Sound card with processing power

[Snickers-is]

Hi Folks!

When building active speakers, there is a need for some DSP or analogue circuitry for the cross over processing. When using DSP, the possibility for room correction and speaker correction is very good.

But this can off course also be done with a soundcard or two, and a computer. The question is if there are any external soundcards out there that has an onboard DSP powerful enough to run room correction with the computer disconnected. As far as I have understood most cards can do internal mixing, but not much more than that.

[Snickers-is]

I see TC Electronic has some DSP based cards, but can that DSP be reprogrammed?

[gmarsh]

I doubt you'll find a computer soundcard that can run with the computer off, let alone one with a freely programmable DSP.

You're probably better off getting a cheap multichannel soundcard, and using the computer itself as a DSP. There should be plenty of literature around the 'net on using BruteFIR for this.

If you don't want to use a computer, you can probably get a used DSP evaluation board with audio I/O. I've got an Analog Devices BF533 EZKIT with a 600MHz DSP chip, 4 audio in, 6 audio out and a 24/96 CODEC, which I bought used for ~$150. However, be prepared for a steep learning curve if you go this route.

[Snickers-is]

Thanks, that alternative is also under consideration (and has been for a while). But I am talking about external soundcards. Most studio grade sound cards can run a hardware mix locally through a DSP with the computer disconnected or shut down. But the TC electronic cards are also equipped with a DSP powerful enough to run compressor, reverb and so on. I bet it can run FIR filters as well with a little software modification.