 If you've got an audio interface like this one with an ADAT connection on the back, then you can use that connection to expand it, giving you many more input channels. So let's find out how to expand your interface with ADAT. Hi folks, I'm Mike and I hope you're well. This is the ID 14 Mark II from Audion, a great little audio interface which I reviewed a few months ago. You can see a link for that up above here. Now like many small interfaces out of the box, this has two input channels, but it can be expanded using something called ADAT, up to 10 input channels in this case. Now I'm going to be expanding this today using another product from Audion called the ASP 800, an absolutely renowned microphone preamp. Now the principles in this video don't just apply to Audion products, they apply across the board to many different products from many different manufacturers. And I don't want you to think that this is going to be a complex process. It's really quite simple, but it does help to understand a few simple steps. So let's start off with connecting. So in order to connect our two devices, we're going to need an ADAT cable. I'll put a link for one of those in the description down below. And don't forget when you get yours to take off the protective end caps or else, well they don't plug in very well. Now we're going to start off with the audio interface. Your audio interface may have both ADAT inputs and outputs. And for the purposes of this exercise, we're going to be using an input because we're expanding our inputs with another device. Now in the case of the ID 14 Mark 2, there is only one connection and that is an ADAT input. So we'll insert our ADAT cable there. Don't worry, it can only go in one way. The other end with our mic preamp, we're going to be connecting to the ADAT output. Now there may be more than one ADAT output on your particular device. And I won't go into the complexities of why they're there. It's to do with having different numbers of channels at different sample rates. But for the purposes of this exercise, we are going to be using just the left-hand one on the ASP 800. So we're all connected up, but we do need to adjust some settings with our software. And in order to do that, we need to understand a little bit about clocking. So now that we've got more than one device doing analog to digital audio conversion, we need to make sure they stay in sync with each other in terms of timing. Otherwise, we get all kinds of cracks, pops and other artifacts. So in order to make sure that everything is in sync, we have one device which is in charge of the clock or the timing. And that device is called the master with the other devices being called the slaves. Now it could be that you have your audio interface as the master. And there are some advantages to that because it means when you change sample rate from your door, for example, it'll update on the audio interface. And that will also update on the other devices. However, that's not always possible. In the case of the ID 14 Mark 2 and the ASP 800, they have a one way connection going from the ASP 800 to the ID 14 Mark 2, which means clocking information cannot be sent from the audio interface out to the mic preamp. So in this case, we need to have the ASP 800, the mic preamp as the master and the audio interface as the slave. As I say, with some other devices, it can be done the other way around. And we'll look at that later. So let's start off by taking a look at what we need to do with our software to make all of this happen. Well, by the way, are you finding this video useful? If you are, could you go ahead and hit the like button for me? Do it right away so that you don't forget. It's very much appreciated and it lets YouTube know that it should tell other people about this useful video. Also, if you do like this kind of content, make sure you subscribe and ring the bell so that you're notified about my other videos. Now, let's get stuck into that setup. So here I am looking at the mix of software for my ID 14 Mark 2. And you can see over on the top right, I've got it set up so that I'm showing microphone inputs from my audio interface and optical inputs as well. So I can see on the left those two microphone inputs. But why can I only see two digital or optical inputs over here? Surely I should be seeing eight from my ASP 800. Well, I've got a little bit more setup to do before I can see those. So I'm going to go up to view here, click on that. And then I'm going to go down to show system panel. That is going to show the system panel and I can start off here by going to digital in and selecting ADAT as my digital in type. Now that I've selected that, if I go back to my main mixer, I can indeed see all of those extra eight inputs coming from ADAT as well as the two on my audio interface. So 10 all together. Awesome. But I've got a little bit more setup to do first. So let's go back to that system panel and then let's set up the clock. Remember, we're going to be setting ASP 800, our mic preamp as the master clock source. So in order to do that for preferred clock source, I need to click on Dig 1 here. So I'm no longer using the internal clock. Now you'll notice next to Dig 1, I've got that selected, but it has an amber light showing there. That means not all is quite right yet. And that's because I need to set up the sample rates manually for each device. Remember, this is important. You can no longer just select your sample rate just in your door. You need to select it in your door on the audio interface and also on the master device as well, in this case, the ASP 800. So there's a button on the right hand side of the ASP 800. I use that to select sample rate. Now, just a little side note here, if I keep pressing it so that the light is on the button itself, that means it will be looking for something else to be the master. So this will be in slave mode. If it's flashing, it means it hasn't got sync. But when the button becomes solid, it's sync. But in this case, I want to set the sample rate manually here. So I'm going to keep pressing the button until the light is on 48 kilohertz. Now, I'm selecting 48 kilohertz because that gives me the maximum number of channels. If I have it set to a higher sample rate like 96, I will have fewer inputs available to me via ADAP. Now, I think 48 is just fine. So I'm going to select it there. And then the next thing I need to do is also make sure I set the sample rate on my ID 14 mark two as well. So I'll go back to the mixer here and then I'll go up to set up. Then I'll go down to set sample rate and I'll select 48 kilohertz. So I select 48 kilohertz there. And if I go back to my system panel now and just wait a moment or two, you'll see that now the light has turned green. That means we have sync between the two devices and they're ready to use. Now, you may want to use your audio interface as the master. And if it has some specific features, you can still do that. Let's take a look at that. So on some higher end audio interfaces, you'll also see a connection called a BNC connection for word clock. And the ASP 800 does in fact have one of these connections. Now, once you have this connected up like this to a compatible device, it means that all of the timing or clocking information is being taken care of by that connection and no longer by ADAP. That also means that you can have your audio interface as the master, which, as I said earlier, means that if you change things like the sample rate in your door, it immediately updates on the audio interface and that can pass that through to the other devices. Now, the ASP 800 is such a wonderful mic preamp that it really deserves its own video. In fact, I'm going to make one for you. Maybe I've already made it by the time you watch this, in which case, check the link at the end of this video. Now, don't forget to check the links in the description for both the ID 14 Mark 2 and the ASP 800. They're really worth checking out. They're both great bits of gear. Thank you so much for joining me today. If you've got any questions whatsoever, please do ask in the comments down below. And I'll see you in the next video.