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AES/EBU -> computer ?
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slaz View Drop Down
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    Posted: 20 February 2018 at 1:49am
Anyone know of a reasonably priced gizmo for this ?

A mate has some recordings on DAT (not ADAT) tapes he wants to import into a computer as .wav (or other lossless format). The DAT machine (on which we still need to fix a problem in fact, but I think thats in hand) has AES/EBU output on XLR, and SPDIF out .... would prefer the AES/EBU method if possible, but I can't seem to find any i/f costing les than several hundred quid <?> .. is that right ?

If thats what they really cost (which seems surprising) - anyone have one that could be hired for a couple of days ?

TIA.

Oh yeah - computers available are MacBook Pro (newish one, can't remember now if it has firewire, but certainly USB3) and also a bog-standard i5 PC / windows 7.



Edited by slaz - 20 February 2018 at 1:53am
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Aman Gebru View Drop Down
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Points: 350 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Aman Gebru Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 February 2018 at 7:25am
Unless your cable is over 1000 meters long then SPDIF will work just fine as SPDIF is AES/EBU and a lower voltage and unbalanced.

You have 2 options.

1. Borrow a USB sound card that has a digital input.

2. Go on ebay and buy a used M Audio audiophille 192 PC sound card or something similar that has a digital input. Shouldn't cost no more than 30 quid.

Your main problem is that if it was a consumer DAT recorder used to make the recordings, then they will be 16 Bit 48kHz. You will then have to find a way to probably do a sample rate conversion to 44.1kHz to allow playback on many platforms and if you want to convert to 320k MP3's. Programs like soundforge can do sample rate conversion, but it normally messes up the aliasing. There are several VST plugins that will work with soundforge to do prober conversions. Izotope RX or Myraid are workable.

Don't get put off by SPDIF being inferior, there is no difference in the quality of signal that is transmitted.
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dylan-penguinmedia View Drop Down
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Points: 4575 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dylan-penguinmedia Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 February 2018 at 8:07am
Audinate are releasing an AES > Dante dongle in March for around £100-£150 which will do this for you. Just plug it into your Ethernet port and set up with Virtual Soundcard software.
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slaz View Drop Down
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Points: 2713 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote slaz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 February 2018 at 11:26am
Originally posted by Aman Gebru Aman Gebru wrote:


Don't get put off by SPDIF being inferior, there is no difference in the quality of signal that is transmitted.


Aah ! OK - thats been a red herring (to me) then .... I had assumed AES was in some way superior. (Bit of a noob with this, as is probably evident :-) . Guess its kind of analagous to balanced/unbalanced analogue audio then ?

Right - we'll go the SPDIF route then. Just checked - there's a few PCI soundcards with SPDIF in that should do the job

Thanks for that !!
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studio45 View Drop Down
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Points: 3864 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote studio45 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 February 2018 at 3:48pm
AFAIK, S/PDIF vs AES/EBU is the same as -10dBv vs +4dBu. 
One is good for use down three feet of phono cable in the living room and studio, and the other is good for use down a thousand metres of cable in an arena. 
But, you can just use passive adapters to make things work in a pinch.
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slaz View Drop Down
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Points: 2713 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote slaz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 February 2018 at 6:08pm
OK .... about the cable .... is it _possible_ to get away with a regular decent quality screened audio cable (if its short) - or is a specific RCA SPDIF cable essential ? (We have no problem ordering one, just wondering if its worth trying tomorrow with an ordinary RCA cable to check the setup).
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Short regular cable usually works. Using correct impedance cable is preferable but short runs for testing any rca cable should be fine.
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slaz View Drop Down
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Points: 2713 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote slaz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 February 2018 at 10:18am
Good - understood  now .... thanks folks for all the replies.
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slaz View Drop Down
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Points: 2713 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote slaz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 February 2018 at 12:59am
Well went to matey's today to tackle this job ..... first up was to try to fix up his DAT machine - a Tascam DA30 mkII - hadn't been used for yonks ..... recent fire-up resulted in error 01 when trying to load a tape :-/ ..... but a bit of help from Mr. Google led us to order a tiny drive belt for the lacing mech. Bit of effing & blinding later - and the Tascam was back in business :-) - quite chuffed with that.

Then it transpired (doh - he never told me !!! ) that he had a AVID MBox Pro which came bundled with a version of Logic s/w. .... this had been used plenty for analogue I/O , instruments etc.
Documentation clearly stated it has S/PDIF in/out .... but no sign of it on the rear panel :-/

More forensic googling - transpires that digital I/O needs a special break-out cable .... doh!
So sent him off to rummage in boxes etc. ..... he comes back some time later with said break-out cable :-)

So h/w-wise (using a very posh-looking RCA-RCA cable as lash-up) we got it hooked up from DAT S/PDIF out to AVID box S/PDIF in OK .... but the Logic s/w (well actually the AVID box s/w control panel thingy) had me utterly bamboozled as how to tell Logic to expect input from S/PDIF.
The AVID setup dialogue has a tab called "FLOW" with a routing matrix thing that I couldn't make head or tail of .... so defeat on that front ..... but he has a mate who knows that sh*t ....

Thanks for the help guys anyway.
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