DTS-CD what software and soundcard are best

If all I want to do is transfer my old quadraphonic reels to DTS CD (using my PC) - i need a sound card with 4 inputs and some software. my questions -
which sound card is best - and what software is needed.

Software is easy. It all depends on your budget, but you can do everything except the DTS encoding for free.
Try the Kristal engine for recording - http://kristal.kreatives.org/index.php?section=news
this is free, records multitrack with full ASIO support at up to 192KHz and from 16 to 32 bit floating point. It is a true basic multitrack recorder and very good for this.

Soundcard - you need one with 4 in and 4 out, personally I can recommend the Echo range and some people have used TerraTec or M-Audio too.
The actual DTS encoder will have to be bought from Surcode - see www.Surcode.com and look for the $99 version of Surcode DTS.

Noise reduction is a matter of some debate. My thoughts are that if you cannot do it well, then better not to do it at all. And never over do it or things go really wrong and you end up with muffled or unintelligible transfers. There are a couple of Eagles ones doing the trade rounds that have virtually no top end left in them at all - horrible! Better to have the tape hiss than to kill the music.

Good Luck.

Can't two 2-ch cards be used instead?

It is very rare for any multichannel recording application to be able to address 2 cards simultaneously.
This is because in general the app needs to load a set of drivers for the soundcard, and under ASIO - which is required for multiple inputs as WDM can usually only use a stereo input - you cannot have 2 sets of drivers loaded at once.

Aniother reason not to do it the 2 card way - even if you can find 2 cards and a recording application that will do this - is because using 2 different cards means 2 different types of ADC, 2 different sets of S/N ratios, etc etc.
Much better to run in all 4 at the same time.

Terratec are doing some good cards for not too much money, and I have heard good things about Maudio too. I use RME personally.

It's not the cheapest thing to start up, but it is a lot of fun and very addicitve.

there is an M-audio 24/96 card that is made to be used on it's own or with 2 or 3 to make 4 or 6 channels. but all the card must be the same

thanks for the help - this should be fun

solaris said:

there is an M-audio 24/96 card that is made to be used on it's own or with 2 or 3 to make 4 or 6 channels. but all the card must be the same

Click to expand...

I forgot about this! Thanks for the reminder Solaris!!
You can also do the same with my RME card, with up to 4 supported at once, as well as the very highly rated Lynx cards too.
Apologies - I assumed that 2 different cards were being referred to, and that was poor.
Should not assume.
I'm gonna go and have a word with myself........

Jon recently touted an inexpensive multichannel card apt for making DVD-As. Which one was it?

neil wilkes said:

Software is easy. Try the Kristal engine for recording -

Soundcard - you need one with 4 in and 4 out, personally I can recommend the Echo range and some people have used TerraTec or M-Audio too.
The actual DTS encoder will have to be bought from Surcode - see www.Surcode.com and look for the $99 version of Surcode DTS.

Good Luck.

Click to expand...

Got the delta m-44 (4 in 4 out)
got the sure code
got the Kristal - and something called live lite 4 (that came with the card)

I can record 2 stereo wavs (front l/r read l/r) - but I can't figure out how to record 4 mono wavs?

any help would be most welcome

thanks

if you have the 2 stereo waves, just split them apart! Copy and paste each channel into a mono wav file, then you will have the 4 files for SurCode! Sometimes that is how I will do it.

JonUrban said:

if you have the 2 stereo waves, just split them apart! Copy and paste each channel into a mono wav file, then you will have the 4 files for SurCode! Sometimes that is how I will do it.

Click to expand...

thought of that - but can't figure out how

gads I miss analogue :-(

got it! - the delta 44 driver needed to be updated

In your wave editor, open the stereo file. Select the left channel only. Copy it into memory. Go to File/New and create a new MONO file at the same bit depth and freq. Then just paste into the new empty file, save as FrontLeft.wav. Repeat for the other three channels.

For example, I would use Sound Forge 8 to do the above, but it can be done in Cool Edit Pro, Adobe Audition, or any other wav editor.

thanks for all the help - got the whole thing working - just amazing. back in the day I built my own SQ encoder - but never being a fan of matix stuff - i used it in mixing down live four track recordings.
nice to be able to have real quadraphonics on CDs

I'm looking at the Delta M44 - does it have RCA inputs or are those 1/4" jack inputs?

*Edit*

Nevermind, I see it takes 1/4" jacks.

Is there anything out there that uses RCA connections?