This is/was a fairly common situation. Many soundcards can not record from
more than one input source at a time. MediaVision (many years ago) was the
first consumer-level company to include simultaneous multiple source mixing on
a sound card with their ProAudio Spectrum cards (and it was prominently
advertized as being able to do so!). Today, companies using higher end sound
chipsets have the ability to mix from several sources at once. The former
engineers from MediaVision formed Aureal Semiconductor and their Vortex
chipsets (at least AU8820 and AU8830) supported multiple source mixing.
However, Aureal also went under in late 2001, but you can still find Vortex
based sound cards at swapmeets and flea markets brand new for about $15. (BTW,
the TRW Swapmeet in So. Cal. has vendors with these cards).
As for current cards that support simultaneous multiple source recording,
Turtle Beach's Santa Cruz should work. It's capable of recording at least 4
channels at once (L/R of both Line and AUX inputs - documented in their FAQs).
Other cards based on the same chipset from Crystal (the CS4632 DSP) should also
work. Higher end cards from Lynx, Event, Midiman should work, but they're much
more $$$ as they're used by recording studios.
So, in short, Tom's looking for a sound card that supports simultaneous
recording from multiple sources (inputs) such as from both the MIC and Line-In
at the same time. Another option is to get an external mixer such as the great
and expensive Behringer MX502 (1 mic and 2 L/R inputs), but some effort might
be required to make sure RF doesn't get into the mixer. I have an MX802 and
also use it for other non-HAM purposes.
73,
- Aaron Hsu, NN6O (ex-KD6DAE)
{nn6o}@arrl.net
{athsu}@unistudios.com
No-QRO Int'l #1,000,006
. -..- - .-. .- ".... . .- ...- -.--"
-----Original Message-----
From: Georgens, Tom [mailto:tgeorgen@lsil.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 9:34 PM
To: 'writelog@contesting.com'
Subject: [WriteLog] Soundboards
Hello all -
I need to replace my computer at my station in Barbados and I have a
soundboard question.
I have used Writelog to record some of my contest activity (the comments on
the other reflector notwithstanding) and I had been taking advantage of a
feature on the soundboard that does not seem universally available. I
wanted to record the sent CW and the received audio without turning on the
sidetone. My solution was to take the sidetone output from the Multikeyer
and put it in the "line in" on the sound board. I would put a Y connector
into my headphone line and run a wire to "mic in" on the sound board. The
soundboard would mix the channels and record them both at once.
It turns out that recording two channels at once is not a feature of every
soundboard. My T600 laptop works fine, my newer A20 laptop does not, my
Ensoniq Soundboard does not, my SoundBlaster live does not, and my Cyrix
M300 based mother board in 8P works great. If there is any trend, the older
sound boards are the ones that seem to work.
It is almost impossible to tell from the boxes or the websites whether this
function works and I don't want to buy one of each until I find one that
works.
My question is whether anybody out there knows of a soundboard that meets
this criteria? It is also possible that I am missing a setting somewhere
but I doubt it.
The way to tell if the function exits is to bring up the Volume control
menu. (Start -> Programs -> Entertainment -> Volume control). Then click
on Options -> Properties -> Recording and hit OK. If you can select Line in
and Microphone at once, the board probable works. If selecting one mutes
the other, it does not.
Thanks in advance for any help or advice
73, Tom W2SC 8P1A
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