External send to outboard reverb and return

I have a lexicon MPX 500 back in the UK. I was intending on selling it, but now I am wondering if I can make use of the SPDIF on my UMC1820 and set up a digital send and return to the MPX.

Is anyone using an outboard reverb unit on send and returns?

Sort-of. i as well have an 1820 but my reverb is trs. no spdif.

outboard processing is fiddly but it works. you gotta send your sound to the right outputs, then set up an audio track on the return inputs and enable monitoring (to hear it)

I do this with a much cheaper device the ms70cdr

Afaik (faint memory) bi-directional S/PDIF is not part of the standard and requires special capabilities implemented by the manufacturer. I wouldn‘t expect that on an UMC
If you try, keep the volume way down, as glitches may become loud...

Are you suggesting you can't use the S/Pdif out and the S/Pdif in at the same time? Theye are part of the numbering system in the 18/20 name. The ADAT in and out apparently work at the same time, so I'm confused why it wouldn't.

I'm kind of hoping to figure this out before hand, as it's in the UK, and I'm in Vietnam. I don't really want to outlay on expensive S/Pdif cables and have in Vietnam, if I can just sell it in the UK. Although saying that, the Vietnamese do love their reverb, and to swim in it.

As mentioned, my memory is faint... back in the days I had PCI cards that could do the roundtrip thing via S/PDIF (RME, Creamware) and it was considered a special feature.
Most soundcards couldn‘t do this because of sync (either send or receive) iirc.
But of course specs may have been extended and new driver chips been developed.

Adat is a completely different technology designed for roundtrips. Only the optical transmitters are identical.

Too bad the unit isn‘t at your location to simply try it. S/PDIF cables don‘t need to be expensive, just have 75Ohm specs.
Coax (multimedia) video cables (with yellow plugs) usually work fine.

I';m a bit surprised about that. How long ago was it?

I have (lent to a friend) an MAudio Quad Capture that I bought about 12 years ago (maybe more) which I bought for it having SPDIF, but by that point I was n the box, so never used my rack reverb. I just did a search on that and it led me to the Kemper site, which someone confirmed worked, and another poster confirmed the the UMC1820, and another the Scarlet. So none of these are particularly high end. So I did a search for kemper amps with spidf on youtube and found a video showing a Native Instruments Komplete interface, going in and out.

Lots of posters on the Kemper site also said a standard RCA wil work on short runs, so maybe I'll just get one short 75 ohm spdif and cut in half and fix my own jacks. IU just need about 15cm runs as both units will site on top of each other and have the I/O at roughly the same point.

Sorry, not MAudio QuadCapture, Roland Quad Capture.

My interface before that was a was the MAudio FW1814, but fire wire was a pain and the thing was so unstable even with TI Firewire chips on 2 different laptops. But the manual for that confirms both in and outs can be used at a max of 48KHz, and I got that in the early 2000s

Sorry, didn‘t intend to confuse you, just wanted to mention that S/PDIF isn‘t a standard like Adat that has 1 single mode of operation.
(f.e I have a Digidesign 882/20 that doesn‘t sync as slave to 44.1khz, only 48khz works)

But for such a short distance the „cut in half, add connectors“ idea is likely to work, at least below 96khz (which you probably won‘t use anyway).

No worries, any input is welcome. Ther MPX 500 Manual says there is an option to be either master or the slave, and it can run at either 44.1 or 48.

I've since found these cables, which seem a good price and come in 25cm options and are 75 Ohms. I never understand why short cables seem so much harder to find.
https://www.rhinocables.co.uk/single-ph ... m-to-5m~89

Telefunky wrote:Sorry, didn‘t intend to confuse you, just wanted to mention that S/PDIF isn‘t a standard like Adat that has 1 single mode of operation.
(f.e I have a Digidesign 882/20 that doesn‘t sync as slave to 44.1khz, only 48khz works)

HUH?

S/PDIF is a standard and its based on the AES3 standard. And yes in and out work at the same time.

"ADAT" only has one single mode of operation?? What about S/MUX? And the fact that it can also switch between TOSLINK and S/PDIF?

@Neodynium - it should work fine. Send an output over SPDIF to the MPX, then bring the MPX back in via S/PDIF and set some track to the S/PDIF input. I used to do this in Logic with my 500 and my MOTU all the time. The I/O of the 1820 is all independent and can be used in and out at the same time. You're going to have some latency, the only MPC with 'real time' monitoring is the X, but if you just want to print effects, it'll work fine, you just might have to nudge the tracks back into time after you record them.

lol i musta been stoned when i replied to this or not reading.

I kind of guessed to expect some latency, and no delay compensation function. But as I'm thinking of using it just for reverb and as the main larger hall type reverbs, that shortening the predelay and overall time should counter act that a little. So this effect compared to pretty my any other should have the least impact from system delay. I am wondering if by going S/Pdif, if the delay would be a touch shorter as no D/A and A/D conversion is taking place.

It did cross my mind if only one route only was available, that although I am maxed out on my analog inputs, the UMC has 8 outputs I'm not even touching, so I could use an analogue out and a digital in. But I can't see anything suggesting that only one S/Pdif will work at a time.

I think I've already persuaded myself to bring this unit to Vietnam and dive it a go.

If you do analog out to and digital in from the effect, then it will mean the UMC will have to audio-clock-sync as slave to the incoming SPDIF. Unless you have a word clock setup. Not necessarily a bad thing, but might be good to keep in mind.

There's a setting in the MPX for it to use internal clock or clock from the incoming SPDIF. SO I may have the option to slave the Akai to the MPX even with both ins and outs on SPDIF

It'll be fine. Just set the MPX to sync to the MPC's clock. S/PDIF should work like any pair of analog ins and outs. If you need to use an analog output, just switch the MPX to get its input from analog, S/PDIF output will still work as it should.