From: jhenders@jonh.wimsey.bc.ca (John Henders)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.pro
Distribution: world
Organization:  One of these days for sure
X-News: HERMES MMAIL 1.04 Rev. Sep  5 1992
Subject: Re: Interface Digital Audio <---> Computer ???
	<BxGxwv.8po@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> <BxHFx7.KFp@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 05:04:48 -0700

In <BxHFx7.KFp@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> adcg9841@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (flannelman) writes:

>Hey folks.  Does anybody want to answer the original question with respect
>to the IBM pc?  Some of us have pc's now and are not interested in the
>NeXT or the Indigo.  I, for one, would prefer that this NOT turn into a
>comparison of the different platforms, but instead that someone who knows
>about the latest AES/EBU-type boards for the pc speak up with information.

	Try to keep the wild cross posting under control. ;-)

	The reason pc sdigital sound boards are not as common as you'd hope
is that the only part of a ps the designers can take advantage of it th
keyboard and displayl. The bus bandidth of anything below an eisa
machine is too slow to kee up.Even then, display update is a problem.
	So basically, what you have to design is a seperate computer that
plugs into a bus slot, has it's on hard drive interface, and aes-ebu
i/o,; plus hardwre to talk to the pc.
	As computers are just making a big move into recording studios. 
(ask around about how many studios used sound tools 2 yars ago), the
studio people  have tended to follow the tenet of picking the machine
that runs the software they want. If any brand loyalty exists, the
Studer Dyaxis is doing it's best to make sure it doesn't last long. 
( aside - anyone know if Studer's software is stable yet?)
	As someone pointed out, there are a few companies trying to do it on
the pc, some using Windows interfaces, but basically, all the pc will be
is a host, just like it is with a vga graphic card.
	The reality, unless you want to buy a pro system, is that either the
Amiga or Atari has better cheap digitising interfaces and software than
the pc. The mac had really cheap sound capabilities, but I don't know if
any developers really took advantage of them. I've seen good digital
audio manipulation on the Amiga years ago, not bad cheap software for
the Atari, and at the high end of the scale, Soundtools for the MAC. 
	Also, as someone mentioned earlier, Atari's new Falcon has a
56001 dsp  built in, abnd comes with some stereo direct to disk software
shipped with the mach, which will be shipped with the machine. This, to
anyone who's dealt with Atari, of course depoends on whether they can
actually get a few made to sell, and some dealers to sell them.

	As a summation, unless you're planning on doing it professionally,
your cheapest solution would be a seperate computer, as that's what you'd
be buying for the pc anyway.
	Now this doen't mean soneone isn't developing something for one of
the newer pc soundcards, just that they aren't talking about it.

	Another side note. I heard the dsp on the Indigo isn't directly
programable. Anyone know?


-- 
 John Henders      " Only _my_ words are relevant to the issue " 
  T.K.O.O.C.            <1992May11.073237.14684@rotag.mi.org>
                kevin@rotag.mi.org(Kevin "I'm not a net cop" Darcy)