Serving unprocessed signals during crash

yoyek · Post by **yoyek** » Fri May 30, 2008 12:06 am

Hello,

We plan to process some vocals and other stuff playing live on shows. And I need to have backup plan if my computer crash.

I don't want to invest in to synced laptops, there is no need - computer only process vocals, so in case of crash we can preform fine without processing.

But there's problem: I that case I need a way to switch signals to unprocessed (to serve orginal sources).

And I came up with this idea: to set audio interface to output 4 processed signals and 4 unprocessed by hardware monitoring. Then in normal situation stream this 4 processed signals to FOH. If computer crashes I would switch output to my backup 4 unprocessed signals (AFAIK, interface I plan to purchase - Fireface 800 - is able to continue working without a computer).

The only problem is I don't know any device to do this switching job.

Here's little diagram of my idea (my english is poor, so it may help)

And a use case:

What do you think about this?
What device could help me to do this switch?
Do you have any other idea, suggestion? (besides second laptop)

yoyek · Post by **yoyek** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 3:48 pm

anyone?

freshdrumma · Post by **freshdrumma** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:34 pm

i will put 4 balanced a/b box before the sound card
in case of crash you press it and it's like a regular show

kraze · Post by **kraze** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 9:25 pm

+1 on that, has worked for me for serveral years.

yoyek · Post by **yoyek** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 9:29 pm

freshdrumma wrote:i will put 4 balanced a/b box before the sound card
in case of crash you press it and it's like a regular show

a/b box? multichannel? can you direct me to particular product?

And do you mean to use splitter before sound card?

Isn't the same as after sound card (using sound card as splitter by hardware monitored outputs) ? if it's not, what does it change? (AFAIK Fireface will continue to work even after computer will stop)

yoyek · Post by **yoyek** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 10:16 pm

hi again guys, can you point me to 4 channel balanced a/b box?

yoyek · Post by **yoyek** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 4:35 pm

... or at least one input balanced A/B box, I can only find unbalanced (those guitar boxes)

yoyek · Post by **yoyek** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 10:18 pm

yoyek wrote:... or at least one input balanced A/B box, I can only find unbalanced (those guitar boxes)

anyone?

Atomikat · Post by **Atomikat** » Sun Jun 15, 2008 2:54 am

what are the specs of your laptop so you don't trust it on stage?

yoyek · Post by **yoyek** » Sun Jun 15, 2008 3:21 am

Atomikat wrote:what are the specs of your laptop so you don't trust it on stage?

It's not a question on trust, but rather on being serious about that possibility. I'm far from being paranoid, but you know, shit happens... that's why peoples use backup laptops and lot of crazy stuff. All i need is ability to switch to source signals.

Do you know any balanced a/b box?