Soundcard that can output to multiple speakers with multiple sources?
6 replies, posted
A customer at my job is looking to have a computer that can output to five different speakers with five different sources (For example, having five different windows of Pandora open and having each one output to a different speaker set). I looked briefly on Newegg and found a few 5.1 and 7.1 sound cards, but none of them mentioned outputting 5 or 7 different sources. Does anyone have any thoughts on what we can do?
The best I can do is having a splitter on each channel for each sound system, and forcing the sound-making program to broadcast on a specific channel (iTunes gets right, Pandora gets left, Winamp gets rear right, etc). Not entirely sure kit you're looking for is available for desktop computers.
My integrated sound card has the ability to use other outputs like some rear speakers port for ordinary speakers. It just asks what did I actually insert in the port.
Then the other speakers are on another device in windows, so I can modify what programs output sound to which devices in Windows's volume mixer.
Not going to work out. I'd just get a few different USB audio dongles and use those, but Windows doesn't like multiple audio sources in the first place.
[QUOTE=Shadaez;33846152]Not going to work out. I'd just get a few different USB audio dongles and use those, but Windows doesn't like multiple audio sources in the first place.[/QUOTE]
Yea, XP was a nightmare. Windows 7 handles multiple devices better, but you physically will need multiple devices. Not like a single soundcard. I'm sure M-Audio might make something capable of doing that though.
With the help of something like Cubase or REAPER. You can do this with any sound card boasting multiple hardware outputs using ASIO4ALL - ASIO4ALL exposes all outputs on most cards. (In pairs)
Whether these programs will allow you to do what you want is another thing.
For example I'd create 5 Mono tracks and assign them to the 5 outputs of the surround card, select a region and stick it on loop. Add sound effects to suite... Instant museum-style positional sound sources :D
[img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/286964/cureaper.png[/img]
REAPER would be within a reasonable price bracket for such a setup. you can try it free to find if it does what you need. I'm not sure exactly what your requirements are so can't advise further (What is your source?).
You can also just get a multiroom Amp.
For example the onkyo 1*** series can supply 3 rooms with different sound from different sources.
You just need a few different sources.
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