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if by "sound card" you allow extrapolation to the more general term "audio interface" there are plenty - M-Audio, http://www.m-audio.com/ Echo Audio http://www.echoaudio.com/ Mark of the Unicorn, http://www.motu.com/ Digidesign, http://www.digidesign.com/ RME, http://www.rme-audio.com/ Apogee, http://www.apogeedigital.com/ Edirol, http://www.edirol.com/ etc.

It's hard to make a recommendation without knowing at a granular level what you want to do. How many inputs? How many outputs? Is latency an issue? What about frequency/bitrate? Digital inputs? Analog? MADI? Lightpipe? Some light reading... On the ULTRA high end, you would go with Apogee- http://www.apogeedigital.com/ - these are some of the industry's best da/ad converters; and with something like a big ben+rosetta on firewire, you'd be in good hands. Another contender could be rme http://www.rme-audio.com/ Then there's motu's line of products - http://www.motu.com/ - I've personally owned several of their interfaces and can tell you right out of the gate they're great. Good bang for the buck... Then you've got m-audio http://www.m-audio.com/ edirol http://www.edirol.com/ presonus http://www.presonus.com/

I record NPR and PRI shows via RealAudio streams to .m4b (bookmarkable AAC) using Audio Hijack Pro on a Mac mini. I used to use Total Recorder Pro on Windows. TRP worked, but AHP has better auto-naming facilities so I can be lazy about deleting old stuff & still find the new. It also is able to "hijack" just RealPlayer's PCM output so I can use the computer for other audio stuff. TRP pretends to be a soundcard driver, so any other audio is recorded too.

Finding a stream with a high enough bitrate to sound good that stays up during a popular show like Car Talk is tricky, but doable.

I'll be switching to an FM tuner with an outdoor Winegard PR-6000 aimed at KQED and an Edirol UA-1A (out of production so I've linked the similar UA-1EX).

Outdoor antennas are cheap. A good chimney mount is going to double my cost, but the total is still cheaper than an indoor Terk & it'll actually work. If the PR-6000 or PR-5030 can't pull in that distant station Antenna Performance Specialties makes what many claim are the best around. $219 for the APS-13 might seem like a lot, but compared to an Audible.com or Sirius subscription, it's not too bad & a good strong FM signal sounds pretty good below 15kHz. I'm tempted to get one of these just for pure outrageousness of a 200" boom, but it's overkill for KQED from Santa Cruz-- need a rotor to really justify it.

I'll be using a cool 70's brushed-aluminum-faceplate Kenwood KT-5300 with analog "big knob" tuning that I got for $30 before I found the crazy FM DXers page that reviews every old radio & has info or links on tweaking them for better selectivity.

If I end up wanting to record another station, rather than getting a Radio Shark and hacking on an external antenna connector, I plan to just get more tuners & switch them with a repurposed Keyspan USB->serial adapter and some relays.

'Ere's one, then:

I'm shopping 'round for a high-quality audio interface, for recording into Ardour.

The RME-Audio Fireface looked ( understatement-warning ) Ideal.

No Linux support.

I e-mailed 'em, asking about this, and was told that. . .

The chip in the thing isn't the standard chip, and making an OSS driver would compromise their IP, so it Would Not Happen, Period.

I pointed-out that they could make binary-drivers, then. . .

No response. . .

So, I'm instead committing-on Edirol's FA-101,
and hoping that FreeBob ( early-alpha ) is going to sufficiently-work on it ( or I'm going to be stuck dual-booting ), but am reasonably certain OSS, aka open evolution wins when competing against closed-evolution, when seen long-term. . .

I don't know if RME-Audio's made a "win-driver", like the software-modems, or if they've used a fpga, or what, or if the Reason is really a "reason" hiding political-commitment, but I cannot commit that much resources to something that is guaranteed to force me to live-in an OS I find obnoxious, so I finance their competitors, it seems. . . ( who don't support linux, but who don't stomp compatibility, at-least. . .

I simply don't know if it isn't possible for RME-Audio to open the spec without running into IP liability/damage, but have no-doubt that permitting the market to shift ( as Ardour is doing ) so-that it isn't controlled by the upstream companies is felt to be a threat by many companies' establishment, and I know that committing the work necessary for making binary-only-drivers costs: so I neither blame nor bless 'em for their predicament. . .

Particularly since anyone wanting to do pro-recording without paying the SW-tax ( to the tune of $1000 for OS + Ardour-equiv + AV/Firewall/Etc ) is going to have a significant advantage, and anyone who read the Tipping Point ( customer-tracking stripped URI ) is going to understand the implications of that pressure on the market. . .

While I understand your point about built-in functionality being preferable, there are USB digital audio 'dongles' available which aren't too expensive and are also fairly small. I am going to be adding one of the following to my Mac mini (if it ever gets here - jeesh).

Edirol UA-1x

M-Audio Transit

Hope this helps.

Why doesn anyone make an iPOD type device that will record in STEREO with manual level adjustment and both line in and mic in?

Well, there is the Edirol R-1, although it uses flash rather than a tiny hard drive. (Although I think it can use type II CompactFlash and thus 2GB CF microdrives, but I'm not sure about that.)

Or, if you want to get a little more serious, there is the Edirol R-4 (with 40 GB hard drive) or the Marantz PMD670. Neither of these last two is nearly as tiny as the iPod. In fact, they're pretty bulky, but they definitely do the job. And they both have XLR microphone inputs (with phantom power) so you can plug in a good microphone. (Warning: good microphones cost a lot of money.)

Now, you may complain that these devices are too big or too expensive, but you did say you want manual input levels and other things that imply you want to make a quality recording, so that's how you do it. :-)

Why doesn anyone make an iPOD type device that will record in STEREO with manual level adjustment and both line in and mic in?

Well, there is the Edirol R-1, although it uses flash rather than a tiny hard drive. (Although I think it can use type II CompactFlash and thus 2GB CF microdrives, but I'm not sure about that.)

Or, if you want to get a little more serious, there is the Edirol R-4 (with 40 GB hard drive) or the Marantz PMD670. Neither of these last two is nearly as tiny as the iPod. In fact, they're pretty bulky, but they definitely do the job. And they both have XLR microphone inputs (with phantom power) so you can plug in a good microphone. (Warning: good microphones cost a lot of money.)

Now, you may complain that these devices are too big or too expensive, but you did say you want manual input levels and other things that imply you want to make a quality recording, so that's how you do it. :-)

But I'm a music producer, quality over novelty.

Edirol MA-20D's for me! Even though they are not any where near as good as the Yamaha NS10's.

mLan is a superset of normal firewire audio (IEC 6something), which is starting to get some attention in JACK via the firewire generic driver. I'd do it myself with my fa-101, but the standard is kind of expensive.

smcavoy on MD recorder's optical input:

"It appears to be sony specific (i.e. no toslink)"

Nope, it's straight SPDIF toslink. I'm using an Edirol UA-1D USB to toslink adapter to transfer iTunes playlists to MD from my 12" Powerbook. The automatic track incrementing function is flaky, but it totally plug and play otherwise under OS X 1.2.6. They also claim it's Panther compatible.

Interesting. I can see that working if the distances are not too large. If you have an audio capture device that uses firewire 400, you're going to have a 4.5 meter limit, unless you're willing to daisy chain the up to 16 cables allowed by the spec, in which case you can get up to 72 meters, but I wonder what effect that is going to have on your latency. A less capable (and more common) audio capture device that uses USB is going to be limited to 5 meters. I suppose these limitations could work out for some people, (depending on how negotiations with the spouse work out) but in my case the nearest available closet is further than that...Did you friend have a workaround for that problem too?

Oh, via USB (using a 4801 or a PCCARD in the 45x1 series) gives me digital audio out (thank you mr edirol)

Why would I want a PCI slot that was designed for rather large desktops anyway? It seems like a toy.

Were the nano-ITX to have a slot, perhaps somehting a tad more robust than PCI would be good. VME boards used to take quite a bit of industrial shaking. ISA would pop out at the least vibration.

USB looks like a grand interface - I can read lots of IO, A/D and IR via a festival of USB and rs232 ports all attached via one USB plug.

That said, here's how I transfer digital audio from the PBG4 to the Sharp MD mt-877 portable (using this one now after a Sharp 722 and a Sharp 702):

PBG4 USB out -> USB cable -> Edirol -> optical cable -> Sharp MD in

This Edirol UA3 has been working fine for me the past couple of years, no drivers needed on Mac OS X! All you have to do is to choose the right output device in the Sound System Preference.

Of course, the drawback is that everything gets transfered in real time - no such thing as iPod's thousands of songs per minute ;-)

Hope this helps, and here's the URL for newer Edirol's gear (the UA3 is no longer in production): the UA-1D for example.

That said, here's how I transfer digital audio from the PBG4 to the Sharp MD mt-877 portable (using this one now after a Sharp 722 and a Sharp 702):

PBG4 USB out -> USB cable -> Edirol -> optical cable -> Sharp MD in

This Edirol UA3 has been working fine for me the past couple of years, no drivers needed on Mac OS X! All you have to do is to choose the right output device in the Sound System Preference.

Of course, the drawback is that everything gets transfered in real time - no such thing as iPod's thousands of songs per minute ;-)

Hope this helps, and here's the URL for newer Edirol's gear (the UA3 is no longer in production): the UA-1D for example.

Put all the files on an old laptop with an 802.11 access point. Connect it to my stereo through an Edirol UA-1A or Stereo-link USB audio converter, which should give much better sound quality than a typical PC sound card. The Griffin Technology IMIC is another possibility. Run a web server on the laptop that allows selecting and playing songs from a remote web browser. Then use my Sharp Zaurus Linux-based PDA with an 802.11 CF wireless card to control the system using its built-in web browser to pick out songs and play them. If I get really fancy, I can scan all the CD liner pamphlets and put them on the laptop too. Then the browser can display them and I can read the lyrics while the music is playing.

This is all done with simple stuff that I have kicking around the house already (crappy old 300 mhz laptop etc.), so except for the wireless cards which I don't have yet, will cost less than buying stereo stuff and give far more functionality and flexibility, plus of course use entirely free source code. It will be sooooo cool. I just couldn't see doing it any other way.

So I went to the Edirol site, downloaded the experimental X.2 driver, popped it into the right place (/Library/Audio/MIDI Drivers) - and, hey, it works! The app went on to discover most of my MIDI setup including an antiquated Oberheim OB-8. Apple's new 'Audio Midi Setup' app works almost exactly like OMS, except with a much nicer UI & audio config thrown in.

The downside - absolutely no documentation from Apple, either from built-in help or on-line. There is their audio page but there's precious little about MIDI.

Apple, BTW, already have Logic Platinum 5.3.0 update on their site. You can check it out here (anyone dare ./ Apple??? :-) ) It's very slick running in Aqua ...

You must be looking very hard for the things you seem to want...

RadioShack springs to mind as a place to pick up an optical switch for toslink, fairly cheaply. Whether it uses mirrors, or close-coupled light pipes, or whatever, it probably works justfine.

Midiman sells a converter (called "CO2", IIRC) which converts between optical and coaxial SP/DIF. They pop up on Ebay from time to time, and work well for a variety of tasks (SCMS stripping, anyone?).

The inexpensive Audio Alchemy DDE v1.1 that I use as a DAC for my computer has coaxial and optical inputs, as well as an isolated, re-clocked coax output which just mirrors whatever input is selected.

Edirol has a product here which has five connections: USB, toslink in/out, and coaxial in/out.

Finally, as configurable as the sound support is on the Shuttle board, I'd be very surprised if one couldn't turn one of its three multi-purpose jacks into a coax output using nothing but a software switch.

Of course, what I'd really like is a simple USB -> SPDIF converter - no other I/O, just USB in and SPDIF co-ax out.

They use higher quality soundcards, or usb/firewire boxes. Mark of the Unicorn has a number of products that work on Macintosh machines. (as well as ms. windows). Most consumer digital audio gear-- cd players, minidisc, or dvd players, make use of the spdif coaxial or fibre port. This is also commonly found on pc soundcards, but does not come with macs. Edirol has several USB to s/pdif converters that work with mac, but I have no idea if Apple's DVD player will stream the required dts or ac3 data correctly.

The only drawback in my mind is you cannot use the USB interface for 24/96 audio. That, and some issues like jitter and delay, should be solved by the next generation of IEEE-1394 interfaces.

It's fully OSX native and has two more instruments over and above Reason 1; a new graintable synth and an advanced sampler. The OSX drivers for my Roland UM1 midi interface are also in beta now and can be downloaded here.

Re USB interfaces: I'm using a couple of different boxes from Edirol (Roland subsidiary) and I can recommend them. UA-30 (no longer sold, but replaced by UA-3) and UA-5. These are more than bare basic units since they have digital (S/PDIF) I/O as well as line, mike, and guitar analog, and the UA-5 will digitize 24 bit 96 kHz audio, as well as 44/48 kHz 16 bit. They also have cheaper, bare basic units, as well as high-end professional stuff, including MIDI, synths, and video systems

The USB and MIDI products work with OS X, and also come with Win drivers.

BTW, I submitted a story about these interfaces with my Cubase item, but the Powers That Be rejected them...

From what I've read, they want to migrate people from the Cubase 5 line (there is an ugrade policy for existing Cubase users),and this may be their final idea of Cubase (and Nuendo) OS X support.

Re USB interfaces: I'm using a couple of different boxes from Edirol (Roland subsidiary) and I can recommend them. UA-30 (no longer sold, but replaced by UA-3) and UA-5. These are more than bare basic units since they have digital (S/PDIF) I/O as well as line, mike, and guitar analog, and the UA-5 will digitize 24 bit 96 kHz audio, as well as 44/48 kHz 16 bit. They also have cheaper, bare basic units, as well as high-end professional stuff, including MIDI, synths, and video systems

The USB and MIDI products work with OS X, and also come with Win drivers.

BTW, I submitted a story about these interfaces with my Cubase item, but the Powers That Be rejected them...

From what I've read, they want to migrate people from the Cubase 5 line (there is an ugrade policy for existing Cubase users),and this may be their final idea of Cubase (and Nuendo) OS X support.

The Edirol UA-5 USB Digital Audio Capture device might be what you want. Although it still needs external power so it is not completely portable. And for $300US it is not a bad price.

This is nowhere near a new thing.

the event ez bus

edirol UA-5

wamibox

digigram vxpocket

RME hammerfall

I don't know how people never bothered to notice any of these. Some of these are even very high quality (the RME and the VXpocket are both for pro audio) and are great laptop sound solutions.

During the "Lunchbox PC" discussion a couple of days ago the soundcard was brought up as an important factor, and several people mentioned getting an external USB D/A converter. I was intrigued and went looking to find that there are quite a few options out there right now already, and this Creative entry is just yet another addition to the selection list. Note that Creative would probably be the last company most musicians would look to as a leader in the high fidelity audio field.

While many people have rightly mentioned that USB has ample bandwidth for 2-channel audio (though even that at 96Khz/24bits hits 4.6Mbps - 96000 * 24 * 2): Note that this device claims Dolby Digital 5.1 -> Now I don't know if they do the decoding in the external box, or if they actually send 6 streams, but if they send six separate streams that's about 13.8Mbps (and of course USB is limited to 11Mbps). Just something to consider. It is a fair statement to say that Firewire or USB2 (it is just USB1 isn't it?) would make me feel a lot more comfortable about the unrestrained capabilities.

go with the regular laptop, Mac or PC, and hook a swank new Edirol interface on it. for less than $400 you can get devices that have clean, digital sound, optical ins/outs, MIDI, and analog ins/outs. all in the same box, yes. best thing for the mobile musician, well, ever...

Check out Roland's site for more information.

Just for everyone's info, Edirol sells the MX-5 (it's a tad high at $150, though):
http://www.edirol .com/music_equipment/roland_accessories/mx5.html

http://www.edirol .com/music_equipment/roland_accessories/mx5.html

I've got a MX-5 to supplement my Mackie 1202. A 1202 is overkill when all you want to do is connect the sound card outputs from several computers. The 1202 only has 1/4" input jacks, which means using a lot of RCA to 1/4" adapters.

http://www.edirol .com/music_equipment/roland_accessories/mx5.html

I've got a MX-5 to supplement my Mackie 1202.