>> Which applications care about latency? > > Live work. Recording studio? Concert? Other?
> LOTS of inputs / outputs What is LOTS these days? Sgt. Pepper was done with a 4 track tape. :-) > 2. A semi-pro-level / amateur mastering sound card with external connection > box. Better than PCI sound cards, but not used for pro gear, and > particularly not for live work. Balanced inputs still important but not > essential, 48V not essential. Latency still important, but most amateurs > will work around it if they have to. I'm thinking something like 2. a "pro-sumer" level product. (Low end pro, high end consumer) I'm thinking a "2" level device might be useful for capturing sounds in the field (e.g. wildlife). Laptop plus box plus mics. > For 1, low latency is critical. You want as little delay between the sound > hitting the mic and it being returned to the speakers as possible. If we are talking recording studio, mic -> box -> artist's headphones, do you see the signal going to the CPU and back? I'm thinking the signal could go straight through the box to the artist's headphones, and a digital copy goes across Ethernet to the computer to be recorded on the hard drive. Latency of data going to the hard drive is not critical. >> 5.25" < 19" therefore no problem. Even I can fabricate rack ears for >> a 5.25" box. > > True. But you probably can't fit 60 XLR connectors on a 5.25" faceplate > :-) How many XLR connectors can you fit on a PCI/PCIe card edge? I don't have dimensions handy, but I'm thinking you'd need a doublewide card edge? How many card slots does your computer have? I'm thinking modular. You have 'x' number of audio channels per box. If you need more than that, you use more boxes. A full height 19" rack will hold a LOT of 5.25" boxes. Add some sort of timestamp to keep channels from different boxes in sync. And/or in sync with video. The question I see is whether to go with the balanced XLR for the high end, or unbalanced RCA or 1/4" (or even 1/8"?) phone jacks for the consumer. I think most instruments (electric guitars, synths, etc.) use unbalanced 1/4" mono phone jacks? Yes, in many cases the artist will want to mic the speaker, to capture the artistic distortion of their favorite tube amp and speaker, but in other cases you might want to plug in directly. Can these be converted with a balun like the $3 RF baluns for converting between 300 Ohm twinlead and 75 Ohm coax? Or some converter chip, like the boards for converting single-ended SCSI to differential SCSI? Could the board be set up to go either way? Have a box for XLR and a box for 1/4" phone. Mix and match the boxes in your 19" rack to fit your needs. _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
