User manual ALESIS AI4

[. . . ] Reference Manual This page intentionally left blank 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Table Of Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Welcome!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 About the ADAT AI4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Important Features of your AI4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 How to Use This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Important Safety Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Important Safety Instructions (English). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [. . . ] You can position it near other digital gear such as computers, monitors, and disk recorders, without worry. It's a good idea to register your purchase now, before you get so wrapped up in what you're doing that you forget all about it. Please log on to our website www. alesis. com and follow the links for online registration. AC Power Hookup The AI4 has a universal power supply that can work with voltages ranging from 100 to 230V, 50 or 60 Hz. The unit ships with an IEC cable suitable for the country in which it was sold. While there are no special requirements for powering the AI4, it's a good idea to make all the audio connections before powering the unit up. Plug the female end of the IEC power cord into the AI4's power socket. Like a VCR, the AI4 has a soft power switch that puts the unit into a low power, "standby" mode. A more convenient way to completely power down is to plug the AI4 into a power strip equipped with a switch. Alesis cannot be responsible for problems caused by using the AI4 or any associated equipment with improper AC wiring. This is sensitive gear--take common sense precautions and you should be okay. 15 1 Getting Started Line Conditioners and Protectors Although the AI4 is designed to tolerate typical voltage variations, in today's world the voltage coming from the AC line may contain spikes or transients that can possibly stress your gear and, over time, cause a failure. There are three main ways to protect against this, listed in ascending order of cost and complexity: Line spike/surge protectors Relatively inexpensive, these are designed to protect against strong surges and spikes, acting somewhat like fuses in that they need to be reset or replaced if they've been hit by an extremely strong spike. Line filters. These generally combine spike/surge protection with filters that remove some line noise (dimmer hash, transients from other appliances, etc. ). Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) This is the most sophisticated option. Intended for computer applications, a UPS allows you to complete an orderly shutdown of a computer system in the event of a power outage, and the isolation it provides from the power line minimizes all forms of interference--spikes, noise, etc. 16 2 Signal Connections Once you've got the AI4 safely mounted, it's time to cable in the rest of your gear. All connections are located on the back panel and fall into three categories: AES/EBU AES/EBU is a standard digital connection used in many professional audio applications. You'll find AES/EBU connectors on outboard analog-to-digital converters, digital mixers, DAT and CD recorders, and other high-end digital audio devices. About Digital Audio Formats If you're new to digital audio formats, there are a couple of things you should know before proceeding (experts can skip this part). Each of the AI4's connections is designed to handle a specific signal format; they're not interchangeable with other formats, despite the fact that the connections may look similar. The AES/EBU connections, for example, use the same XLR connectors as balanced analog audio lines. Optical connectors are sometimes used for stereo S/PDIF digital signals; again, the ADAT Optical connectors on your AI4 are not designed to handle S/PDIF. Connecting the wrong type of signal (for example a +4dBu analog line) can damage your AI4. ADAT Optical Also known in the industry as "Lightpipe, " ADAT optical is the most popular multichannel digital audio interface in the world. In addition to support by all of Alesis' multitrack recorders, ADAT optical is widely supported by digital mixers, computer audio interfaces, third-party multitrack recorders, and even synthesizers and samplers. Word Clock Word Clock has been described as a sort of digital "metronome" that can control sample timing. Although digital clock is transmitted over such connections as AES/EBU and ADAT Optical, some situations call for one central and stable clock. For example, if you're interconnecting more than two devices, you can use Word Clock as a central master to ensure that all of the connected units are receiving the same clock information at the same time. 17 2 Signal Connections AES/EBU Connections The AI4 uses standard XLR jacks for connecting to AES/EBU devices. Cables should conform to the AES3-1992 specification: shielded balanced lines with a nominal input impedance of 100 Ohms from 100kHz­2. 288MHz. The female jacks handle the incoming signal from AES/EBU compatible units such as digital mixers, A/D converters, DAT decks and others; the male jacks send outgoing signal to these same devices. You can connect the output of S/PDIF devices to the AI4's AES jacks, but these connections must still travel through a balanced line. [. . . ] Connect one of the AI4's AES/EBU outputs to the MasterLink's AES/EBU input 3. Connect up to three additional AI4 AES/EBU outputs to the AES inputs of the digital mixer 4. Connect The MasterLink's and the mixer's digital outputs to the respective AES/EBU inputs on the AI4 5. Connect the word clock generator to the AI4's Word Clock input 6. [. . . ]