[sdiy] MIDI + Ethernet

[Colin Hinz]

On Fri, 9 Jul 2004, Paul Higgins wrote:

> On Thursday, July 8, 2004, at 11:59 PM, Colin Hinz wrote:
>
> > Looking at the specs on M-Audio's website, it's not surprising it
> > doesn't have MIDI. This card, like (virtually?) everything marketed
> > to the comsumer market, is designed to be primarily a "multimedia
> > entertainment" playback device.
>
> Well, the "Revolution 7.1" is kind of a joke when it comes to pro audio
> specs/features, but it's "good enough" when it comes to software synths
> and monitoring non-critical edits, which is all I'd be using it for.  I
> have a very professional MOTU setup for recording, but using that to
> run virtual synth stuff is complete overkill, not to mention it takes
> up resources from the recording side of things.  So that's why I'm
> looking at pretty inexpensive sound cards; I already broke the bank on
> the HD recording stuff, and I'm about to break it again on a new G5!  :
> )

Well, for a softsynth, the emphasis is going to be on the audio output,
so going with a card that's optimized for playback makes a whole lot
of sense.

> Actually, the more professional end of M-Audio's product line starts at
> a price not that much higher than the "Revolution", so that's probably
> what I'll go with.  Thanks for the tip on M-Audio and Linux.  There are
> some really interesting things available in Linux that DIY people would
> probably enjoy.  There's also a pretty good book called (I think)
> "Making Music with Linux" (from No Starch Press) and the author has a
> decent website, too.

That really is something I need to put some effort into learning about.
I confess that it's been many years since I attempted running linux
at home -- back then, the situation for sound support and apps was
pretty frustrating. Now, of course, it's hugely improved -- and I
can't help wondering if OSX is a factor here.

> > Good grief, S/PDIF output but no input? Unbalanced analog over
> > stereo minijacks? That's definitely in soundblaster territory.
>
> Even a lot of the dirt-cheap PC soundcards have MIDI connectors, so I'm
> not quite sure why M-Audio omitted it on the "Revolution".  Minijacks
> are the norm with a lot of that stuff too, or even (shudder) RCA jacks.
> Even on the more pricey stuff, believe it or not.

That's something I just cannot understand. Surely these people
understand that one of the weakest links in a system is the
interconnections?

> >> So far, I've been using an ST Audio "Media 7.1", which is great but a
> >> little expensive when you're talking about running two or three in a
> >> system.
> >
> > Not bad, not bad. The RIAA preamp is a nice touch.
>
> I recommend the "Media 7.1" to anyone who doesn't need all the overkill
> features of the MOTU stuff.  I happen to have some ADATs hanging
> around, so the MOTU system was perfect for me (although not cheap), but
> I actually use the ST card more.  I must say the RIAA preamp has been
> pretty helpful; I've lately been doing a lot of restoring of old LPs.

I've been slooooooowly working my way through digitizing my LP
collection, but it does take time to do it right. I see that the
Media 7.1 comes with DCart32 -- is it a "full" version or a hobbled
demo incarnation?

> > About the only room for improvement would be to move the A/D and D/A
> > conversions *outside* of the damn-noisy PC enclosure.......
>
> In fact, that's exactly what the "Media 7.1" does.

Interesting. Looking at the (deliberately fuzzy?) photo of the
board that's in the manual, there's a square IC in the "upper
right" corner that seems to bear the AKM logo. I'd assumed that
this was the main codec, but on closer examination I'd guess
that it's just the AC97 codec that's thrown in for the usual
lo-fi "PC sound" compatibility. (Now there's some sound thinking --
providing support for PC crap multimedia sound without letting
it hobble the audio I/O that you actually care about!)

Thanks for all the info,

- Colin Hinz
  Toronto, Canada