is S/PDIF any use for live recording?

R

rick woodall

New member
hi

i have two jack inputs on my EMU 0404 sound card. but what i would really like to do is have a sterio pair on my accoustic guitar and a mic for vocals. but i also have an spdif input on my sound card. i can plug it into my dvd player and get audo into patch mix/cubase, so i was just wondering if it could be used as a mic input.

i have searched online for devices that might allow me to do this. i found this https://adsl24.co.uk/pcstore/cables...l-and-toslink-audio-converter/prod_16347.html which converts rca to s/pdif, would it be any use to me?

i havent even bought the mics yet and have condiered a usb mics.

all suggestions welcome

regards

rick
 
can i second this question.. i also have a SPDIF in/out on my card and i have NO idea what to use it for...
 
S/PDIF is for plugging in digital signals.

When you plug a mic into your interface, the analog signal is converted to digital and the computer deals with the digital signal. S/PDIF needs no conversion because it's already digital.

You use the S/PDIF in or out when you are hooking up other gear that has S/PDIF ins or outs. For instance, you might have a mixer that has S/PDIF out on the back of it. You could plug that out into the S/PDIF out on your card.

S/PDIF was a set of code agreements that a bunch of companies made so that their gear would work with each other. It stands for Sony/Philips digital interconnect format.

So if you see gear that has S/PDIF ins and outs, you can hook up that gear to your card. It's a way of keeping the signal pure because every time you convert it from analog to digital or digital to analog things get screwed up a tiny bit... less on expensive gear, more on cheap gear.
 
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i just remembered this, i started it quite a while ago. for the sake of any one with a similar question i thaught i would describe what i have discovered on this subject becasue it took me ages to come to a conclusion about it and sort it out.

the answer is YES spdif is usefull for recording audio. i have an emu 0404 sound card which has 2 jack inputs and one spdif input. i bought an M audio due 2 channel pre amp off ebay for £40 which has an spdif out and now to cut a long story short i have 2 extra inputs into my sound card. the spdif input works as left and right so it can read both channels from the pre amp at once. if any one wants to do this i would recomend the m audio duo, i dont think they make them any more but i think they origionaly cost £250, so if you consider the fact tha i got mine for £40 its an absolute bargain and the preamps sound good to my ear.
 
In my earlier days I was more hard up for cash, and I used (quite successfully) a TC Electronics M300 multi effects box. You can do the same thing with the cheap Lexicon. If you hit the bypass button, it bypasses all the FX, and takes a 2 line level inputs from a preamp or mixer and spits it out as S/PDIF. It also does the reverse. Feed it S/PDIF, and it spits out line level, with makeup gain. No miracles promised here. There are reasons why expensive AD/DA converters are expensive, but what the hell, it works. Even if you don't consider the reverb, delay, slapback,rudimentary compressor, chorus, de-esser, etc., these cheap FX boxes are the best AD/DA converters in the bottomfeeder price range- only if you can use coaxial S/PDIF. It's a fairly cheap way to get a couple of extra channels, *and* you get a reverb box that isn't that bad. The newer TC Electronics M350 works the same way.-Richie
 
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