FPGA Central

Hello,

it is hard to find a 16 or more channel PC card or USB device for
microphone array recording.
I know about NI or Brüel & Kjær solutions, but they are expensive ...
http://www.bksv.com/Products/PULSEAn...0Overview.aspx
http://www.ni.com/pdf/products/us/cat_sv923x.pdf

Could you help me ?

Regards

Roman Rumian

Roman Rumian wrote:
> Hello,
>
> it is hard to find a 16 or more channel PC card or USB device for
> microphone array recording.
> I know about NI or Brüel & Kjær solutions, but they are expensive ...
> http://www.bksv.com/Products/PULSEAn...0Overview.aspx
> http://www.ni.com/pdf/products/us/cat_sv923x.pdf
>

Unlikely to be any really cheap solutions above 8 channels (e.g. one
ADATs-worth); and of course you would need to nail down your
requirements more, e.g. sample rates, word size.

The products from RME are a good place to start; they cover both cards
and Firewire/USB, and beyond Windows and OS X they also have good Linux
support. The cards use AES, MADI etc; and you will therefore need
separate analog converters too; which is where much of the cost will lie.

http://www.rme-audio.de

Many soundcards support external clocking, so one option that ~might~ be
cost-effective is to use mid-price devices that can be clocked
together; but I can't think of examples offhand. For recording a mic
array you will of course need to guarantee sample-accurate timing across
all channels. So you can only use multiple "cheap" 8 channel cards if
you can slave them together to an external clock.

Noet that many devices advertised as, san 32channel cards, arrive at
that figure by adding up all the different types of i/.eo - analog,
ADAT, AES, etc. So the Firewire/USM devices from RME may offer up to 56
channels, but perhaps only 10 analogue inputs.

Basically, you will have to decide what i/o bus format to go for -
ADAT(s), multiple AES/SPDIF, MADI, and so on.


This is probably a good question to send to the sursound mailing list;
it is well-subscribed by people involved, one way and another, with lots
of audio channels.

Richard Dobson

On Oct 27, 6:54*am, Roman Rumian <rumian.wytn...@agh.edu.pl> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> it is hard to find a 16 or more channel PC card or USB device for
> microphone array recording.
> I know about NI or Brüel & Kjær solutions, but they are expensive ...http://www.bksv.com/Products/PULSEAn...cat_sv923x.pdf
>
> Could you help me ?
>
> Regards
>
> Roman Rumian

Try National Instruments. 16 is possible though with your sample rate
(22kHz/channel?) not too cheap. If you went 8kHz per channel
multiplexed - not too bad.
USB - no problem though you may well need anti-aliasing filters and
pre-amps etc.

Hardy

Hi Richard,

(...)
> The products from RME are a good place to start; they cover both cards
> and Firewire/USB, and beyond Windows and OS X they also have good Linux
> support. The cards use AES, MADI etc; and you will therefore need
> separate analog converters too; which is where much of the cost will lie.
>
> http://www.rme-audio.de
>
> Many soundcards support external clocking, so one option that ~might~ be
> cost-effective is to use mid-price devices that can be clocked
> together; but I can't think of examples offhand. For recording a mic
> array you will of course need to guarantee sample-accurate timing across
> all channels. So you can only use multiple "cheap" 8 channel cards if
> you can slave them together to an external clock.
>
> Noet that many devices advertised as, san 32channel cards, arrive at
> that figure by adding up all the different types of i/.eo - analog,
> ADAT, AES, etc. So the Firewire/USM devices from RME may offer up to 56
> channels, but perhaps only 10 analogue inputs.
>
> Basically, you will have to decide what i/o bus format to go for -
> ADAT(s), multiple AES/SPDIF, MADI, and so on.
>
>
> This is probably a good question to send to the sursound mailing list;
> it is well-subscribed by people involved, one way and another, with lots
> of audio channels.

many thanks for information - that is what I was looking for ! :-)
We think about our own multichannel audio interface (AKM AK5388 device
is a good candidate), but we want to build a prototype measurement
system first.

Best regards

Roman Rumian

HardySpicer pisze:
> Try National Instruments. 16 is possible though with your sample rate
> (22kHz/channel?) not too cheap. If you went 8kHz per channel
> multiplexed - not too bad.
> USB - no problem though you may well need anti-aliasing filters and
> pre-amps etc.

Thanks, but our goal is professional 24bit/192ksps system at reasonable
cost. ;-)

Kind regards

Roman Rumian