Hey, does anyone know if they are soundcards that allow you to connect to hardware effects?
I mean to route say Ardour through some hardware effects and back just like in pro studios.
Is that even possible with computer recording? I mean taking a send from Ardour, routing it to a Lexicon Reverb unit and back in through Ardour.
offboard gear
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funkmuscle
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Re: offboard gear
sure, I do it sometimes 
ardour 2.8.4 even has a jdelay kind of loopback signal to mesure the h/w latency in frames. I measured mine to be 4000-some frames.
EDIT: it was 400-some at 128/2 jack buffer setting
ardour 2.8.4 even has a jdelay kind of loopback signal to mesure the h/w latency in frames. I measured mine to be 4000-some frames.
EDIT: it was 400-some at 128/2 jack buffer setting
Last edited by thorgal on Thu Dec 24, 2009 5:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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funkmuscle
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Re: offboard gear
Thanx James. I have a friend you makes his own hardware effects and wanted me to be his lab rat...
what card should I use?
what card should I use?
Re: offboard gear
not sure what you can use but I would think anything with a breakout box with multiple ins and outs. The RME Multiface II works great for that
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funkmuscle
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Re: offboard gear
RME Multiface II, so that's why you don't need a real time kernel.
how sweet is that unit?
how sweet is that unit?
Re: offboard gear
this unit is just amazing
of course, you need the RME HDSP PCI card that goes with it (they are linked by a firewire cable but RME uses its own proprietary protocol for the transport via this cable). The ADs and DAs are located in the multiface so they are outside the PC, which is one very good thing. Their quality is really good. And the routing possibilities outstanding, all controlled by the hdspmixer app.
There are a few drawbacks:
1- suspend / resume is not good with this unit
2- this is not your generic ALSA device, so it won't work OOB with the usual ALSA mixer UI.
3- it is expensive. I luckily had a lot of money once thanks to my selling an apartment at the right time. I would have really had troubles purchasing it otherwise.
It really is meant to work with something like jack, no doubt about that.
So, with the multiface, you can route some ardour track signal out of your PC via an insert : connect the insert output to some system: playback_x. This system: playback_x represents an analog output on the multiface, that you had patched to some h/w effect. You return the signal from the h/w effect to some input on the multiface (system: capture_x) and connect it to the ardour insert input. That's your h/w insert from and to ardour
The insert dialog in ardour has a button called "Measure Latency". Very useful to estimate how much the h/w route introduces in terms of latency. You can then add a latency compensation plugin so your recorded stuff sits right along the session timeline.
of course, you need the RME HDSP PCI card that goes with it (they are linked by a firewire cable but RME uses its own proprietary protocol for the transport via this cable). The ADs and DAs are located in the multiface so they are outside the PC, which is one very good thing. Their quality is really good. And the routing possibilities outstanding, all controlled by the hdspmixer app.
There are a few drawbacks:
1- suspend / resume is not good with this unit
2- this is not your generic ALSA device, so it won't work OOB with the usual ALSA mixer UI.
3- it is expensive. I luckily had a lot of money once thanks to my selling an apartment at the right time. I would have really had troubles purchasing it otherwise.
It really is meant to work with something like jack, no doubt about that.
So, with the multiface, you can route some ardour track signal out of your PC via an insert : connect the insert output to some system: playback_x. This system: playback_x represents an analog output on the multiface, that you had patched to some h/w effect. You return the signal from the h/w effect to some input on the multiface (system: capture_x) and connect it to the ardour insert input. That's your h/w insert from and to ardour
The insert dialog in ardour has a button called "Measure Latency". Very useful to estimate how much the h/w route introduces in terms of latency. You can then add a latency compensation plugin so your recorded stuff sits right along the session timeline.