Utilities
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Section 5 QUANTUM®
QUANTUM User Manual
The QUANTUM’s “Utility” section contains many important operations. These operations affect
the QUANTUM on a global scale. This means that any changes that are made to this section
affect all the presets. This global setup helps keep patching/routing consistent through all pre-
sets. If you are matching clocks, connecting inputs and outputs, or programming MIDI CC’s, this
is where it all happens.
For users who have connected and used digital gear before, most of the following operations
are very intuitive. However, for those users inexperienced with digital I/O, let’s go into a bit of
detail about digital connections.
CONNECTIONS
First, connecting digital inputs is not like jamming a patch cord into your patch bay or FX unit
and calling it good. There is a lot more information sent over digital lines than just the digitized
audio. Connecting one digital output to an input isn’t the end of the story. Once you have set
up your digital connections, all of the units in the chain are not only receiving digitized audio,
they are also slaved to a master clock. The quality of your cables, master clock, connection,
length of cable, etc., affect how each unit will behave. Cable lengths should be kept as short
as possible.
The industry standard formats at this time are AES/EBU, and S/PDIF. AES/EBU is characterized
by a three-pin XLR-style cable. S/PDIF is characterized by a coaxial RCA-style cable. One of the
most common user errors is to confuse analog XLR cables with AES/EBU cables, or analog RCA
cables with S/PDIF cables. Always buy specified AES/EBU and S/PDIF cables. AES/EBU cables
are 110 ohms, and S/PDIF cables are 75 ohms. Incorrect impedance will cause sync errors and
other digital nastiness.
INPUT
Set this to match the input you are connecting.
CLOCK
Set this to match the frequency that you would like the QUANTUM to operate it’s internal clock
at. If the QUANTUM is slaved to a jittery master clock, the QUANTUM will clean up the jitter
and output only clean and steady clock frequencies. If you are unsure of your master clock
device, we recommend you use the QUANTUM as the master. The choices are: (internal) INT96,
INT88.2, INT48, INT44.1, (SuperClock) SC48, SC44.1, Word, AES/EBU, and S/PDIF. The
SuperClock frequencies are 256 times the sample frequency.
SRC
This changes the sample rate that the QUANTUM will convert to. The choices are INT44.1 and
INT48, Word, SC48, SC44.1.
OUTPUT
This changes the digital output format between AES/EBU and S/PDIF.
BNC FREQ
This changes the MASTER CLOCK output between Word Clock and 256 SuperClock.
All crystals have slight amounts of variance. By slaving all digital units to a master BNC clock,