Question

Hi everybody,

It’s the first time I try to use adat connection, recently I got a used motu 8pre FireWire, I connected it to my audiobox 1818, but it’s not working. Are there other steps I have to take to set it up? I tried looking around the „setup song“ on studio one but I didn’t see any „adat“ mentioned

Usually, do I have to plug the motu to my computer and install the driver to make it work on stand-alone as a slave adat?

Might it not work because on the specs it’s specified that it uses a lightpipe optic connection and there’s no compatibility with Toslink?

Any help will be much appreciated

Answer 1

The AudioBox 1818VSL does not work stand alone. It must be connected to a computer to be used.

You'll need to use either the AudioBox 1818VSL or your MOTU 8Pre as your primary audio interface on your computer. The drivers do not work with each other. If you need an additional 8 channels of audio you'll need to acquire a stand alone preamp with an ADAT Output such as the DigiMax D8 or Digimax DP-88 or third party preamp of your choosing.

On the other hand if you are connecting the AudioBox 1818VSL on one computer to the MOTU 8Pre on another computer. Then this will work provided you have the connections setup correctly.

You'll need to decide which one is clock master. Digital Sync only works when one is set to the master and the other is set to Slave.

Connect 2 Optical Cables

1818VSL ADAT Out --> MOTU 8Pre ADAT In

MOTU 8Pre ADAT Out --> 1818VSL ADAT In

If the computer with the 1818VSL is sending audio to the system with the MOTU 8Pre ADAT In, then you'll need to open Universal Control and select the 1818VSL and make sure Clock Source is set to Internal and on the control panel for your second system and set the Sync Clock Input to External ADAT Clock (read the MOTU manual on how to do this). Make sure the sample rate is set to the same rate on both systems.

If the computer with the MOTU 8Pre is the sending audio to the system with the AudioBox 1818VSL then you'll need to set the MOTU 8Pre to Clock Source Internal and on the 2nd machine with the 1818VSL, open Universal Control, select the 1818VSL and set Clock Source to ADAT Input. Make sure sample rate is set to the same on both systems.  

Recommend using this only for 44.1K or 48K sample rates only, if you try to use 88.2K or 96K your'll lose half your ADAT Channels as SMUX only supports 4 channels at these higher sample rates.

This is not an easy setup, you'll need to play with it to figure it out. Take your time and double check your cables and your clock settings which is where most people get lost figuring these setups out.