Elektron Musical Instruments

...there is the whole problem with who is supposed to be the clock
master etc. For digital connections to work, the whole system need to
be exactly clock synchronised, or the signal need to be resampled.
Resampling is a big theory, but basicly it takes infinite time to do
it perfectly if you don't happen to lie in a 1/x relationship (like
48/96 is 1/2 = easy).

In a normal SPDIF setup the clocks are interleaved and the receiving
unit is supposed to slave. But it's got its own crystal inside, and
you would be scared if you knew how much is solved just by "dropping"
a bit or inserting a value where one didn't arrive when expected etc.

Try looking through the internet, after delving deep enough you'll see
that a good DA-AD isn't that bad of a solution in comparison what is
usually done. Yes, global clock distribution can work, but most people
find it quite messy to work it out with all the extra cables.

Basicly - digital needs full syncronisation to be good. Some problems
popping up: what about the actual internal Da that still should work,
like the hedphone outs? The internal DA would need to be slaved to the
external clock. How would that be done? As long as you're the master,
everything is fine, but not all gear can be the master.

Sorry to not going into all details, but getting to the bottom would
be more like a class, or maybe a full semester in the subject! Just
don't be fooled by quick and easy SPDIF setups, the implementation is
generally awful.

Daniel

--- In elektron-users@yahoogroups.com, "Jeff Storm" <jeff@j...> wrote:
> Why didn't elektron opt for a digital output as well? 1 adat optical
output 
> would of been great. Sorry if this has been pounded into the ground
but it 
> just makes sense to me.