RE: That's what I was after - thank you.

Posted by Tony Lauck (A) on September 4, 2011 at 07:40:55

In Reply to: RE: That's what I was after - thank you. posted by phofman on September 4, 2011 at 07:21:04:

"Otherwise you will get glitches as their clocks eventually drift apart. Or the playback chain must use asynchronous reclocking for the second and further cards. It is not as simple as it seems."

It's not clear what will happen with player software if one tries to play a multiple track file across two sound cards. The most likely outcome are some kind of player crash or error and/or hearing unsynchronized sounds out of the speakers. These will drift apart fairly quickly and the resulting audio will begin OK, become very "spacy" and eventually become cacophonous. (I was given a 4 channel recording once that was made on two different recorders and had to sort out this mess before it could be mixed. I was able to do this eventually, after wasting many hours but the various unsuccessful attempts were sometimes amusing.)

The actual speed of the two sound cards will tend to be in a more or less constant ratio, but will still drift slightly over time due to variations in temperature and voltage at the clocks, so there is no reasonable way to correct for these variations other than to synchronize the clocks, i.e. slave one sound card to the other or slave both cards to a master clock. (Some pro-audio products make these very easy to do as they are modular systems designed to be expanded to many tracks.)

Tony Lauck

"Diversity is the law of nature; no two entities in this universe are uniform." - P.R. Sarkar

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - Has anyone ever used an audio interface in multiple instances? - Presto 17:16:16 08/31/11 (18)

not exactly what you are asking but - bwb 16:43:44 09/01/11 (9)

RE: not exactly what you are asking but - Presto 09:14:37 09/02/11 (8)

two identical cards in one box? - Tweekeng 22:52:50 09/02/11 (7)

That's what I was after - thank you. - Presto 19:01:53 09/03/11 (6)

RE: That's what I was after - thank you. - Tony Lauck 07:44:06 09/04/11 (0)

RE: That's what I was after - thank you. - phofman 07:21:04 09/04/11 (4)

RE: That's what I was after - thank you. - Tony Lauck 07:40:55 09/04/11 (3)

RE: That's what I was after - thank you. - phofman 00:52:34 09/05/11 (2)

RE: That's what I was after - thank you. - Tony Lauck 07:22:58 09/05/11 (1)

RE: That's what I was after - thank you. - phofman 08:31:15 09/05/11 (0)

RE: Has anyone ever used an audio interface in multiple instances? - phofman 14:16:44 09/01/11 (0)

RE: Has anyone ever used an audio interface in multiple instances? - Dawnrazor 10:56:17 09/01/11 (4)

Oh I'm sorry (ha ha ha clear as mud- I use that all the time!) :P - Presto 11:21:24 09/01/11 (3)

RE: Oh I'm sorry (ha ha ha clear as mud- I use that all the time!) :P - Tony Lauck 11:37:43 09/01/11 (2)

If I am not mistaken.... - Presto 09:17:41 09/02/11 (1)

RE: If I am not mistaken.... - Dawnrazor 14:57:55 09/07/11 (0)

You don't know Jack... - Tweekeng 21:14:17 08/31/11 (1)

Omg ! for a moment there I thought you meant Jack Kevorkian..lol * - Audio Pharaoh 08:46:13 09/01/11 (0)

Follow Ups

RE: That's what I was after - thank you. - Tony Lauck 07:40:55 09/04/11 (3)

RE: That's what I was after - thank you. - phofman 00:52:34 09/05/11 (2)

RE: That's what I was after - thank you. - Tony Lauck 07:22:58 09/05/11 (1)

RE: That's what I was after - thank you. - phofman 08:31:15 09/05/11 (0)

RE: That's what I was after - thank you.

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