This is another reasonably priced 4 input/output card available on the market, bringing the total of 4 output cards that I know of to 4... (Terratec-EWS, Dman-2044, Maxisound Studio 64, and this one)..... 4 outputs is a nice central amount for those who really dont want 8 outs, and for whom stereo doesn't quite hit the mark for external mixing.... or maybe you need two outs to sync a s/w synth with your audio/midi programme... The Gadget Labs unit has no synth onboard, and no sampling facilities or anything like that... The company simply pushes it on a sonic quality tip at a reasonable price.....
Well, the price seems about on par for the course. I've never tried one, but the spec's seems fine, so we'll see if any reader-user comments appear to enlighten us a bit as to the real world abilities of this card....
The Wave-4 comes with 4 analog outs at semi-pro line level (-10 dbv).... and Gadget labs claim superior performance and quality due to several features.....
Firstly, the card has an onboard 64K cache.....SoundCache™ architecture they call it..... which they say helps it to overcome any audio drop-outs caused by video card buslock etc as the card grabs audio in anticipation of demand, onboard, just as s/w based h/disk programmes do when playing back audio...... Wave-4 also uses 4 independent processer chips for the DA's, again claiming excellent quality from this design.....the card has a 26-pin connector for mini-sized wavetable synthesizer card..... this connector can only be used with mini-sized card like the Kurzweil HOMAC card or the TeleVideo WaveImpact card. It DOES NOT support the full-sized wavetable daughter cards such as Yamaha DB50XG..... The Wave-4 has a dedicated output socket for the daughterboard should you add one, which means there is no blending of the synth out with the audio out, which they say means less noise as the two amps aren't summed together creating extra noise.......
The Wave-4 is a half length ISA card, uses no jumpers and no DMA's due to the onboard cache..... similar to the Turtle Beach Tahiti etc......and of course, you've got a midi port/socket, which requires a connector cluster cable.... oh yes.... It's full-duplex too, for simultaneous record & play.....
Anyhow, never tried one..... here's some spec's:
- Sigma/Delta, 64 bit oversampling
- Sample rates: 32, 44 and 48 KHz
- 92+dB dynamic range
- 20-20Khz frequency response
So..... there's the product news.... Bear in mind of course, that you can only use the 4 outs with a midi & H/Disk programmes like Cubase VST, Cakewalk Pro Audio V6 or above, Logic Audio, etc... older Cubase and Cakewalk versions only allow one card support.......So.... anyone using this ??... let's have some comments !
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