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In Reply to: Re: "passive" vs "active" posted by Christine Tham on November 22, 2006 at 12:11:41:
Christine:I was looking at Pristine Space - I had no idea it would be 64 bit capable - I will try and verify this. This would be phenomenal, since the Thuneau Allocator (according the website) now uses a 64 bit engine.
I got the SourceForge VST convolver working, but I think it's only 32 bit - I need to check this too.
What I really need these days is a really good prosumer or professional soundcard that has SOME ASIO mixing capabilities and goes beyound mapping only hardware I/O in ASIO. This will preclude the need to use ASIO4ALL and Virtual Audio Cable to stream data into the VST plugins via a kernel streaming output plugin from Foobar or Winamp.
Follow Ups:
The cards comes with a driver frontend called PatchMix.PatchMix allows dynamic assignment of ASIO inputs/outputs to hardware, and you can mix/route the signals, add effects etc. You can even do things like route an ASIO output to a Wave input etc.
The software works like a mixer so it should do what you are asking for. I can't remember if PatchMix is VST capable or not - would be cool if it was. Even if it doesn't, you can route an ASIO output to an ASIO input which an external VST host can then process and send back via another ASIO output back to PatchMix.
Christine:If Patchmix can handle VST plugins, this WOULD be awesome - eliminating the need for an external VST host.
I have looked long and hard at different cards - and the EMU 1820M is definately on my shortlist, along with others from Lynx, RME and Edirol.
Apparently, the 1820M uses some really good DACs in it as well. I can't remember if the Breakout box / dac module is PC bus powered or from an external source. The ability to power the DACs from a clean, regulated (or battery) source is a "must have" on my list.
ESI also makes some cards which use the "Directwire" patch software - hey didn't you mention this software some time ago? This is a neat "GUI" for those that want to "virtually connect" wires to create their PC's audio stream. Nothing wrong with an intuitive solution I guess...
Thanks again for the informative discussions.
No the 1820M is powered from the computer via a special cable (that patches into the computer's power supply directly), but it has an additional set of voltage regulators in the breakout box.The DACs are pretty good, Cirrus Logic 4398.
You might want to check out the 1616M PCI - which is the replacement for 1820M, which supports an external power source (I think).
The "directwire" facility on ESI cards is pretty primitive - it only allows routing, not processing.
Whereas Patchmix is a full mixer - you can do effects chains, multiple busses, mix and pan, etc.
Given that I don't do any processing (!), all this is wasted on me. But I realised from our discussion you may be very interested in it.
Another good thing is that the effects are run from the DSP on board the breakout box, so they don't take any CPU time :-)
Even if you don't want to use the on board effects, you can use an external processor, because all ASIO ins/outs are "virtual" on Patchmix and not tied to the hardware. Assume ASIO OUT 1/2 is the output from Foobar or Winamp. Within Patchmix, you can route this back out to ASIO IN 3/4, ASIO IN 5/6, ASIO IN 7/8. Now you can run three external programs that processes three separate stereo signals (for your digital crossover). For example, program 1 reads ASIO IN 3/4, processes, writes out on ASIO OUT 3/4. Ditto for 5/6 and 7/8
Now, back in Patchmix, you accept ASIO OUT 3/4 and route it the first physical DAC pair, accept ASIO OUT 5/6 and route it to the second DAC pair, etc.
You can set all this up so it's all connected and ready to go when you boot the PC.
COOOOOOOOOOOL!!! :D
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