Multiple Sound Cards.....?

[dwirch]

Here is a good one for you guys.

I am setting up the yearly halloween haunt at my house, and the design I have come up with requires 4 zone sound, where each zone is playing a different audio track.

Now I *could* go down to value village and pick up some cheap stereos, but why bother when I have all these sound cards laying around?

My question is:

Can I open four instances of Winamp, and have each one play on a different sound card?

Just thought I'd ask before I wasted time stuffing this pc with sound cards....

Thanks,
Derek

[Some1]

Assuming you don't have any driver/IRQ conflicts, then yes (with Winamp 2.xx anyways I'm not sure about Winamp3). Outputting to multiple soundcard simultaneously with Winamp 2.xx is fairly easy, although I hope you have a decent system, as outputting to 4 sound cards at once probably requires a LOT of PCI bandwidth (though I could be wrong).

[rm']

I'm sure there is an easier way to do it, such as creating a 4 channel sound file, then outputting a different channel to a different speaker in a different room. Of course, this will require some recording software that can handle more then 2 channels, a 4.1 or greater soundcard, and 4.1 or greater speakers. This would be way cheaper then buying 3 more soundcards though.

[Some1]

I'm sure there is an easier way to do it, such as creating a 4 channel sound file, then outputting a different channel to a different speaker in a different room. Of course, this will require some recording software that can handle more then 2 channels, a 4.1 or greater soundcard, and 4.1 or greater speakers. This would be way cheaper then buying 3 more soundcards though.



Maybe it's just me but that method seems horribly tedious (especially since most audio editing software takes a fairly long time to do even basic operations, even on a fairly fast machine...and can Winamp even be used to play back such a file?)...if you were to compare the time it would take to create this file and set up the playback and everything, it would probably take longer than installing 3 extra soundcards and spawning 4 different Winamp instances. Plus, using 4 different Winamps gives him the ability to dynamically manipulate the output to each of the 4 zones, or change what is being output to one of the zones without having to create a whole new file, etc..

Also, my understanding was that he already had the extra sound cards ready to go...

[dwirch]

WOW!

didn't think I would get responses so fast!

I do have the soundcards already. As a matter of fact, I have a garagefull of equipment the wife has been hounding me to get rid of for some time.

Here is some clarification:

The machine in question is a 1.2 Ghz PIII, 512k RAM. I have resampled the sound files, which come from a variety of sources, down to several 48k mp3 files.

I grabbed a copy of Sound Control from a company called Really Effective software, and it should do the job I am wanting, but would much rather use something I am used to, such as winamp. The other option is to write my own software, but I am a database guy, not a multimedia guy.

A seperate PC will be controlling the automated props, and a third will be capturing video.

Currently, I have Winamp3 installed, but do have a copy of Winamp2 hangin around. After these responses, it sounds like this project should be no problem. The 1.2ghz pc should handle it just fine (I'll turn off all the graphical stuff - not needed).

Sound about right?

[dwirch]

Oh yeah - another reason I would like to use Winamp -

I have some of the automation running with X10. They put out a package called Entertainment Anywhere, which interfaces most excellently with Winamp.

[Cameron221]

Another possibility is to develop a central driver which decodes the audio and sends it to the different cards. But, your on your own.

[rm']

Originally posted by dwirch
Sound about right?

Yes. Very simple, in fact.

After installing and setting up the soundcards, open one instance of Winamp -> CTRL+P -> Options -> Check "Allow multiple instances"

Under plugins -> Input -> Double click "Nullsoft MPEG Audio Decoder" -> Under "Buffer entire file from disk if file size is smaller than:", type in a number larger then 25MB
NOTE: this step just ensures that skipping is kept to an absolute minimum. You have plenty of RAM, so 25MB is a good number

Close Winamp.

Open 4 instances of Winamp. For each instance:

CTRL+P -> Plugins -> Output -> Doubleclick "DirectSound Output" -> Under the tab "Device", you will see a scroll-down box. Select a different soundcard for each instance.

You are all set :)

[Some1]

Also, with Winamp 2.xx, pressing Ctrl + Alt + N will spawn a new instance...it's a handy if little known feature, and it DOESN'T work with Winamp3 (I just tried it).