spdif and optical defs?

C

CydeSwype

New member
hey, i guess i'm showing my age and inexperience here, but what does SPDIF stand for and represent? also, i know alesis adat records to svhs, so is that what's meant by optical spdif vs. coaxial? just curious. Is there any advantage to optical SPDIF over coaxial or is it just another format? All the aardvark and event systems sound cards seem to be advertising their cards not as optical but rather as coaxial, or am i missing something? I need to know what seperates professional recording studios from the home studios i guess. I want to get as close to pro quality as i can. But i want to do it via computer. I'm eventually going to be mixing down to cd-r, so is there any point in having 20 bit software, if i'm mixing down to 16 bit cd audio?

Thanks,
-Ian
 
SPDIF stands for Sony-Philips Digital InterFace (the people that designed it). It's for transfering ADAT info to hard disk. TDIF is for the Tascam D-xx machines. Fiberoptic cable is less expensive and transfers more information faster than coaxial. What separates pros from homeys is money, training, experience, money and more money. Recording at 20 bits gives more headroom, more gain before disaster, but it has to be dithered down to 16 bits to be played on regular CD players.

[This message has been edited by Howlin (edited 07-02-1999).]
 
money yes...i kinda guessed that ;^) but what do they spend the money on? i suppose that's more my question. and am i missing out if i don't go optical? or is it just another format that doesn't really offer any quality difference. I'm trying to build a studio that is tape free, so no ADATs or DATs for me. In which case, so i even need to worry about SPDIF? I'm gonna buy an ardvaark 20/20+ i'm pretty sure of that. So i'll get that anyway, but it has an optical option, and i don't know if i need/want that.

Thanks,
-Ian
 
They spend it on things like a $10,000 (or something like that) Lexicon Reverb, while us ordinary folks drool over the $250 MPX100.

You only need the optical SPDIF if you have an ADAT deck and you want to get that audio into a PC, so you don't have to worry about it. It's good to know they're thinking about things like that though, because you never know what you'll need in the future. The Aark 20/20 itself is the same, with or without the daughter card.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top