"Illegal SPDIF input clock rate"

    Hi there,


    I have my Virus TI's SPDIF I/O hooked up to the breakout box on a Create Audigy ZS using kxAudio drivers. Host OS is Windows 7 x64.


    The display on my virus has the error message "Illegal SPDIF input clock rate" when I plug it in. This message persists when I power cycle the virus and disconnect/reconnect the cables.


    Windows sound settings have the Audigy card set to 48khz. The option in the CONFIG menu is blacked out and says "Sync to Host", even when I am not running the Virus VST.


    If I unplug the USB, the message changes to say there is a problem with SPDIF clock settings on the output. If I plug the USB back in, sometimes there is no error message (it will say "Audio clock changed" then "USB link established" then go to normal), and sometimes it returns to "Illegal SPDIF input clock rate"


    I'd like to use the digital ins/outs but I do not understand what the problem is with my clock settings. Everything is in sync.


    Thanks!


    Tom

    I fear you won't get a solution, I tried to get this resolved with Access support but got nowhere…


    i showed them, I tried different cables, both 44 and 48khz etc…


    They told me either :
    a) I had hardware fault with my spdif on the virus
    b) my Focusrite audio interface clock was not running at the correct speed.


    I did point out to them the following


    a) hardware fault
    SPDIF input for vocoder works perfectly - SPDIF is digital, therefore if an audio signal can get through, the clock signal can..
    similarly, I am able to sync over USB…
    it therefore seem very unlikely I have a hardware fault
    b) audio card fault….
    - my mac is able to sync to the audio card without trouble (ok not over spdif, but remember this is a transport mechanism)
    - many others have complained of the same issue with different audio interfaces… and on different operating systems
    - surely the point of being a slave to another clock is that you (Virus TI) adapt to it.
    - I've trawled the internet, and seen no other complaints of the focusrite sapphire pro 14, spdif clock issues… this and the pro 24 are probably one of the most popular AIs out there…


    now… in my eyes as a software engineer, when you get these kind of inputs to a problem, it indicates probably an issue with your software…
    yes, i know its possible… that my hardware could have a fault, or my audio interface could have a fault,
    but balance of probability is much higher that its the TI firmware!


    of course, its easy for access to say its my problem, since they know I would have to ship the virus to germany (cost around 300+ eur!) or buy another audio interface (again more expense) i.e. i have to spend 500 eur to get a non-broken TI to be repaired and buy another AI … which the balance of probably will give me nothing… and then will Access accept it, probably not… they will say get another AI, repair it again…


    the issue for me, is there are not enough people here using spdif (most give-up) to convince access that this is not just my problem


    so please, please… chase this up with Access, and get them to help you get your spdif working,
    and report back here please.


    If they can't then access must accept its not a particular TI or AI,
    if they can, excellent, I will know something is up with my setup, and know its worth spending some money to resolved.


    Marc, sorry I don't mean to sound ungrateful, I was happy that you tried to resolve the issue, but this unwillingness to accept that perhaps there is an issue is really frustrating given the facts and the hours i spent trying different things to alleviate the issue


    … and this came about at the same time as you telling me, that to act as an fx unit the digital output of the spdif has to be resampled, as the input and output clock of the virus ti is not synced… again something I'm amazed about!


    lets give spdif some love, it could be a very useful feature, but at the moment, its virtually unusable


    sorry OP, doesn't help your situation, but I thought it might be useful , so you can try to push it with Access support.
    (if you need any info on what I tried just let me know …. I'm working on MacOSX 10.9/5.0.7 though its the same on 10.8/5.03)

    ps. some have said you can solve the issue, by powering up the virus after the AI, in reality, this just is a UI bug, where the TI says it is sync'd but its not really… if you try this enough times, you will can hear the sync is not achieved sometimes.
    the only solution, I've found is to use the TI as master and set you AI to slave.


    of course, this irrelevant when you switch to usb… in that case the TI will always sync to host (your computer), and then your computer can be sync'd to the AI (as master) … the only draw back of this, is that this forces you to do midi over usb too.
    and of course doesn't work if your computer is turned off, at which point you have to switch you AI to slave, and TI as master again -arghh, such a pain.

    For those who are able to meassure the S/PDIF:

    Is this a common problem or does it occur with specific sources only? In a project we experienced some issues with several sound cards when analyzing the S/PPID quality which was not always in SPEC. I tight PLL in the sink device ran into problems.