M-Audio Flying Calf [7/12] Operation

After all connections are made, power up the Flying Calf by

pressing the power button on its front panel.

IMPORTANT: Before powering up the Flying Calf, turn off or

turn down any amplifiers, mixers, or audio converters connect-

ed to the Flying Calf's S/PDIF output. Since it may take several

milliseconds for the Flying Calf to output valid S/PDIF, you

may hear a slight "pop" or “buzz” sound while powering up if

you are monitoring the S/PDIF out .

A typical configuration in which a Flying Calf would be used

includes a Calf, a PC-based digital I/O card, a mixer and an

amplifier/sound system. Such a configuration could be setup as

follows: 1.) the stereo line-level audio outs of the mixer goes into

the analog ins of the Calf, 2.) the S/PDIF out of the Calf goes to

the S/PDIF in of the digital audio card, 3.) another audio out of

the mixer may go to an amplifier/sound system or alternately to

an audio out of the audio card can go to an amplifier/sound sys-

tem.

Operation

The Flying Calf A/D converter accepts analog audio from the left

and right Analog In jacks. These 1/4” audio input jacks expect

unbalanced (tip-sleeve) signals. The analog signals pass through

some analog buffers to the A/D converter, where the audio is dig-

itized at the current sample rate. The A/D converter then drives

the Input Level displays and sends the digitized audio data to the

S/PDIF transmitter. The transmitter formats and outputs the

actual S/PDIF data stream through a transformer to the S/PDIF

Out jack.

The A/D converter always digitizes the analog data at the sample

rate that is set from the front panel of the Flying Calf. When the

Sample Rate select button is in the “out” position, the sample rate

is 44.1 kHz. If the button is in the “in” position, the sample rate is

48 kHz. The current sample rate is always indicated by the front

panel Sample Rate LED's.