Apollo - Optical from MacBook into ADAT

stephen

New Member
Hey guys!

First post here. Been a very informative place to get info from since getting my Apollo a few years back :)

My current setup is a silver Apollo firewire connected to a new trash can MacPro desktop. I'm now trying to incorporate my Macbook into this setup. I've bought an optical cable and am running light pipe out of my macbook's headphone out jack into the ADAT input of the Apollo. I'm getting no sound what so ever :/ The Macbook it seems has switched over to Digital Out (as evident in Audio/Midi Setup), but I've tried playing audio through iTunes and VLC and nothing is coming through into the console app on the Mac Pro desktop.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Stephen
 

Don Schenk

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Hi stephen, Welcome. Glad you finally made it here.

I believe my MBP only only sends optical S/PDIF through the headphone jack. Is your Apollo a Twin or a rack-mount?

I have the SF Apollo Quad rack-mount, and its ADAT is optical of course, but the only S/PDIF I/O it can accept is coaxial. On the other hand, the Twin's ADAT is optical, and can accept an optical S/PDIF instead of the ADAT.

If your Apollo is a Twin, it should work. If your Apollo is a rack-mount, then you probably need an optical-to-coaxial S/PDIF adapter, unless there is a way to makd the MBP output an ADAT signal.

Let's see in anyone can back me up on this.

:- Don

EDIT: I just looked at a photo of the back of an Apollo 8 and and Apollo 8p. The 8 has coaxial S/PDIF connectors, but there are not any S/PFIF connectors on the 8p. I wonder if an 8p can accept an optical S/PDIF through one of its ADAT ports?

Then to the manuals...

In the Apollo 8p manual: "Lightpipe I/O can be switched to S/PDIF optical with sample rate conversion"

In the Apollo 8 manual is this: "Two channels coaxial S/PDIF I/O with sample rate conversion"

In the Apollo SF is this: "The S/PDIF ports provide two channels of digital I/O with resolutions up to 24-bit at 192 kHz via female phono (RCA) connectors. For optimum results, use only high-quality 75-ohm cables specifically designed for S/PDIF digital audio."

In the Twin manual is this: "Two channels S/PDIF optical with sample rate conversion"
 
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stephen

New Member
Hi stephen, Welcome. Glad you finally made it here.

I believe my MBP only only sends optical S/PDIF through the headphone jack. Is your Apollo a Twin or a rack-mount?

I have the SF Apollo Quad rack-mount, and its ADAT is optical of course, but the only S/PDIF I/O it can accept is coaxial. On the other hand, the Twin's ADAT is optical, and can accept an optical S/PDIF instead of the ADAT.

If your Apollo is a Twin, it should work. If your Apollo is a rack-mount, then you probably need an optical-to-coaxial S/PDIF adapter, unless there is a way to makd the MBP output an ADAT signal.

Let's see in anyone can back me up on this.

:- Don

EDIT: I just looked at a photo of the back of an Apollo 8 and and Apollo 8p. The 8 has coaxial S/PDIF connectors, but there are not any S/PFIF connectors on the 8p. I wonder if an 8p can accept an optical S/PDIF through one of its ADAT ports?

Then to the manuals...

In the Apollo 8p manual: "Lightpipe I/O can be switched to S/PDIF optical with sample rate conversion"

In the Apollo 8 manual is this: "Two channels coaxial S/PDIF I/O with sample rate conversion"

In the Apollo SF is this: "The S/PDIF ports provide two channels of digital I/O with resolutions up to 24-bit at 192 kHz via female phono (RCA) connectors. For optimum results, use only high-quality 75-ohm cables specifically designed for S/PDIF digital audio."

In the Twin manual is this: "Two channels S/PDIF optical with sample rate conversion"
Hi Don!

Thanks so much for the reply and the welcome - It's great to be here! :)

My Apollo is the silver face rack mount. It has both ADAT and SPDIF on the back.

So I'll need an adaptor? There's no way to switch it over? I don't think its possible for the MacBook to output a different digital signal, as far as I know anyway.. There is a red light coming through on the other end of the cable once its plugged into the Macbook, so its doing something.
 

Don Schenk

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Yes. I'm using the SF and an MBP. The only S/PDIF with the SF is coaxial. I do input an S/PDIF signal in Console, but it is from a pair of outboard channel strips (ISA-430) that have a coaxial digital output. I send that into the SF Apollo's coaxial S/PDIF inputs.

It would be this kind of device:

From Amazon - Converter

From B&H - Converter

I don't know anything about the quality of these devices. You can also probably find one at your local computer store. If you are in the United States, I suspect Best Buy and/or Microcenter might have them.

:- Don
 

jnTracks

Venerated Member
Note that S/pdif is 2 channels only, not 8 like ADAT.

Hope that is all you need for whatever your plans are with the MBP.
 

stephen

New Member
Yes. I'm using the SF and an MBP. The only S/PDIF with the SF is coaxial. I do input an S/PDIF signal in Console, but it is from a pair of outboard channel strips (ISA-430) that have a coaxial digital output. I send that into the SF Apollo's coaxial S/PDIF inputs.

It would be this kind of device:

From Amazon - Converter

From B&H - Converter

I don't know anything about the quality of these devices. You can also probably find one at your local computer store. If you are in the United States, I suspect Best Buy and/or Microcenter might have them.

:- Don

Note that S/pdif is 2 channels only, not 8 like ADAT.

Hope that is all you need for whatever your plans are with the MBP.
Yes, I only need two channels. I just want to use my Macbook to play back audio and video through the Apollo's inputs. My analog inputs on the Apollo are all taken up and I'm not using the ADAT, so I figured it would just use the first two channels of that if I connected it to the Macbook.

So what you guys are saying is, the Macbook does indeed output optical audio / light pipe, but encoded only as spdif? And the Apollo can only accept that signal in its spdif input and not the ADAT input?
 

jnTracks

Venerated Member
Yes to the first one.

My Apollo is a BF unit and I believe it's switchable... You should consult your manual with regards to the optical connection.
 

stephen

New Member
Yes to the first one.
Ah.. Thats really annoying :(

So really the only solution here is to get a mini toslink - toslink cable (which is what I have) and an adaptor for the one end to spdif/rca? There's no single cable that can do the trick?

My Apollo is a BF unit and I believe it's switchable... You should consult your manual with regards to the optical connection.
Checked the manual but no info on switching.
 

Don Schenk

Administrator
Forum Admin
Moderator
Yes, the adapter takes the optical S/PDIF from the MBP headphone jack and converts it to a electrical digital signal for coaxial S/PDIF.

But I don't know whether it is 2-way (from and to MBP). I've never used that. That may depend on the type/brad/model of adapter. Maybe Justin knows...

:- Don
 

ronmac

Active Member
Yes, the adapter takes the optical S/PDIF from the MBP headphone jack and converts it to a electrical digital signal for coaxial S/PDIF.

But I don't know whether it is 2-way (from and to MBP). I've never used that. That may depend on the type/brad/model of adapter. Maybe Justin knows...

:- Don
Both of the links are for uni-directional conversion, so will work for getting digital signal out of the macbook to apollo, but unable to return audio from your system back to the macbook.
 

stephen

New Member
Both of the links are for uni-directional conversion, so will work for getting digital signal out of the macbook to apollo, but unable to return audio from your system back to the macbook.
Thats perfectly ok. No need to send anything back to the Macbook :)

Thanks for all the help guys! This has however turned out to be a bit more costly than I would have hoped! haha
 

jnTracks

Venerated Member
Now that I'm actually sitting in the studio I see that my BF rack Apollo also can't switch it's optical port, so that must be the Twin only that can do that as these all have coaxial inputs.
 

stephen

New Member
Now that I'm actually sitting in the studio I see that my BF rack Apollo also can't switch it's optical port, so that must be the Twin only that can do that as these all have coaxial inputs.
Wow! I'm very surprised. We buy the higher end devices for the better features and now it turns out a lesser unit than what we have has a feature that we don't! Not cool at all UA!
 

iDt

Active Member
I think the real question that needs to be asked is why you're trying to pipe the audio through the Digital Out of the MBP rather than just using a VC to do it?
 

stephen

New Member
I think the real question that needs to be asked is why you're trying to pipe the audio through the Digital Out of the MBP rather than just using a VC to do it?
Hey man, what do you mean? How could a virtual channel work in this situation?
I'd have to connect the Macbook up somehow as the Apollo is connected to my desktop computer. I'm just trying to get the Macbook's audio (iTunes etc) to play through the Apollo.
 

stephen

New Member
Stephen, since I am using the S/PDIF for something other than the Mac, I didn't think to mention the virtual channel setup. Here is a link to a thread with a very good explanation about sending the Mac's core audio through the VC.

http://uadforum.com/apollo-interfaces/21731-how-send-system-sound-uad-console-mac.html

:- Don
Thanks Don!! Great tip there :)

This would work perfectly fine if I was using my Macbook as my work system.
But since I'm using two computers, with the Apollo connected via Firewire/thunderbolt to my desktop, I need to send the Macbook's audio into the Apollo by input. I was hoping a simple ADAT connected would be the answer, but apparently it's a bit more complicated than that :/
 

iDt

Active Member
Hey man, what do you mean? How could a virtual channel work in this situation?
I'd have to connect the Macbook up somehow as the Apollo is connected to my desktop computer. I'm just trying to get the Macbook's audio (iTunes etc) to play through the Apollo.
Apologies! I missed the fact that you were working with two independent systems. Is there a reason you need to use digital? If not, your simplest solution would be to get a 1/8" stereo to 1/4" dual mono (L/R) and go analog from the MBP to the MP.

EDIT - And I missed that your analog inputs are all in use. Going from S/PDIF to ADAT is a practical impossibility without converters of some sort in the mix. I feel like there was a post in the past few months talking about this specifically relating to an 8/8P which didn't have the Coax S/PDIF on it. I'll see if I can't dig it up.
 
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stephen

New Member
Apologies! I missed the fact that you were working with two independent systems. Is there a reason you need to use digital? If not, your simplest solution would be to get a 1/8" stereo to 1/4" dual mono (L/R) and go analog from the MBP to the MP.

EDIT - And I missed that your analog inputs are all in use. Going from S/PDIF to ADAT is a practical impossibility without converters of some sort in the mix. I feel like there was a post in the past few months talking about this specifically relating to an 8/8P which didn't have the Coax S/PDIF on it. I'll see if I can't dig it up.
Yea its a bit of a pain. I feel with the cost of a good quality optical cable and the cost of an optical / coax adaptor plus import fees (as I'm not in the US), its just not worth it.
When I upgrade to an Apollo 16 in the near future ill just run analog in from the Macbook. Seems the easiest and less-of-a-hassle-way to do it.



Thanks for the help and advice though guys :) I really appreciate it !!
 

Don Schenk

Administrator
Forum Admin
Moderator
Yea its a bit of a pain. I feel with the cost of a good quality optical cable and the cost of an optical / coax adaptor plus import fees (as I'm not in the US), its just not worth it.
When I upgrade to an Apollo 16 in the near future ill just run analog in from the Macbook. Seems the easiest and less-of-a-hassle-way to do it.



Thanks for the help and advice though guys :) I really appreciate it !!
I would think you could find the adapter locally - at a computer store, or an appliance store that sells TVs and stereos. It should be a pretty common item.

:- Don
 
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