[ardour-users] 48 channels on ardour

John Rigg au at sound-man.co.uk
Tue Jul 17 12:04:45 PDT 2007


On Tue, Jul 17, 2007 at 05:22:00PM +0100, Steven Chamberlain wrote:
> Also, whichever sound cads you use, if you record 48 tracks in ardour as
> 32-bit WAVE files at 96000Hz, I believe this would require writing to
> the disks at almost 18MB/sec.  You would need to make sure your disk
> system is capable of writing at a *continuous* 18MB/sec, which is
> probably quite demanding?

Yep. You'd have to decide if you really need to use 96kHz rather
than 48kHz. With something like a Delta 1010, most of the potential
increase in quality at 96kHz is wiped out by the increased clock
jitter, so it isn't really worth using more than 48kHz with that
particular hardware.
> 
> I have not used SATA drives before; can anyone tell me what rate they
> can be written to continuously?

SATA has the same continuous read and write speeds as the equivalent
IDE disk, as that is limited by the speed that the disk travels past the
heads, and not by what type of data interface it uses.
> 
> With the right hardware, I'm sure ardour would make a very nice 48-track
> recording system.  Good luck!

Yes. At least one user on these lists is using it for 64 channels.
I'm currently using three Delta 1010s for 24 tracks. It's reliable
and I don't get xruns (I use large period size and monitor from the
1010s' hardware outputs for `zero latency' monitoring though). Having
said that, the next system I build is likely to use an RME MADI card
with suitable outboard converters, as it's a lot easier to set up.

John



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