M-Audio Delta TDIF, Manual

Page 1: ...utputs 12 The Digital Monitor Mixer 13 The Patchbay Router 14 Synchronization 14 Using the Delta TDIF with your Music Software Application 15 Delta TDIF Control Panel Software 18 Monitor Mixer Page 19 Patchbay Router Page 22 Hardware Settings Page 25 S PDIF Page 29 About Page 30 Save Delete Load Buttons H W Installed 30 Delta TDIF Recording Tutorials 31 Typical Setup 1 32 Transferring from Tascam ...

Page 2: ...floppy disk containing drivers Delta Control Panel software for Windows 9x NT ME 2000 and Macintosh OS 8 5 1 or higher M Audio Warranty Registration card About the Delta TDIF PCI Audio Card The Delta TDIF functions as a multichannel digital recording interface One standard TDIF 8 channel connector provides 8 digital inputs and 8 digital outputs when connected to a TDIF capable device such as a Tas...

Page 3: ...addition to control of pans solos and mutes Product Features Specifications 10x10 24 bit 96khz 48k TDIF full duplex recording interface PCI host card with external breakout cable Macintosh and Windows compatible 8 channel TDIF digital input output on standard TDIF 1 connector Stereo coaxial S PDIF digital input output Stereo analog input output with high dynamic range and low distortion S PDIF out...

Page 4: ... 66 Delta TDIF PCI Audio Card 1 Delta TDIF Audio Card This is the PCI host card that installs into your computer s PCI slot 2 15 pin D sub connector This 15 pin D sub connector attaches to the supplied breakout cable which provides additional I O connectors This breakout cable is a proprietary cable manufactured by M Audio 3 TDIF I O on 25 pin D sub connector This 25 pin D sub connector attaches T...

Page 5: ... connector outputs a word clock signal that is in sync with the present sample rate clock of the Delta TDIF The output circuitry is designed to drive a word clock signal across 75 ohm coaxial cables and into a device with 75 ohm termination 4 Analog Out Left RCA jack out L This jack outputs analog audio to a variety of external target devices This jack is RCA female and is compatible with RCA male...

Page 6: ...r in order to dissipate any static electricity your body may have accumulated You might want to pick up a grounding wrist strap available from electronics stores like Radio Shack if you want to be doubly sure you aren t carrying a static charge that could damage the card 5 Remove the metal bracket that covers the access hole on the back of the computer This bracket is usually fastened to the compu...

Page 7: ...ps Windows ME or 98 Installation 1 After installing the Delta TDIF hardware boot your system and start Windows During the Windows boot procedure new hardware will be automatically detected by the Add New Hardware Wizard as shown here Click Next 2 The Add New Hardware Wizard will now ask how you want to find the driver Search for the best driver for your device is already selected Click Next 3 Wind...

Page 8: ... Install of driver from disk provided by hardware manufacturer then click OK 3 An Install From Disk will prompt you to copy files from the A drive Insert the Driver software CD into your CD ROM drive Type in the drive letter of your CD drive we will assume here that it is D and the path to the Delta drivers for your OS Click Next 4 Windows will start to copy files with a progress indicator on the ...

Page 9: ... of Cubase use the ASIO DeltaTDIF v3 driver For any music program that is not ASIO2 capable use the ASIO Delta TDIF driver instead check your program s documentation Place the file ASIO Delta in your program s ASIO folder by clicking on it and dragging it to the ASIO folder 3 Drag the DeltaPanel PPC file onto your Macintosh hard drive You can run the Delta Control Panel from any place that s conve...

Page 10: ...em Device Manager With the Device Manager displayed click on the next to Sound video and game controllers to open a list of devices the Delta TDIF being a device of that nature Below is an example view of the Device Manager This example shows the M Audio Delta TDIF and Midiman MIDISport 8x8 S another product shown here only as an example entries in the Windows Device Manager device list The Delta ...

Page 11: ...ive you may double click it to launch the Delta Control Panel software You may create an alias to the control panel by highlighting it then holding Apple key M This alias can then be placed on your desktop NOTE When using a music software program that is ASIO capable launch the Delta Control Panel software from within that program Some of the control panel functions will be controlled from within ...

Page 12: ...quipment may be connected to the Delta TDIF s RCA jacks However sometimes 4dB signals may be too hot for these analog inputs Consult the user guide for your particular device On the analog outputs the Delta Control Panel software provides line level switches between 10dB and 4dB labeled Consumer These software switches allow you to adjust your stereo output signal to the line level of the receivin...

Page 13: ...he internal crystal oscillators However the S PDIF and TDIF options are used in situations where the Delta TDIF must be synchronized to external digital audio or sample rates derived from an external device Using the initial default setting the master clock is derived from the internal crystal oscillators Operation in this mode is similar to that of a generic sound card for instance when a WAV or ...

Page 14: ...the Delta TDIF card In these cases the Delta TDIF and the external TDIF device are in sync and the TDIF data would therefore be in sync with the Delta TDIF system when the Delta TDIF card is set to Internal Xtal Finally the S PDIF In and TDIF Clk options may be used to operate the Delta TDIF at non standard sample rates When one of these two options is selected the Delta TDIF s sample rate will au...

Page 15: ...ice is the mix of input and output streams that is set up in the Delta Control Panel software s Monitor Mixer see Delta TDIF Control Panel Software section Note that all of the input devices are stereo Your application software may break these down further to left and right mono devices Therefore you may see them as Left PCM In 1 2 Delta TDIF Right PCM In 1 2 Delta TDIF Left SP ANA In Delta TDIF R...

Page 16: ...ger both for input source and for output port To select the Sound Manager driver open the Apple Menu and go to Control Panel Sound For both Sound In and Sound Out click and highlight the Delta icon then exit You may select which Delta hardware stereo input pair and stereo output pair will be used for the Sound Manager s Sound In and Sound Out in the Delta Control Panel Hardware Settings Page see s...

Page 17: ...Delta TDIF as its default audio device allowing system sounds to be sent out the Delta TDIF This also enables you to use the Delta TDIF with the sound applets included with Windows To set this up go to Control Panel Multimedia In the Audio Properties page set the Playback and Recording devices to the Delta TDIF input and output devices of your choice The recomended choice is the SP ANA output usin...

Page 18: ...trol Panel software from within that program There will be a button in the ASIO or Audio setup page that will allow you to do so Some of the control panel functions will be controlled from within that program such as master clock setting and sample rate so it is desirable to launch the music program first and then the Delta Control Panel from the the program s launch or control panel button Withou...

Page 19: ...ther as a stereo pair Also at the top of each fader and meter is a fader level fine adjustment control Clicking on the small up and down arrows will adjust the corresponding fader setting in 0 5dB increments Next to each fine adjustment control is a numerical fader readout that is always current and active PEAK METERS Each peak meter indicates an audio signal level in dB relative to full scale Thi...

Page 20: ...n level fader and may be panned anywhere in the left right stereo field Each input also has its own peak meter The peak meters indicate the incoming pre fader levels of the incoming audio and are therefore not affected by the fader settings However the input faders do affect the levels of the signals exiting the mixer and you will see the affect of the input faders on the output Master Volume peak...

Page 21: ...place solo as opposed to a PFL or pre fader listen levels and pans still apply Deactivating all solo boxes will return all input channels to their previous mute unmute states MUTE Every mixer input channel has a Mute checkbox associated with it Clicking on and activating the Mute box will remove that signal from the stereo buss Deactivating the Mute box will add the signal back into the stereo bus...

Page 22: ...tly to the Delta card s hardware TDIF outputs 1 2 For example if H W In 1 2 were selected any signal present at the IN1 port will be copied to OUT1 and any signal present at the IN2 port will be copied to OUT2 This same behavior applies to H W In 3 4 H W In 5 6 and H W In 7 8 when selected The next three vertical columns of the Patchbay Router page from left to right H W Out 3 4 H W Out 5 6 and H ...

Page 23: ...cts the Analog and S PDIF Out ports directly to either the hardware Analog input or the hardware S PDIF input on the Delta TDIF s breakout cable This selection Analog or S PDIF is made in the control panel s Hardware Settings page see section Hardware Settings Page The left channel of the selection Analog In or S PDIF In is routed to the left channel of Analog Outs and S PDIF Out and the right cha...

Page 24: ...oring an S PDIF stream or TDIF if you wish to synchronize your digital audio with a source device that outputs TDIF wordclock NOTE If S PDIF In is selected as the master clock source be sure to supply a valid S PDIF signal to the board s active S PDIF input Otherwise erratic timing and or improper sample rates will be experienced The same is true for selecting TDIF In as the master clock setting m...

Page 25: ...ver what the expected S PDIF input sample rate is The section is only displayed when the board is set to use S PDIF In as the master clock source From the list select the sample rate closest to that of the S PDIF input data The sample rate selected here will be the only sample rate available to the software applications Therefore you must set your audio software application to this same sample rat...

Page 26: ...ount of system memory dedicated to digital audio buffering Setting a buffer size that is too small may result in clicks or pops in the audio stream as some data may be lost Larger buffers cause slightly more latency but prevent the pops and clicks that might occur with smaller buffer sizes the default settings are recommended but you may desire to tweak these default settings to suit your tastes T...

Page 27: ...utput stereo pair will be used by the Sound Manager if and when you choose the Delta as the Sound Manager input and output device If you go to the Apple menu Control Panel Sounds and highlight the Delta icon for Sound In and Sound Out then your Apple system sounds will be routed to the Delta hardware output that you have selected here and Alert Sounds if you choose to record will receive their inp...

Page 28: ... not all AES EBU devices For both consumer and professional output formats the Advanced checkbox will allow you to force a few particular status bits in the outgoing S PDIF signal The advanced option is for expert users only however if you decide to go exploring change a few bit settings and get lost you can always select the Restore Defaults button to restore the outgoing status bits to their fac...

Page 29: ...pplied to the outgoing digital audio signal The default is None and rarely will any user want to set the value to CCITT or 50 15uSec unless the transmitted audio has been encoded with one of those types of pre emphasis About Page The About page while displaying the handsome M Audio logo and applicable copyright information also reports the driver version and control panel software version If you h...

Page 30: ...pear promting you to name the current configuration Once you have done so click the Save button To save the current settings as your default go to the File menu and choose Save as Preferences In the upper righthand corner of the control panel is a H W Installed drop down list At the time of this writing the Delta Mac ASIO drivers will support only a single Delta device and of course the Sound Mana...

Page 31: ... also connect the Delta TDIF s analog outputs to a sound system for monitoring purposes A setup like this might be used to transfer a multitrack recording from a Tascam multitrack machine into an audio editing program performing the appropriate edits and then transferring the edited material back to the Tascam multitrack The example below shows the setup you will need to perform these tasks Transf...

Page 32: ...ple Rate to 48 000 5 In order to monitor the digital signal coming into the TDIF switch to the Patchbay Router page of the control panel software In the H W SP ANA column the rightmost column select the radio button named Monitor Mixer This will allow us to bring up levels in the monitor mixer for the TDIF inputs solo and mute individual tracks for quality assurance possibly create a ruff mix for ...

Page 33: ... recording contains eight tracks This could be done with eight mono tracks or four stereo tracks but for this example we will use eight mono tracks Select PCM In Left 1 2 Delta TDIF as the audio input device then PCM In Right 1 2 Delta TDIF then PCM In Left 3 4 PCM In Right 3 4 etc If you are using ASIO these input devices will appear with different names Consult the section Using the Delta TDIF W...

Page 34: ...ack s TDIF connector using a TDIF cable 2 Connect the Delta TDIF s analog outputs to some type of amplified sound system The sound system should be equipped with speakers or headphones Set the line level switch in the Hardware Settings page for the analog outputs to be compatible with that sound system s inputs see section Hardware Settings Page 3 Because you will be playing back at the recorded s...

Page 35: ...he first part of this tutorial unmuting channels panning and bringing up faders until a desirable monitor mix is achieved 7 Within your recording software select WavOut 1 2 Delta TDIF through WavOut 7 8 Delta TDIF as the audio output devices If you want a track to record onto the Tascam s track 1 for example you ll need to set the output device to WavOut 1 2 Delta TDIF and then pan that track hard...

Page 36: ...io equipment Turn your computer off before making the connections to the mixer then mute all channels before connecting the mics 1 Connect the Delta TDIF s 25 pin TDIF connector to the digital mixer s TDIF buss out tape return connector using a TDIF cable 2 Plug the microphones into the mic inputs 1 8 of your digital mixer and place the mics around the drums in some strategic fashion you may want ...

Page 37: ... to do so is beyond the scope of this tutorial However as a general rule of thumb achieving a level of close to digital zero is the optimum level for most tracks The levels that you see in the Delta Control Panel s Monitor Mixer are your record levels though you can also view those levels from your music software s level meters On your digital mixer you will set the record levels on the input chan...

Page 38: ...k three Left PCM In 3 4 Delta TDIF Track four Right PCM In 3 4 Delta TDIF Track five Left PCM In 5 6 Delta TDIF Track six Right PCM In 5 6 Delta TDIF Track seven Left PCM In 7 8 Delta TDIF Track eight Right PCM In 7 8 Delta TDIF 8 Now we want to set up the output ports for the eight tracks Track one WavOut 1 2 Delta TDIF panned hard left Track two WavOut 1 2 Delta TDIF panned hard right Track thre...

Page 39: ... the software outputs of the music program are connected to the corresponding hardware outputs Minimize the control panel 13 Click play on the transport bar of your music software If the take is satisfactory disarm tracks one through eight and revel in your success If you wish to redo the tracks undo the recording in your software repeat steps 10 through 13 in this section Using the Delta TDIF and...

Page 40: ...uts to some type of amplified sound system The sound system should be equipped with speakers or headphones The line level output settings in the Delta Control Panel s Hardware Settings page may be set to be compatible with that sound system s inputs 3 Because you will be recording from the S PDIF input you will need to set up the Delta TDIF to synchronize its master clock with the S PDIF input To ...

Page 41: ...med SP ANA In This will copy all S PDIF input audio directly over to the analog outputs therefore in this example the monitor mixer will be completely bypassed Once this assignment is made you may play the DAT material at any time and verify that the signal is making it into the Delta TDIF successfully This can be done regardless of whether or not your recording software is open 41 ...

Page 42: ...ing you to monitor playback from the analog outs Rewind and playback your recorded material Transferring from Computer to DAT monitoring with DAT 1 Connect the Delta TDIF s S PDIF Out to the DAT s coaxial S PDIF Input using a good quality digital cable 2 Connect the DAT analog outputs to some type of amplified sound system The sound system should be equipped with speakers or headphones You could c...

Page 43: ...sis to none allowing the DAT to accept and record the audio properly 6 Within your recording software select WavOut SP ANA Delta TDIF as the audio output device 7 Start your DAT recording and then start your software playing You should be able to hear the DAT material through your sound system This verifies that the digital audio is making it into the DAT correctly Typical Setup 4 Let s assume for...

Page 44: ... analog outputs and the type of plug on the other end generally either male RCA or 1 4 male phone plug that is appropriate for your sound system or power amp 4 Turn on your equipment in this suggested order pre amp computer then sound system We re now physically set up to monitor record and play back audio In this scenario you could substitute a tape deck CD player or other playback deck for the i...

Page 45: ...ill make sure the monitor mixer is running at a decent sample rate while the system is idle this prevents the mixer sample rate from being set too low and therefore lowering its frequency response Select a sample rate in the CODEC Sample Rate group to use as this idle sample rate Choose a 44 1kHz or higher setting for best results and select the same sample rate you will be using in your applicati...

Page 46: ...outputs Now everything that we hear at the analog outputs will reflect our settings in the Monitor Mixer page Select the Monitor Mixer tab of the Delta Control Panel The default Master Volume fader settings are 0dB and unmuted and all other faders are set to full attenuation 144dB and muted We will need to adjust these to our preference The screen capture on the next page shows the settings that w...

Page 47: ...ly monitor levels that appear in the mixer outputs in this case at the Delta TDIF analog outs Click on the left fader handle of H W In SP ANA and drag it about halfway up Strum the guitar If it s not loud enough bring it up all of the way If it is still not loud enough you will have to raise the listening level of your sound system Make similar adjustments for the microphone using the right fader ...

Page 48: ...gn track 2 to output device WavOut SP ANA Delta TDIF and pan the track all the way to the hard right or wherever you find it appropriate between right and center Now when you start playback track one guitar will be sent to the Delta software WavOut SP ANA Left and track two mic to Delta software output 10 WavOut SP ANA Right These two software outputs are inputs to the monitor mixer therefore the ...

Page 49: ...output but you can also choose other outputs like H W Out 1 2 We re sending them to the Monitor Mixer so doing this will give us a little more control over our playback levels In your software set the output ports of tracks three and four to WavOut 1 2 Delta TDIF Pan track three all of the way to the left hard left and pan track four hard right Now track three guitar will be sent to the Delta soft...

Page 50: ...nd DMA channels available for use Since audio cards require many resources most audio card installation problems arise from unavailable or improperly set resources This is important enough to repeat IMPORTANT Most sound card installation problems result from attempting to use system resources IRQs address locations already in use by other hardware or software acting as virtual hardware in the syst...

Page 51: ... If relocating your card to another PCI slot does not cure the Delta TDIF s conflict s then you must do some further investigation to determine the exact nature of the conflict s Again go to the Windows Device Manager highlight the Delta TDIF or other devices with conflicts and click the Properties button at the bottom of the Device Manager window This will open the properties page for that device...

Page 52: ...ou might want to exit Windows and do a final inspection of your computer s BIOS setup Some newer BIOS s see your computer manual allow the reservation of an IRQ for each PCI slot on the motherboard This may be very handy in resolving IRQ assignments for PCI devices Also sometimes a BIOS is configured to direct a particular IRQ to an ISA legacy device non PnP ISA card and needs to be told to look f...

Page 53: ...controls are set up properly Possible Cause 5 Improper connections of the audio accessories Verify that the Delta TDIF analog audio outputs are properly connected to a mix deck or external mixer amplifier that the S PDIF Out is connected to an external digital audio device capable of receiving S PDIF or that the TDIF connector is connected to an external digital audio device capable of receiving T...

Page 54: ...s set Each software application handles this differently but typically there is somewhere in the software s setup to set the size of the playback and recording buffers used by the application Some applications also require you to run a card calibration sometimes called profiling the first time you use the software with a new audio card Possible Cause 5 Some accelerated graphics cards use excessive...

Page 55: ... mixer is a digital device that runs at the current sample rate of the Delta TDIF board The frequency response of the mixer is roughly one half of the sample rate There is no way to prevent this lost frequency response while playing back or recording at a low sample rate However it may be prevented when the system is idle See the CODEC SAMPLE RATE paragraph of the section Hardware Settings Page fo...

Page 56: ...kHz to 48kHz TDIF I O Format 8x8 simultaneous parallel input and output TDIF Connector DB25 female on PCI board S PDIF Sample Rate 8kHz to 96kHz S PDIF Input Format Coaxial 0 5V to 5V peak to peak S PDIF Output Format Coaxial 0 5V peak to peak also configurable to output AES EBU format data stream at 0 5V peak to peak S PDIF Connectors Gold plated RCA female on break out cable Word Clock Output Ra...

Page 57: ...ur website www m audio com for Appendix B Go to the Tips and Tricks section and look for Delta TDIF Appendix C Please check our website www m audio com for Appendix B Go to the Tips and Tricks section and look for Delta TDIF 57 ...

Page 58: ...product requires repair because of user misuse or regular wear it will assess a fair repair or replacement fee The customer will have the option to pay this fee and have the unit repaired and returned or not pay this fee and have the unit returned unrepaired The remedy for breach of this limited warranty shall not include any other damages MIDIMAN will not be liable for consequential special indir...