Hey,

I have a Presonus 1818vsl. I recently won an auction on ebay for an Echo Audio Layla 24/96 for $40, which 10 years ago was over a $1000, I figured the A/Ds should still be good enough today. The plan is to connect it via ADAT to my presonus. In addition, Im planning on getting an ART Voice Channel and connecting it via S/pdif to the same presonus.

If I want to use the presonus as the master clock, will the others automatically sync up through the digital connections? or should I run a word clock from the out of the Presonus to the in of the ART, and the thru of the ART to the Layla?

 

not sure the proper order, with multiple interfaces it can often take some trial and error.... so I would do what you suggested first, (in theory it should all work, with the light pipe and all)... but you might want to look into getting a "master" word clock for all devices, seeing as these are all from different manufacturers and span decades of technology and are different levels of quality.... someone may have a better answer, but I usually have to try a few different ways first,, usually having the "best" interface, say if I had an apollo or apogee or something, being the master, ....

 

as for sync any device that is receiving a adat bitstream in can sync to the device that's sending it so in theory you could save your self one bnc cable and use the adat sync. then use bnc for the art voice channel to sync its clock. but you will be limited to a sample rate of 44.1/48 khz.
are you planing to use the layla to expand your presonus analogue io?
well heres a few things to consider, as far as i can remember the laya don't work as a standalone converter (it as been about 15 years since iv used one).
so your going to have to set up the card for direct monitoring and pass the analogue in to adat out and the adat ins to the analogue outs.(if the software mixer allows)
to do that you will need to install the card which is a pci slot card so i hope your system is not to new and only has pci-e slots.
then there is the issue of drivers i think there where only up to vista.

personally id just grab a focusrite octopre and save your self some time messing with the layla.
they where good cards in there time but the drivers became ropey as time went on.

 

Yes I wanted additional, none combo jack i/os.

Ahhh I see, I was afraid of that, but I assumed all devices with ADAT could be used as standalone convertors (because the original idea was so that digital mixers could have only like 12 preamps but 36 mixer channels, and you'd add preamps)
The pci wasnt part of the auction and anyways I'd have no where to install it.