Multichannel external sound card

[acengarle]

Hi everyone,

 

I was wondering if anyone used external USB 2.0 or Firewire sound cards with more than 2 inputs with MSRS.

 

I tried using an M-Audio FastTrack Ultra which has 4 XLR inputs (8 inputs total but 2 are S/PDIF digital and 2 others can only be used with 1/4" mic connectors). MSRS only sees this device as a normal stereo input device, so it will only assign it two tracks.

 

I can return this device, but I was wondering if there were alternatives. Are there any other small external sound cards that have at least 4 XLR inputs, and that MSRS will correctly see as having 4 channels or more? Does anyone else have similar requirements to mine and what are you using?

 

Thanks in advance.

[acengarle]

I'll reply to myself: the Roland Octa-Capture works well with MSRS. It's a bit pricier than the M-Audio FastTrack Ultra, and a bit bigger, but it has 8 XLR inputs instead of 4, and it works.

 

The reason it works is that Windows sees it as 4 different devices each with 2 channels, instead of one single device with 8 channels like the M-Audio. So it bypasses the problem entirely.

 

Just in case this info is useful to anyone...

[jkelly]

I am having the exact same problem with a BIS digital mixer (6 channel). Does anyone know if this is compatible or if there is a way around it or do we need to purchase a new external sound card???