New External Sound "Card"

(startx) writes: "Well, it looks like creative has done it again. This time they've created an external sound"card" that connects through usb to your computer or laptop. It's called the Extigy, and looking at the specs, it appears as though it's got every possible audio connector you can possibly think of, along with the standard ir port with remote control. With this, a usb HDD, and a usb cd-rw, it looks like I can have most of my box, outside the box, just for the geek factor :-)" I don't think it's quite as cool-looking as the Stereolink 1200 (which I've never actually heard), but for a few bucks more the Creative crams in a lot of features.

Comments

USB sound is pretty old

[markj02]

Well, the Creative Extigy may be nice, but it isn't exactly the first one to do this. "USB speakers" have a "sound card" built in. And companies like Tascam also make USB-based audio interfaces. The USB audio protocols are standardized, so this should work even for Linux (at least if they keep to the spec).

Re:USB sound is pretty old

[anser]

I have been using the Roland (Edirol) UA-30 with similar features (optical/coax/analog in/out, plus a 2-channel mixer, jacks for guitar & microphone & headphone with a volume dial) for a couple of years. Powered by the USB connector, it needs nothing extra & is very light. I use it with the 7-pin Datman adapter cables from Core Sound to transcribe DAT tapes.

They recently reissued it as the Edirol UA-3 and added a more upscale 1/3 rack desktop model, the UA-5.

There have also been a stream of no-brand import USB sound devices from Taiwan over the last couple of years, but finding one when you needed it could be difficult.

Based on past performance, Creative's product will probably be less than perfect, but it'll be nice to have another option.

For the person who asked about Firewire - Stereo audio bitrates are fine for USB, you just need to have a little buffering in the device. I think the reason nobody's bother to put a 1394 chipset in an external sound box is that if you have Firewire you probably already have decent sound. This may change, or with USB 2.0 it may not.

Optical-In

[MHM]

Featured ports include Optical and MIDI In/Out, SPDIF-In, Line-In and Mic-In.

I'm no expert with current sound cards, but it has that optical line in. Wouldn't that be the best way to 'back up' those pesky CD's with copy protection?

Re:This is going to sell

[jbf]

I'm also a musician geek... I wish they'd bring the Digi001 interface into a PCMCIA card, for the same sorts of reasons. Of course, if you have firewire, you've been able to have MOTU's stuff for quite some time now (2408 was the first, but now the 896 gives 24bit/96kHz, 8 mic inputs (with individually switchable phantom), 8 outs (-10/+4 switchable) + stereo mains, and ADAT I/O.

Re:I want multiple tracks!

[davidesh]

there are plenty of these products on the market, check these out

plus you don't want to use a consumer card for recording multiple tracks

More Computer Audio hardware

Tascam US428

M Audio(TM) Delta 1010 Logic System

Roland® Studio Pack

Aardvark(TM) Direct Pro Q10 Studio Nerve Center

Aardvark(TM) Direct Pro 24/96 Pro Studio Package

it's really not consumer.. or pro... this stuff... "prosumer" (how i hate that word)

Re:Wonder how strong it is?

[Grab]

Except that monitors put out mucho RF, even new ones. When you've deliberately put the sound-card outside the box to remove RF noise, why place it somewhere it's guaranteed to get even more RF noise? Unless it's a 19" LCD in which case you're probably OK, and a 19" LCD wouldn't be that heavy either.

Grab.

BEWARE!!!!! Creative and SPD/IF Digital I/O

[jms]

Anyone considering purchasing one of these cards should be aware of Creative labs "Creative" interpretation of "digital I/O"

Some of their soundblaster cards have a digital I/O port -- labelled SPDIF, and in fact, if you connect a DAT deck to the digital I/O port, it will pass a signal.

However, the card does not pass the digital data. Instead, it converts it to analog, then resamples it to digital!

I didn't believe this at first, but I did the test -- I created a .wav file in Soundforge containing a square wave, then used my Turtle Beach Fiji card to write the .wav file to DAT. Then I used the Fiji to re-read the DAT, and recovered the square wave.

When I used the SPD/IF inputs on the Creative soundcard, it was obvious that the signal was being passed through an D/A/D iteration. The signal was extremely distorted and noisy. It wasn't a square wave anymore!

I don't know whether or not this particular device has the same problem, but anyone who is looking for a device for performing accurate digital I/O transfer should BEWARE!

Maybe, but maybe not

[Dwonis]

The answer is... well... maybe.

The problem is that sound cards do not always record at the exact same frequencies. Normally this is fine, because every channel is being recorded at the same rate -- in synch with every other channel you are recording. If you put two cards into your box and their sampling frequencies deviate enough, by the end of a song, the two streams may have de-synchronized a noticeable amount.

Re:USB or 1394

[paulbd]

MOTU have NO interfaces for IEEE1394. There is no standard for transmitting audio or MIDI over IEEE1394. Unless you connect MOTU's external units to their PCI/PCMCIA interface card, their devices are useless. Since they don't provide and have demonstrated considerable antipathy to Linux driver support for their interface cards, their equipment is useless for those of us not using Windows or MacOS. One day, there will hopefully be a real standard for audio+MIDI over IEEE1394, and bullshit like the current situation, with 3-5 different "1394-using" interfaces none of which are compatible with each other, will become a historical inconvenience. But don't hold your breadth. Everybody seems to think they (and their format) will be the one to win this competition. --p