Multichannel Output: Possible? (3ch for now, maybe 8 or 16 in future)

[Jeremiah Moore]

Hi -

new here - and so pleased this project has continued interest.  I first came across it at Makerfaire, where an embedded instrument was on display which used Pd on beaglebone to apply physical modeling to add DSP-augmented resonant acoustic properties to the acoustics of a plastic object.  

By way of introduction:

My name is Jeremiah Moore. I'm a geek, artist, hacker, curious person.  I'm not super mega techie but I understand things well and quickly usually. I use the command line but not every day... use Max and hack with it, but logged in the tens of hours on it.  I design mix and record sound for films (with hours logged in Pro Tools in the tens of thousands of hours) and do sound art things, acoustic ecology things, and I'm on the board of The TANK center for sound arts in Colorado.  I am based in San Francisco.

3CH INSTALLATION

My colleague needs a three channel player for an installation and came across the idea of using a raspi.  

Requirements:  

- it turns on, loads and plays a sounfile, continuous looping until power removed.

- Sound quality and reliability are top priorities

- 24-bit 48K three channels

- Quality audio interface essential:  (RME, maybe MOTU or whatever....)

- Player software could be anything that works... maybe VLC would work (?)

That's it.  

Many, many devices do this for 2 channels, but almost none for three+ channels

QUESTION:

1) Has anyone got 3+ channels of good quality sound up and running?  Is it possible?

2) Do class compliant devices work, and across multiple channels?

3) Any favored software for 3+ channel playback?  Easy setup is a big plus.  Has to start and run unattended.  

As I said - Reliability and quality are essential. As reliable as, say, a mac mini. 

I cruised the forum and searched, but found scant info on multichannel.  

Thx for any input - 

-jeremiah

[peter nyboer]

You could do this over network and multiple Pis (or, to be self promoting CHIPs). Your sync would be in milliseconds rather than samples, but it would probably be fine. 

Peter

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[Jeremiah Moore]

Interesting...  good to know about CHIPs thx

Presumably wired network = better reliability than wifi

More complicated (or is it?) than I'd prefer - however:

Have to see if ms is ok for sync on this material. 

once started can this method continuously resync?  

i.e. compensate for DAC clock drift over hours or days of playback?

-jeremiah

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Peter

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jeremiah moore  |  SOUND | San Francisco

jmo...@northstation.net
http://jeremiahmoore.com/

m (+1)415.577.0045

The TANK Center for Sonic Arts | Rangely, Colorado

http://tanksounds.org/

[peter nyboer]

Probably the least pain free method would be to use net-jack, which is part of JACK. I haven’t played with that for a long time, but you could theoretically send streams from a host to all the computers.

Wired would be more reliable, OTOH, if you have a good router and keep the network local, you might find wireless is a lot easier and good enough.

It is possible to compensate, but you’d need a server to handle the clock. Airplay does this sort of thing to keep multi room audio sync’ed.

Peter

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[ByungJun Kwon]

teensy board offers 44.1khz, 16bit 4ch.
https://www.sparkfun.com/news/2055

[Jeremiah Moore]

Thanks All -

Sounds like there's no conclusive answer ... in case it helps to reframe the question, here it is:

- Has anyone sucessfully connected a class-compliant USB audio interface (for example RME UC in class-compliant mode, or another IO such as MOTU AVB in class compliant USB mode) to a Satellite Ccrma machine and sucessfully addressed 3+ channels of output?   8 output?

- And if so, is this straightforward, plug-and-play?  

Thx!!  

(not going to work for me to use built in i/o or small cheap boards for i/o, in this particular application...quality and stability is at dealbreaker priority, though on other projects this could be perfect.)

-jeremiah

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[Greg O'Drobinak]

Greetings!

I've been using a RasPi 2 with both Vantec and Startech '7.1' channel USB interfaces with the Satellite load (the one before 1.05) and running pd to play sound files. Just go to Amazon and search for 'Vantec USB audio' and you will find them. There are four 3.5 MM stereo line-level jacks for the sound output.

These USB audio interfaces are based on the C-Medis CM6206 chip, which works well at 48K sample rate and I would recommend you stick with that.  Note that you must use large buffers in pd to get glitchless output, but it can be done. It is only 16-bit output, but the quality is quite good. I suggest that for the price (< $35.00) that you try one out.

Best of luck,

Greg O'Drobinak

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[Greg O'Drobinak]

Oops!

Correction: I AM using the v1.05 distro.

Sorry!

[Jeremiah Moore]

Thx For this info - great!  

My colleague Jim McKee and a grad student at SF Art Institute (I don't have his name right now) put together a rasPI rig that uses the  built-in HDMI output to play 8 channels (of 24/96, as I recall...) which is converted externally via HDMI home theater receiver. Anyone interested in the specifics I will see if I can dig them up -

-Jeremiah 

On Wed, Mar 1, 2017 at 7:26 AM Greg O'Drobinak <gmo13...@gmail.com> wrote:

Correction:

I AM using the v1.05 distro from Edgar.

Sorry for the confusion, I haven't booted it up for awhile.

On Wednesday, March 1, 2017 at 9:14:01 AM UTC-6, Greg O'Drobinak wrote:

[James MacDonald]

Hello Jeremiah,

If it's not too much trouble, I'm interested in the specifics of using HDMI to get multichannel audio out of the Raspberry Pi. Thanks in advance!

Best,

James MacDonald

[Jeremiah Moore]

Hi James - 

I'm only directly familiar with it from the MacOS end. When attached to an HDMI device which receives audio, the Audio Midi Setup application can see and address eight channels of output via HDMI.  I've used this to great effect when presenting in a classroom with HDMI laptop connection into projector and 5.1 sound system. 

As for RasPI ability to access it:  I've not done it personally, though a colleague has an installation running via it for several months now so I know it's possible.  If I can find any pertinent specifics I'll share w/ the group.

-jeremiah

[zimtzeke]

Hi Jeremiah,

there is no problem at all with up to 8ch audio output on satellite with pd if
you avoid full duplex - so no inputs (for this it gets more complicated).

if you need a cheap audioI/O and amplifiers are close to the interface with
short cable length, you can use a 35€ interface like
https://www.conrad.de/de/71-soundkarte-extern-usb-soundbox-71-digitalausgang-externe-kopfhoereranschluesse-externe-lautstaerkenregelung-872990.html
as a very good alternative for €230 with 10 symmetrical outputs i can recommend
the behringer fca1616 or other new-generation behringer soundcards.
behringer changed politics and is now widely compatible with linux which is great.

i ran several multich-installations for very long periods and both versions worked
perfectly fine and the pd patch is super-easy and satellite is super-stable. it only
depends on the budged. the rest is coding.

good luck.
m