World Clocks and Interfaces

[GearMan2point0]

When I was looking up interfaces to buy, I first ran into this interview for Joey Sturgis, in which he listed his gear. I found that he uses Apogee Big Ben, which is a world clock/interface, but what I want to know is what this does. I read some specs on it but it wasn't clear about what is so special about it. I use UX1 for my guitar and bass, and for vocals, I have a PHP1 Phantom Power supply box that I use for my condensers. If I upgraded to a rack, say a better interface with more channels, would that benefit the quality? If it does then what does it do?

1.) RME Interface
2.) Aprogee Big Ben
3.) PreSonus DigiMax D8

 

[Fandus]

Clocks are typically only essential when running more than one convertor. Your interface converts audio from analogue to digital, and it does it at its own internal rate. So if you are using one convertor its not essential, it may improve the sound marginally but most would consider it a waste of cash.

If you have two or more converters, in joeys case the fireface and the digimax both have converters, a clock would be beneficial. While 2 seperate converters may have slight differences in conversion, syncing them to an external clock means they both convert at the exact same rate.

 

[GearMan2point0]

Alright makes sense, what about my UX1, say if I got a more pricy interface, would that result in better detailed audio? As in quality

 

[masque-]

"pricy" doesn't make an interface any better. However, if you got an interface with better converters/preamps it would sound better than the ux1

 

[timislegend]

"word" clock... not "world".

 

[GearMan2point0]

"word" clock... not "world".

muh bad =P. Is there a converter that could possibly help my guitar tones? What about Preamps?

EDIT: Something cheaper obviously.

 

[timislegend]

black lion audio pres.

 

[Trevoire520]

I'm pretty sure I remember Sound on Sound doing a article a while back that showed jitter etc to be worse when syncing an interface using an external word clock compared to using the internal one on your interface. For some setups though using wordclock can be the only option for getting multiple interface/preamps in sync.

 

[GearMan2point0]

Alright I understand what it does now, thanks guys I appreciate the info. So for recording guitar's and bass, as far as Ampsims go, I will just as well off with my ux1 as I would be with say....Xt pro, or RME? The signal won't be any clearer? I realize that some tones that Joey releases, doesn't sound like just PodFarm. It sounds like some analog gear is pushing more power to produce warmer tones. When a chug happens it's full and warm but it has the "tube" sound. Is there something that he uses to get that? Or is it just post production. It can't be the guitar as I have a big collection of guitars and I have recorded many times with a active guitar with new strings.

 

[amarshism]

Have you actually played a tube amp? While joeys tones are great with podfarm and work well with his mixes, I wouldn't say they really resemble a mic'd up tube amp. The clock is not really contributing to his gtr sound either. Decent di, decent pre amp and good conversion. His Gtr would sound the same if he was just using the rme without clocking as it does with the big Ben and the presonus or whatever else he has hooked up.