This is one of the Big Interesting Questions at the moment. Certainly, at the
lower end of the market, I don't know of any soundcards with a true 4-ch WAVE
driver - they all offer strictly multiple-stereo devices. According to the
Sonorus Website, their STUDI/O card already includes 8-ch and 16-ch WAVE
drivers. If this is the case, it should be able to play a quad Csound file. The
Creamware TDAT-16 is based on the same card, so presumbly that also could do it.
I am concerned about your comment, however, as it implies that multi-channel
drivers are NOT available yet - which is very disappointing. Creamware have also
indicated that the almost-released PULSAR and SCOPE cards will have
multi-channel drivers; the only snag here (apart from the cost!) is that they
rely on ADAT light-pipes for the multi-channel outputs.

I am myself curious to know if any of the middle-to-upper range cards (such as
the Yamaha DSP Factory) offer multi-channel drivers.

I should add that many software packages will use multiple stereo devices to
play multiple channels (though only Cool Edit Pro seems to be able to open a
4-ch WAVE file - though it cannot save into that format) - the real problem is
finding a card which will play it through the standard Windows MMedia services.
This is why the driver is so important. In the longer term, the new
multi-channel format proposed by Microsoft should encourage manufacturers to
develop drivers, where thay have been oblivious hitherto. 

For the moment, the only reasonable assumption is that all so-called
'multi-channel' cards must be multiple-stereo, until they are directly proven to
be otherwise - guilty until proven innocent!


Richard Dobson

jasonf@thei.net wrote:
> 
>
> 
> Also, what quad soundcards will actually work in quad under Csound? I found
> out recently that the SB PCI128 isn't really quad, and the SB Live isn't
> supported under Linux yet. Opensound is working on drivers for the RME and
> Sonorus 8 in/out professional sound cards. Would those work? With 8 outputs, I
> guess I could have dual quad :-)
>