USB multichannel audio, not surround sound

[GR8FLPT]

Is it possible to get a multichannel output from a laptop to a sound card or mixer but not have it in surround sound mode? I need to be able to mix or move sounds between different channels. 7 would be nice, 8 or more would be better.

I need to do this with a laptop due to it needing to be portable & easy to work with in a expo like setting.

I was thinking of having seven or eight channels of different types of sounds that I could send to different speakers. I was thinking of using the digital amps being sold over a Parts Express, but getting the sound out of the laptop was the issue. It only has headphone out so that would only be two channels. I have seen USB sound cards but they all seem to be surround based. I want to turn off the surround mode & control each channel separately.

What I really need is a multichannel preamp, but the source is the issue. Unless I used a multichannel recorder to fed the preamp's. I was hoping a laptop would be able to do this with the right software so I can look at the waveforms also. Is any of this possible, does any of it make any sense. I know what I what to do, but am not sure how to get there without spending $$$$... any thoughts appreciated.

[phofman]

If all your channels can run at the same sample rate, a regular surround card is what you need. It has several independant channels, running at the same fs.

Another question is how you can make several programs output to various channels of the same card. I have no idea in windows, in linux it is simple.

[GR8FLPT]

You mean a USB external card or a PCI based model? Most cards I have seen have surround mode for the other channels. I have not seen a way to shut that off. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong types of cards. Any suggestions on a model?

I checked one of the other forums in crossovers but it looked like they were discussing PCI based cards more.

Tell me more about the Linux based mode. I j=have not used Linux but am will to give it a try.

[Ouroboros]

You can get USB 8-channel output-only cards at low cost. The ESI Gigaport is one, which simply provides eight unbalanced outputs on phono (RCA) sockets.

Getting a Windows application that allows you to stream independent audio sources on each output chanel might be more of a problem though!

[GR8FLPT]

Thanks just looked at it. Looks like that could do the trick. I guess your right about windows, next battle is finding software for output control. But Idea seems to start to have legs. I might actually get something up & running by Spring now.

[phofman]

Originally Posted by GR8FLPT

You mean a USB external card or a PCI based model? Most cards I have seen have surround mode for the other channels. I have not seen a way to shut that off. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong types of cards. Any suggestions on a model?

The card itself does not know anything about "surround mode". It is simply a multichannel card. This "virtual notion" of surround is created by your playback software.

Originally Posted by GR8FLPT

I checked one of the other forums in crossovers but it looked like they were discussing PCI based cards more.

There is no difference between multichannel USB and PCI cards in this matter.

Tell me more about the Linux based mode. I j=have not used Linux but am will to give it a try.

It is about configuring the linux sound layer. You can define a virtual device for each channel of your card, or for pairs, such as in .asoundrc - ALSA wiki . Of course all of these virtual devices must run at the same sample rate.

[lhsrad]

I believe you can do this with j river media center 16

Please let me know how the sound card is working . Are you running stereo?

Thanks,