Revision [1971]
This is an old revision of SetupC16 made by admin on 2015-12-26 14:25:27.
Setting Up Your C16
C16s connect directly to your EDS card via CAT5 (Ethernet) cable. Unless you want visual feedback from your MEC's signal and clip indicator lights (some users don't) or frequently need to access the MEC for re-patching, the C16 is the only part of PARIS' hardware you'll need to have constant physical access to. Fortunately the C16's cable can be quite long, with even 20' cables being absolutely fine. This allows you to move the computer and the rest of your PARIS equipment to an isolation box, a dedicated "machine closet" (remember to provide adequate ventilation!), or even a separate room so the fans and drives of the computer and MEC aren't picked up by sensitive microphones.
Note that your C16s will all boot up as C16A the first time you install and boot PARIS. If you have multiple cards and multiple C16s this means that all of your C16s will be assigned to Submix A. Therefore your first task should be to manually assign each C16 to the submix you want it to control. To do this, you can leave your first C16 assigned to Submix A (unless you particularly want a different assignment) and turn to your second C16. Hold down the Submix button on the C16; a green light will appear over one of the tracks on the C16. This light tells you the submix the C16 is assigned to. To reassign it, keep holding down the submix button and press the number of the desired submix on the C16's keypad (the green light will switch "tracks" to acknowledge the change).
Certain things can potentially PERMANENTLY kill your C16 (and quite possibly your EDS card or even your motherboard), so it's essential to remember the two C16 DON'Ts:
- DON'T use a "crossover" CAT5 cable. This will a) not work and b) very likely fry something. Regular CAT5 cable only! If you have any unlabeled crossover cables in your collection. identify them, mark them and avoid them; considering the low price of CAT5 cables it's a far better idea to buy a new dedicated cable for your C16 than to take the chance of potentially fatal damage to your PARIS rig.
- DON'T "hot-plug" your C16. This is a very old system and they're not designed to be plugged in or unplugged while the computer is on (this is not unusual - back in Paris' day there was no such thing as USB or Firewire, and hot-plugging the day's equivalents, such as SCSI, could very easily fry a card or even a motherboard). The potential consequences are similar to using a crossover cable, so always turn off your computer before plugging or unplugging either end of your C16's cable.
One more caveat to bear in mind - virtually all PARIS hardware is now either over a decade old (even the most recently released PARIS hardware is now approaching it). The C16 uses rotary encoders instead of potentiometers, and years of internal abrasion in normal use leaves tiny particles of metal rubbed off of the "wipers" of the encoder floating free inside them.
This can (and in fact, eventually will) cause one or more knobs to send "jumping" or "sticky" values as the encoder stumbles over a metal flake, or cause it to fail to operate at all. The good news is that the minor servicing required to correct this can be done by any reasonably careful user or technician. This is covered in a great "DIY" CeeSixteenRepair C16 servicing document by Aaron Allen; you can either perform the maintenance yourself or print out the guide and give it to your regular tech (who is likely to have never seen the insides of a C16 before).
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