I have a question about Jitter...

[gtrwiz]

What is it?:confused:

[rhythminmind]

you can think of it as how stable your digital signal is (or clock).. the less jitter the better.. this concept is how some manufactures are getting away with overpriced master clocks... I've compared many AES devices with a dScope (http://www.prismsound.com/psdscope3.htm) and i have found that many professional audio interfaces/gear have great internal clocks... i cant say that about everything, Some gear didn't perform well at all.

this is a very debated topic. but unless you have to sync multiple rooms there wont be much benefit from a house clock..

for project studios i believe you should just pick your best digital device as your master. (example a lynx sound card).

but for those that have invested the cash in a sync box i'm sure you will hear otherwise.. Can't really blame em.

[gtrwiz]

Originally posted by rhythminmind
I've compared many AES devices with a dScope (http://www.prismsound.com/psdscope3.htm) and i have found that many professional audio interfaces/gear have great internal clocks... i cant say that about everything, Some gear didn't perform well at all.


I'm running a 002r, I've invested a bit and got some good pres (Brent Averill 312) and comps (distressors), I figure if it would make that big of a difference, I might go a bit deeper. Which ones worked well and which ones didn't?
Also, any thoughts on A/D converters?

[blue2blue]

Originally posted by rhythminmind
you can think of it as how stable your digital signal is (or clock).. the less jitter the better.. this concept is how some manufactures are getting away with overpriced master clocks... I've compared many AES devices with a dScope (http://www.prismsound.com/psdscope3.htm) and i have found that many professional audio interfaces/gear have great internal clocks... i cant say that about everything, Some gear didn't perform well at all.

this is a very debated topic. but unless you have to sync multiple rooms there wont be much benefit from a house clock..

for project studios i believe you should just pick your best digital device as your master. (example a lynx sound card).

but for those that have invested the cash in a sync box i'm sure you will hear otherwise.. Can't really blame em.

That seems consistent with my take on the general state of master clocks and contemporary gear.


Everytime I turn around on BB's like this, someone is claiming that some new device makes this amazing difference in the sound. Sometimes it's a device where such a claim makes sense. Often it's a device where it could make a difference. All too often, though, one gets the suspicion that it's just plain voodoo/wishful thinking... I tend to think of it as the $200 gutiar cable syndrome.

[rhythminmind]

Originally posted by gtrwiz


I'm running a 002r, I've invested a bit and got some good pres (Brent Averill 312) and comps (distressors), I figure if it would make that big of a difference, I might go a bit deeper. Which ones worked well and which ones didn't?
Also, any thoughts on A/D converters?

yep, i think some better a/d's would be a better investment out of the two..

[rebonn]

Originally posted by gtrwiz
What is it?:confused:

It's the JimmyLegs
:D

[rhythminmind]

i think they have a pill for that..

[TimmyP]

http://www.dcsltd.co.uk/technical_papers/jitter.pdf

(from http://www.dcsltd.co.uk/index2.html )

[greendoor]

Power supply noise can be a big contributor to digital jitter. I feel a new thread about balanced power coming on ...

[nu-tra]

should i get a master clock for my motu hd192? will it make a difference? Lucid makes a reasonable one.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Jitter is directly tied to the quality of your master word clock - the better the clock, the less jitter you should have. Better quality devices such as high end converters frequently have high quality word clocks onboard, and it's fine to use one of those as your master word clock source.

For me, a distro box or master word clock generator isn't something you need if you are only digitally connecting two devices... If you're just connecting a Digi 002 to a digital mixing board or outboard A/D converter, you can set the board (or converter) as the master wordclock device and set the Digi 002 as the slave. Since the 002 lacks a dedicated BNC word clock connector ( :mad: - ALL digital I/O equipped devices should have these IMO!), it has to get incoming word clock via the S/PDIF or ADAT lightpipe connector.

It is usually possible to connect more than two digital devices by "daisy chaining" the word clock - either via the BNC connectors or by using BNC connectors and digital audio connectors such as S/PDIF or ADAT optical - both of which carry word clock enbedded in their data streams. However, a distro box or master word clock device with multiple outputs can simplify things and yes, if the clock is better than what you have onboard your best device, it CAN make a difference in the sound due to the lower jitter from the improved clock.

Once you have three or four devices that you want to connect digitally, IMO, you're usually better off with a master word clock generator. I use a Lucid GENx6, and I've been very pleased with it.

[nu-tra]

Yeah I only have a motu hd 192 and a 1224 and 308 but those go to 48k and I was thinking about recording my album at 96k


V

[AudioMaverick]

Maybe someon else from MP can help me remember this... Someone started a thread over on MP, over a year ago. The topic was about the impression that recording at the higher clock rates seemed to dimeinish the effects of jitter. This person did an experiment recording the same thing at different sample rates. Even when down-sampled the the better sounding result came from the higher bit rate recording. Some of the more intellectual members traded thoughts, and made some observations.

I think the idea was that the faster clock rates happened acroos the jitter, which tends to happen at lower frequencies. So, it is kind of like a DC offset effect. And, jitter seemed to originate mostly from noisy power (as mentioned here). But, it is also affected by improper cabling and digatal repeater circuitry in certain gear.

Here are some links I did find, for those interested..
MP Thread RE: Jitter/Clocks (http://www.musicplayer.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/ubb/get_topic/f/2/t/004660.html#000003)
MP Thread - Internal Clock & Jitter (http://www.musicplayer.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/ubb/get_topic/f/3/t/006459.html#000002)

So, I guess recording at 96k should make a *better sounding* recording than a lower rate.