I'm looking for the best modifiable, decent quality 2 channel (min 20 channel, 4 chan. max) outboard box that can be used with PC's for analog to digital recording at the 192khz, 24bit level.
This device, or series from that particular manufacturer, will be handed off, after much modification!! to a oscar winning sound engineer to try out. He still uses analog to record off the sound floor of a given film set, but would like to eventually go to digital..IF, I repeat -IF- the bloody things could sound as good as his personally (involved in the design) designed analog recording rig. He uses about $1M worth of microphones on his personal box of gear he hauls around the sound/film floor, for example.
So I need the minimal level of quality that can be had for a decent retail in the $200-400 US range. As you know, this is the DIY AUDIO forum here, so no wisecracks about the quality please, that's my job to create it! (and have it be far, far better than any commercial offerings) eg., I'm looking to make the external box's analog section run on battery power, at the least..to get to a decent noise floor, where the noise floor does not inject harshness to the high frequencies due to noise floor modulation via the standard/stock PS in the outboard box.
I'm looking for about 4 channels of analog-to-digital Input, and the ability to get that to the EXTERNAL to the input box PC Without anything in the way of errors or issues. As for the PC itself, that's something that I can build myself, and if anyone has the right software to record tose tracks, that is error free, well I'll gladly take that advice too. Any advice on any particular PC components is welcome of course (HD's, Mobo's, etc).
This is just a bit of a 'test' I'm creating for him to try out. So it does not need to be based on the best gear---yet. That's why the low ticket item is the one of choice. It's the modifications to the gear that will be the big trick.
Thanks in advance for your effort!
This device, or series from that particular manufacturer, will be handed off, after much modification!! to a oscar winning sound engineer to try out. He still uses analog to record off the sound floor of a given film set, but would like to eventually go to digital..IF, I repeat -IF- the bloody things could sound as good as his personally (involved in the design) designed analog recording rig. He uses about $1M worth of microphones on his personal box of gear he hauls around the sound/film floor, for example.
So I need the minimal level of quality that can be had for a decent retail in the $200-400 US range. As you know, this is the DIY AUDIO forum here, so no wisecracks about the quality please, that's my job to create it! (and have it be far, far better than any commercial offerings) eg., I'm looking to make the external box's analog section run on battery power, at the least..to get to a decent noise floor, where the noise floor does not inject harshness to the high frequencies due to noise floor modulation via the standard/stock PS in the outboard box.
I'm looking for about 4 channels of analog-to-digital Input, and the ability to get that to the EXTERNAL to the input box PC Without anything in the way of errors or issues. As for the PC itself, that's something that I can build myself, and if anyone has the right software to record tose tracks, that is error free, well I'll gladly take that advice too. Any advice on any particular PC components is welcome of course (HD's, Mobo's, etc).
This is just a bit of a 'test' I'm creating for him to try out. So it does not need to be based on the best gear---yet. That's why the low ticket item is the one of choice. It's the modifications to the gear that will be the big trick.
Thanks in advance for your effort!
So I go looking for ADC's on the net...again...and this post comes up on the first search page. With no replies, I might add. 
Such is life.
I mean, we like to 'reproduce' music (hopefully as faithfully as possible) here...but it might be a junctive consideration that --making the music is at least as important!
Such is life.
I mean, we like to 'reproduce' music (hopefully as faithfully as possible) here...but it might be a junctive consideration that --making the music is at least as important!
Ha-ha-ha Im looknig too
Oh and dont forget you can't leave the clockmongers™ out of this deal.
Paramount to the next oscar, are the clockmongers™
Really , chinese dont make ADC-s in that pricerange as of yet. They dont make ADC-s at all.
Maybe some "ESS" drama has good chance with the next oscar in sight too.
The ESS ADC was promised a while ago, maybe there will be ev-kit, I don know.
Oh and dont forget you can't leave the clockmongers™ out of this deal.
Paramount to the next oscar, are the clockmongers™
Really , chinese dont make ADC-s in that pricerange as of yet. They dont make ADC-s at all.
Maybe some "ESS" drama has good chance with the next oscar in sight too.
The ESS ADC was promised a while ago, maybe there will be ev-kit, I don know.
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You've been looking at the typical Firewire boxes for pro audio, I assume?
I've seen the M-Audio Audiophile card turned into an extremely low noise input device with a little work. Yeah, it's PCI, but there are external adapters.
EDIT: Just a quick look around I find only the M-Audio ProFire 610 Firewire box as fitting your specs and your budget. I does what you want - 24/196 and 4 or more inputs. Right at $400 street in the US. ( a little less on eBay) Might be a good candidate for upgrades. Hard to say without looking inside how hackable it is.
The old Firewire 410 turns up used pretty often. Save some bucks.
I've seen the M-Audio Audiophile card turned into an extremely low noise input device with a little work. Yeah, it's PCI, but there are external adapters.
EDIT: Just a quick look around I find only the M-Audio ProFire 610 Firewire box as fitting your specs and your budget. I does what you want - 24/196 and 4 or more inputs. Right at $400 street in the US. ( a little less on eBay) Might be a good candidate for upgrades. Hard to say without looking inside how hackable it is.
The old Firewire 410 turns up used pretty often. Save some bucks.
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nah, those soundcards have CODEC chips...
I just took one apart, its ugly and ridicoulus at the same time.
Honestly, if I had that much stuff going on, I would ask to demo this unit, then sell a few of those old analogs.
Lavry Engineering
Nothing comes close as far as audio hardware goes afaik.
I just took one apart, its ugly and ridicoulus at the same time.
Honestly, if I had that much stuff going on, I would ask to demo this unit, then sell a few of those old analogs.
Lavry Engineering
Nothing comes close as far as audio hardware goes afaik.
http://embeddedsystemnews.com/ess-t...-world’s-first-32-bit-audio-ad-converter.html
nice plots for sure, but how about THE SOUND
"ESS Technology Announces Sabre32 Reference Audio ADC World’s First 32-bit Audio A/D Converter"
We've yet to see those plots . We've yet to see anything useful since ESS went "32 bits".
nice plots for sure, but how about THE SOUND
"ESS Technology Announces Sabre32 Reference Audio ADC World’s First 32-bit Audio A/D Converter"
We've yet to see those plots . We've yet to see anything useful since ESS went "32 bits".
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Well I use a 24 bit ESS DAC and it's very nice. But so are a number of other 24bit DACs. So much has to do with the analog sections and the power supply. Nothing new there.
Some of the better CODEC chips are OK, see above. AS KBK wants to redo all that anyway....
A question for KBK: You would just be using this as a balanced line level ADC, right? Mic preamp and phantom power in a dedicated unit, I assume?
Some of the better CODEC chips are OK, see above. AS KBK wants to redo all that anyway....
A question for KBK: You would just be using this as a balanced line level ADC, right? Mic preamp and phantom power in a dedicated unit, I assume?
I did a lot of shopping in this price range and ended up buying an Edirol FA-66
Roland U.S. - FA-66: FireWire Audio Interface
If it works out there is a similar unit with more channels.
Do let us know about the mods you do (at least in a general sense)
dave
(PS: i'd like to see one of pano's DACs with Firewire... the interface is so much better than USB)
Roland U.S. - FA-66: FireWire Audio Interface
If it works out there is a similar unit with more channels.
Do let us know about the mods you do (at least in a general sense)
dave
(PS: i'd like to see one of pano's DACs with Firewire... the interface is so much better than USB)
Can I ask, KBK, when you say he uses analogue to record ... do you mean record to analogue tape? Do you propose to record digitally to PC hard drive, removable hard drive, or flash drive possibly?
How do you propose to sync the audio for post production?
I presume he has considered conventionally available products designed and built for the film industry - e.g. by Nagra or Sound Devices? I would imagine a new system, designed from the ground up, based around a PC, with all the functionality of of the commercial products would be an interesting, and challenging diy project - particularly with regard to the necessity for reliability under extreme conditions.
Cheers,
Ian
one of our favourite manufacturers, Texas Instruments, HAD a nice adc ev-kit called pcm4222. But after it was subjected to abuse ( hobby 'musicians' bought it who can't assemble a PSU) it was pulled , better yet , it has ~infinite lead time now. I heard there are some on digikey or mouser once a while.
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I don't know if this is any good or not. No experience with it. But it could be worth looking at:
AD24QS and DA24QS - Audio ADC and DAC, 24 Bit / 192 kHz
AD24QS and DA24QS - Audio ADC and DAC, 24 Bit / 192 kHz
Mackie Onyx 400f imo. But I dunno if you can even still get it - it seems like Mackie is pulling a lot of products lately. Anyway got mine for a little over 400. It has some minor problems with one of the outputs (the monitor outs with analog pots on them) but I don't use them so it's not a problem to me.
If he is really sold on his analog gear, he may not even give you a fair shot.
I have heard really good recordings made with Motu equipment. I have had good luck with an old M-audio 1010 which is external with a PCI card interface. Lots of mods available - mostly power supply related. Specs are not as good as some current stuff, but sound quality is high, noise floor is low.
I have been trying out a new E-Mu 0404USB which is inexpensive, USB, good specs, supposedly good preamps (according to E-mu). 2 balanced analog in/out and digital in/out. I don't know if it is good enough, looks like it would be hard to improve with mods. Software is kind of clunky. I don't know if it can really sustain 192/24 x2 recording over USB - apparently it should. Direct hardware monitoring is nice, I don't think it works over 96/24 though. Realistically 96/24 should be sufficient to outdo good analog equipment.
I think that you will be able to capture his music more accurately than he can with the analog gear, but there may be a color or warmth that he is accustomed to that won't be added to the digital recording unless it is done later with DSP. I have had people complain about the lack of noise and distortion.
I have heard really good recordings made with Motu equipment. I have had good luck with an old M-audio 1010 which is external with a PCI card interface. Lots of mods available - mostly power supply related. Specs are not as good as some current stuff, but sound quality is high, noise floor is low.
I have been trying out a new E-Mu 0404USB which is inexpensive, USB, good specs, supposedly good preamps (according to E-mu). 2 balanced analog in/out and digital in/out. I don't know if it is good enough, looks like it would be hard to improve with mods. Software is kind of clunky. I don't know if it can really sustain 192/24 x2 recording over USB - apparently it should. Direct hardware monitoring is nice, I don't think it works over 96/24 though. Realistically 96/24 should be sufficient to outdo good analog equipment.
I think that you will be able to capture his music more accurately than he can with the analog gear, but there may be a color or warmth that he is accustomed to that won't be added to the digital recording unless it is done later with DSP. I have had people complain about the lack of noise and distortion.
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