1

Does anyone successfully use a Cranborne 500ADAT with Cubase that would be willing to share some screenshots of the ‘Audio Connections’ ins and outs and Studio Setup?

-Preferably with an RME interface… and even better if it’s a Babyface

I recently got a hold of the unit and would love to use it, but so far I’m not having any luck getting it setup. At first I thought I probably screwed something up in TotalMix… but the inputs show up in Cubase, which implies to me that it’s working.

It’s connected via ADAT In/Out on the Babyface , which is new to me. I’ve never used ADAT ports on my interface and haven’t even touched TotalMix in years as everything was working perfectly. Dip switches on the 500ADAT are set to Internal and 48k with 500ADAT as clock master and Babyface set to slave.

What I am trying to do with it is route existing audio (vocal track, bass/gtr track, etc) out of Cubase through the 500ADAT (1 or more modules) and back in again. The idea being I can use some combination of the 500 series hardware to treat the outbound audio and record the changes on the way back in to Cubase.

2

Well… good news and bad news. Turns out the RME is stuck in SPDIF mode in my OS. So I’m not crazy, it wasn’t passing audio.

I had Sweetwater support confirm my setup and that was found. It should be switching to ADAT automatically… but 6 channels are disabled and the other other 2, AS1 and AS2, are the only ones functioning, which implies SPDIF. They’re reaching out to RME for assistance.

3

The driver control panel of your Babyface does not offer a setting like this?
grafik

Personally I would make the Babyface the clock master and the Cranborne the slave. RME usually have a good, tight and steady clock.

4

I know RME upgraded the clock circuit on its latest iteration of Babyface to match their more expensive interfaces. Perhaps OP has an older Babyface?

5

It is set to ADAT. According to my best efforts and the Sweetwater Tech Support rep, the setup is correct.

I got the Babyface Pro FS in 2022. The Cranborne clock is supposed to be superior and it’s recommended by them to use the 500ADAT as master with the RME as slave.

I can swap their relationship, but doing so involves unracking the unit and changing the DIP switches on the back. So I’m not too keen on that test, especially when I have followed the recommended setup precisely. Due to cable lengths and my desk, I’d have no choice but to re-rack the unit to see if it works. It’s 4U and has five 500 series modules in it, one of them taking up two slots… so, kind of heavy. Even if this test worked, it wouldn’t explain why the setup isn’t working as excepted/recommended. So, for these reasons, it would be a last resort before returning the unit for a replacement.

SW rep believes the OS, Audio MIDI Setup, is not recognizing ADAT 3-8 channels and is behaving as though AS1 and AS2 are set to SPDIF, even though they are not. I watched him check everything via TeamViewer and have no reason to doubt him, he seemed quite knowledgeable. I created this thread shortly before speaking to him. I was certain I botched the routing in TotalMix before he reset it, reconfigured it, and got the same result

6

What sample rate is set on the 500ADAT (via the DIP switches at the back)?

7

I think they gave that info already.

8

So after lots of fiddling around I finally figured out that when the 500ADAT is set to Clock Master, it has to be booted after the RME interface. Seems backwards, but it works every time in Ableton Live if done that way.

That brings me back to Cubase. Routing in Live is pretty basic and I’m much more familiar with it, which is why I used it for troubleshooting.

In Cubase, I set up External FX as follows:

image
image3021×2745 1.11 MB

I’m adding ADAT 3 (a compressor with a VU meter) as an Insert on a track for testing.
But… I’m right back to my original issue. There appears to be no signal coming from Cubase… There’s no activity on the Hardware Inputs section (top row) in TotalMix and nothing is hitting the compressor on ADAT3

I’ve never used external hardware with Cubase, other than standard XLR for mics and TRS inputs for bass/gtr on my interface. So I’m probably overlooking something or failing to configure this properly.

Any ideas?

9

Is there a signal on the bottom row of Total Mix - Hardware Outputs, Adat3?
If not is there a signal on the Software Playback Adat 3 channel?

10

Yes

IMG_4834
IMG_48343024×4032 3.02 MB

11

That means that Cubase sends the signal out to the RME interface and from there it goes out to the 500ADAT - but it never returns from there.
By this screenshot the problem happens outside of Cubase or even the computer. Strange, since you say the same setup works well in Ableton Live.

1 Like
12

Thanks for confirming. You’re absolutely right. It was the chain switch on the ADAT500. Since module 2 wasn’t in use, I needed to flip the chain switch between ADAT2 and the ADAT3 channels to Off

1 Like
13

So for as much of a PITA as it was to get this all working (including my mind)… wow, was it worth it. I absolutely LOVE how Cubase treats the hardware like any other plugin.

Thanks so much for your support :pray:t3:

For anyone else looking for information later that stumbles upon this thread, with the 500ADAT as clock master… just make sure to power on the Cranborne unit last in the hardware chain… Mac/PC, interface, 500ADAT, then DAW. That’s the magic bullet that Cranborne, Sweetwater, YouTube, RME forums, and the web in general didn’t have to offer. I wasted countless hours and was even sent a replacement unit and no one ever offered up that piece of info

Also, if you power cycle the unit while Cubase is running and/or turn it on after your project is loaded… Cubase will prompt that the sample rate has changed to 38k :face_with_spiral_eyes: and ask how you want to handle the change…
Go through the motions as though you are closing your project to make the prompt to modify the audio go away (or just close the project without saving and relaunch it)

Hope this helps

2 Likes