Hello all I am creating an audio system that needs 8 separate outputs. No video. If you can imagine 8 separate sounds playing at once, channeled into 8 amplified speakers. My question is what hardware and software would I need to achieve this? Where do I start?
please dont take this the wrong way,but if you have to ask this question,chances are you dont have the knowledge base to achieve this.at present 7.0 surround is the latest system i know of.i think i know what you want here but i,at least,have no idea how to proceed either.your going to have to be some electronics whiz for this one.in my opinion i would start by finding someone with an idea how to build your amp.
Hello Aldan Yes that is correct. I don't know what I'm doing. But this is what I have so far. Use a program like Audacity, + an 8 channel audio card, + an 8 channel amp, + 8 speakers. Do you see any reason why this wouldn't work?
Why would you use 8 amplified speakers if you already have an eight channel amp? What are you using for a preamp? Eight channel amps are used for professional applications. Not sure what you are trying to do with eight separate sounds. Jeff
Hey Jeff The first idea was amplified speakers. But decided scrap that idea and use an amp. I can use 2 4channel car amps or Pyle has an 8 channel amp. Your comment on a preamp was a question I had that maybe you can answere. I was thinking that the audio card output was a preamp signal. Is that accurate? What I'm doing is abstract. It's a concept.
Not sure what audio card you have. Most consumer grade on board or audio cards use the output signal to drive the main amp or amplified speakers. Your audio card sounds a bit exotic. Does it have a pre out? I unbridge my '70's Marantz 2230 receiver using the preamp to audio card input recording LP's to my PC. Then again, the 2230 has an analog two channel output. I'm not sure if Audacity supports 8 independent tracks. There is a lot of documentation on line on how-do-dos and tutorials for Audacity. I have a 24 track TASCAM with amp speakers for recording music. However the tracks are mixed down to stereo. Not quite the same thing. Jeff
You were right to move away from amplified speakers. The best are junk. 8 poor speakers are no match for 2 great ones. Unfortunately, the 2 cost 10 times as much as the 8. You might want to research a bit before you build your dream sound system, then you might not be throwing away your money.
Unless you are doing it with studio speakers like I use for my Sony TASCAM 2488 for recording music. E-MU PM5. Creative speakers, not the best but do the job. Besides I use headphones and decent mics when recording. Jeff
I think your right about Audacity may not support 8channels. A musician friend said the same. He uses a program called ProTools. He wasn't sure if his program could assign 8 separate channels to 8 outputs. The audio card is an 7.1-eight output.
He will have to build a crossover network to discriminate the the frequencies of each channel. It would be less painful to ditch the 8 discrete channels and purchase a decent 7.1 receiver with a PC sound card to handle 7 channels + one low frequency amplified sub-woofer since most 7.1 receivers only have a preamp > sub-woofer output. My Denon does do it. I have only run across a few Blu-ray disks that support HD 7.1 sound output. I'm sure there will be more disk if not all disks in the future. You have to make room for two more speakers and the additional wiring. Luckily I have them already mounted. Another reason why DVD's are on their way out and going the way of VHS. You can't fit that amount of data on a 4.8 GB or DL disk for today's audio and video capabilities. With all the garbage from copy protection, video and audio, it's hard to find a Blu-ray disk we purchase to fit on a 25 GB Blu-ray disk at it is. 50 GB Blu-ray at a minimum without serious data compression is the only way. Have you checked the price of a 50 GB BD-R lately? Jeff
Pro-tools I believe only for Mac's. My buddies son uses Pro-tools for recording and live performances. One man band who plays the drums. Mac's have a purpose. Jeff
