OK, first we need to differentiate between MIDI timing/clock/sync and digital audio clock. MIDI clock thinks in terms of musical notes and measures and is used to synchronize devices to the music's tempo. The M-1000 doesn't do MIDI of any kind. If you need MIDI synced, you plug the MIDI out of your computer/sequencer to the MIDI in of the device you want to synchronize and set it to use the external MIDI clock.
Digital audio clocking is totally different, and it is
always necessary for the device sending the signal and the device receiving the signal to use
the same clock (
unless you're using a device like the M-1000 that re-clocks the input to the output). Otherwise you will get loud and horrible clicks and pops instead of audio. The digital clock signal is either sent along with the s/pdif audio signal or via dedicated a word clock that carries only the clocking information.
If the devices have digital inputs or word clock input, you need to send them each
the same digital clock either via their s/pdif input or word clock. They will each need to be set to "external clock". The difficulty (!) here is to route and configure multiple things so each gets
the same clock. If everything accepts word clock, this is much easier.
Where the M-1000 is fantastic is for devices with only coax s/pdif outs, but no digital inputs or word clock to allow for an external clock. You just plug each one into the M-1000's 4 digital inputs, and it re-clocks them (and mixes them) to either it's own clock, the clock arriving at digital input 1, or word clock in.
Note that digital input 1 is
either optical or coax, 2 and 3 are coax only, and 4 is
either coax or the output from the computer if using the USB audio feature. There is only 1 analog input, but there are both Master (balanced XLR and optical + coax s/pdif) and Monitor (RCA and headphone) outputs.
post edited by drewfx1 - 2010/07/25 12:31:55