The Brainstorm DCD-8 is word clock home base for your professional studio. The device serves as a starting point for all your converting needs, working as a digital clock for digital audio recording. The DCD-8 has three word clock connections, including one on the front, as well as three AES/EBU, S/PDIF, Optical, Video, and FireWire connections. It’s definitely flexible in what it can do, but we use it as a simple word clock in the B room at the studio where I work. It is rack mountable and will take up just a single space in a traditional rack casing.


OVERALL OPINION

Having the Brainstorm DCD-8 in your audio recording rig definitely makes for having everything in order when it comes to all of your gear being on the same page. We have it at the studio in one of our main rooms, using it with all sorts of different converters and a variety of other gear. I didn’t set this up at all in the studio, so I don’t have that sort of experience with it, however it seems like there is a ton you can do with it beyond what we’re using it for. Once you have it locked in with your gear and ready to go, it’s going to be the kind of gear that really just sits there and does it’s job. Having a central word clock isn’t going to be necessary in all studios, but definitely is a good idea if you have many different converters and want to make sure everything is on the same page without any problems. If not everything is locked in together you can definitely experience many issues with digital recording. I don’t really know what kind of price the Brainstorm DCD-8 commands, but I’d be surprised if it was cheap since it’s one of the best of it’s kind. It’s definitely nice that it has all the connections in the world you’d want here and is also useful for use with video. The Brainstorm DCD-8 is going to be as versatile as any word clock out there and is worth serious consideration if you need a word clock in your studio.