MOTU Track16 - Desktop Studio FireWire/USB 2.0 Interface - Manual (Page 31)

I N S T A L L I N G T H E T R A C K 1 6 H A R D W A R E
31
CONNECTING MULTIPLE MOTU FIREWIRE
INTERFACES
You can daisy-chain up to four MOTU FireWire
interfaces on a single FireWire bus, but do not run
the Track16 or other bus-powered interfaces under
bus power when doing so.
When connecting multiple MOTU interfaces,
MOTU Audio Setup displays the settings for one
interface at a time. To view the settings for an
interface, click its tab.
Resolving to other Core audio drivers
The MOTU FireWire/USB driver can resolve to
other Core Audio drivers. This allows the Track16
and other MOTU interfaces to resolve to other
audio interfaces running simultaneously on the
same computer, such as the Mac’s built-in audio, a
PCI-424 core system, or even 3rd-party interfaces,
without the need for external word clock
connections between the devices. Doing so ensures
that audio tracks being played or recorded by your
MOTU FireWire/USB interface will not drift apart
from tracks on the other device during long
playback or recording passes.
To synchronize multiple devices via the MOTU
FireWire/USB driver, choose one device (PCI,
FireWire, USB or otherwise) as the master clock
and then slave the Track16 and other devices to it.
All interfaces will remain resolved to each other via
the master interface.
Make the Clock Source settings for each interface
as follows:
■ For the master interface, click its tab in MOTU
Audio Setup and choose any clock source you wish
(except any of the slave interfaces, of course).
■ For each slave interface, click its tab and choose
the master interface from the Clock Source menu.
This causes the slave interfaces to resolve to the
master interface.
Operating multiple FireWire interfaces at high
sample rates
Four MOTU FireWire interfaces can operate at
44.1 or 48kHz on a single FireWire bus, although
you may have to disable optical banks to conserve
FireWire bus bandwidth. At the 2x samples rates
(88.2 or 96kHz) and 4x sample rates (176.4 and
192kHz), you can operate no more than two
interfaces on a single FireWire bus.