PC soundcards

[samh@digicron.com]

As the topic of high-quality PC soundcards comes up on this list from
time to time, I thought I would share my recent search for more
information.

I found a list of soundcards and a very brief summary of each at The
Multitrack Home Page <URL:http://home.concepts.nl/~bonnevil/multitr.htm>

In my brief perusal of possibilities, two stand out:

1) Zefiro ZA2			<URL:http://www.zefiro.com/>
2) Turtle Beach Pinnacle        <URL:http://www.tbeach.com>

Descriptions follow, but in brief the ZA2 seems a good choice for
working with digital audio. It includes S/PDIF, AES/EBU, and analog
input/outputs and software for working with DAT and CD subcode,
backups to DAT, etc. Of note also is that the analog i/o is on the end
of a 1 foot fiber optic cable, probably allowing for some isolation from
much of the noise in a computer. No midi or onboard synth/wavetable.

The Turtle Beach Pinnacle (analog with optional S/PDIF daughterboard
for ~$50 more) seems a good choice for a Windows sequencer/DAW
user. It includes an onboard sampler/synth and a MIDI interface.


COST
====

I checked out a couple of online stores for prices: 
Bayview Pro Audio <URL:http://www.olywa.net/duper> and 
Harris Creative Group <URL:http://www.voiceone.com/>

					Bayview Pro	Harris Creative 
					   Audio            Group

ZA2                                        $419		     $479
Turtle Beach Pinnacle w/digital I/O        $479              $485


LINUX SUPPORT
=============

OSS drivers <URL:http://www.4front-tech.com> are availible for the
ZA2 and Francois Robert <URL:ftp://ftp.cam.org/users/sdragon> is also 
developing a ZA2 driver.

The OSS driver for the Turtle Beach Pinnacle is marked as PRERELEASE,
MIDI only, so I assume only MIDI currently works but full support is
planned.

For a list of OSS supported hardware, try 
<URL:http://www.4front-tech.com/osshw.html>


What follows is some documentation gleaned from the Zefiro and Turtle
Beach web sites:

Zefiro ZA2 (verbatim from web site)
===================================

* RCA style coaxial S/PDIF input and output connectors on the card.
* Toslink style fiber optic S/PDIF input and output connectors on the card.
* XLR style AES/EBU pro digital interface connectors with cable included.
* RCA style Analog stereo line out connectors with cable included.
* Direct digital recording at 48Khz, 44.1Khz, 44.056Khz, 32Khz
  or just about anything.
* Complete control over all CD and DAT subcode 
  (including SCMS and Start_IDs).
* Windows drivers for complete compatibility with all of your windows
  audio applications (Win3.1, Win95 and Win NT4.0)
* Powerful 24bit Digital Signal Processor for live digital effects
  such as real time sample rate conversion, MPEG audio decoding or
  other special effects.
* 20/24bit recording in Win95 and soon NT4.0.
* Future expansion to SMPTE timecode, Word Clock sync.
* Hard disk data backup to audio DAT, store 1.1Gigabytes on a 2 hour tape.

Turtle Beach Multisound Pinnacle 
================================

Turtle beach lists $599.95 for Pinnacle Project Studio which seems to
include some multitracking software etc.

Key Features (almost verbatim from Web Site):

  * Multitrack hard disk recorder with pro grade 20 bit converters and
    >97db signal/noise ratio
  * Kurzweil 32 voice stereo sampler with on-board channelized
    digital effects, 4MB patch set, and up to 48MB optional sample RAM 
  * 16 channel MIDI interface 
  * S/PDIF interface for transferring digital audio between PC and DAT 

    [Ed: I think the following only comes with the "Project Studio"]
  * Additional Kurzweil synth for a total of 64 voices on 32 MIDI channels 
  * Full retail version of Voyetra's award winning Digital
    Orchestrator Pro with 1000+ tracks of MIDI and digital audio



If anyone wishes to buy me either of the above soundcards for
Christmas I will happily supply my address and pay for postage. :-)

=O.|     sam
=O