cheap ART wordclock

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Chris_Avakian
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cheap ART wordclock

Post by Chris_Avakian » Tue Jun 03, 2008 3:07 am

im running a motu 828mkII, and an 828MKI

should i go for it?

that cheap art wordclock sold out in its first day at zzsound, and my friend says it did wonders for his sound. hes running a 24i/o.

will it work with the spdf on the mark 1?

my heart tells me shut up, and buy it already...

thanks,

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Post by @?,*???&? » Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:20 am

This is EXACTLY what I was raving about some manufacturer needing to make in that post from 4 months ago.

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Post by GooberNumber9 » Tue Jun 03, 2008 11:19 am

I've read in many places that usually using anything but the poorest of internal clocks will have less jitter than using an external clock. That doesn't mean an external clock won't improve your sound, and I have wondered lately if some kinds of jitter actually sound good (if that makes any sense).

For myself, I'm considering buying it from Guitar Center or Sweetwater, taking it home and doing some A/B tests, and then returning it if it doesn't sound better with it in place. I kinda figure that's a good way to go with any uncertain product that you can get from a retailer with a decent return policy.

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Re: cheap ART wordclock

Post by newfuturevintage » Tue Jun 03, 2008 12:31 pm

+1 to the notion that unless the clocks in the 828s are really terrible it has more potential to make the sound worse than it does to make the sound better. It does however have serious placebo potential, and looks kinda cool.

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Post by palinilap » Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:46 pm

I had the opportunity to pick one of these up at a big discount, so went ahead and gave it a shot.

I did some comparison tests, one take clocking internally and one externally, and my first impression is that the ART made little if any difference to overall sound quality. It seemed like maybe the highend was a little more focused, but ever so slightly.

This was with a Delta 1010 recording acoustic guitar and voice, so not to say on someone else's system the difference wouldn't be greater.

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Post by @?,*???&? » Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:44 pm

palinilap wrote:I had the opportunity to pick one of these up at a big discount, so went ahead and gave it a shot.

I did some comparison tests, one take clocking internally and one externally, and my first impression is that the ART made little if any difference to overall sound quality. It seemed like maybe the highend was a little more focused, but ever so slightly.

This was with a Delta 1010 recording acoustic guitar and voice, so not to say on someone else's system the difference wouldn't be greater.
And that is what a good word clock can do. In my ear training class, I have similar experience with students. Some hear it, some don't. The fact that you can or can't will certainly dictate how you proceed with your work.

When you come to realize that 7 to 8 db of signal can be gained through having good word clock, then you'll start having more open sounding recordings. Stereo image gets better too. No matter how subtle, every subtly can accrue and equate to open-ness in the end. Sounds totally worth it to me and I haven't even heard this thing yet.

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Post by joel hamilton » Wed Jun 04, 2008 5:40 am

@?,*???&? wrote: No matter how subtle, every subtly can accrue and equate to open-ness in the end.
Exactly. Every single opportunity for "better," no matter how small...

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Post by Smitty » Wed Jun 04, 2008 6:28 am

but is there some sort of quantitative comparison between this and other available units? every product out there has Jitter-Gard? or Stabilitrol? or some other meaningless marketing title.

i have trouble believing that plugging a $150 ARTcessory into my RME Fireface 800 is going to make a positive difference, but maybe i'm missing something....

i'm assuming there's some kind of reason why some clocks cost $8K and this one costs $150?
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Post by Shane Michael Rose » Wed Jun 04, 2008 7:29 am

lets think about this. when was the last time you read about an engineer saying something like "its all about my clock man..."

spend that money on advertising for your service.

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Post by palinilap » Wed Jun 04, 2008 7:37 am

@?,*???&? wrote:
palinilap wrote:I had the opportunity to pick one of these up at a big discount, so went ahead and gave it a shot.

I did some comparison tests, one take clocking internally and one externally, and my first impression is that the ART made little if any difference to overall sound quality. It seemed like maybe the highend was a little more focused, but ever so slightly.

This was with a Delta 1010 recording acoustic guitar and voice, so not to say on someone else's system the difference wouldn't be greater.
And that is what a good word clock can do. In my ear training class, I have similar experience with students. Some hear it, some don't. The fact that you can or can't will certainly dictate how you proceed with your work.

When you come to realize that 7 to 8 db of signal can be gained through having good word clock, then you'll start having more open sounding recordings. Stereo image gets better too. No matter how subtle, every subtly can accrue and equate to open-ness in the end. Sounds totally worth it to me and I haven't even heard this thing yet.
I think my expectations were a little high after hearing comparisons like Black Lion's. I intend to do more testing with, perhaps, more objective ears.

I should also point out that my co-worker purchased the same unit, clocked his Tascam FW410 to it, and supposedly heard an improvement in lowend clarity and stereo imaging.

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Post by GooberNumber9 » Wed Jun 04, 2008 9:52 am

Smitty wrote:but is there some sort of quantitative comparison between this and other available units? every product out there has Jitter-Gard? or Stabilitrol? or some other meaningless marketing title.

i have trouble believing that plugging a $150 ARTcessory into my RME Fireface 800 is going to make a positive difference, but maybe i'm missing something....

i'm assuming there's some kind of reason why some clocks cost $8K and this one costs $150?
Again, a lot of experts seem to agree that if your internal clock is halfway decent then you will have the least jitter (quantitative comparison) using the internal clock. Whether things will sound (qualitative comparison) best on your internal clock is a whole nother issue. Of course the normal assumption is that less jitter means better sound.

In terms of pluggin the ART clock into your Fireface, see the preceding paragraph. :)

Trying to figure out how almost any product is priced is not easy. How much is a painting worth? How much is a diamond worth? In the world of audio, there is a mixture of technology and art, and while the technology can be very expensive to very cheap, almost any price can be placed on art.

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Post by Chris_Avakian » Wed Jun 04, 2008 10:26 am

if it helps just keeping my interfaces in line its worth it to me.

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Post by newfuturevintage » Wed Jun 04, 2008 11:50 am

When you come to realize that 7 to 8 db of signal can be gained through having good word clock
how do you mean?

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Post by @?,*???&? » Wed Jun 04, 2008 2:05 pm

You guys are completely missing the point of this box-

It's not just to swap out and use a different clock than what your DAW already has- it may or may not be better for that application.

It's to give you an external device you can feed to multiple devices- something all low-end consumer DAW stuff couldn't do up to this point.

That's why this thing is imperative. Even if the clock blows (unlikely), you now have the ability to route it to multiple units to stabilize and synchronize them to the same pulse (term used loosely here).

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Post by Leviethan » Thu Jun 05, 2008 6:48 pm

Actually, I believe Cosmo Matassa said in Tape Op that with digital recording, it's ALL about the clock. Dan Lavry swears up and down that external clocking is bad bad bad, unless you're using it to sync multiple devices. I had the Black Lion Microclock for a while, but it was not at all friendly with my MOTU, so I got rid of it. I haven't noticed a drastic drop in quality. Who knows?

Why does a Drawmer pre-amp cost 2500, but an ART costs 300? Because the Drawmer is better made and sounds way better. Why does a Mercedes cost four times as much as a Ford Escort? Because the Mercedes is a better car in every way. But they're both cars right?
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