DM-24 not liking new IF-AD/DM cards

[watsonwr]

I've got a couple new IF-AD/DM (ADAT) cards and am finding that my DM-24 is not playing well with them. Upon selecting inputs from the cards, I will get either no input or full level digital noise. I have no issue with input from my Presonus Digimax using the built-in ADAT connector, but when using the ADAT cards in the option slots, no dice. My machine is at V2.10. Tascam says that first thing to do is to update the mixer to V3.0. Has anyone else had bad luck with IF-AD/DM cards and V2.10? Any suggestions in getting the cards up and running properly in my V2.10 mixer? I don't mind doing the update, but, if not necessary, I'd rather skip it, unless there are other benefits.

 

[Will Miho]

Digital noise always implies clock issues to me, and if your unit is the Presonus Digimax FS, it is known to have clock issues. It uses the "Jet PLL" internal clock and will not sync well with other clocks.
Try another lightpipe source, or maybe try making the Presonus the master clock. And make sure the ADAT cards are in the slots properly too!

Tascam has always said the only advantage of firmware 3.0 over the previous version is only that it supports the firewire card...

 

[watsonwr]

Will, I have already tried all these things. I get the same behavior with any of the several ADAT devices (Frontier Tango 24, RME ADI-8, RME MADI unit) I've tested with. My Digimaxes are the original (external PS) digimax design. They've never given me any trouble in a variety of setups. Thanks for your reply. The folks at Tascam have been nice enough to offer to test the IF-AD/DM cards for me. If the cards test good, I'll likely be giving up on upgrading the DM-24 and selling the two cards.

 

[Muziekschuur]

2.10 should be just fine.

I assume you should use a clock cable. And make one unit the master...

Will the unit when powering up, dim it's screen somewhat?

Are the units, when the Tascam is running without anything attached, showing up inside the menu?

 

[watsonwr]

I've tried clocking the Digimax from the DM-24 (my preference) and also clocking the DM-24 from the Digimax, using a BNC wordclock cable in both configurations. Yes, the IF-AD/DM cards are showing to be in the machine in the "digital" configuration page.

 

[Muziekschuur]

Are they showing [ok] or something like that? Are they showing their samplerate? And is it the same like the rest?

If they are ok I am going to assume the cards are fine. And you need sometime to spend on getting the digital configuration setup correctly. And everybody here knows this. It aint easy. If your DAW was playing mr nice and is now playing up it could be you were using two devices who were talking to one another but where both master. With 3 or more devices attached setting up a digital environment gets alil harder. Just set your mind to it. Do some homework. Give your wife a day off and your creditcard (eh... second thought, give her limited cash... ) and make some coffee, ask the neighbor to walk the dog and lock yourself in your mancave and get to it...