[64studio-users] HOWTO record 8+ audio channels?

[Daniel James]

Hi Susan,

> I'm thinking of upgrading too, but I'm interested in firewire. I 
> currently have an old M-Audio 2496 PCI card, which I have connected to 
> my Allen and Heath WZ16:2DX mixer. The card seems to be picking up 
> noise. There's a hissing when I playback from the computer, but it's not 
> there when I don't go through the computer (when I'm just plugged in to 
> my mixer and out through the speakers or phones).

I would fix that problem before upgrading, as if it's not due to the 
card, then you may be wasting your money on the upgrade.

If it's a constant white noise, then it sounds like your gain structure 
is wrong, i.e. you are applying a lot of amplification to a very quiet 
analogue signal. Have you checked the analogue volume faders in 
envy24control (the last tab)? They should both be at maximum.

Your unbalanced phono cables between the mixer and the computer should 
be as short as practical, and good quality.

If the noise is intermittent, for example when you move your mouse, then 
it's likely to be a hardware interference problem.

> Any recommendations for a firewire device? I would still want to connect 
> it to my mixer, which I really like:)

As your mixer has 16 direct outs you would ideally have a 16 input 
interface. In theory you can combine two 8 channel firewire interfaces, 
such as the Presonus ones, using the ffado driver. Or go for one 16+ 
channel ADAT card and two eight-channel rackmount A/D converters.

Cheers!

Daniel