[PD] buying PC's: Quantity vs. Quality

[Ian Smith-Heisters]

By the Edirol being programmable I meant that the effects themselves could be programmable, kind of like a Nord
Modular for video manipulation. If it was like that I would definitely try to find a way to get it, as I
probably wouldn't need more than a few distinct effects. 

I figured I would need at least two computers because of the audio dropout with GEM; I've got my personal
lappie and then, hopefully, a $1500 grant to buy the school a new computer. Plus there's this monsterous dual
Xeon that's being used lightly for video editing, that I may be able to conscript. And there's a 'tantalizing'
offer of a half dozen Pentium II 400MHz rigs.

I don't quite understand why the Motu would make the difference over the Audigy. Basically, PD outputs with
dac~ to which you could give as many arguements as you have channels, right? So why wouldn't "dac~ 1 2 3 4 5 6
7" give seven channel sound? And if that wouldn't work with the Audigy, why would it with the Motu?

>     Say where are you studying?    
I'm an undergrad in Computer Science and Dance at Marlboro College in Vermont.

-Ian


> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: RE: [PD] buying PC's: Quantity vs. Quality
> From: beau25 at access4less.net
> Date: Wed, March 31, 2004 5:22 pm
> To: "Ian Smith-Heisters" <heisters at 0x09.com>
> 
> PD sound drivers don't let you have a different number
> of inputs than outputs so your  $100 Audigy's will not give
> you surround sound, there are some interesting open source
> drivers that let you custom program the dsp on the card,
> which could be interesting but is sort of like having to
> learn PD twice.  Try to use the schools old Motu, that will
> save you a lot of money and let you do surround, and should
> be easy.  
>  
>    You need two computers, if you try intensive graphics
> rendering the audio will drop out.  If you have any synths,
> you could use video and midi, but not video + audio.  I
> tryed it on a 1.1Ghz processor, faster processors probably
> still wont work.  See if you could develop the audio and
> video in seperate patches and then install pd + Gem on the
> schools computer.  You probably still want to use the GEM
> GEO mapping that is cool.
> 
>    The mixer will do effect like colorization, mirror, and
> video blending.  These effects can be done in GEM, but they
> slow down the system too much, and work seemlessly on the
> mixer.  The V4 is definitely programable, you get 8 banks of
> 6 effects and a transition.  You mix your video camera or
> computer source in the mixer and possibly map some geo's
> with gem.  the control the automazation with midi through
> pd's logic
> 
>     Say where are you studying?     
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message Follows -----
> > 
> > > Edirol V-4 video mixer it has a lot of built in effects
> > > and can be controlled via midi, so uses it video
> > processor and let PD atomate it.
> > 
> > > Next you need a good quality multi-channel audio device.
> > >  Motu (PC + MAC)
> > > makes one, and hammerfall has another (Linux + PC +
> > > MAC).  I think with the
> > > hammerfall you would also need to buy a DAC.  On a
> > > students budget this
> > > could be tough either of those are close to $700.
> > 
> > That's interesting, I hadn't even considered buying
> > external hardware. My college already has the requisite
> > LCD projectors, PAs, screens, etc. including a Motu
> > 2408mk2, which is old, but not unusable. I figure that
> > something as simple as a 100$ Creative Audigy 2 would be
> > enough as it has 5.1 (7.1?) perhaps not.. But with
> > something like the video mixer, since all it needs is midi
> > , I could do audio and control the mixer all on one
> > computer. The thing I would worry about is limitations of
> > the mixer if it is not programmable (I haven't had time to
> > really go over the Edirol's specs in detail yet--it may be
> > programmable).
> > 
> > Thanks for the tips.
> > 
> > -Ian