Mackie HDR 24 Technical document
MACKIE
HOOK-UP
GUIDE
HDR24/96
DIGITAL RECORDER
OUR [IN]FAMOUS PRODUCT
HOOKUPS IN BYTE-SIZED MORSELS
Copyright © 2002 Mackie Designs Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Hello and welcome to one of many download-
able web editions of Mackie’s Product Hook-Up
Guide. Since 1992, we’ve been including these
helpful “connection maps” in our In Your Face
product guides, and we’ve been urged to continue
doing so because they’re so gosh-darned help-
ful. Now, we’ve split our hook-ups into product
famlies, and made them available to you over this
new-fangled “Internet” thingy that everyone is
talking about these days.
There will be documents that cover hooking
up our compact VLZ® PRO Series, Analog 8•Bus
Series consoles, CFX Series effects mixers, DFX
Series compact effects mixers, the D8B digital
console, the HDR24/96 hard disk recorder, PPM
Series powered mixers, the FR Series ampliers,
SR Series front-of-house mixers, and our Active
loudspeakers.
Inside you’ll nd lots of useful information
— most likely your questions will be answered
here. We realize that there’s no possible way to
cover every single question or application in so few
pages because new ways to use Mackie products
are invented every day. You may come up with
some ideas on how to do what you want by look-
ing at the various diagrams we’ve included here.
Keep in mind that a good half of the battle in
hooking up our products is having the proper
connections. Check the cables ’n’ plugs that you
already have with the diagrams on the next
page. We know it may look boring, but one of
these drawings could save your life. Well, maybe
not your life, but probably a lot of weeping and
sorrow. And don’t forget to check out the tech
tips/FAQs document also available for download,
as well as on the web at www.mackie.com/record/
techsupport/
If you don’t nd the answers you’re after, then
why not give our mighty Tech Support gang a
call? These folks have tons of experience in the
real world, and they’ve got lots of equipment and
mixers at their beck and call. They’re aching to
share their knowledge with you. (And calling them
would be a very humanitarian thing to do — they’re
located in the dank sub-basement of our building
and they rarely get visitors. Your call just may be
the one that keeps their spirits alive.)
Call Mackie Tech Support toll-free (in the U.S.)
at 800-258-6883 (Monday through Friday, 7 AM
to 5 PM Pacic Time) with any Mackie product-
question you can conjure. Put them through the
wringer! We encourage it.
Incidentally, the Mackie Product Hook-Up Guide
(Web Editions) were put together from within the
connes of the Mackie Digital Mosh Pit — located
on the second oor near the Area Of Refuge — by
the well-meaning, super-preening Mackie Macin-
tosh Department. We used Adobe InDesign®,
Illustrator®, Photoshop®, and Acrobat® on a
number of suped-up big daddy Macs.
Oh yeah: Copyright © 2002 Mackie Designs Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
The following are trademarks or registered trade-
marks of Mackie Designs Inc.: “MACKIE.”, the
“Running Man” gure, VLZ, XDR, D8B, HUI, CFX
Series, FR Series, and HR Series.
PRINTING NOTE: These pages were built 21cm wide (8.26in) by 27.94cm (11in) tall to
accommodate the printers of both our North American users and our users around the
globe. This PDF will print at 100% on both “Letter” sized and “A4” sized paper (with room in
the left margin for hole punching).
OUT
COMPRESSOR
MIXER INSERT
IN
SET IT UP, AND GO!
A VISUAL
GUIDE
DIGITAL
PRO AUDIO PLUGS AND CONNECTORS
KNOW YOUR
PLUGS
Standing for Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), this is used to either
send out or receive longitudinal time code (L
TC) as a positional reference of your playback. SMPTE
is used with standard analog 1/4" cables, even though its application is common to digital and
analog devices. However, we still recommend that you buy an extremely high quality, pre-made
version for sync connections, even if you’re an old hand at wiring analog audio TRS’s.
ADAT™ Optical Connector
SMPTE (1/4¨ TRS)
RJ45 Connector
S/PDIF (RCA-type connector)
Word Clock (BNC connector)
Used for 8-channel digital connections via optical cable to and from
our DIO•8, OPT•8, and OPT•24 I/O cards.
Used for connecting the HDR24/96 or Digital 8•Bus to Ethernet
networks or computers. The Remote cable, (used to connect HDR24/96
recorders to the Remote 24 and Remote 48) also uses a RJ45 connector.
For unbalanced stereo digital I/O to/from the Digital 8•Bus’ Digital I/O.
Resist the temptation to use a standard audio-grade RCA cable. S/PDIF digital data is transmitted
at far higher frequencies and requires a special cable. Use the S/PDIF jack to connect the Digital
8•Bus to any number of stereo digital recorders, CD burners, or PCI sound cards.
Used to sync the sampling clocks of all Mackie's digital products. This connector must be used to
synchronize (or align) the sampling clocks of multiple digital devices, which allows digital audio
data to pass from one device to another. All of our digital recorders and consoles can act as a
master clock source, or as a slave to a common word clock source.
Welcome to the
wonderful world of digital
connectors. Sheesh! It
was so much easier when
there were only a couple
of kinds of analog plugs.
And what’s worse, two of
the digital connectors
(AES/EBU & S/PDIF) look
like an analog jacks but
emphatically aren’t. Plus
one of them looks like an
analog connector
(SMPTE) and is basically
the same as the
corresponding analog
plug. Go figure.
Even if you’re a whiz at
soldering, we don’t
recommend trying to
cobble up any of the
digital plug and
connectors shown on this
page. These cables
transmit far higher
frequencies than analog
audio and require arcane
shielding and pin
polarities. If you’re
making digital
connections to our
HDR24/96, or Digital
8•Bus, we recommend
biting the bullet and
buying pre-made versions
from your friendly Mackie
dealer. Purchasing good
quality cables now can
prevent a lot of
troubleshooting down
the line.
MIDI (Plug) MIDI (Jack)
MIDI “Breakout" Connector
AES/EBU (XLR-style)
Used for sending or receiving MIDI Time Code (MTC) or MIDI Machine Control (MMC) between all
MDS products. Typical use of this jack would be an MDR24/96 receiving MMC messages coming
from the D8B, so that you can use the on-board PLAY, STOP, REW, and FF buttons as a transport.
Instead of two separate MIDI ports,
Mackie uses a single 9-pin MIDI connector
that carries both MIDI In and MIDI Out
signals simultaneously. We conveniently
include one of our adaptors with every
digital recorder and mixer we sell.
For professional, balanced stereo digital I/O to/from the Digital 8•Bus’ Digital I/O section.
Resist the temptation to use a standard audio-grade XLR cable. AES/EBU digital audio data is
transmitted a far higher frequencies and requires a special cable. Use the AES/EBU output to
connect to any number of stereo mastering devices or DVD/CD/DAT recorders.
DIGITAL PLUGS CONTINUED
HDR 24
/96
ANALOG
RECORDING
HDR 24
/96
DIGITAL
RECORDING
DUAL HDR 24
/96
WITH REMOTE 48
AND DUAL D8B
SET IT UP, AND GO!SET IT UP, AND GO!SET IT UP, AND GO!
Signals to Recorder
Signals from Recorder
AIO•8
Tape Returns
1–24
SUBMASTER/TAPE OUT
(or Direct Out) 1–24
24•8 Analog Console
AIO•8 AIO•8
HDR24/96
HDR 24
/96
ANALOG
RECORDING
HDR 24
/96
DIGITAL
RECORDING
DUAL HDR 24
/96
WITH REMOTE 48
AND DUAL D8B
SET IT UP, AND GO!SET IT UP, AND GO!SET IT UP, AND GO!
HDR 24
/96
ANALOG
RECORDING
HDR 24
/96
DIGITAL
RECORDING
DUAL HDR 24
/96
WITH REMOTE 48
AND DUAL D8B
SET IT UP, AND GO!SET IT UP, AND GO!SET IT UP, AND GO!
ADAT OPTICAL
IN OUT
APOGEE
DIGITAL I/O
ADAT OPTICAL
IN OUT
APOGEE
DIGITAL I/O
ADAT OPTICAL
IN OUT
APOGEE
DIGITAL I/O
ADAT OPTICAL
IN OUT
APOGEE
DIGITAL I/O
ADAT OPTICAL
IN OUT
ADAT OPTICAL
IN OUT
ADAT OPTICAL
IN OUT
APOGEE
DIGITAL I/O
APOGEE
DIGITAL I/O
APOGEE
DIGITAL I/O
WORD
CLOCK
OUT
WORD
CLOCK
IN
SYNC
CARD
WORD
CLOCK
OUT
WORD
CLOCK
IN
75�TERM
SMPTE
SYNC
REMOTE
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next page
Contuinued from
previous page
DUAL HDR/D8B HOOK-UP PT 1
Contuinued on
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Contuinued from
previous page
ADAT OPTICAL
IN OUT
APOGEE
DIGITAL I/O
ADAT OPTICAL
IN OUT
APOGEE
DIGITAL I/O
ADAT OPTICAL
IN OUT
APOGEE
DIGITAL I/O
ADAT OPTICAL
IN OUT
APOGEE
DIGITAL I/O
ADAT OPTICAL
IN OUT
ADAT OPTICAL
IN OUT
ADAT OPTICAL
IN OUT
APOGEE
DIGITAL I/O
APOGEE
DIGITAL I/O
APOGEE
DIGITAL I/O
WORD
CLOCK
OUT
WORD
CLOCK
IN
SYNC
CARD
WORD
CLOCK
OUT
WORD
CLOCK
IN
75�TERM
SMPTE
SYNC
REMOTE
DUAL HDR/D8B HOOK-UP PT 2
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