S/PDIF input to iPhone/iPad

AlmostAnonymous

@audiblevideo said:

@AlmostAnonymous said:

@Solar_Wave said:
I guess if that does work then ADAT might also be worth trying.

I use usb ministreamers from minidsp on the adats of my 828. They've been a little tough to get due to chip shortages. You can also buy any old, used class compliant interface, throw it on the iPad and connect the adats of the 828 and whatever. That will give you 8 channels instead of 2.

@AlmostAnonymous so the signal chain would be (without an 828) with a MOTU M2? Not applicable?
You would have to have an interface with ADAT/SPDIF?

Correct. The m2 doesn't have optical or spdif.

Telefunky

@Solar_Wave said:
Thanks for the replies and sorry, I should have been clearer.

I have a Motu 828mk2 I am using with the Mac.
I was hoping that someone who has used an Ultralite Mk4 with an iPad might be able to let me know if the audio can go both ways through S/PDIF with synch through the audio settings on an iPad. It’s not clear in the manual and I haven’t had a reply from MOTU yet. Also the UL Mk4 doesn’t have word clock, unlike the 828mk2 so the synch would have to be through the S/PDIF signal.

I guess if that does work then ADAT might also be worth trying.

Just use Adat, it‘s supposed to work in both directions by definition.
Which S/PDIF isn‘t. It‘s designed as a single sender/receiver format, not for roundtrips.
(simple S/PDIF can easily deliver worse results than good analog connections)

You don‘t need wordclock, the (same) clock signal is already embedded in the Adat data.
Today wordclock is required only to sync multiple units (>2) in complex setups.
Thanks @espiegel123 for clearing up my blind spot.

Solar_Wave

I hadn’t seen those Ministreamers before they look like great tech but according to the manual they only operate as clock master. While that would be fine for just connecting iPad to 828/MacBook, it’s not quite so simple with my other setup.

To explain further:

My mobile setup when at girlfriend’s is quite simple but at home it’s an old Pro Tools TDM system on OS 9 with a Universal Slave Driver synching two 882/20s an ADAT bridge and the 828 and feeding clock to a Yamaha O1v(with ADAT card) via the ADAT bridge. The MacBook with 828 runs Logic for soft synths feeding into Pro tools via S/PDIF and, for hands on mixing, 16 channels of audio going from Pro Tools into the O1v analogue from the 882/20s and 8 digital from the ADAT bridge.
The setup was, via some of the gear being inherited, my way of trying to have the best of Logic soft synths/MIDI and Pro Tools for audio editing/fx and acting as a nice stable tape machine with no latency issues.
I did previously try feeding 8 tracks of ADAT from MacBook/logic/828 into Pro Tools via the ADAT bridge but that didn’t seem to work either clocked as above or with the 828 as clock source for the USD. I think I just took it as a win at the time to even to even get the S/PDIF working.

Having finally got a nice trade in for a less that ancient iPad - an iPad Air 4 I can see a few uses both with the home set up and away (soft synth sound source/Logic controller/Fx box) but only have an old basic iRig guitar interface with not great sound quality.

I’d ideally like an audio interface no bigger than half rack size that works fully with the iPad and is also compatible with Mavericks or at least Yosemite on the MacBook for portable use with the ability to hook up the iPad to the Pro Tools setup at home digitally, as well as to the 828 when away. Uses would be soft synth output(so low latency a plus), effects box and recording guitar/mics.

I did hear back from MOTU and unfortunately the Ultralite Mk4 ADAT/SPDIF doesn’t work on an iPad which is a pity as there was a pretty good priced one here in the UK.

If I didn’t want digital in/out or Mavericks/Yosemite compatibility, I’d probably go for a MOTU M4 as they seem quite well thought of.

I did consider the Focusrite 6i6 2nd gen as mentioned above, which seemed promising but, according to the manual, it isn’t possible to get any reverb from a DAW back in headphones when monitoring an input directly, which is a need.

The Zoom U 44, also mentioned above is the next thing to check out but any other suggestions would be welcome.

Telefunky

@Solar_Wave wrote: ... I did previously try feeding 8 tracks of ADAT from MacBook/logic/828 into Pro Tools via the ADAT bridge but that didn’t seem to work either clocked as above or with the 828 as clock source for the USD...

Your system is very similar to my TDM Mix24, Adat Bridge, 2x882/20, supposed to communicate with Creamware Scope and iPad (Audient ID4) via Adat.
The Adat Bridge seems to be a sensitive device.
It didn‘t work when I provided Pro Tools x256 clock from a Mutec MC-7 clock distribution to each unit directly. Instead I had to feed to it to the 1st unit and then daisy chain the others (as written in the Pro Tools doc).
Short, high quality wordclock cables are a must, as you probably know.

I had the same failure regarding the 828 providing the basic clock for the USD.
(using an Alesis BRC’s constantly active 48khz clock as source for the Mutec and set the BRC to external sync, receiving the processed Mutec clock on it‘s external input)
Admittedly, that‘s kind of circular referencing, but it was worth a try

How‘s your Adat bridge connected ? Y-cable or 2 card connectors ?