Anyway to bypass sound card?

[joshzz]

We have our sound (songs, imaging, etc) coming out of a computer then going directly to the transmitter/stereo processor.

I have never liked using sound cards as they degrade quality. We use an Echo Mia Midi and we have a digigram vx-222 on reserve.

Is there a way to bypass going thru a sound card feeding into a transmitter?

We currently use a Bext transmitter and are considering a Nautel. josh

 

[Lazy J]

No, every automation system out there uses a sound card. Every market from New York to Po-dunk use sound cards, unless they don't use computers for audio. You might be able to find a sound card with digital outputs, but that's the best you'll be able to do.

 

[Studio1]

I don't want to start a debate on analog vs digital, or flame wars, but once you've converted
your music into digital format, you've immediately lost quality anyway.

A computer's idea of sound is only ever, at best, an interpretation - limited by the sample rate.

Converting back to analog isn't going to lose much quality, and certainly not enough that
your listeners could ever hear it on-air.

 

[SRP]

I don't want to start a debate on analog vs digital, or flame wars, but once you've converted
your music into digital format, you've immediately lost quality anyway.

A generalization like that one not only starts a flame war - it's like pouring 1000 gallons of gasoline on a blaze.

If the sample rate & bit rate are high enough - you don't "lose quality".

 

[joep]

No, every automation system out there uses a sound card. Every market from New York to Po-dunk use sound cards, unless they don't use computers for audio. You might be able to find a sound card with digital outputs, but that's the best you'll be able to do.

That's not exactly true. With Axia's livewire networks, you can simply use a driver on your playout system as an interface to the network. This is probably the same with other vendor's digital audio networks also.

Yes, soundcards may one day become a thing of the past.

 

[OlderRadioGuy]

There are digital playout systems and audio routing system manufactures that have gotten together with computer drivers and router hardware to move computer audio out the LAN to the router. As noted, Axia Livewire drivers are available for some playout systems to interface with the Axia router via Livewire. There is (at least one) console manufacturer that will accept Axia Livewire.

To meet the goal of going from computer to processor, one would need a processor that has an IP audio LAN input, and a driver for the computer to put the audio on the LAN. Livewire is a likely bet for the format, especially if there is a STL between the computer and the processor, as the Livewire is one can be carried on a RF or land based STL. Actually, any network connection between the two sites could accomplish the same thing with any IP Audio format.

 

[Studio1]

I don't want to start a debate on analog vs digital, or flame wars, but once you've converted
your music into digital format, you've immediately lost quality anyway.

A generalization like that one not only starts a flame war - it's like pouring 1000 gallons of gasoline on a blaze.

It's not a generalisation, it's plain fact. A digital signal, no matter how good the sample or bit rate is, will NEVER
be the same as the original analog signal. There is no way that ones and zeroes can ever be the same as the
original analog waveform.
Sure, they can come mighty close, but never the same.

If the sample rate & bit rate are high enough - you don't "lose quality".
[/quote]

My point exactly. If you are going to use digital, and sound cards, today's files are big enough to not be noticed
on the air.
It all comes down to semantics really. How much of a difference is needed for it to be noticeable by one
person, but not by another?

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Josh: we are all getting "wrapped around the axle" with a lot of terminology double-talk.

Somewhere, digital based audio content has to be converted to analog output. IF (great big if) IF we woke up some morning and under FCC rules ALL transmitters transmitted DIGITAL audio and ONLY digital, then your computer would NOT need a soundcard.... for output. Send the digital stream of audio down the IP to the newly designed transmitter which would then broadcast the digital stream through the air to my home receiver which would actually be a SOUND CARD on steroids.

If you own a transmitter that has an exciter which can receive digital audio and then convert that digital audio to analog INSIDE THE TRANSMITTER for it's analog signal, and convert the traditional IP digital audio into the format of the FCC approved digital broadcast audio, then you could abolish sound cards for output in the studio automation computers. (Being out of the industry, I am not up to speed on this question: does any transmitter available TODAY allow for digital audio input.) If we did this, then we have moved the sound card OUT of the computer, and INTO the transmitter.

Now. You seem to be rather put out or disgusted with the quality of sound cards and would like to get rid of them I gather people are using computer sound cards that range in price from maybe $100 to $1,600. And if you don't like the one you have, for something between $100 to $1,600 you can put a substitute player into the game.

What if you buy a transmitter and it comes with built in sound card and you find out you don't like the quality or tonality of the card. At this point you are likely looking at a proprietary built-in component. You deal with the vendors of broadcast equipment. You and I know that the transmitter manufacturer can pull a "Steve Jobs" and design a transmitter that WILL NOT accept a third party sound conversion apparatus. What do you think the manufacturer might charge you for an alternate card to change the quality or tonality? $6,000? Maybe $13,500?

Consider this possibility: 82% of your audience does not have the ability to tell the difference between an automation machine with a $56.00 sound card and an automation machine with a $1,600 card. (My 82% number is a made-up number. Who knows. Maybe 93% is more accurate.)

What's it really worth to you to have maybe 7 to 18% of your audience muttering "That is one sweet sounding sucker!"

 

[Fieldtech1]

Being out of the industry, I am not up to speed on this question: does any transmitter available TODAY allow for digital audio input.)

Most modern exciters have digital AES/EBU inputs for audio. But even staying in the digital domain, the AES/EBU PCM signal is converted to AAC for HD radio broadcast, so there is not yet a pure untouched digital end to end transmission method.

 

[joep]

To meet the goal of going from computer to processor, one would need a processor that has an IP audio LAN input, and a driver for the computer to put the audio on the LAN. Livewire is a likely bet for the format, especially if there is a STL between the computer and the processor, as the Livewire is one can be carried on a RF or land based STL. Actually, any network connection between the two sites could accomplish the same thing with any IP Audio format.

The Omnia One and Omnia 11 both support Livewire.

 

[rrsounds]

It's not a generalisation, it's plain fact. A digital signal, no matter how good the sample or bit rate is, will NEVER
be the same as the original analog signal. There is no way that ones and zeroes can ever be the same as the
original analog waveform.
Sure, they can come mighty close, but never the same.

"Being the same" is irrelevant.
They can come so close that the digital's advantages greatly outweigh those of analog in performance, economy and convenience.

Now if I could just figure out how to put my analog audio on a hard drive for storage.... ;D

David

 

[JamieD]

The new Nautel VS series transmitters will accept a Livewire input.

 

[Lazy J]

Yeah, too make a long story short... I guess it is possible to remove the computer sound cards from your audio chain, but it will end up costing to many thousands of dollars and it will not make much of a difference in quality. Buy a nice M-Audio sound card for less than $200 and call it a day. Unless you have an extra $20,000 sitting around for Livewire and a new Processor.