Audio to Digital converter

[Larry Lapidus]

I am very happy with my DC flat preamp, and with DCArt 10.62. I have been using a Behringer UCA 202 to convert the analogue output of my pre-amp to a digital signal that I can save and massage with DC10. However, I just realized that the Behringer unit uses 48kz converters, and I cannot find a unit to replace it that goes to 96kz and above. Should I spend time fussing with this or not? If so, can you recommend a substitute for the Behringer UCA 202?
Larry Lapidus
Spokane, Washington

[Craig Maier]

That is murky waters. Some soundcards claim to support 96 kHz, yet in fact only emulate anything above 48 kHz. The only way that I know this is by measurements that I make using the spectrum analyzer in the software. But your question is along the lines of how do I know before making the purchase that the soundcard is actually sampling at 96 kHz and not emulating it. I got around it a long time ago by purchasing an Edirol Hard Disc recorder and then, measuring it. It is a model R-4 and produces a Nyquist (brick-wall) at around 47 kHz when set to 96 kHz. The Realtek chipset on this laptop records at 96 kHz, but the Spectrum Analyzer shows that it is only emulating the higher sample rate since it brick walls at 22 kHz. Maybe someone else has better information on this topic and will chime in.

[Larry Lapidus]

This is extremely interesting. It suggests that my efforts at dubbing LP's at 96/24 by setting setting those parameters in the DC10 recording module may produce essentially the same results as setting them at 48/16. Do you agree?

Larry Lapidus

[Craig Maier]

If you set it for 96/24, it will indeed record at that rate and that bit depth. What you do not know is whether or not they are emulating the higher sample rate. Here is a pic of what the Realtek audio chip-set does on this laptop; it is indeed 96/24. It just adds samples in - between samples taken at a lower rate. So, I do not have the true bandwidth advantage of the 96 kHz sample rate. It actually looks like it is sampling at 48 kHz and adding an extra sample of the same value in between sampling.

[Craig Maier]

Note the brick wall at around 22 kHz on the spectrum analyzer shown above (the vertical line), despite sampling at 96 kHz. My Edirol recorder when set to 96 kHz shows a brick wall at around 47 kHz, which is what one would expect.

[Marc Hildebrant]

Larry,

I would suggest that you try some other brands of A to D converters powered through the USB. In my restoration I have been using a product from Focusrite. The control of the sample rate should be done via their software and then use DCart 10 for the recording and playback. While recording in DCart10, set the sample rate to the same value as you select in the Focusrite control as their software overrides any WIndows commands. For details about their software and WIndows interaction, check out the FAQ on their Website.

I'm sure there are other products that work, but the Focusrite (Scarlet 2i2 Gen 3) is the one I use and it performs very well.

Marc

[DJBohn]

Craig, I'm using an ESI Julia that has 24bit 192kHz. Can I be safe to assume if my card is emulating 192kHz, I am probably at least getting a true 96 kHz sampling frequency with it? And would that still be true if I only selected 96kHz sampling in the Diamond Cut recording? Just want to make sure.

[Craig Maier]

I can not say since I do not own an ESI Julia sound-card. But, you can measure it yourself. Just record silence at 192 kHz and then loop play it via the Diamond Cut Spectrum Analyzer and note where on the spectrum the brick wall occurs. That brick wall frequency should occur at roughly half of the sound-card sample frequency unless it is using an emulation technique.

[DJBohn]

I am definitely having issues - with record feature set to 24 / 192, response drops off at 20k... Looking at the sound card software it shows internal clock sampling at only 44.1kHz. Tracer set this up when they built it and set the sound card software to automatic. I have not messed with it, but not sure how to approach the problem without really messing up the settings...

[Craig Maier]

Maybe give them a call and see if they can help you out with it.

Craig

[DJBohn]

I'll do that tomorrow - thanks Craig. Maybe they can also help with my not being able to minimize Diamond Cut without the tool bars stacking vertically on the left side of the screen. I should just upgrade to 10 from my version 8... will probably be calling in an order after the first...

[Marc Hildebrant]

DJBohn,

I would suggest that you check the sound card settings via Windows "Control Panel" and make sure that the Windows setting are the same as the Diamond Cut Settings for sample rate.

Marc

[DJBohn]

Thanks Marc, I've looked into the control panel which routed me to the Julia software, but didn't find any thing abnormal. I can go deeper and deeper into it like the advanced settings, etc.. But that's getting in beyond my computer knowledge, and I'd hate to make things worse...

Ironically Marc I've been looking at the Scarlett that you are using. Sweetwater has been sending me thick catalogs that I've been drooling over like a kid with a Christmas catalog. Been looking at the Lynx, RME as well as a few others, but talk about spendy...

Back to the Julia - haven't gotten a response yet from Tracer, but in fairness I have had the computer for 5 years now - well beyond the warranty period. I also sent my info to ESI tech support - we'll see what they have to say...

[Craig Maier]

If it possible that the ESI Julia sound card just needs to have it's drivers updated, especially if you are now running it on Win10?

Craig

[DJBohn]

Hi Craig, actually I'm using Windows 7 Professional 64bit on this machine. Tracer started with installing Windows 10 Home version, but there were very few user accessable settings. I couldn't even put a picture on the desktop! The real problem was I couldn't shut off the security & other auto updates. When they kicked in, Diamond Cut would freeze up when I was recording, and cut out a big chunk of the recording completely ruining it.

I haven't changed anything in the card software, and it did previously work - it properly tracked whatever sampling rate I selected in Diamond Cut. But for some reason it isn't working now. I wonder if an update to DC-10 would correct the problem...