Hmm, well, I have just downloaded the sekd demo of Samplitue Studio 4.51, and
attempted to load one of my 4-channel files. It does manage, sort of - but the
display shows rubbish, and any attempt to play crashes the program immediately
(and I do have two soundcards in my machine). So, sorry, 'nul points' for sekd
there.

At the risk of repeating myself, I KNOW there are lots of 'multi-channel' cards
available, and that applications which know about them can create a
mutli-channel project, and play it, but NONE OF THEM, to my knowledge, will read
a four-channel WAVE file properly. The better applications reject the file,
informing you of an unsupported format; the not so good ones assume the file is
stereo, if it is not mono, load it, and then throw wobblies. 

Everyone on this list who has a recent verison of Csound (certainly on the PC),
can use it to create a four-channel WAV file. Can I suggest a global research
project to find all the applications, and soundcards, which will read and play
it?

Failing that, with John Fitch's agreement, I could provide example multi-channel
WAVE and AIFF files (let us say, 4,6,8,16 channels) on the Bath site, for anyone
to download and use to test products with.

Richard Dobson


Fernando Rodrigues wrote:
> 
> Allow me to say something about multichannels support in Win95.
> Currently, there are several soundcards that support real multichannel
> playback.
> Examples include the Emagic AudioWerk8 (they have now a Windows multichannel
> drive that allow any application to work with the card and access all the
> eight outputs).
> Other examples are the ARC88 and Midia Prodif Gold - SEK'D (eight in, eight
> out - generic multi driver also), and the forthcoming MOTU 2408.
> 
> About applications, it seems there is some confusion between the ability to
> play several files at once (multitrack playback), and the ability to pilot
> several outputs, which will give multi channel playback. Sound Forge could
> never be able to play several tracks, since it is a post-productions and
> mastering oriented tool, and only plays mono or stereo files (like the ones
> we get on CDs).
> About software to play multitrack files, there are several, and one is more
> or less well known - its Cool Edit Pro, the descendant of Cool Edit, and is
> able to play up to 64 tracks - however, it is not multichannel, since it
> plays averything through a stereo output. AudioMulch is in the same way.
> 
> But there is at least one application I know that plays multitrack files AND
> multichannel, which is Samplitude Studio from SEK'D .
> This application, besides playback lots of tracks of audio, real time FX,
> etc., pilots up to four cards, or four stereo outputs, which is the same.
> This, together with ARC88, Midia Prodif Gold, AudioWerk8 or MOTU2408 gives
> true QUAD (actually OCTAD) output to anyone - if one has several amplifiers
> and/or amplified speakers.
> This is because, to have real QUAD output one will have to connect the first
> stereo pair to one stereo amplifier, and the second stereo pair to another
> stereo amplifier, or have four amplified speakers, like the Mackie HR824.
> 
> If you have these facilities, buy one of the above listed cards and the
> mentioned aplication, and you'll have real QUAD outputs.
> Hope this gives some help, and sorry for the time consuming explanation.
> 
> Fernando Rodrigues
>