Mixing S/PDiff Signals

[gaz7224]

Hi all,

I need some advice...

I want to be able to mix Digital Audio Signals all in one place, and the output the mix into my PC.  I have a few things with s/pdiff outputs, but only one input on my PC, and I currently use that input for my Yamaha 01v mixer.

This would be perfect:

http://www.roland.co.uk/products/productdetails.aspx?tab=accessories&p=533

but it is discontinued, so I'm looking for an alternative.

I'm thinking about buying a MOTU 896mk3 FireWire audio interface, but it still only has 3 digital inputs (2 optical, 1 coaxial), which would be max'd out (Triton Rack, Yamaha 01V, and my mini-disc), and wouldn't allow for expandability.

Basically what I'm after is a multi-channel rack mixer with just Optical and Coaxial stereo inputs, so I can mix them together and output into my PC.

Any advice would be great.

Gaz

[RawDepth]

Hmm, this is a tough one to solve. The simplest solution I can think of would be to add a second interface to increase the number of digital inputs. This would be even better yet because you could record all of your sources simultaneously but keep them on separate tracks. Most PC's and recording software can deal with multiple interfaces just fine.

Take a look at the Frontier Dakota card. This is a pci interface that would sit beside your current pci card, (if that's what you have.) It has three digital inputs. Two of them are optical and the third is coaxial (RCA.) I know it says that the opticals are for ADAT but according to the FAQ answers, they can be re-assigned to receive S/PDIF Toslink instead of ADAT.

Quoted fron the FAQ page on their site...
"The Dakota control panel lets you select the source of the SPDIF input to be the coax input jack, the CD-ROM connector, or any of the optical inputs on Dakota (or Montana, if present). The control panel also lets you route the SPDIF output to any and all of the optical outputs in addition to the coax output jack."


Anyway, check it out and see if that would satisfy your wishes. It would at least give you three more stereo S/PDIF inputs.

http://www.frontierdesign.com/Products/Dakota/Introduction

They also have an expansion card called the Montana which will double the number of inputs. There is a digital patchbay on that site as well, but it cannot combine/blend digital channels together.

Welcome to the forum, dude.

[gaz7224]

I've been thinking......

The only reason why I chose that MOTU 896mk3 was because it had pre-amps built in.  I didn't realise you could buy pre-amps separately.

So, I could get a MOTU 2408mk3 (PCI Interface) which has 3 optical (adat) inputs as well as a digital coaxial input.  It has 8 line in/outs, which I could use for external FX and for monitoring.

Then I could buy a Motu 8pre (http://www.motu.com/products/motuaudio/8pre), to give me 8 microphone inputs.  It's firewire, so I'm thinking I wouldn't need to use up any inputs on the 2408mk3. It also has ADAT in/out.

I have a few questions:

Even though the 2408mk3 doesn't have any gain/pre-amps, I'm presuming I'll still have some control over the input levels via the software mixer.  Do you know if this is so?  I'm not clear on what 'line level' actually means...  Basically, I'm asking if the inputs and outputs will be OK for synths, DI boxes, external compressors and FX?  Website says yes, but I want to make sure.

Can the ADAT inputs be used for stereo optical inputs? I've looked but I can't find anything about it.  As you've said, on some you can.

Will Firewire and PCI work OK together?  I'm presuming they will.

Will the PCI card replace my PC's sound card and handle the ''normal' Windows audio?

Thanks,

Gaz

[stainless]

http://www.friend-chip.de/dmx16.htm

one of these may be helpful... not sure, but it came tind after reading your post

[gaz7224]

Four digital stereo signals with different formats (S/P DIF or AES/EBU) and even with different sample rates can be routed to the MQA module and are merged into one ADAT "lightpipe" signal. The four sample rate converters on the MQA module are synchronized to the ADAT input or to an external WORD-CLOCK at the BNC connector.

Thanks Stainless.......

Sounds like I could combine 4 s/p diff signals into one ADAT signal, which would solve all my problems.

I can't find a price for them though...... Any ideas?

They look expensive.

Gaz

[stainless]

Guitar Center has them for $149.99  so Musicians Friend should also have it

and maybe Sweetwater (I didn't look too far)

[gaz7224]

I've found what I was looking for:

http://www.motu.com/products/pciaudio/308

Apparently, it mixes multiple S/PDIF inputs, and outputs multiple S/PDIF signals (for use with digital FX etc.)

Perfect!

Only problem, didn't sell well so they discontinued it.

I've looked on eBay, and none have ever been sold on there.

Oh well, maybe one will appear, someday......!

Gaz

[gaz7224]

Hey guess what popped up on eBay... A motu 308.

I've bought it.  It was sold 'as is', because they had no way of testing it.  I'm hoping it'll work.

8 stereo digital s/pdiff inputs, yay!

I'm rather excited...