So I've got a Fantom X8, and i'd like to hook it up digitally to my powerbook. The thing is the digital from the Fantom, is a Coax, and well the 17inch bowerbook is a minijack. So, is there a cable taht i can get for this? Is it e ven worth it since it'll loose some going to a minijack? Should I just be hooking it up through the normal inputs? Any advice and ideas would be greatly appreciated.
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Digital audio cable advice
- Thread starter Omad0n
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You would need a converter box to convert from SPDIF coax to TOSLINK optical. Then you would need whatever optical cable to go from the converter to your powerbook. Such devices can be found for under $100.
http://www.digitalconnection.com/products/audio/co2.asp
I would recommend, however, that you look in to a firewire or USB audio interface such as digidesign's MBox, MAudio interfaces or any of the MOTU stuff. That way you can get native SPDIF plus 24 bit analog I/O and MIDI I/O. IMO, You will be better off having a good audio host to play with rather than trying to use your keyboard for everything. I use ProTools and Digital Performer and can recommend both.
Good luck.
http://www.digitalconnection.com/products/audio/co2.asp
I would recommend, however, that you look in to a firewire or USB audio interface such as digidesign's MBox, MAudio interfaces or any of the MOTU stuff. That way you can get native SPDIF plus 24 bit analog I/O and MIDI I/O. IMO, You will be better off having a good audio host to play with rather than trying to use your keyboard for everything. I use ProTools and Digital Performer and can recommend both.
Good luck.
The new 17" PowerBooks have a built-in digital minijack. All you need to do is go to Radio Shack or some similar electronics/audio store and pick up a gold minijack to RCA adapter. They cost about $10. Then just run a short minijack-to-minijack (male/male) cable from the PowerBook and connect your shiny new adapter. From the adapter, use a standard RCA cable or your digital coax cable into the coax port on the Fantom. The RCA cable (like a yellow one included with digital cameras) will carry the digital signal just fine.
I have a similar setup on my PC. My sound card has digital output through either minijack or TOSLink optical, but because my surround sound receiver's optical connection is full, I had to come up with a use for the minijack. It works perfectly (Windows required some coaxing to pass DVD AC3 untouched, but I think it would be less troublesome on the Mac).
I wish the 15" PowerBooks had digital-out! It's one sorely missed feature of my new one.
EDIT: Oops! I just realized that you want to input to your PowerBook, not output to the keyboard. I don't know what I was thinking! You could use the Phantom's USB connection or the standard headphone port, since the PowerBook does NOT have digital *input*.
I have a similar setup on my PC. My sound card has digital output through either minijack or TOSLink optical, but because my surround sound receiver's optical connection is full, I had to come up with a use for the minijack. It works perfectly (Windows required some coaxing to pass DVD AC3 untouched, but I think it would be less troublesome on the Mac).
I wish the 15" PowerBooks had digital-out! It's one sorely missed feature of my new one.
EDIT: Oops! I just realized that you want to input to your PowerBook, not output to the keyboard. I don't know what I was thinking! You could use the Phantom's USB connection or the standard headphone port, since the PowerBook does NOT have digital *input*.
EDIT: Oops! I just realized that you want to input to your PowerBook, not output to the keyboard. I don't know what I was thinking! You could use the Phantom's USB connection or the standard headphone port, since the PowerBook does NOT have digital *input*.[/QUOTE]
I hate to correct someone who is trying to help me, but the bottom of this apple page on the 17incher would beg to differ http://www.apple.com/powerbook/index17.html
I hate to correct someone who is trying to help me, but the bottom of this apple page on the 17incher would beg to differ http://www.apple.com/powerbook/index17.html
Oh and I was wondering if something like this would work http://www.monstercable.com/computer/productPageComputer.asp?pin=2809&LastPage=Apple Products . I'm used to working on my workstation for all my work, afterall that's why I got the beast a while ago, but I may look at the protools stuff. Like I said though, the Synthesizer is Roland's big bad workstation, so I'm mostly looking for a way to move the signal digitally from the Synth. to the comptuer.
I have to agree with poeben's advice. Shop around for a decent usb or firewire interface that accepts rca/spdif signals natively. btw.. the powerbook digital IO capabilities are no slouch - at least on paper. I have not put mine through it's full paces yet (still waiting to get logic pro) but the digital IO is one of the main reasons I went for the 17. read up on it here
17" rev D developers notes - audio
17" rev D developers notes - audio