Does anyone know of a reasonably priced sound card for my windows PC
that has an SPDIF optical input? Im trying to transfer recordings from
my Fostex fd-8, but when I use the line input on my current sound card
it picks up all sorts of noises. Im assuming that transferring
digitally through the optical line means a non destructive transfer.
Im looking to spend around £50 - tops.

In case it matters, Im running Windows 98 on a 1.3GHZ PC with 256MB
ram and a 10GB hard drive. I'll be doing the mixing and mastering
using CoolEdit Pro.

This might sound stupid but does anyone know if I could use the Fostex
as a mixer and record to the PC through the optical input in realtime?

Many thanks
Neil

"Neil Grant" wrote in message
om

Does anyone know of a reasonably priced sound card for my windows PC
that has an SPDIF optical input? Im trying to transfer recordings from
my Fostex fd-8, but when I use the line input on my current sound card
it picks up all sorts of noises. Im assuming that transferring
digitally through the optical line means a non destructive transfer.
Im looking to spend around £50 - tops.

SoundBlaster USB MP3+ runs around $40 in the US, might be in your price
range in the UK. It has SP/DIF I/O and analog I/O that is pretty fair.
Obviously not a top-drawer audio production tool, but for the price...

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/mp3+/specs.asp

http://www.soundblaster.com/products...ductfamilyid=7

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...

SoundBlaster USB MP3+ runs around $40 in the US, might be in your price range
in the UK. It has SP/DIF I/O and analog I/O that is pretty fair. Obviously not
a top-drawer audio production tool, but for the price...

Does the SoundBlaster do bit-perfect copies, or does it resample the S/PDIF
input? I recall some cussing and discussing about this a couple of years ago.

John LeBlanc
Houston, TX

"John_LeBlanc" wrote in message


"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...

SoundBlaster USB MP3+ runs around $40 in the US, might be in your
price range in the UK. It has SP/DIF I/O and analog I/O that is
pretty fair. Obviously not a top-drawer audio production tool, but
for the price...

Does the SoundBlaster do bit-perfect copies, or does it resample the
S/PDIF input? I recall some cussing and discussing about this a
couple of years ago.

It's been a while since I tested the optical I/O on a USB MP3+ so I don't
know off hand. Recent SoundBlaster SP/DIF hardware tends to be bit-perfect
so that it can handle Dolby Digital. The spec sheet says that the SP/DIF
does both 44K and 48K, so its probably bit-perfect.

I do know of even cheaper USB alternatives but they had some problems with
dropped data. The SoundBlaster USB MP3+ ran with zero tics and pops in my
tests. But, YMMV.

"Arny Krueger" wrote in message
...

It's been a while since I tested the optical I/O on a USB MP3+ so I don't know
off hand. Recent SoundBlaster SP/DIF hardware tends to be bit-perfect so that
it can handle Dolby Digital. The spec sheet says that the SP/DIF does both
44K and 48K, so its probably bit-perfect.

I do know of even cheaper USB alternatives but they had some problems with
dropped data. The SoundBlaster USB MP3+ ran with zero tics and pops in my
tests. But, YMMV.

Isn't it remarkable the level of technology we can lay our hands on these days
at ridiculously low prices?

John LeBlanc
Houston, TX