Pro Audio Support

Q:
Can I use a WaveCenter and a Dakota together?
 
A:
Dakota can coexist in a computer with another soundcard, including WaveCenter. For best results, multiple audio cards that are used together in a system should be using the same sample-rate clock. This minimizes drift between tracks that will undoubtably occur when different audio channels are being clocked at slightly different rates. With Dakota and WaveCenter, sample- rate lock can be achieved by making one of the boards obtain its clock via a digital audio connection from the other (acting as master). For example, if you set Dakota to 44.1 kHz internal operation, WaveCenter to "Sync:External" and connect a cable from the coaxial S/PDIF out of Dakota to the coaxial S/PDIF in of WaveCenter, the two boards will be locked and no drift will occur. Note that within a Dakota system, this is not an issue -- a common clock is always used for all audio channels. This is also not a problem when expanding a Dakota-based system with the 16-channel Montana expander, since the sample-rate clock is communicated across the ribbon cable that connect the two cards. Many analog soundcards have no mechanism for providing a clock to another card, or for accepting a master clock from an internal source. If you're using such a card with Dakota, we recommend that you avoid using both cards simultaneously, to avoid the drift problems mentioned above.