIF Outputs:
(0): 2109204 (1): 2109204 (2): 2109204 (24 bits / 48000 Hz)

The SEND Card (CT4830) shows the following:

SPDIF Inputs: [R-Rate Locked; S-Stream Locked; V-Valid Audio]
spdif A: unused
spdif B: unused
spdif C: unused or same as B
SPDIF Outputs:
(0): 2109204 (1): 2109204 (2): 2109204 (24 bits / 48000 Hz)

2. Make sure that your HOST card (the one with the CD SPDIF coming into it), is selected in the ASIO control panel.

Right Click on KX Mixer

Settings->ASIO Control panel

Select the HOST card in this window.

Hope it helps

Velkov · Apr 18, 2004, 09:13 AM

Alright, so my SPDIF settings page shows what you said it should show. Would I hear the sound I'm feeding into my send card's line-in. How come the peak meter on the host card's CD SPDIF IN is not showing anything? Anything there is still one piece of the puzzle that's I'm missing.

**dj_stick** · Apr 18, 2004, 09:20 AM

use a multimeter to check the cable, it may be damaged somewhere…

TravelRec. · Apr 18, 2004, 10:55 AM

Hi!

Maybe your cable is wrong connected (be careful - could burn your card). Pin 1 of AUD_EXT is the left upper one. Pin2 is right of it, Pin 3 is under 1 and so on. CDSPDIF input has a hot and a ground pin - think the right one is the hot - but not sure - try it out. Finally - if activated - a SPDIF icon should appear for few seconds after driver is initialized after boot-up. Note: take shielded cables as short as possible, otherwise they could receive digital noise.

Good luck!

TravelRec.

Velkov · Apr 18, 2004, 01:53 PM

So does the fact that I got a small SPDIF icon in the corner for a few seconds mean that physically, the connection is working? Is my only problem in the routing then?

**dj_stick** · Apr 18, 2004, 08:12 PM

yes if that icon shows then you are getting signal

Doug W · Apr 18, 2004, 09:59 PM

Velkov,

I currently use the default KX DSP for recording with 2 cards, here are my mixer settings:

HOST Card
Master Mixer Settings
---------------------
Master Volume=100
The Rest-inf

HOST Card
Ins 'n' Outs Mixer
---------------------
Analog Front=0
Generic SPDIF out=0
AC97 In=100
CD Digital in=-1
The rest=inf

HOST Card
Recording Mixer
---------------------
Master Recording Level=100
AC7 Rec Lev=100
CD Digital Rec Lev=100
The Rest=inf

HOST Card
AC7 Mixer
---------------------
AC7 Source Box=Line In
3DSE=off
Analog Recording Gain=9
CD Analog In=3
Line In=12
The Rest=inf

///////////

SEND Card
Master Mixer Settings
---------------------
Master Volume=100
Wave PCM=inf
MIDI Synth=inf

SEND Card
Ins 'n' Outs Mixer
---------------------
Analog Front=0
Generic SPDIF out=12
AC97 In=100
The rest=inf

SEND Card
Recording Mixer
---------------------
Master Recording Level=100
The Rest=inf

SEND Card
AC7 Mixer
---------------------
AC7 Source Box=Line In
Analog Recording Gain=0
The Rest=inf

There are probably some bogus settings in there that I don't need, but the thing is working for me right now so I don't mess with it.

We normally run 2 signals into a Behringer mixer. One is panned hard left, the other hard right. This signal is cabled into the HOST card LINE IN.

We use an old 4 track cassette recorder as a second mixer. We also run 2 signals into it panned left and right and run that signal into the LINE IN of the SEND card.

The recording program I use is N-Track. I select ASIO in that program as the only drivers to display and set the sample rate to 48k and then we get 4 individual mono tracks recorded each time.

Doug

Velkov · Apr 19, 2004, 10:40 PM

Is the peak meter on the HOST card's CD SPDIF input supposed to show me anything? Maybe I am getting signal, I haven't event tried recording yet... The only thing that makes me believe that I might get it to work at this point is the SPDIF icon I get when I boot up...

**dj_stick** · Apr 19, 2004, 10:51 PM

the peak meter will show if it is playing through the front speaker output

Velkov · Apr 20, 2004, 06:59 AM

WEEEHOOOOO!!

Thanks a lot to everybody that gave ideas. I can now get 4 channels of ASIO! In some programs it took a while to find which pairs of ASIO channels correspond to which ones in the epilogue but that's just fine.

Thanks people!

**dj_stick** · Apr 20, 2004, 10:10 PM

glad to help, if you have any other issues we should be able to help solve them