Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Just a thought about a possible hardware hack
From: Paul Winkler (slinkp23_AT_yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Jun 04 2001 - 22:21:39 EEST
Ben Bell wrote:
>
> On Mon, Jun 04, 2001 at 12:37:56AM -0400, Joe Santapau wrote:
> > it was explained to me that the one reason why
> > you cannot use two-two channel stereo sound cards
> > for multitrack recording was the the crystal on the
> > cards that sets the sample rate would not be in total
> > sync with each other,
> I've actually been wondering about this problem for a while but not mentioned
> it because I haven't trawled the archives to see if it's already been
> done and dusted.
>
> If you're happy to hack your card about a bit, I believe you can just hack
> off the crystal and link up to the other one. My electronics skills are
> very basic though and there may be reasons why this would be a bad idea.
Well, where is the crystal? Inside some chip on your soundcard
somewhere. Which one? Does this chip have pinouts for the timer?
If it does, *and* if you can find it, yes, you should be able to
do that by scraping off some traces on the PC board and soldering
in a jumper.
Considering the research and patience and care needed to pull this
off, and all the time that would take, and the danger of frying
your card, just to get 4 tracks of mediocre sound quality ... you
might think again about an M-audio Delta 44. 4-in, 4-out, very
good sound, ALSA supports it, it's $270 US at Musician's Friend
and they rarely have the lowest prices.
On the other hand, if you're an impoverished electronics whiz who
doesn't mind the sound quality of cheap consumer 16-bit cards, and
you're willing to take the risk of fried hardware - have fun!
--PW
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