DMC Audio Studio

Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu

Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
 DMC Audio Studio

Rules for Use

Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu

Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
 DMC Audio Studio
Rules for Use
• Food, drink, and smoking are not allowed in the studio. Accidental spills can and do happen,
and can significantly damage equipment. This rule holds throughout the Digital Media Center.
• Only authorized studio users may checkout the studio and use the studio equipment. An
authorized user is someone who has been authorized to use the studio by the Studio Manager (Jer
Welter), either after taking the Audio Studio Intro Workshop, or demonstrating significant prior
experience (e.g. a college-level course in Studio Production or Computer Music. You are
allowed, and encouraged, to bring musical collaborators into the studio. But only authorized
users are allowed to operate the equipment, and an authorized user must be present in the room at
all times. By checking out the studio, you assume full personal responsibility for it, as per the
DMC Loan Agreement.
• If you reserve studio time, you must use it. If you cannot use reserved studio time, you must
cancel your reservation at the DMC front desk. An unused studio reservation deprives all studio
users of valuable studio time. Violation of this rule may result in cancellation of all future
reservations, and/or revocation of studio authorization.
• The studio must be returned to ‘normal’ settings at the end of each session. This means all
extra chairs removed, all patches broken down, the board returned to the ‘normal’ snapshot, all
extra equipment (mics, stands, cables, etc) disconnected, packaged neatly, and returned to the
front desk. Budget time at the end of each session to do so, so that you do not take up studio time
of others, or impede the DMC from closing.
• No studio user is to make or break connections behind the racks, or move studio equipment.
Only DMC staff are authorized to do so. You may patch your own equipment via the top panel of
the board, the analog patchbay, or the front port (port 8) of the MIDI patchbay. All other
connections are off-limits.
• Report any equipment problems to the Studio Manager. Do not attempt to fix physical
problems yourself, or tamper with operating system presets. You may email Andrew Cole at
andrew.cole@jhu.edu, or in an emergency, ask a DMC staff member to call his cell phone.
• All DMC policies (including File Management) must be followed in use of the Audio Studio.
You must take your data away with you on removable media, and you must not install software
onto the studio computer. See http://digitalmedia.jhu.edu/AboutUs/Policies.cfm for more
information.
• Have Fun!! Make beautiful music. Enjoy the Digital Media Center.

Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu

Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
 DMC Audio Studio

Audio Suite Overview

Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu

Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
 Audio Suite Overview
Digital Media Center, Johns Hopkins University

The Audio Suite at the DMC has been constructed to be an environment where students can work
with audio work in a wide variety of ways. It can be used for conventional recording/mixing work, as
a suite for MIDI-based composition (either of standalone pieces or to film/video), or as a laboratory to
develop interactive music performance software, or anything in between. This document is intended
to guide an experienced user of professional audio technology in understanding how this specific
studio is put together. As such, I will use industry terms and 'jargon' in the document – if a phrase or
acronym is unfamiliar, a short definition can likely be found in the "word of the day" archives at
Sweetwater Sound: http://www.sweetwater.com/insync/word.tpl

If you are sitting in the studio, you will note that the equipment in the studio is physically grouped
according to type, such that synths and samplers are all on the right (with rackmount units in the top
bay), signal routing and recording and playback devices are in the lower right bay, processing is in the
upper left bay.

Most equipment in the studio is wired into at least one of the patchbays in the lower right bay. We
have a small analog audio patchbay, and a MOTU MTP AV for MIDI routing. There are also a
number of direct connections between pieces of equipment, mostly for multi-channel digital audio.

The heart of the studio is a Macintosh G5 running OS10, and a number of audio applications,
primarily Mark of the Unicorn Digital Performer and Reason for MIDI and audio sequencing, Bias
Peak for digital audio editing, Live for realtime performace, and Cycling74 Max/MSP for real-time
interactive multimedia, processing plugin development, etc. The studio is designed to be as close to
an all-digital studio as possible, such that an initial analog-to-digital conversion is performed, and if
possible the signal is never again converted back to the analog domain until it is sent out to speakers.

Because of this all-digital configuration, wordclock is a major concern in this studio. If you have
worked in mostly analog environments before, you may be unfamiliar with wordclock. Because it is
so important in our studio, it is described in the Intro Handout. It can run either along with a digital
audio signal, or on a separate 75ohm BNC coaxial cable.

Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu

Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
Tascam DM-3200 Digital Mixer
Audio Connections:
• Line Inputs 1-16 to the analog patchbay
• Mic Inputs 1-8 to the analog XLR patchbay
• Analog Auxes Sends1+2 to the analog patchbay
• Analog Auxes Returns 1+2 to the analog patchbay
• Analog 2-Track Replay Input (stereo) to the analog patchbay
• Analog Mix Output (stereo) to the analog patchbay
• Analog control room outputs directly connected to HHB Circle1 Active Subwoofer, and in
turn to Circle 5A Active Near/Midfield Monitors
• Digital Tape Channels 17-32 ADAT Inputs directly connected via ADAT lightpipe to
Banks A & B ADAT Outputs on the MOTU 2408
• Digital Tape Channels 33-40 TDIF Inputs directly connected via TDIF to Bank C TDIF
Output on the MOTU 2408
• Digital Tape Channels 17-24 TDIF Inputs directly connected via TDIF to Tascam DA-
78HR Outputs
• Digital Tape Channels 40-48 TDIF Inputs directly connected via TDIF to Roland XV-5080
Outputs
• Digital Tape Direct Outputs 1-16 ADAT directly connected to ADAT Bank A & B Inputs
on MOTU 2408
• Digital Tape Direct Outputs 1-8 TDIF directly connected to DA-78HR
• Digital Input/Output 1: S/PDIF(RCA) to Sony DPS-V77 Processor
• Ditigal Input/Output 1:AES/EBU(XLR) empty
• Ditigal Input/Output 2: S/PDIF(RCA) to the DAT DA-45 HR
• Ditigal Input/Output 2:AES/EBU(XLR) to the T.C. Electronic Finalizer Express
Word Clock:
• Via External Wordclock BNC Input, via AES/EBU input, or internal clock.
DAW:
• The DM-3200 functions as a DAW using the Remote page. There are 2 banks of
8 faders on the remote page. 1-8 and 9-16. Unless you have specified otherwise
in a previous session, the page will default to the first 8 faders in Digital
Performer’s Mixer. So banks 1 (faders 1-8) and 2 (faders 9-16) will control the
same faders. Because we generally want to be able to control more than 8 faders
at time, this can be annoying. To fix this problem, select the fader bank by just
pressing the fader select button on one of the faders. If you press any fader 1 to 8,
you will select that fader and fader bank1, 9-16 will select the fader and fader
bank 2. In this case, lets select fader 9. Now you can change which group of
faders this controls in Digital Performer by pressing either the > or < buttons
under Bank under the Automation menu. You can also control the transport in
Digital Performer with the transport on the Tascam Board.

Mark of the Unicorn 2408mkII

Audio Connections:
• Direct ADAT connections to and from the Mixer via ADAT A & B.
• Direct TDIF connections to and from the Mixer via TDIF C.
• Analog outputs 1-8 to analog patchbay (these can be sourced from any of the three banks).
Word Clock:

Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu

Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
 • Internal, or via S/PDIF (2408 is at the head of the Wordclock BNC chain, and is normally
the wordclock master for all devices).
• Set via the PCI-424 Console software (PCI-424 is the host PCI card), or when in Digital
Performer, via Basics->MOTU Audio System Options->Configure Hardware Driver…
General Notes:
• The primary reason for the eight analog outputs being wired is because the board has only
sixteen channels of digital input – thus, to get the full 24 channels out of the MOTU, one
must bring 8 in analog.
• The "Monitor Outputs" setting in the PCI-324 Console governs which outputs will be used
as the stereo pair presented to Sound Manager applications (e.g. Peak, most apps).

Emu Proteus 2000 Synthesizer

Audio Connections:
• 2 analog to analog patchbay.
Word Clock:
• Internal only. Since the Proteus has no inputs whatsoever, it cannot clock to an external
device.
General Notes:
• Since the Proteus only has a single stereo S/PDIF output, and cannot clock to external
source, its analog outputs have been connected for maximum flexibility. In any patch in
which its digital output was used, it would have to be the wordclock master for the entire
studio.
• The Proteus has the potential for 6 total outputs. From practice I have noticed that this is
not necessary and rarely to never used, therefore I eliminated 4 of the 6 outputs in the
patchbay.

Roland XV-5080 Synthesizer/Sampler

Audio Connections:
• 2 analog to analog patchbay
• One bank (eight channels) of TDIF digital audio, wired directly to Tascam 33-40 TDIF
Digital (Tape) Ins
Word Clock:
• Clocked via the TDIF connection.
• Clocking is changed via the System/Utility->Outputs page.
General Notes:
• The XV has been upgraded to its full 128MB RAM complement, and has a SCSI Zip250
attached, for ease of importing samples. It is a very versatile unit, and could be expanded
still further by the addition of any of the XV/JV-series sound ROM expansion cards (it can
take eight, I believe, none have been yet installed). Another option might be a SCSI CD
drive, with which to read the many Roland-format sample CDs that are available out there.
• The XV's native digital audio interface is R-BUS, Roland's proprietary format. It is
connected to a Roland DIF-AT, which converts R-BUS to/from ADAT and/or TDIF.
• For some reason, the XV can clock to its onboard wordclock BNC input when it is
connected to the outside world via ADAT (i.e. R-BUS->DIF-AT->ADAT), but when the
format is changed to TDIF (R-BUS->DIF-AT->TDIF) it cannot do so. Thankfully, the
DIF-AT is one of the few non-Tascam devices that can send and receive clock via TDIF, so
the XV is technically clocked to the DIF-AT, which in turn is clocked to the Spirit via
TDIF.
• The XV-5080 is unsupported by Mark of the Unicorn's Unisyn, the MIDI editor/librarian
we have, and at the time of purchase was unsupported by any editor software. Unisyn
came for $25 extra with Performer – it now appears to be a dead product, no longer under

Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu

Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
 active development. There is an actively developed editor called SoundDiver by Emagic
(www.emagic.de) which now finally has a full XV-5080 editor module in public beta. It
may be worth purchasing this software.

Nord Modular Synthesizer

Audio Connections:
• 2 analog outputs to the analog patchbay.
• Two analog inputs (for using the Nord as a custom effects unit) may be connected to the
board's analog Aux sends with patch cables.
Word Clock:
• Internal only. The Nord does not have digital outputs.
General Notes:
• The Nord requires two MIDI connections – one for traditional MIDI, the other for Nord-
specific control data which is used for connection to the editor application on the Mac.

Kurzweil SP-76 Keyboard

Audio Connections:
• 2 analog outputs (one stereo pair) to the analog patchbay
Word Clock:
• Internal only. The SP-76 does not have digital outputs.
General Notes:
• Although the SP-76 has some sound patches, its primary utility is as a controller.

t.c. electronic Finalizer Express

Audio Connections:
• 1 AES/EBU I/O pair connected directly to the Digital Input/Output 2
• 2 analog outputs to the analog patchbay
• 2 analog inputs from to the patchbay
Word Clock:
• The Finalizer should always be set to clock to its S/PDIF input.
• Clocking is changed via buttons on the front panel.
General Notes:
• The Finalizer and the V77 (see below) are connected to the MIDI Timepiece on the same
port, via MIDI Thru. This is because the Finalizer can only receive one MIDI message –
control over its main output for fadeouts.

Sony DPS-V77 Effects Processor

Audio Connections:
• One S/PDIF I/O pair, connected directly to the Tascam’s Digital Input/Output 1
Word Clock:
• Should always clock to its S/PDIF Input
General Notes:
• As noted above, shares a MIDI port with the Finalizer.

Tascam DA-78HR 8 Channel DTRS Recorder

Audio Connections:
• One bank (8 channels) of TDIF output directly to the 17-24 Digital TDIF inputs of the
board.
• One bank of TDIF input directly from Tascam Tape Direct outputs 1-8.
Word Clock:

Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu

Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
 • Wordclock BNC. Should always be clocked to the board. Should remain on even when
not in use to provide clock to the DA-45HR.
• Wordclocking adjusted via buttons on the front panel.
• There is a BNC T-adaptor and a 50 ohm terminator attached to the wordclock input of the
78. This is to solve a known electrical problem with the wordclock input of the unit. See
the DTRS users message board (accessible from the Tascam website, www.tascam.com).
General Notes:
• Recently repaired for a freezing/crashing problem.
• The DA-78 is primarily useful for bringing in tapes from other locations, and for doing
recording in the room in which the fan noise generated by the Macintosh would be
problematic. Tracks recorded in this way can then be brought into Performer digitally.

Tascam DA-45HR DAT Recorder

Audio Connections:
• Stereo analog inputs and outputs to the analog patchbay.
• One S/PDIF I/O pair to the Tascam Digital Input/Output 2: RCA
Word Clock:
• Wordclock BNC, S/PDIF, or Internal. Should usually be locked to Wordclock BNC
(which it can do while receiving S/PDIF input).
• Wordclocking adjusted via switch on front panel.
General Notes:
• Has a wired remote on the desk. The remote has a battery compartment, but requires no
batteries. Go figure.

General Note on MIDI Configuration

Currently the MIDI configuration of the studio has the DA-78, the Sony V77, and the Finalizer all
sharing port 7 on the MTP (via their MIDI thrus). This may ultimately prove untenable, in which
case a second MTP will be required.

Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu

Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
 DMC Audio Studio

Connection Schematics

Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu

Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu
Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu
Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu
Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu
Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
 DMC Audio Studio

DM-3200 Presets

Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu

Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu
Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu
Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu
Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
 DMC Audio Suite

Troubleshooting Tips

Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu

Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
 Troubleshooting Tips in the Audio Studio

• Understand Your Signal Path

• Diagramming Helps
• Start from the sound source, and work through each signal stage. Audio
could be diverted or attenuated at any input stage, causing it not to make it
to its destination (a recording device, the monitors, etc.)
• Be careful about volume – often may turn up C/R if sound is attenuated –
when problem is fixed, it may be very loud. Proceed with caution and take
care of your ears.(use C/R cut when appropriate)

• Trouble spots
i. Have you patched correctly? Recheck connections. Analog
connections might not be fully inserted.
ii. Are you using the correct fader bank?
iii. If an analog soruce, is input gain high enough?
iv. If a mic, does it require phantom power? Is the line jack
disconnected?
v. Select your channel, and inspect the select panel on the mixer. Is
the channel assigned appropriately?
vi. Are all the faders up(channel, mix, any bus faders that are
needed). Check the master fader section.
vii. Is 2TR replay switched in?
viii. Is c/r cut depressed?
ix. Is the board’s clock source set correctly? Are the clock sources of
all equipment in your chain correct?
x. In the case of S/PIF or AES/EBU I/O. is the appropriate channel
assigned to the physical input or output?

Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu

Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
 DMC Audio Suite

Example Clearance
Exam

Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu

Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817
 Digital Audio Workshop
Studio Clearance Exam Study Sheet

This is a study sheet for the exam to become cleared for the DMC Audio studio. Each of
these questions will give an idea of the kind of questions the instructor may give to assess
your ability to work in the studio. You can take the test as many times as you need to but
please do not set up a time with me unless you feel you are ready. You will have access to
the studio to work on this questions so feel free to come in when you are available.
_________________________________________________________

Two rules that are important to remember:

1. If you have any questions use the resources at the DMC effectively. Please use
the manuals in the DMC library, and ask Greg Stonerock and I if you have any
other questions that can’t be answered here.
2. Do not get frustrated!! If you do please take some take away from the studio and
come back. Please don’t start pushing buttons if you don’t know what they do.
This could cause some problems and could make the studio not usable for a
period of time until I can fix it which would disadvantage everyone.
____________________________________________________________________
Sample questions that could be asked
MIDI
1. How do would you connect the XV-5080 so you can hear it in the studio monitors?
2. What is the difference between a MIDI file and an Audio File?
3.How do you record the Proteus, XV-5080 or the Nord modular into Digital Performer?

Audio
1. How do you record the input of a microphone into Digital Performer?
2. If I want to hear the roland XV-5080 coming out of the mixing board how do I setup that
configuration.
3. What are some things to be aware of when using a microphone in this studio?
4. How do you record to DAT tape?
5. What is Phantom Power and how is it used in this studio?
6. You can’t hear any audio in the studio speakers. what are 5 things that could be wrong with the
mixing board? What are three things that could be wrong with Digtial Performer?
7. How do I record someone speaking in a microphone into Peak?
8. How do I load an audio sample into Digital Performer?
9. What kind of microphone requires Phanton Power?

Connections
1. What is the TDIF input and what is it connected to? How would I control the TDIF inputs on the
Mixing board
2. how do I hear a CD in the studio?
3. How would I record a CD into the computer?
4. How do I connect the Nord Modular to the mixing Board?
5. What is the Word Clock? How is it used in this studio?

Johns Hopkins University Digital Media Center digitalmedia@jhu.edu

Mattin Center 226, Baltimore, MD 21218 (410) 516-3817