A how to for a PC XO.

[planet10]

Good thread. I note that the Waves sw is also OS X compatible. One would just need replacements for the console, EQ & delay and given the Macs prominance in the music production field where these plug-ins are coming fom it should be possible to find such.

A MacMini (with its no fan) and a firewire I/O box might well be a good candidate for hardware, and the built-in parallel number cruncher has got to be a help.

dave

[ShinOBIWAN]

Originally posted by BillH
ShinOBIWAN: Thanks for the information. It comes at a very good time for me. I've just started to do a PC crossover using the KX drivers and an old Soundblaster Live! 5.1 Value soundcard.

As I understand it, the KX crossovers are IIR. There was some discussion on the KX forum about FIR filters, but it seemed that it could not be implemented.

I'm running a Pentium II 350Mhz computer with 384Mb ram and getting ~15% CPU usage while playing a CD and a 3-way crossover in KX.

I'm at work, but have some questions for you later about Console.

BillH

Hi Bill,

I'll try to help but I feel your going to ask if the soundblaster will do what I mention here OK. I'm sorry to say but the soundblaster series including the Audigy range won't work. I actually used to use an Audigy 2 ZS a couple of years ago and it just doesn't have the features needed,

I suspect its only the pro and studio level cards that have the necessary compatiblity because the plugins are intended for these cards.

The plugins are also CPU hungry because of the accuracy and complexity of them. I feel almost certain that your computer wouldn't be able to achieve a decent playback on 2 channel.

Sorry for preempting you before you even asked but I thought it best to clear it up. If you want to give it ago though ask away.

The KX project is very interesting stuff and was my first experiments with a PC XO.

[ShinOBIWAN]

Originally posted by planet10
Good thread. I note that the Waves sw is also OS X compatible. One would just need replacements for the console, EQ & delay and given the Macs prominance in the music production field where these plug-ins are coming fom it should be possible to find such.

A MacMini (with its no fan) and a firewire I/O box might well be a good candidate for hardware, and the built-in parallel number cruncher has got to be a help.

dave

Hi Dave,

Think the Mac would be even better than the PC since they aren't afflicted with Windows

I've always had a soft spot for Macs and I know studio's use them extensively over PC's for music creation.

[wigginjs]

Originally posted by Audiophilenoob

what about the MAudio 1010 .... 32 channels of outputs... external DAC and such... I just can get it slightly cheaper than the RME

I've called M-Audio about their line an although they do support ASIO, they do not support "internal routing". I call it that because it's the way I've always heard it described and I don't know another name for it, but it refers to the ability to take WDM or other kinds of output and use them as input for ASIO. Other than RME I know that products by Audiotrak support this, most notably for your situation the Maya 1010 (I believe that is the model). These products are also well respected in terms of SQ and although not as flexible as the RME stuff they're a lot cheaper.

[ShinOBIWAN]

Originally posted by m0tion



I've called M-Audio about their line an although they do support ASIO, they do not support "internal routing". I call it that because it's the way I've always heard it described and I don't know another name for it, but it refers to the ability to take WDM or other kinds of output and use them as input for ASIO. Other than RME I know that products by Audiotrak support this, most notably for your situation the Maya 1010 (I believe that is the model). These products are also well respected in terms of SQ and although not as flexible as the RME stuff they're a lot cheaper.

Thanks motion,

I'd forgotten about the Audiotrak cards, they've got some nice drivers too. The routing in particular is much cleaner and easier to use then the RME's thought doesn't quite have the flexibility.

Here's a shot of Vil's setup running a 2 channel 3-way XO with DRC. In the bottom left hand corner you can also see the Audiotrak routing software in action and the CPU utilisation meters for the individual plugins in the top center.



Also know that the Audiotrak Prodigy will work well in this context and its much cheaper than the RME. It only has 6 analogue outs with no expansion possibilities but that's enough for a stereo 3-way.
Its also rather very good value.

I do however remember that the Prodigy 5.1 was superior to the current Prodigy 7.1 because it used Wolfson DAC's rather than the Sigma's. Someone did mention another card in the Prodigy range that shared the decent DAC's but I can't remember what it was called now - anyone fancy letting others know? Just as a guess I think it was something like the Prodigy LT or something similar.

[wigginjs]

I believe you are refering to the card I have, the Prodigy 7.1LT. As it turns out the standard 7.1 has been discontinued and replaced with the 7.1LT. Everything I've read about it suggests that it is an improvement over it's predecessor.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829152008

[ShinOBIWAN]

Yep that was the one! I wasn't far off in the end

Looks like a good card for those that don't want or need the RME that we know also works.

[mbutzkies]

Shin

Did you ever look at LynxTwo? If you did what are your thoughts?

How did you attach your OCX, did you use wordclock, superclock etc?
How would you describe the low jitter improvements audio wise?

Did you ever bypass theatertek and looked at lipsync. i.e. using the TV (or xbox) and taking the audio out from TV(xbox) and putting just the audio through the pc xo? If so how bad was the lipsync issues with the second computer.

[planet10]

Originally posted by ShinOBIWAN
Think the Mac would be even better than the PC since they aren't afflicted with Windows

I've always had a soft spot for Macs and I know studio's use them extensively over PC's for music creation.

With Apple's efforts to build-in a comprehensive set of Audio routines (Core Audio) & the elegance of the Cocoa development environment we should expect continued development of interesting audio software.

FuzzMeasure is a good example of what can be done -- 1 guy working part-time. Within its still somewhat limited feature set, it is a product that goes head-to-head with the big boys (and in terms of graphic output, buries the competition (i will regularily redraw a Praxis or Clio curve and drop it onto a FuzzMeasure chart to bring them up to presentation levels i consider acceptable).

the SIMD vector engine built in to the PPC G4s & G5s has to be a leg up for running filters & such (it will be see what Intel comes up with to replace this as Apple transitions to Intel, the "AltiVec" modules are what make the science guys & the super computer guys pick Macs over anything else.

dave

[wigginjs]

Shin:

How exactly are you capturing the room response for DRC? Is this acutally done in CurveEQ or is it just a file used by CurveEQ? Am I understanding this correctly, you run one instance of CurveEQ per driver in your system?! =) That seems like a LOT! =)