Frontier Design WAVECENTER
Category: Products / audio interfaces / soundcards (analog, adat, s/pdif)
Added: 04-Jan-99 | Author: admin
New price: $698 - £499-449 | S/H price: ??
Company Link: thiet ke web, dich thuat,
Frontier Design WAVECENTER
(UK distributor TSC London - 0171 258 3454)An email arrived this morning informing me about this board... I have not tried it or seen it, but here is the info in case you want to check it out.
OK... check the posting below... the UK distributors sent a chap over and we tried it!... and it worked A-OK!
I have Emailed back the company asking for a distributor so I can go and check it out... but basically it is claimed to interface with an ADAT, ADAT XT, or DAT to provide 2 way transfer, and utilise the ADAT or DAT ADA's for 8 or 2 inputs/outputs and storage, as well as providing access to S/PDIF and Optical transfer & conversions and midi as well...
Sounds pretty good huh?... Well does to me as an Adat owner.
I'll keep you posted and try to get a hands on review, cos at the quoted price, $698 / £ 599... that's quite a good deal if you have an Adat already... If you don't, then this card, plus a secondhand Adat, would make an 8 track system for about £ 2000... Which is a bit cheaper than any of the other 8 channel systems available on the market, plus you would get the benefit of also owning an Adat for location recording... Hey!... Thinking about it, you could get a broken Adat with no transport or knackered heads, and just use the converters - maybe;it would depend on wether the Adat directs audio thru to the outputs or wether it has to pass signal via the heads...but hey even if it did, you could probably get away with an Adat with a broken transport - Also this card works with other 3rd party outboard ADA's as well.
Here's the spec' :
- Three digital audio input modes:
- ADAT optical (8 independent channels)
- S/PDIF electrical (2 channels)
- S/PDIF optical (2 channels)
- ADAT optical (8 independent channels)
- Two digital audio output modes:
- ADAT optical & S/PDIF electrical (10 independent channels)
- S/PDIF optical & S/PDIF electrical (4 independent channels)
- MIDI: 1 input, 3 independent outputs (breakout cable included)
- ADAT optical & S/PDIF electrical (10 independent channels)
- Sample rates: 44.1 and 48 kHz internal; can track input devices from 39 to 51 kHz
- 16-bit and 24-bit audio data transfer modes
- Windows 95 System Tray application for card status and control
- Includes standard Windows 95 multimedia device driver
- 16-bit, half-length ISA slot
- System requirements: 486 or Pentium processor, Windows 95
APPLICATIONS
- PC hard disk recording, using external A/D and D/As or the converters in your DAT or ADAT
- Multichannel digital audio transfers between a PC and an ADAT, CD player, DAT, etc.
- Digital audio format conversion
- ADAT to/from S/PDIF
- S/PDIF electrical to/from S/PDIF optical
- Multiport MIDI I/O (16 channels in, 48 channels out)
Well... Barry at Frontier sent me a little E-mail today. Check this out.
Date: Mon, 16 Dec 1996 12:39:27 -0500
More choices in this product category from other manufacturers:
Category: Products / audio interfaces / soundcards (analog, adat, s/pdif)
Product: Frontier Design - WAVECENTER
Martin came over from MCM (UK Distributor) the other day....we tried the card with Soundforge, SAWplus, & Cakewalk.... All worked except for cakewalk, which doesn't support 44.1 rate until Version 6 release this year. They haven't found any outboard ADA's yet...But as I said...IT WILL WORK WITH A BROKEN ADAT...maybe you could pick up a transportless ADAT from a repair shop or something...or maybe if the distributors/company had any brains & incentive, they would come to a deal with Alesis, to provide the ADA's & interface in a 1U rack... Have to say tho' ...it was amazing watching it work with SAWplus....giving 4 stereo outs....Transfer IN to the PC software via the card was also excellent !!....One to watch....and hey...they are so cheap !!
Product: Frontier Design - WAVECENTER
Wavecenter is cool value for money other than an absence of analog in/outs. But your site is even cooler i must say... Will visit again soon...
Product: Frontier Design - WAVECENTER
did you find any other a/d or d/a converters with adat optical support?
Product: Frontier Design - WAVECENTER
I am experiencing a delay when monitoring source
Product: Frontier Design - WAVECENTER
I own a wavecenter and run it thtough the creamware A-16. It kills any other system I've seen or heard. Midi and 8 tracks of digital audio all screaming in harmony. Highly recommended
Product: Frontier Design - WAVECENTER
Wavecentre is simply brilliant for pro audio work. (I use it with VST and a Korg 168RC Dig desk. But its failing is it's inability to support more recreational progs ie audio support for MS Encarta etc, although I intend to visit the Frontier site to see if theres a solution to this problem.
Product: Frontier Design - WAVECENTER
I have a question, not a comment.
Product: Frontier Design - WAVECENTER
I want to use this card with a Korg 168 RC but I
Product: Frontier Design - WAVECENTER
use it with Korg 168RC Mixer
Product: Frontier Design - WAVECENTER
To whom be concerned,
Product: Frontier Design - WAVECENTER
Does anybody have an exact technical specification of the 8channel Adat Optical Interface? My interest is in designing my own A/D converter and integrating it with the wavecenter card to have a complete PC based digital multitracker.
Product: Frontier Design - WAVECENTER
what can I say guys....Big Bang for the buck!
Product: Frontier Design - WAVECENTER
I have purchased the WaveCenter card along with
Product: Frontier Design - WAVECENTER
OK....CAKEWALK PRO AUDIO 6 IS OUT....AND WILL SUPPORT THE 48 K sample rate and multiple cards to Looking for the manual? - Check this page above under the heading: 'Product manual or files' - We might have it! Note: To cut down on spammers, cookies must be enabled to post comments to this page.
Looking for the manual? - Check this page above under the heading: 'Product manual or files' - We might have it!
To: kilo@realitycom.com
From: "Barry.Braksick."
Subject: More
Just took a look at your site: Thanks! for the "ink" and the link to our site. Much appreciated !
Regarding the ADAT and converters: you can use the ADAT as 8 D/A channels or 8 A/D channels, depending on whether the "Digital In" switch has been pressed or not. You don't have to have a tape loaded to do A/D conversion -- you just have to press "ALL INPUT MON" (or selectively arm tracks) to get the ADAT to convert its analog line inputs to digital and throw the bits out onto the light-pipe.
Unfortunately, you can't use the ADAT in both directions at the same time...that is, it can't accept both analog and digital inputs simultaneously. You could, however, use a DAT for two channels of A/D (S/PDIF on coax or optical), and the ADAT for eight channels of D/A simultaneously with the WaveCenter board.
Also, the electrical and optical S/PDIF outputs are independent, so even without breathing the word "ADAT", you could use two stereo D/A's and get four channels of output that way without going to multiple boards in the PC. So there's a migration path from stereo I/O, to stereo-in/4-channels out, and finally adding an ADAT to get eight channels of input or output (or both w/ two ADAT's or other light-pipe compatible converters).
Thanks again,
Barry Braksick
Frontier Design Group
So there you have it. You could use a dead transport/heads Adat as an 8 output converter!... COOL!
I've asked him to send me details of any reasonable priced 8 channel D/A's that could be used in place of an Adat... Keep you posted.
(01/07/97) Yup, found some, made by Korg the 880 range, and also, the MIDIMAN's new unit (dec' '98)... (see soundcard list)!... I'll get the info up once the site re-design is done.
Well, the guy came over from the Uk distributors (helpful!), and we tried it with various s/w programmes... it installed with no probs, and worked fine... sending multiple outs from various programmes to the ADAT... amazing to see it in action. So there ya go! Well worth checking out.
Product Manuals or Files
no user manual
Product Resources
User Comments
Name: kilo
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 05-Apr-99
Product rating out of 5: 
Name: Yizoo
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: part-timer
Date: 05-Apr-99
Product rating out of 5: 
Name: mark sparrow
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 05-Apr-99
Product rating out of 5:
Name: Ron
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 05-Apr-99
material from ADAT to cubase VST. The recorded
tracks are also out of sync with the ADATS in playback.
Please give advice on the best practice.
system spec: Pentium P233/32Mg
Product rating out of 5: 
Name: Michael
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Hobby-ist
Date: 05-Apr-99
Product rating out of 5:
Name: Jerry Cody
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 05-Apr-99
Product rating out of 5:
Name: Seamus Devitt
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 05-Apr-99
Can the synchronised timecode info from two ADAT tapes (8 tracks x 2) be transferred to a PC using the Wavecentre? In other words, if I were to transfer 8 tracks to the PC, then another 8 with
the same ADAT timecode, would I be able to synchronise them definitively (i.e. not by ear)?
Thanks
Seamus Devitt
(trying to make up my mind)
Product rating out of 5: 
Name: Jens Timmermans
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: part-timer
Date: 05-Apr-99
can't find a distributor in the Netherlands. I
send an e-mail to Microsol in Belgium to ask them
where in the Netherlands I could buy this card, but
I didn't get an answer.
Product rating out of 5:
Name: Dale Pfeiffer
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 05-Apr-99
Great, love it and the price was
just reduced to $498 US
Very stable win95 drivers,
ROCK Solid...........
Product rating out of 5:
Name: InOh Chung
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 05-Apr-99
How are you! I am InOh Chung of Samsung Electronics Co., LTD in South Korea. My concerning is Speech Coding for CDMA HHP, I need a digital I/O card for digital data exchange between PC and DAT for editing. I know that your company has many kinds of digital I/O card. So would you give detail information on it. I would like to buy one set after analyzing the information from you.
Thanks a lot!
InOh Chung
Associate Software Engineer
Wireless Terminal Division
Samsung Electronics Co, LTD
FAX: plus82-331-280-1660
TEL: plus82-331-280-8303
E-Mail: cosmos@telecom.info.samsung.co.kr
Product rating out of 5:
Name: Chris E. Haelg
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Hobby-ist
Date: 05-Apr-99
Product rating out of 5:
Name: R2B Music
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 05-Apr-99
We squeezed everything from any source that makes
'bleep' into that card, digitally through the 02R,
onto Cubase XT, back to ADAT tape, bounced tracks,
mixed on Soundforge, mastered through the
02R onto DAT without a trace of digital
distortion or sync drift...
WICKED!!
Like this we finish our projects in half the time.
I'm still impatiently waiting on 8in-8out
compatibility with Cubase XT and an NT driver.
WHEN????
The only tiny teardrop: Soundforge 4.0 seems to
ignore the "follow applications" settings in Wave
Tray with 48kHz material and in certain input-output
constellations in the Wave Tray we've got some
nasty digital feedback. What about a Panic Button?
('reset all' or something).
Cheers
Product rating out of 5:
Name: Steve Lewis
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 05-Apr-99
the Apogee FC-8 format convertor and successfully
loaded 8 tracks of digital data from my DA-38 to
the PC on the ADAT Light Pipe. I have also used
the SPDIF electrical connection going into a DAC
in the Box.
So far I love the card.
Product rating out of 5:
Last added comment
Name: kilo
Email: Email supplied but hidden
Activity: Professional
Date: 05-Apr-99
work with the wavecenter....
Also, I've found some adat compatible rack units....believe it or not made by Korg, or promoted by korg for use with the 12/12 IO....I'll keep you posted once the re-designing here is done !
Product rating out of 5:
'Frontier Design WAVECENTER'
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