Topic: Echo Audiofire and 32khz DAT

[todayforever]

All,

I posted here a while back on what soundcard to go with for archiving some DATs from my Tascam DA20 via spdif to my Mac Book Pro. I used my m-audio firewire to take care of all of my 44 and 48 tapes, but I still have a pile of LP 32khz tapes which I can't transfer, as the M-Audio will not accept that sample rate.

So I'm looking at the Echo Audiofire as a cheap additional soundcard with which to do the transfers. From what I've read online, it seems that this card will accept a 32khz spdif signal from the DAT. Does anyone have any experience with one of these cards? Will it do the job, with no resampling?

Once I have the 32khz data on hard drive I may upsample, but I'd like to get a bit-perfect rip from these tapes for starters.

Have emailed Echo, but nothing so far. Thanks in advance for any help.

[twatts (pants are so over-rated...)]

I'm curious too...  I have a handful of 32k DATs that I can't Xfer via R500 > HD-P2...

Terry

[Brian Skalinder]

If you have a non-resampling soundcard, you might try setting the soundcard to a supported sample rate, like 44.1 or 48 kHz, then simply changing the header after transfer.  Back when, during transfer I accidentally set the soundcard to 48 kHz when the DAT was 44.1 kHz.  All I had to do was change the header sample rate and everything was fine.

[todayforever]

Tried this - won't play ball at all. I simply can't get the card to take any audio from the Tascam when outputting 32khz.

My other option is an edirol ua-1ex, though I may also need to buy a convertor to switch the spdif signal from coax to optical. Finding info online is proving difficult - no one does DAT anymore!

[page]

One way would be to use Sound Devices' Usbpre2. It will handle 32khz and I emailed SD yesterday about it being fed a digital signal. What they said was that in standalone mode, it is bitperfect in/out (so you could do coax in, optical out or vice versa) and when hooked up to a PC via usb, it is bit perfect in and out pending any configuration issues on the user's PC (midi settings, resampling at the OS level, etc).

[H₂O]

Another way is using DAT2WAV or DAT Xtract (on the mac) and an audio capable DDS drive - I have transfered a bunch of 32Khz tapes in this fashion.

[page]

Another way is using DAT2WAV or DAT Xtract (on the mac) and an audio capable DDS drive - I have transfered a bunch of 32Khz tapes in this fashion.

Probably a cheaper way to do it too if you can find the drive.

[Colin Liston]

Or DAT to a CD recorder.  I had to do this a few times.  DAT to a Sony CDR33.

[page]

Or DAT to a CD recorder.  I had to do this a few times.  DAT to a Sony CDR33.

wouldn't that cause it to upsample on the fly from 32>44.1?

[Colin Liston]

Or DAT to a CD recorder.  I had to do this a few times.  DAT to a Sony CDR33.

wouldn't that cause it to upsample on the fly from 32>44.1?

Yes it would.  I thought that is what you wanted, but after re-reading your original post I see that you are trying to keep it bit perfect.  Sorry about that.

[todayforever]

Thanks for the replies all. I've gone ahead and ordered the echo. Will report back on my progress. I heard back from their tech support  - a one liner telling me it supports 32khz. If it fails, I'll just ebay it I guess.

Now hoping the fact that audacity doesn't support 12bit won't be a problem...

[JasonSobel]

Now hoping the fact that audacity doesn't support 12bit won't be a problem...

If the soundcard locks at 32kHz, you should be good to go.  It will likely record the 12 bit data in a 16 bit file, and the last 4 bits of each sample will get filled with zeros.  but that shouldn't pose any problem for you.

[todayforever]

Now hoping the fact that audacity doesn't support 12bit won't be a problem...

If the soundcard locks at 32kHz, you should be good to go.  It will likely record the 12 bit data in a 16 bit file, and the last 4 bits of each sample will get filled with zeros.  but that shouldn't pose any problem for you.

Great, thanks. Let's hope so!

Reading some more, it seems I may have jumped the gun in using audacity, as it apparently dithers from 16 bit>32>back to 16 in the aiff output stage (unless you turn that setting off, which I haven't). As I'm trying to acheive perfect rips of these tapes, it looks like I need to invest in some new budget software too. Can anyone recommend something like Amadeus Pro to do what I need with no nasty artefacts?

[Brian Skalinder]

Reading some more, it seems I may have jumped the gun in using audacity, as it apparently dithers from 16 bit>32>back to 16 in the aiff output stage (unless you turn that setting off, which I haven't).

For strictly transfers, with no editing at all, just turn off dither when exporting.

[todayforever]

OK, so here's the latest. I'm not far away from giving up on this!

The Echo will not lock on to the 32k signal. The spdif lock light flicks on and off and there is constant digi-noise in the left channel. Works fine with 44.1 and 48 k signals. I could understand if it didn't work at all on 32, but the signal is getting through locks for a split second then loses the lock again. I've emailed their tech support again, who aren't being much help so far.

Edit: latest response from Echo:

"We're using Apple's audio midi driver and it appears that Apple do not support SPDIF @ 32K ....I am really sorry for the trouble, it looks like our AF2 is going to work for you.
Hopefully, your retailer will take it back...."

Is this correct? So there is no way I am going to get 32k audio into my mac?

[H₂O]

You can xfer 32Khz files to a MAC using DAT Xtract, an Audio capible DDS drive (i.e. Sony SDT-9000) and a Firewire SCSI adapter.

I have done this on a few tapes in the past with out issue.