[WriteLog] RE: Soundboards

[Hsu, Aaron]

Oh, forgot to mention.  If you're interested in the technical performance of many various sound cards (actual measurements of THD, S/N ratios, Freq Response, etc), visit this site...

http://www.pcavtech.com

He's tested a few dozen cards and has midi sound samples and other information about each card.  Great reference site.

  - Aaron, NN60

-----Original Message-----
From: Hsu, Aaron 
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2003 1:48 PM
To: 'writelog at contesting.com'
Cc: 'Georgens, Tom'
Subject: RE: Soundboards


This is/was a fairly common situation.  Many soundcards can not record from more than one input source at a time.  MediaVision (many years ago) was the first consumer-level company to include simultaneous multiple source mixing on a sound card with their ProAudio Spectrum cards (and it was prominently advertized as being able to do so!).  Today, companies using higher end sound chipsets have the ability to mix from several sources at once.  The former engineers from MediaVision formed Aureal Semiconductor and their Vortex chipsets (at least AU8820 and AU8830) supported multiple source mixing.  However, Aureal also went under in late 2001, but you can still find Vortex based sound cards at swapmeets and flea markets brand new for about $15.  (BTW, the TRW Swapmeet in So. Cal. has vendors with these cards).

As for current cards that support simultaneous multiple source recording, Turtle Beach's Santa Cruz should work.  It's capable of recording at least 4 channels at once (L/R of both Line and AUX inputs - documented in their FAQs).  Other cards based on the same chipset from Crystal (the CS4632 DSP) should also work.  Higher end cards from Lynx, Event, Midiman should work, but they're much more $$$ as they're used by recording studios.

So, in short, Tom's looking for a sound card that supports simultaneous recording from multiple sources (inputs) such as from both the MIC and Line-In at the same time.  Another option is to get an external mixer such as the great and expensive Behringer MX502 (1 mic and 2 L/R inputs), but some effort might be required to make sure RF doesn't get into the mixer.  I have an MX802 and also use it for other non-HAM purposes.

73,

  - Aaron Hsu, NN6O (ex-KD6DAE)
    {nn6o}@arrl.net
    {athsu}@unistudios.com
    No-QRO Int'l #1,000,006
    . -..- - .-. .-   ".... . .- ...- -.--"