Sound card digital input

Keithaburke

Can anyone recommend a cheap sound card with a digital input?

or a cd burner with a similar spdif input

Keith

knobbles

some good prices at red submarine in uk

Alibaba01

Creative labs do some cool cheap sound cards. I presume it's a phono connection sending s/pdif info. That's the usual connection. Just make sure when you do get it it's the right connection! Expect to pay around 100 euro or so.

Keithaburke

That's the setting on my hi fi when I want to listen to vynyls.

The signal is coming out of a Roland digital 8 track... and I want to put it on my computer.

I guess it is phono.... if that means audio data...

Keith

Alibaba01

Phono is just the slang for the connection. It's technical term is a coaxial RCA phono lead. That and optical is the standard consumer formats. Your digital 8 track will be phono. So make sure it's a phono conection on the card and not an optical one.

Keithaburke

Thanks for clearing that up my friend.

I used to call those cables male and female hi fi cables... hah


Anyway... no the 8 track definately has a digital optical out... and in addition to that... it has a coaxial digital out. The sound card I search for could have either of these type if input.

Keith

Alibaba01

Yeah they could but you'll pay a hell of alot more for a card with an optical connection then a coaxial one. That's not because they're poorer quality, it's just because optical tends to be used alot more in profesional circles. Check out the SoundBlaster Audigy2 6.1 Surround sound. It's around E100 and they're based in Blanchardstown so they have a good support base. It has co axial digital connections as well as regular analogue ones.

James_M

If its a digital 8 track it should have midi in/out connections.

If so, you can get a 15 pin/joystick to midi breakout cable which will go from the 8 track to the 15 pin port on the soundcard.

You can the synchronise the two and send each track by stereo leads (phono to mini jack) as mentioned above.

Doing this will mean that the midi synchronises the pc and recorder and the phono to line in (or whatever other input) will allow you to record onto the pc.

Keithaburke

Yeah... it has midi.

I know nothing about midi however... is it digital? Will my tracks sound the same on the computer after the transfer?

Keith

James_M

Yep. It will come through as digital audio.

Midi cable adapters are kind of hard to get though. You can get them in Peats.

It means that when you press play on the 8 track it will automatically play or record on the pc. This is fairly important if you are moving multiple tracks and you want them all to end up in sync on the pc.

The other lead I mentioned will allow to record one track at a time based on sync.

You gotta have a good program aswell though - Cubase/cakewalk

As regards soundcards, I'm not too knowledgeable on that but any decent ones will have the right inputs.

Keithaburke

Mmmm

I had a short read about midi over the weekend. Can I save the data as .wav or what format is it in after the transfer?

Keith

James_M

Yeah. It comes in as .wav