[PD] Max audio streams and output

[IOhannes m zmoelnig]

Carl Seleborg wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> My question is : what's the biggest audio setup that's been made with
> PD? I have no doubt it can handle 16 streams of audio gratiously, but

me: 52 audio streams (I/O).
and i am pretty sure that when writing the RME-MADI drivers wini
successfully had it running with pd (which is 64 channels I/O)

> could some sort of audio routing matrix be implemented in PD efficiently
> that would route 16 in to 46 out?

yes, but if you want to do routing only, most multichannel cards have a
mixer on board (all of the RME HDSP + MADI series), which would allow
you to do the routing with now CPU-cost at all.
the mixer could be remote-controlled via the alsa-API. (oh, i am
assuming you are running linux)


> 
> If any of you has already done something with so many audio outputs,
> could (s)he tell me what kind of audio gear was used? I need no quality
> components, because the speakers will be rather cheap.

you do need quality components, because you will only get professional
multichannel hardware.
while in theory, pd can handle multiple soundcards at the same time, in
practice things are a bit more complicated: the soundcards will have to
be synched, in order to not drift apart which would produce clicks and
which is surely going to happen if they are not synched to the same
clock. you will find, that cheap soundcards cannot easily be synched.
professional ones can (that's part of what you are paying for)

if i were you, i would use 2 RME-hammerfall cards (9652 or HDSP), each
providing 24 ADAT-channels (3 lightpipes).
and whatever ADAT-dac's are available...


mfg.asd.r
IOhannes