Eight Seperate Audio Outputs?

[Sircle]

Hi there, i am in need of some advice. I am currently working on a project which requires one control system to operate 8 seperate audio channels. I basically need to play different music in different rooms (eight) and all tracks need to be stopped and played independantly. I initially thought this was possible with ableton live through multiple outputs but then i realised each Audio channel will have to pass through the master before getting to its secondary location, therefore different audio tracks in different rooms wouldnt be possible?

If anyone has an idea can you please give me a suggestion.

[8O]

Hi,

Yes, you can do it as you want. On each track there's an Audio To drop down menu. If you set that to "Ext. Out" then you get a second drop down menu where you can specify which outputs on your sound card gets that track's audio. It won't go to the master.

[Sircle]

Thanks, ok thats what i thought but i doubted myself for a moment. Basically what i am trying to do is replace 8 stereo units with one system. Another obstacle i have is once the stereo unit is removed i am left with 8 sets of speaker wire which are already pre run to their destination.

What i am now trying to work out is how the hell can i get my separate signals through one 8 output sound card and to their destination without having to buy 8 Amplifiers. The system is for a therapy centre where different music is started at different times throughout the day. It just looks so old fashioned to have 8 stereo units and so much space to take up. Im sure there is an easier way.

[8O]

If you're running all 8 pairs of speakers at the same time, then yup, you'll need 8 stereo amps in there somewhere. I'm assuming replacing the passive speakers with active ones isn't an option.

[Sircle]

Unfortunately not, its a bit of a strange set up but all the speakers are already set up and can not be replaced. Seems such a simple thing to do but is definately causing me some issues.

[Brad : 5 2 S]

I am working on the same type of setup... individual tracks to individual rooms... for a haunted house. I just purchased an LP-838 MP3 amp and am waiting for it to arrive to experiment with amplifying these separate channels for the speakers in each room. I am currently using multiple stereo recievers/amplifiers that take up a lot of room. I will follow up with my results as soon as I get that far.

http://www.dinodirect.com/wholesale-pow ... gital.html

There are similar amps out there for less but I decided to go with the above site because I need the 2.1 capability for each room, they quoted a price break for buying 10 units, plus they have a warehouse in the U.S. (Hopefully mine ships from there)
The amp doesn't come with the 12v adapter from this site but I would like to go with a 12v power supply capable of running multiple amps at the same time.

If that info helps you somehow maybe you can share with me what audio card setup you have that can control the 8 individual outs, and what type of system you have. Thats the part of the equation I am missing.

Thanks

[Sircle]

These MP3 amps look quite useful. Yea i am still slightly unsure of the step previous to these amps. I presume routing from ableton - through an 8 channel audio interface (would it need to be 8 input or 8 output? - into the MP3 amlipfier - out to thte passive speakers already set up.

[capo-wear-i]

If you want the music to be in stereo in each room (stereo = 2 channels) then you'd need a 16 output soundcard (ie 8 Stereo Pairs)

Soundcards that have 16 analog outputs are few and far between. Why ? Most people with soundcards mix inside their computers I guess..

Most soundcards only have 2,4,6 or 8 Analog outputs. You can expand some of these to 16 outputs by adding an additional breakout box but it'll cost $$$.


If you can put up with the music in Mono (ie 8 mono tracks mixed from 4 stereo pairs) then it would be possible to use an 8 output soundcard - there's a few to choose from, though you'll find a lot more with 8 analog inputs than 8 anaolg outputs these days.

This would do :
Native instruments Audio8 DJ £300

Are you running PC or Mac, Desktop or Laptop - what's your system ?

[Brad : 5 2 S]

Can you guys tell me if I can daisy chain some usb interfaces together and or be able to use more than one such interface at the same time in live? For example I have plugged two usb interfaces into two separate usb ports and I can see them both in the preferences menu but I can only send all the channels to one or the other. My absolute goal would be at least 24 mono channels-I have 24 rooms that need sound. Would be awesome to have 48 for stereo tho. I have heard about daisy chaining thru the firewire and believe that to be an option but what about the usb? I will be using a donated win XP p4 pc. Possibly a macbook if the pc botches the job.