[ardour-users] Spdiff stereo confusion

[Wolfgang Woehl]

Frank smith <fsmith at walescomputers.co.uk>:
> Hi
> I have about 16 tracks in Ardour and am sending them from ardour to 2
> tracks to my RME
> spdiff inputs Capture 17 and 18
>
> I can then mix on my DDX as I dump the two master tracks to ardour as
> masters to
> Tracks 18 to 19.
>
> When I play back the two tracks back into the desk (on spdiff) I seem
> to get phasing between the channels.

Assuming the phasing is not between 18/19 and the unmuted mix (1-16) 
because of bad alignment I'd check Sync Reference settings in hdspconf 
whether they are what you want.

> Am I sending two lots of left and right here?  spdiff confuses me in
> relation to L+R.

Your spdif capture 17 would be "left". 18 would be "right".

> Ardour just sees the spdiff as another two inputs from my Hammerfall
> ( there is no actual controller within Linux for the card)

Which is what they are. You could handle them seperately if you desired 
so. But usually they're treated as the stereo pair most people need.

> Also I don't know if this is known but as I select the track outputs
> ( 1 to 16 back to the desk the channel lights show noise on the first
> two segments
> of the channel strips,  although I can't actually hear anything on
> the individual channels)
> Is this a known problem with the Hammerfall in Linux?
> ( it seems the inputs are at full output all the time)

Check the "Auto Input" Button in Ardour's editor.
Wolfgang