invent? Multi-Channel Sound Card

[bilfast]

I have four different channels, like

tv, radio, mic+amplifier and telephone speaker.

is there a pci sound card that has four line-in channels?

such that i can run four windows of sound recorder program

and record sounds simultaneously into four different files?

the idea for buying multiple sound cards...
is not suitable.:-(

i'm not bound to PC or Windows, other systems may do it...

help!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[mudskipper]

I was hoping that somebody with a little more knowledge in this area would field this question.... Oh well, I'll tell you what I know--hopefully we'll get you on the right path.

You can get PCI sound cards with 4 (or more) inputs. The problem is in the software that you use to record those inputs. All of the time that I have seen these type cards (aardvark is one name that I can think of), they were used for music--therefore all lines were recorded into one file.

In order to use 4 different inputs and record them into 4 different files, you would have to have a program that would allow you to
A) Select which input to record
B) Allow multiple instances of the program itself
C) Not allow a secondary instance of the program to over-ride the settings of the first instance.

Sound recorder is a really basic app, and it will not allow you to do this.

Also, your computer would have to be pretty beefy if you want to record any (or all) of those inputs with any kind of quality. Remember that most PCI cards shuffle much of their proccessing off to the CPU in the system. RAM will definitely help you alot here as well.

If you are serious about doing this, then I would expect to spend some pretty decent cash. Do some looking around to see what you want. You might stop by some music shops and start asking about recording software and sound cards. Often times, guys in the music shops will be able to provide you more information in this area than PC shops, as these guys are actually USING the stuff!

Incidentally, 4 different sound cards will not be much fun for you. Sound recorder will record off of the device that windows tells it to use. If you want to switch to another sound card, you have to tell windows that you are changing the default device. Hence, no simultanious recording (unless I am missing something here ;-) ).

Good luck! Mudskipper
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Groucho said it best- "A four year-old child could understand this! Quick! Run out and find me a four year-old child: I can't make heads nor tails out of this!"

 

[bilfast]

you're right, four instances of sound recorder won't be able to do what i need. I have developed a program for
sound recording that will allow me to choose which input to record from. The problem still is to find the right sound card.

well, thanks for all the info. i'm a bit curious about sound cards. how can we know if a sound card is placing its processing load over to the cpu? i would like to avoid buying such cards as much as possible.