Behringer Ultramatch Pro SRC2496 User Manual

ULTRAMATCH PRO SRC2496 User Manual

No matter what type of digital audio signal you feed into the ULTRAMATCH PRO, 

it will convert it to a common standard format. Numerous conversion examples 

can be found in daily studio practice:

Conversion of 48 kHz DAT recordings to the CD standard of 44.1 kHz

Conversion of older digital recordings from 44.056 kHz to 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2 

or 96 kHz

Conversion of “foreign” material with 32 kHz to 44.1, 48, 88.2 or 96 kHz

Conversion of audio data with a word length of 24 bits to 20 or 16 bits for 

recording on a digital medium

Conversion of S/PDIF format to AES/EBU for easy mani pulation of various 

parameters and improved (balanced) signal transmission

Setting or removing copy protect bits for further processing of recordings in 

a studio environment

3.2.1  Typical studio application with DAT
Only recently has it become possible to use less expensive DAT recorders 

for direct recording from analog sources with a sampling rate of 44.1 

kHz. Most consumer-level DAT recorders, however, record at 48 kHz. 

Usually, such recordings have to be transferred via an analog connection from 

DAT to a professional recorder. This process results in an unnecessary deterioration 

of the original quality of the material due to the additional D/A and A/D 

converters involved. With the ULTRAMATCH PRO you can eliminate this problem 

by converting the sampling rate purely in the digital domain, which allows for a 

considerably higher quality than you could achieve with analog converters.
Further problems, such as incorrect formats, significantly deviating or unstable 

sampling rates (as long as they do not deviate by more than ±12.5% from the 

current sampling rate), will also be corrected by the ULTRAMATCH PRO in real time, 

thus ensuring the successful transfer of your audio data.

Hard-disk recording applications also require a uniform sampling rate, 

if possible the one used by the subsequent playback medium (CD). As it can 

convert audio material from 32, 48, 88.2 or 96 kHz to the standard 44.1 kHz, 

the ULTRAMATCH PRO makes sure that all sources can be used to feed audio 

material by way of a digital connection.
Of course, the ULTRAMATCH PRO can be inserted at any point in the audio processing 

path, i.e. also between the PC and the DAT recorder. Therefore, with uncritical 

audio material you can process the material at 32 kHz in the recording system 

(or higher, depending on which sampling rates can be processed by the HD 

recording system), and subsequently convert the completely edited material 

while transferring it to a DAT recorder at 44.1 kHz (or even at 48 kHz).

3.2.3  Master/slave problem solver
When a digital mixing console is used, it is at this point—if not earlier—

that master/slave problems will be encountered. The explanation is simple: 

When using CD players, DAT recorder and HD recording systems in their “normal” 

applications, the responsibilities are clearly defined. The playback device is the 

master, the recording device is the slave, i.e. the CD player provides a clock rate of 

44.1 kHz to which the DAT recorder is synchronized.
When using a mixing console, the CD player is the master, the console is the slave. 

However, this model collapses all of a sudden as soon as a DAT recorder is hooked 

up, which does not record but plays back too. The console can synchronize to one 

source only, the audio data from the other source would be processed incorrectly 

because the two devices are not in sync.

The need for synchronization in a digital studio is done justice connecting the 

equipment to one central sync source. For example, the console could be the 

master-supplying the remaining equipment with a reference signal (wordclock). 

However, this will only work if your other equipment has a sync input, i.e. can be 

used as a slave. In a studio with a digital tape machine, digital effects and 

hard-disk recording system it is impossible to connect commercially available CD 

players or DAT recorders to the mixing section of the console simply because they 

cannot be synchronized.
By inserting the BEHRINGER ULTRAMATCH PRO SRC2496 between the equipment 

to be synchronized and the mixing console input, the SRC2496 can deliver 

the audio signal with the studio clock rate entered via the external sync input 

(WORDCLOCK,  

(20)

). In this case, the ULTRAMATCH PRO works as intermediate 

gear of sorts, whose toothed transmission always ensures that there is an 

appropriate gap in the gearwheel. It synchronizes the signal coming from the 

devices to be synchronized, while converting to the desired sampling rate in 

compliance with the wordclock signal.
In a studio with a central clock generator, it is therefore possible to use the 

ULTRAMATCH PRO to connect any unit to any other, regardless of any other 

options available.

3.2.4  Bridging unformatted passages
DAT recorders, in particular, produce tiny format gaps between individual recorded 

passages on the tape when intermittent recordings are made. Also, when you transfer 

older recordings it can happen that short passages with a different sampling 

rate than that of the current recording remain stored on tape. In such cases, 

the ULTRAMATCH PRO converts this host of single pieces of information into a 

continuous data stream with a fixed sampling rate. Even if the DAT recorder 

or any other digital source is stopped or switched off, the ULTRAMATCH PRO 

will continue to generate a continuous signal (depending on the digital signal, 

if synchronized to it).

The original copy protect mechanism used in DAT recorders was simple but 

effective: It was impossible to make digital recordings from a CD. Later, 

a step-by-step mechanism was introduced with SCMS, which allowed at least 

for one digital copy from CD. The routine implemented in SCMS depends on the 

generation (x

th

 copy) and the origin (category) of the digital audio material. 

In professional studio engineering a copy protect mechanism does not make any 

sense, which is why there is none defined in the AES/EBU standard.
Since many studios use inexpensive consumer devices for cost reasons, 

copy protect and/or format incompatibility problems (professional/consumer) 

are encountered frequently. The SRC2496 can ignore all types of copy protect 

information and generate a new, completely free marker that allows for multiple 

copying. Thus, you can use your ULTRAMATCH PRO to copy material from one 

consumer DAT to another. Further information on this subject can be found in 

chapter 2.1.3, section  

(28)

.

A very special feature is the option to influence the set emphasis bit. 

“Emphasis” here means a noise reduction process with a treble boost step 

involved prior to recording. This treble boost is undone during playback. A specific 

bit (emphasis bit) in the digital data stream contains the information whether 

or not the signal has been processed with this technique. It is however NOT a 

modification of the audio signal, but only of the emphasis marker contained in 

the digital data stream.